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I'm starting to pretty much hate all sports now

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  • I'm starting to pretty much hate all sports now

    So after dealing with the NFL sending out emails for people to call in to keep the big mean cable company from taking the NFL Network away, we have the Big Ten Network doing the same thing only worse.

    A few points for those new to the game:

    1. The Big Ten Network is a new channel that is advertising as the place to see all the Big Ten Conference sporting action (Ohio State, Michigan, Penn State, etc) with the implication of it being the HUGE football and basketball games played in the conference every year.

    2. The network is actually showing second and third tier sports you'd never watch unless someone you know is a participant, and even then it'd have to be a close blood relation. The big games people want to see are under contract to the major networks.

    3. Big Ten Network wants cable companies to carry the channel on the expanded basic tier in states that have Big Ten schools. That means jacking up the rates across the board for a station carrying handball and table tennis. The cable companies want to have it on a Sports only tier where people who want it can pay for it. Big Ten Network's reaction to that has been "OMG NO WAI" and they demand the most expensive carriage available in order to make big bucks for member schools. Needless to say, no major cable companies are carrying the channel and the only satellite company carrying it is DirecTV since they're part owned by Fox (who owns half of BTN).

    So the 11th hour is upon us and so are the scores of asshats demanding that I make the channel available or they're dropping all their services right then and there for DirecTV. I don't have any concrete proof, but I'm about 90% certain that the BTN is doing some astroturfing because there were a lot of people calling in hitting the same talking points in nearly the same order to the point where I thought one guy came through to my phone twice in a row. One guy even told me it was BS when I pointed out that not everyone would appricate their rates going up for a channel they may not want. He was arguing that in this day and age, no one's going to complain over a $1 increase. That one set off more bells than a church in a windstorm. In all the time I've been dealing with the public and working for a cable company, NO ONE EVER made that argument until now. Makes me wish I had a recording of the Price is Right "you lose" music to play for these fake asses.

    Pretty much everyone not employed by Fox or the BTN have commented how stupid it is for them to approach cable companies demanding near ESPN level carriage and rates and then having a hissy when they get told to go screw.

    Yet still I get calls how my company is evil because somehow not wanting to increase rates across the board makes us part of the grand conspiracy to make you pay for our sports tier. Don't even try to mention how both pro and college sports are setting the groundwork to make you pay for games you used to watch for free on network TV, CLEARLY it's part my company's evil plan to make you spend $6.95/month.
    "You know, there are times when it's a source of personal pride not to be human." - Hobbes

  • #2
    As a non-Direct TV customer, I appreciate it. Now, if you would only move ESPN to a subscribers-only subset, I'd be a happy camper. I don't watch it, and I have heard that it costs a stupid percentage of my monthly bill.

    It will never happen, but I'd like to go to an 'a la carte' pay tv system, where I could only pay for the channels I actually watch. Ah well, if wishes were horses...
    Last edited by Geek King; 08-29-2007, 03:28 PM.
    The Rich keep getting richer because they keep doing what it was that made them rich. Ditto the Poor.
    "Hy kan tell dey is schmot qvestions, dey is makink my head hurt."
    Hoc spatio locantur.

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    • #3
      Quoth Geek King View Post

      It will never happen, but I'd like to go to an 'a la carte' pay tv system, where I could only pay for the channels I actually watch.
      I'd have about 10 channels.
      I know nothing and I can prove it!

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      • #4
        hmmmmmmmm i would need..... *thinks* errrr maybe 40... (4 people who have different tastes and all)

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        • #5
          Now that we're under Comcast, I don't know if this is still true, but when we were under Time Warner, if you register as a commercial customer, they allowed you to get cable TV a-la-carte.
          DJ Particle

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          • #6
            Like SliceandDice, four people (me, husband, two kids) need lots more channels. I'd better stick to a package.

            Grrr, Husband just signed up for NFL channel. I'm going to end up beating him senseless with the cable box sometime in the next four months. Can someone give me an alibi? Please?
            Labor boards have info on local laws for free
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            • #7
              Quoth wagegoth View Post
              Like SliceandDice, four people (me, husband, two kids) need lots more channels. I'd better stick to a package.

              Grrr, Husband just signed up for NFL channel. I'm going to end up beating him senseless with the cable box sometime in the next four months. Can someone give me an alibi? Please?
              i think his is when you tell him to make the garage livable with whats there, because he aint sleeping here while that channel is

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              • #8
                The only Big Ten sports I follow are football and basketball, and those are both on ABC, ESPN, on other channels as part of an ESPN regional package, or any other channel those sports may be on.

                If you want to command ESPN-like prices, you have to have good programming and a track record of people watching you.
                Knowledge is power. Power corrupts. Study hard. Be evil.

                "I never said I wasn't a horrible person."--Me, almost daily

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                • #9
                  Quoth wagegoth View Post
                  Grrr, Husband just signed up for NFL channel. I'm going to end up beating him senseless with the cable box sometime in the next four months. Can someone give me an alibi? Please?
                  Sure, would you also like a shovel? Just remember to clean it afterward.
                  How was I supposed to know someone was slipping you Birth Control in the food I've been making for you lately?

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                  • #10
                    Quoth Geek King View Post
                    It will never happen, but I'd like to go to an 'a la carte' pay tv system, where I could only pay for the channels I actually watch. Ah well, if wishes were horses...
                    I've been suggesting that for years. I'd only have 8 channels too.
                    The Grand Galactic Inquisitor hears all and sees all.

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                    • #11
                      Quoth Jadedcarguy View Post
                      I'd have about 10 channels.
                      Ala carte would be perfect for you... since you and the other people who watch the channels would have to pay the full cost for them, expect about $5 per...

                      ... which means your cable bill will still be $50 a month.

                      Of course, if not enough people were willing to pay the $5... goodbye favorite channel!

                      Trust me... the economics just aren't there. I've heard people after people prattle on about they can't possibly live without the NFL Network... but even when we offer it, along with the other channels on the sports tier, for $2 a month for a year, it's, "I ain't paying $2 a month for a couple of lousy football games!"

                      One of the few channels that would survive ala carte is... ESPN.

                      Go figure.
                      I was neat, clean, shaved and sober, and I didn't care who knew it. -- Raymond Chandler

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                      • #12
                        Quoth Geek King View Post
                        As a non-Direct TV customer, I appreciate it. Now, if you would only move ESPN to a subscribers-only subset, I'd be a happy camper. I don't watch it, and I have heard that it costs a stupid percentage of my monthlty bill.
                        Same here. I don't see the appeal of watching sports, and I don't see why my bill should be higher just so other people can watch them. You want to watch sports, fine! But don't expect me to help you pay for it.
                        Sometimes life is altered.
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                        • #13
                          Quoth MadMike View Post
                          Same here. I don't see the appeal of watching sports, and I don't see why my bill should be higher just so other people can watch them. You want to watch sports, fine! But don't expect me to help you pay for it.
                          Yes... and it can also be said that I have no interest in cooking, so why should I pay for people who want the Food Channel? (If, in fact, I had a cable bill, but that's besides the point.)

                          In the end, we all subsidize everybody else's favorite channels. The end result is the huge variety of channels we have to choose from.

                          Granted, ESPN costs a bunch more than most channels... but the fact remains that sports created cable (and satellite, for that matter). If the sports market ever dried up, it would no longer be profitable for any company to run wires or launch satellites. There will never be enough Food (or History Channel, or Travel Channel, or whatever) subscribers in the world to justify the infrastructure costs.

                          The deeper I get into the business end of cable, the more impressed I am at how the system functions to create wide variety at a relatively reasonable cost.
                          I was neat, clean, shaved and sober, and I didn't care who knew it. -- Raymond Chandler

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                          • #14
                            Quoth TNT View Post
                            Ala carte would be perfect for you... since you and the other people who watch the channels would have to pay the full cost for them, expect about $5 per...

                            ... which means your cable bill will still be $50 a month.
                            That's less than I pay now. In order to get the channels I want, I have to get a whole bunch of channels that I just deleted from my channel lineup. I have MTV. Never watch it. Disney? Ditto. ESPN almost never has football(American, not soccer), never watch it. I got Showtime so I could watch Penn & Teller's Bullshit and Dexter. They're hardly ever on.

                            I spend most of my time watching Discovery or Science. Speed gets turned on whenever Formula 1 is being broadcast, other than that it gets turned off, since I despise Nascrap and all the reality "car" shows like Pinks and Unique Whips.

                            OK, rant over.
                            I know nothing and I can prove it!

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                            • #15
                              Quoth I8DaCookie View Post
                              I only remember this because those who run the religious channels were not happy about the idea because they wouldn't get any new converts who were channel surfing.
                              Praise the Lord! Send money!
                              I know nothing and I can prove it!

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