Hell, I'd be willing to pay around the $15 per year range for CSNHouston. Unfortunately, I don't think there are enough willing customers like me that would make CSN amicable to that type of deal.
I wonder how broad the Mariners' region is with their new ROOT network. I don't think the entire idea is entirely flawed...I think the Astros think it could be better implemented by anyone not named Comcast.
CSN-H is asking providers for $40/yr from every customer ($3.50 per month). If they only offered it to the customers that wanted it on a premium basis, that price would have to go up for them to generate the revenue they want.
I want to say ESPN is around $5-$6/month, but I'm not sure - and I'm not sure if that includes all the ESPN channels, or just ESPN. But yeah, its far closer to ESPN money than it reasonably should be.
Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana and Alaska. There isn't another pro baseball team anywhere in the region. They also show not only the Seattle Sounders, but the Portland Timbers as well. Additionally, they have a lot of PAC 12 programming. As far as baseball goes, people from every state in the region actually travel to Seattle to attend Mariner games. I seriously doubt the Astros have quite the same reach with the Rangers being located smack in the middle of the region.
Assuming the bankruptcy filing is dismissed, then the Astros walk and are free to negotiate whatever new deal they can, independent of the Rockets.
Historically, I know they have. The Rangers have traditionally been the team you'd forget when asked to name all the teams in MLB. For decades, a 5 state network has worked. MLB protects that territory for these franchises.
I think the 5-state problem comes from the Rockets - they wouldn't available in the other areas, so the providers get much less value for their $$. So it only makes sense if CSN-H was willing to charge substantially less outside of the Rockets area for the network.
The five state problem also comes from the fact that csnh is carrying virtually no programming that matters outside of Houston, where as fsn had college sports.
They do run an Arkansas Razorbacks sports program that I've seen durning the middle of the day. Like at 2 pm.
I'm guessing if they got coverage there, you'd see Arkansas baseball (for instance)...or other things similar to justify it all during mid-day programming when not in conflict with the Rockets and Astros. Similar to what Fox Sports and its predecessors have done for years in those areas.
