I don't know anything about rights fees. I'm just saying that the cable and satellite companies are not seeing the demand or feeling any kind of pressure to add CSN to their line-up.
That's 77% of a very valuable RSN...when a deal is finally reached. Obviously they've lost a lot of money by not signing that earlier deal they could have had (if those reports were indeed correct). That's money they cannot get back. Of course their "research" shows that. They are playing hardball. We all know the demand for the Astros isn't even strong in the Houston market right now, but Louisiana has been a good market for them. With the Astros owning the biggest chunk of the company they are going to want to cover the biggest area the league allows them to, something the Rockets can't do. The "research" was also from a couple of years ago. Apparently there is a demand for the Rockets, why else would they have garnered so many national tv games this season?
On average 20k households watched the rockets. Even if you triple it the ratings aren't good. I don't even know what viewer ship for Astros was 10 people? CSN needs to greatly lower their demands.
Preparing for the worst NBA season is closing in fast and I fail to see much movement at all. Looks like I need to prepare for an alternate method of seeing the Rockets on TV. I have UVerse and will not be switching, so I need a little bit of help here. What are the best VPNs to consider? Is NBA League Pass the only way to see Rockets games via VPN? How are you streaming from PC to TV? Can this be done via a PS3? Needless to say I want an HD Stream Any help will REALLY be appreciated.
Like a lot of negotiations, there probably won't be any movement until a deadline adds urgency. In this case, that would be the NBA season. I will be very surprised if agreements aren't reached immediately before, or very shortly after, the regular season starts. Since the Astros are complete trash, the 3 main providers probably see no reason to start paying CSN any sooner than necessary.
What Rockets' fans need is for somebody on Clutchfans to link up a private stream for people on Clutchfans.
I have a friend whose company does a lot of advertising with the Rockets. He was told this week that the Rockets will definitely have a TV deal in place by the start of the season, even if it means going back to FSN. Not sure how plausible that is (and it might just be talk to ensure that they keep the advertising dollars) but that's what the Rockets people are saying.
People always said before that Rockets will have TV in place, but that didn't happen the whole time. Are you sure Rockets will have TV deal in place by the season starts?
Sure... but neither the teams nor Comcast are going to go into receivership because of it. They could all be making much more money with all the providers signed up... but the Rockets and Astros are still making more off the rights fees signed with CSN than they were with FSN. Also, DirecTV was once in the running to run the regional sports network that the Astros/Rockets were forming... they decided to go with the comcast bid as they had more experience with other regional sports networks around the country.
They won't be jumping back to FSN. You do realize all parties are under contract? Too many people here seem to think these teams are just going to say "aw, screw it..." and go back to FSN just like that. It can't and won't happen.
Streaming is kind of a grey area. If somebody invited 5 people from clutchfans to his house to watch the game, hen that is perfectly legal. If that same guy streams privately to the same 5 people, then it's illegal. What's the difference? What if I am talking to you on webcam, and I have the game on and you dont get CSN, and you and me are watching the game and talking about it over Skype? Legal or illegal? I can understand mass-streaming to the world being illegal. But watching tv wih a select group of people over the Internet? Seems different to me.
It's the "re-boardcasting" is where it becomes illegal, in your scenario the first case your friends are just watching from a TV but the other is, you "re-boardcasting" to your friends.
But I'd figure there has to be some sort of legal remedy for the Rockets to fix the situation. If CSN is unable to bring the team to market over a 3rd party issue, then it would seem to me that the Rockets could sue to break the contract with CSN freeing themselves up to bring their product to a different distributor.
