It has been a long process.... and it was made longer because of the bankruptcy. Had the Rockets known then what they know now, they would have never blocked it. That's pretty much all that needs to be said about it.
Unfortunately, Comcast still had the legal right to do what they did. Same for Crane digging his heels in knowing he could bottom out expenses and support the team with other revenue at his disposal hoping either: his partners gave him a better financial position providers caved regarding the ridiculously high carriage rates he could get out of the contract using breach of contract clause if his partners decided to quit infusing cash to keep the Network afloat. he could recoup some of his money via a stupid lawsuit against one of his 2 partners (couldn't piss off the Rockets by suing them because he needed them if he left the Network) and the guy who he bought the Network from. A Network that he didn't even have to purchase to acquire the team. Although he allegedly didn't get all the info that he needed to make a sound decision, he went ahead and bought it anyway. All that needs to be said is what you just can't seem to understand... "there was no way the Astros were just going to be allowed to walk without some legal maneuvering to prevent it." It doesn't matter now if Comcast or the Rockets would have done it differently now, we are talking about the options they had back then. It's got nothing to do with which was the shorter process. It's about what legal options each partner had to resolve the issue. No use in crying about the unlikely option you and others preferred not actually happening. If you are so worried about the quickest route to ending this, you would have been lamenting Crane not signing off on the DTV deal. If this unfolds with a deal struck and all parties walk away happy then it's for the best. A lot better than pretending that the other parties were gonna shake Crane's hand and say sorry that this didn't work out, amigo. xoxo but wishing you the best Jimmy over at Fox Sports, who btw are 100% gonna give you big money even though they just witnessed a huge flame out due to your fans opening a big can of who gives a damn when your team exited the airwaves in 60% of the market and has drawn multiple 0.0 TV ratings in the 40% of the market that has access. Many were predicting that nothing would come of the bankruptcy procedure, hopefully they are wrong once again.
Did you bother to read where my comment was in reference to a quicker solution than allowing the Astros to walk. Of course you didn't....
Man, that was almost as painful to read as this long ass bankruptcy process has been. Also, I thought you "didn't care about which side is profitable in the deal, I just want the games to be on TV." If I have the choice between the teams being on TV 9 months ago, vs now, I'm taking the former. If I had told you this whole process would stretch out this long with no end in sight (despite the "optimism" for what gets announced, I wouldn't be surprised if nothing happens, or more suits are filed), not sure anybody would sign off on it being the "best" thing.
And like I told you this could have been over in April 2013 too but you are worried about how Jim Crane told you this affects the Astros if it had been resolved then. Or why is it you wouldn't prefer it too have been over 15 months ago? I can't stand Comcast and that's why I won't switch to them. I could be watching the games if I switched providers. And if I did I sure as hell wouldn't be on here acting like I had skin in the game like fans who have no access.
Yeah, I'll take the quicker resolution that keeps the Astros from being locked into horrible long-term deals, thank you. But yes... even that money-losing deal is better than the bankruptcy in terms of getting the teams on the air. No matter what happens on Thursday (or doesn't happen), its far worse for this city to have missed two years of Rockets basketball and almost two years of Astros baseball. And yet Comcast feels this is all moving too quickly...
Crane isn't alone in saying how that deal would have affected the parties. Even the judge said it was a rotten deal. Comcast offered no testimony or evidence to refute the claim that the proposed carriage agreement would have resulted in deep losses.
So, any news today? Don't really feel like sifting through numerous childish posts, that are exactly the same as hundreds of others in locked threads
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>From <a href="https://twitter.com/EvanDrellich">@EvanDrellich</a> in Philly w/Jim Crane: Network situation unlikely to be resolved by end of season <a href="http://t.co/hsJ91nNHxT">http://t.co/hsJ91nNHxT</a></p>— David Barron (@dfbarron) <a href="https://twitter.com/dfbarron/statuses/496871139595931649">August 6, 2014</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Time to get off your a** judge Isgur and make a decision, instead of dragging this thing out any longer. Quit being the attention wh*re that you appear to be.
That first season of the Rockets not being on tv absolutely sucked, because the few weird poor-quality 'streams' were almost un-watchable. Very seldom watched many games of the Astros on tv, even when they were good - family, kids, other things to do, there just really wasn't a lot of opportunity to just sit back for three hours and watch baseball games on tv. Occasionally, yes, but while I followed the team reasonably well, tv watching was never a priority. But the Rockets, yes. If I didn't watch them live, I would DVR them and skip the commercials, and maybe fast-forward some, but I watched the games. Then that first non-tv year, with Harden and Lin, and it was a painful struggle. Absolutely could not BELIEVE those morons who put together CSN couldn't get deals worked out, AND continued to insult every citizen with their rage-inducing condescending 'commercials' all over the place - anyone remember 'Dude, it's not your remote, it's your tv provider!' Grrrr STILL makes me mad. But then this past season, $60 bucks for a full calendar year of Ballstreams, and honestly, I would say it was about 90% as good as having it on regular TV, AND every game was available for every team, AND archived and on-demand. So last season didn't hurt as much at all. I would not hesitate to do it again. So at this point, I don't care as much, except I want the people responsible for causing so much suffering and unhappiness for the FANS - you know, the ones who are MOST IMPORTANT in all this - I want those responsible to suffer, punitively so. I don't know who is most responsible, but I am pretty sure there are no angels in any of this. Greed, corruption, incompetence, dishonesty.. all of it is on all of their hands. Frankly, I hope this whole things hurts every one of them financially, seriously so, enough that they will NEVER make such mistakes again.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-partner="tweetdeck"><p>Bloomberg scoop - AT&T said to be interested in acquiring all of CSN Houston from bankruptcy. Story coming.</p>— Alex Sherman (@sherman4949) <a href="https://twitter.com/sherman4949/statuses/497054320010219521">August 6, 2014</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
