Okay, I see that the contract with the Rockets ends at the end of the 2011-2012 season, but what would happen if the lockout endures the entire season? Wouldn't it be unfair if the Rockets left anyway and switched to Comcast? Or will the Rockets still complete the season with FS Houston in 2012-13? Also, if it moves to Comcast SportsNet Houston, what channel would it show up on? (I use Dish Network)
I doubt they move Comcast... In Kingwood we only use suddenlink and there is no Comcast... They'd be losing viewers by switching to a station that isnt local... am i right?
FSN is the way many of us get to see the games. Pulling the plug on FSN would be a bad business decision by the Rockets.
Aren't the Rockets and Astros starting up their own TV network? I think it starts in 2012. UT has their own sports network now too. I don't know when that starts up though. That was part of their deal for staying in the BIG 12-1.
I believe that the Rockets and Astros are starting up their own network on Comcast so I have the same question as do others: where will their games be telecast on Directv? I currently do see much of the Comcast Sports shows because they are in a higher tier (read expen$ive) package.
Exactly, I really enjoy the Fox Sports Network, it is easily accessible at the present time. I live in a rural area, so all options are not available.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/sports/7270086.html Comcast will have a built-in audience for Comcast SportsNet Houston with its Houston cable operation but must negotiate carriage deals with other cable companies and satellite distributors. Fox Sports Houston, for example, receives a monthly subscriber fee per customer ranging from $2.50 in Houston to $1.75 in outlying areas. The potentially contentious nature of those carriage and subscriber fee negotiations has been evident lately with the two-week-old dispute between Fox and Dish Network, which was settled Friday but prevented about 280,000 Dish subscribers in the Houston area from seeing the Rockets’ opening games. Elsewhere, Fox and Cablevision remain locked in a carriage dispute that has prevented about three million subscribers in New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania from viewing NFL games and the World Series. Comcast could face a particularly ticklish situation in negotiating with Time Warner, which owns cable franchises in Waco, Austin, San Antonio and in the Rio Grande Valley. While the NBA prohibits the Rockets from airing games in those areas, all are critical secondary markets for the Astros. Other than Comcast’s statement that it had purchased a minority interest in the Rockets-Astros network, financial details of the agreement were not disclosed. The teams in 2003 valued their proposed network at more than $350 million, but that value likely has grown as the value of sports rights deals have increased over the last decade.
When this was announced, I was told by someone that works for Time Warner that the new Comcast Sports Houston would be carried on Time Warner in Beaumont, so I'm sure they'd figure it out for other regional cable providers, too.
