This is the issue. They needed an involuntary BK to pull that off, and they didn't even have that to begin with. They needed the Rockets to join in order to validate the technical requirements necessary to keep the stay in place.
Fair enough - you've wrapped yourself so far in circles to make the Astros the bad guys that you don't really have much choice.
With actual news coming soon, please don't get the thread locked again. Go to other forums to insult each other please
From an update standpoint...today is the day, right? Crap or get off the pot today? I remember reading that the potential buyer imposed today as a deadline...right?
Didn't say that was the exact route that they would take, did I? I just said that they wouldn't let the Astros walk.
I have my fingers crossed that ATT buys everyone out of the Network, keeps the carriage agreement with Comcast and DTV/Uverse customers get access soon.
Nope, but if there was another feasible option, Comcast would have tried it instead of putting themselves at the mercy of a judge. That was the last option left besides letting the Astros walk once they could not buy the network at a price that made financial sense at the time. Granted, I don't know if other providers would have quite the same structure to the partnership to get themselves into the same situation.
This is who I expect the potential buyer to be. To add, I wouldn't be surprised if the Astros and Rockets were allowed to keep a portion of the network without their veto rights.
The proposed buyer will be revealed to Comcast today, but as Barron pointed out, Comcast can, and I imagine will, vote it down. If Comcast does, I would expect them to come back with an over the top bid of their own. Why else would they try to stay in at at this point otherwise? I think next week's Aug 7th date is the bigger day. In a perfect world I hope CSN keeps it and somehow gets full distribution. I did some searching of DirectTV's Root Sports and they offer very little original programming outside of the games in Seattle and Pittsburgh. YES, I know that the games is what we want most, but I want to have my cake and eat it too.
My point has always been trying to find the quickest solution to this debacle. The bankruptcy proceedings have delayed and complicated any viable solution... which at this point likely still remains a buyout by Comcast, despite other offers.
If Comcast buys it out, my fear is we still don't get carriage deals. I worry we will still be in the same boat with just Comcast running the show.
If that happens, the real "enemy" will have truly revealed themselves. I agree that Comcast can withstand the lack of carriage far more than the other "partners", and they've never had any sense of urgency to resolve this whole ordeal.
My perfect world scenario had them getting the carriage deals. If they were to buy the whole network, don't you think they would drop their subscriber fee to a lower level than what Crane vetoed?
I don't think they really care, and they do value the exclusivity. They can withstand short-term and long-term losses better than any sports team. With the planned merger with TWC, they would likely have enough coverage to not care much about catering to the other "providers" (whom they're looking to push out of the pay-for-tv market as is).
