ESPN Deportes on DirecTV?

According to Da_cfo no mso's or direct tv has signed an agreement to carry the network yet...Wonder if anything has changed...
-howie

 

FSW does carry it (it used to be a channel that just showed ESPN's Sunday night football and baseball games). However, the onscreen menu doesn't show anything.

It's not gonna be on the basic package or the sports pack, as far as I can tell. And DirecTV doesn't make it easy to add Spanish programming. You'd be looking at having to get fewer English language channels. In exchange for that you'd get Telemundo, FSW Espanol, and ESPN Deportes. I don't think there's any other stations that show much in the way of sports on the Spanish language-channels (aside from Univison and Galavision, which you get anyway).

 

And one other thing to add--you can catch 30 minutes of SportsCenter en Espanol on ESPN2 most nights at 1 a.m. central time. Not bad if you stay up late or live on the west coast. I've only seen it once but it seems like a good mix of the major American sports with more Latin American-driven programming (soccer, boxing, etc.)

 

Nothing will change unless ESPN Deportes gets rights to Mexican Futbol MATCHES in some shape or form.

No Mexican Futbol MATCHES, no carriage by MSOs, DirecTV Para Todos, or DISH Network. Period.

The only Mexican Futbol on ESPN Deportes now is a 30-minute talk show "Futbol Picante" on Monday nights. That isn't nearly enough when everyone else in the business (Galavision, FOX Sports en Espanol, Gol TV) all have their own Mexican Futbol talk shows.

 

ESPN Blown it big time

ESPN really blew it. They bullied the cable companies and satellite companies with their other fees for the other channels and the cable and satellite companies are getting them back by not picking this channel up.

ESPN was really stupid putting this channel in place with no commitments up front. They have a lot of arrogance and this channel could crash and burn pretty quickly and I don't think that will be good for soccer fans.

 

That was never the intention of ESPN Deportes. ESPN plans to have an outlet in the U.S.A. for all its Latin American programming, including MLB, NBA and NFL en espanol, as well as all the niche contents from South America (the program fillers). The only content that would be unique and attract the diehards were the Champions League and the originally planned la Liga. All other stuff are junk that doesn't need one single dime of ESPN production cost. The cost of the content (5 more CL games, all other junk on ESPN LA, etc.) would be minimal. So there is only the satellite transmission cost to worry about.

Now, if they carry Futbol Mexicano, which is not something they carry on ESPN Latin America, ESPN Sur, nor ESPN Mas, why would they want to put in substantial cost for rights and production into this venture simply to compete against Univision, Telemundo, FSW Espanol and TV Azteca USA? in a market full of Futbol Mexicano that people wouldn't differentiate one from the other?

They tried to launch a full-time channel with almost no cost, with content differentiation but appeals to no Americans, Hispanics or Caucasians. That was a mistake just to think about launching this channel.

 

So.....

is ESPN-DEPORTES operating or NOT?

according to their website, they have been since Jan 7th.

I have DIRECTV para Todos and I'm supposed to be getting on channel 426, but the last time I checked it wasn't on.

Not only that, I called my spanish speaking compadres at DirecTV today and they told me that they had it and they removed it (must have been on for about 2 minutes) and in addition they said, that even the regular two ESPN channels I used to get are not available anymore. Which I don't know if it's true. I'll have to check when I get home this evening.


Bottom Line:

I WANT MY ESPN DEPORTES

 

I don't know what might be up with ESPN and ESPN 2 not being carried on DirecTV.

As for ESPN Deportes, yes it is running. No, DirecTV Para Todos has not reached a carriage agreement. Neither has any other major provider. According to Oliver, none likely will unless ESPN Deportes acquires live or delayed matches from La Liga Mexicana. Which means ESPN Deportes is probably in trouble as nearly all US TV rights deals have been sealed for the next cycle of two-three years (or however long the deals last).

 

So, who is carrying ESPN Deportes?

Is it being broadcast into the void?

 

Only a handful of small cable systems with 500000 homes total have access to ESPN Deportes via a Spanish-language digital tier.

That means less than 50000 households currently get ESPN Deportes.

Less than 10% of all households subscribe to Spanish-language digital TV packages via cable or satellite across the US.

None of the ESPN Zone restaurants, which rely on DirecTV to provide video services, currently has access to ESPN Deportes.

 

The major cable and satellite TV systems are also NOT happy with Disney/ESPN for raising subscriber fees by 20% each year. ESPN now costs around $3 for each subscriber each month.

COX Communications, in particular, has taken its heated contract dispute with ESPN public.

Until ESPN and the big systems stop fighting, ESPN Deportes will NOT get carriage on the major systems. The major cable systems successfully killed off ESPN West (a proposed Los Angeles regional sports network) in 1999 60 days before its official launch, and they are not afraid to try to kill off ESPN Deportes to send Disney/ESPN a message.

 

Any word on what Roy Disney thinks of how Eisner and his boys have handled this?

 

I wrote DirecTV and got a nice reply from them, here:

I'll keep hoping!!

 

I wonder if Comcast's proposed bid for Disney might change the picture a bit...

 

Undoubtedly.

 

For Comcast subscribers it would - But that still leaves a large portion of cable/sat. customers looking for Comcast to reach an agreement.

 

I don't know, but I'd guess that the FTC would mandate that the ESPN/Disney channels be made available to every cable/satellite provider before approving the deal. I mean, Comcast, for example, wouldn't just be allowed to buy ESPN/Disney and thenn pull them from the lineups of competitors in Comcast served markets, would they?

Though I guess ESPN Deportes might be such a fringe product that it may only end up being picked up by Comcast anyway...

 

Why would Disney/ESPN or a potential Comcast-Disney want to restrict channels? That's nuts - and bad business. While some "exclusivity" like "24 hour local news/weather" channels helps, broadcast outlets want to use their leverage to make their competitors pick up additional channels.

Comcast would want to add ESPN Desportes to all of its systems in order to get as many customers hooked on it as possible so that they ask their non-Comcast friends why they don't have it.