BEIN Sports cont..

GOLTV (USA) on DIRECTV (USA) Channel 426 has been fully bilingual since it became available in February 2005.

GOLTV USA basically got paid off by the Sheik to give up its slot in the 600s if "Cantona" were correct.

Not a big deal yet, as GOLTV doesn't pay Nielsen for general market ratings, only the Hispanic subset.

What will be a big deal for GOLTV: if DIRECTV were to remove it from the Sports Tier. 5 million subscribers out of 13 million will be a big hit.

 

As for the studio pundit on beIN SPORT 1 (USA and possibly Canada) on the weekend of October 6-7...

I understand that EP would like to hear from Bobby McMahon to see whether he were interested in working in Miami over Canadian Thanksgiving day weekend.

Let's see: Canadian host (1 point), Canadian host doubling as the lead writer (2 points), Canadian producer doubling as the director (2 points), Canadian pundit as the "co-star" (1 point). That's 6 points out of 6 required to meet the "Creative Personnel" requirement for CRTC CanCon certification (in addition to the "Canadian Producer" requirement.) All the EP will need is an accountant to figure out how to meet the 75% "Canadian Cost" requirement.

http://www.crtc.gc.ca/eng/archive/2000/PB2000-42.htm

Besides Bobby McMahon and Brandi Chastain, there are likely other candidates under consideration for studio pundit that I don' t know about.

Let's see who will end up getting this gig...

 

What will be interesting to find out:

How much did Sheik Al-Thani authorize Youssef to pay in launch fee to DIRECTV?

$1 per subscriber? Or more?

A launch fee of around $1.50 per subscriber (or more) would mean that DIRECTV will carry beIN SPORT 1 USA for free during the first year of operation.

 

Thanks for the real, non-speculative information. I'm excited to see what be-IN has to offer.

 

Why did Goltv even have 2 channels to itself in the 1st place? Fox Deportes still does too.

 

They are just mirrors of each other, they don't take any more bandwidth. GolTV had appeal in both the spanish package (which has all their channels in the same range of numbers) and the English sports pack (again, a range of channel numbers) and it made sense to have it in both. It's the same exact video stream from the satellite, with the primary languages reversed. The 426 one was spanish by default and the 620 version was english by default, but I believe both could be switched to the other language with the audio select button. It's been a while since I had directv but it was like this before. The same goes for Fox Deportes. The one in the range of channel numbers in the English Sports Pack is just a mirror of the video from the spanish version with an extra audio channel available.

 

FOX Deportes on DIRECTV: Channel 425 has primary Spanish audio and used to have English 2nd audio (but not in recent months), Channel 624 has always been Spanish only.

GOLTV on DIRECTV: Both Channels 426 and 620 are identical, with primary English audio and Spanish 2nd audio, for ALL programming since 2007 (when Copa America was in English only.)

 

Now the question is HD or SD.

 

That was already answered.

1080i HD from Day 1.

 

I'm not sure 624 exists now.

 

Time to revise the subscriber fee revenue estimates for beIN SPORT 1 USA.

I now have enough information to determine that beIN SPORT 1 USA will earn ZERO in net subscriber fees during the 1st year of operation when you subtract the launch fee paid to DIRECTV from the subscriber fees DIRECTV is supposed to pay over the first year.

 

FOX Deportes is still available on both Channels 425 and 624 even though it was removed from the sports tier in January.

I expect GOLTV to be the next to go once the La Liga TV war has been resolved.

 

Weird, it doesn't show up in my guide. Wonder if it's one of those weird 'CIG' issues. Those tend to be even weirder as I'm on Mas Ultra.

 

[quote="huhe888]Raycom is a regional syndicator of college basketball. It isn't worth much if anything in the big picture anymore with ACC's new deal which cuts down the influence of the North Carolina triangle. The sheik can buy Raycom with the passive income he earns while he sleeps overnight for the purpose of punting it out of the way.[/quote]

The ACC and Raycom have a strong relationship. The ACC went out of its way to protect Raycom in their last negotiations with ESPN.

You are suggesting that that the owner of BEIN will buy a regional syndicator in order to shut it down and transfer its content to its own personal channel. That's a lot of money for 1 ACC Saturday AFTERNOON game and a bunch of tier 3 basketball that is not marketable outside of the ACC's home base.

 

We now know that Sheik Hamad Al-Thani is willing to PAY DIRECTV to carry beIN SPORT 1 USA at least through the first year of operation, if not longer.

Due to the "most favored nation" clause in every MSO contract, all other MSOs that decide to sign on to carry beIN SPORT 1 USA within the next 12 months will receive the same launch fee, if not a greater amount.

Let's see what else Sheik Al-Thani is willing to buy in order to get beIN SPORT 1 USA into the homes of at least 60 million paid subscribers, the absolute minimum required for beIN SPORT 1 USA to have any chance of making money.

Buying out a regional college sports TV syndicator such as Raycom will be chump change for the Sheik if Youssef were to go in that direction (after beIN SPORT 1 USA gets its hand on EPL, of course. Otherwise, beIN SPORT LLC will definitely lose at least $200 million by May 2015, if not closer to $250 million.)

(Note that Raycom syndicates ACC basketball around the U.S. KICU-DT 36.1 in San Jose, California is part of the Raycom ACC basketball syndicated network.)

 

Will Gol TV move to the single channel on the 15th or earlier?

And was their a press release about this or is it still educated speculation based on the testing.

 

The signal is testing on Dish too, in SD.

 

so you are suggesting buying Raycom for Tier 3 content. Raycom pays ESPN 50 million a year for everything it gets. So it would probably cost BEIN several hundred millions of dollars to buy out Raycom (50 million x X amount of years remaining in the ESPN RAYCOM agreement plus any profit Raycom's owners feel they deserve for selling). So you would advise spending X Hundred Millions of Dollars for Tier 3 ACC content, with no guarantee of anything. Remember Time Warner is the dominant cable provider in ACC country and they WILL play hardball with sports startups.

Getting Tier 3 sports does not guarantee you non sports tier coverage. You used CBS Sports Network as an example. They started in the sports tier. They are also owned by CBS who may have given DirectTV a discount on Showtime to get CBS Sports out of the Sports Tier. BEIN does not have any bundling power like CBS and are guaranteed nothing outside of Sports Tier Coverage with your proposed lineup of Soccer and Tier 3 college basketball.

 

The valuation of the Raycom Sports will be a relative bargain for the Sheik compared to the crazy amount of money he is throwing around to pay for soccer video rights in the U.S.

At least with Raycom Sports, one knows how much revenue it can generate compared to the expenses.

Ask yourself what is more likely to make money: the Raycom ACC package? Or the EPL package at any amount over $300 million (much less $500 millon)?

 

"Cantona" claims to have a stiff a-- Brit contact who works for Al Jazeera English news channel in DC.

Presumably, that stiff a-- Brit has a direct line to Youssef Al-Obaidly.

Like any piece of 3rd hand info, take it with a grain of salt.

I did receive a "tell" with regard to DIRECTV as the most probable launch partner for beIN SPORT 1 HD about 7 weeks ago, so I was not surprised to see a deal, especially after Phil Mushnick of the New York Post reported last week that Youssef was offering a substantial launch fee.

beIN SPORT LLC is effectively paying the likes of DIRECTV to carry beIN SPORT 1 USA, not the other way around.

 

Is the Channel testing on dish ?

 

I read on another board that they are, but that is common practice during negotiations.

I try getting a deal with Directv, but to no avail. I will wait till they Holliday promotion.

 

Confirmed. beIN SPORT 1 USA (in SD) is testing on DISH as well: Channel 408

http://www.satelliteguys.us/dish-network-uplink-center/290109-8-8-2012-3-08pm-uplink.html

 

What negotiations?

The Sheik is now effectively giving away beIN SPORT 1 USA to DIRECTV, and presumably DISH as well.

(How many more MSOs will take the money? AT&T Uverse? Verizon FiOS? How about the cable companies?)

"Capitulation" is a better term to describe what happened during the past week, when someone in the industry deliberately tipped off the New York Post's Phil Mushnick, who has axes to grind with practically every media mogul in the industry.