That would be a horrible, irresponsible business plan. If Hernandez stays and plays, then bully for Univision. If he gets hurt or transfers out of the EPL, then that's a lot of money down the drain. Sure, they'll get some of it back, but basing your business decisions on one player that you have no control over is pretty high risk. [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yKJkfE1M9wA"]Reebok Commercials - Dan and Dave - 1992 - YouTube[/ame]
As it stands now, Univision Deportes Network has nothing but re-runs on Saturday and Sunday mornings and afternoons (before 6pm ET on Saturdays, pretty much all day on Sundays.) Do you honestly believe that Univision will sit on its hands and wait until 2015 to see whether it can take another shot at the U.S. rights to La Liga? Or do you believe that Univision will put the $25 million/year (or more) that was originally set aside for La Liga and put the money to work by buying U.S. rights to another product? (Don't forget that Univision Deportes Network will earn over $100 million in subscriber fees in 2012 before a single advertisement is sold. The annual subscriber revenue could reach over $800 million, if not closer to $1 billion, if Univision Deportes Network were to achieve full distribution by 2014 or so.) Look, everyone that has a thinnest connection to the industry knows by now that FOX will have its hands full this August when the Emir of Qatar is expected to put in a big bid for the U.S. media rights to EPL, and everyone also knows that ESPN, Inc. is not going to lose money on EPL in the U.S. market so FOX cannot rely on ESPN, Inc. to carry 50% of the load. The only chance in my opinion for FOX to fend off Qatar Media Corporation is if FOX were to recruit Univision into "the alliance". Don't forget that FOX's #1 enemy, Comcast, is now lined up behind the Emir of Qatar. (Univision's #1 enemy also happens to be Comcast, so both FOX and Univision have an incentive to work with each other in this case.) This battle royal in August will be fun to watch. A chain reaction of events is guaranteed no matter what happens, with hundreds of jobs to be created or eliminated.
Really? Link? Isn't the SUM/MLS deal with Univision valued at about $8million/year for 2007-2014, or am I misremembering some info (or is the bulk of Univision' money going to the non-MLS areas of SUM's business partners -- such as USSoccer or WFC-type events)?
If ESPN were to help Fox in fending off the Qataris would they demand a 10am Saturday game and the Sunday 8:30a game? It wouldn't make sense for ESPN to go anywhere close to a 50/50 split w/Fox given how the games are currently distributed since ESPN is only really guaranteed 1 game a week in the earliest possible time period on Saturday Mornings.
Univision Deportes Network and Univision Deportes Dos have "soft launched" on DISH as of 6:15pm Eastern Time on Friday April 6. DISH appears to have de-facto exclusivity on Univision Deportes Network, as no other MSO has signed up, presumably due to cost ($1/subscriber per month for placement in English-language expanded basic packages.) The "hard launch" for Univision Deportes Network will be Saturday April 7 at 3pm ET with MLS: Columbus vs NY Red Bulls. == MLS has worked out a deal with Univision to permit MLSLive.tv customers outside the Columbus vs NY markets to watch the match online. However, the match will NOT be part of MLS Direct Kick. http://www.mlssoccer.com/weekly-tv-listings
I'm sorry, but I just can't see Univision getting $1 per month across the country for this Univision Deportes channel. For every DISH-type operator, there will be three that don't take it and aren't willing to put it on expanded basic. The NFL Network gets .75 per month for the most popular sport in this country by far and Time Warner still doesn't carry them. TWC is like the 2nd or 3rd largest cable (non-satellite) company in the US. Comcast put the NFL Network on the sports tier and resisted putting it on expanded basic for years. I don't see Comcast agreeing to pay $1 per month to put it on expanded basic across the US. I live in Houston so I understand the draw of Mexican soccer and how it has some of the highest rated over-the-air sports programs locally. But outside of places like Texas, California, the Chicago and New Yorks of the US, there's not much appetite for this channel. Small town cable systems and other smaller carriers aren't going to pick this up unless they get some discounted deal. Univision missed the window on this by a few years. I think most operators are at the point where if the math doesn't pencil out reasonably to carry them on expanded basic, they just let the carriage issue go and figure that anyone who really wants it will leave for DISH or Directv or whoever. TWC figures anyone who really wants the NFL Network has probably already left. Same thing for Cablevision. They can only afford to pack so many channels into expanded basic and keep rates reasonable. I don't see them adding Spanish-language channels at that rate. In fact, I see the ala carte model growing, even if it takes 10 years to get there. Longhorn Network failure to launch here in Texas is exhibit A in how a programmer misread the leverage they had with distributors. Cable TV costs are going up to the point where people are starting to just cut back and drop cable or drop packages. I'm not theorizing on the "cord-cutting" phenomenon folks cite. It's just looking for the cheapest package with the most benefits and going with that. For the vast majority of folks, Comcast vs. Uverse vs. Directv is a cost/value issue. Folks like my parents and others look up one day and see a huge cable bill and don't really watch much other than a few channels, and mostly non-sports channels. They just call up and cut back or threaten to leave without a discount. A counterpoint you can make is that the growth in pay-TV subscriptions will come disproportionately from Spanish (or non-English) speakers. I would agree with this but no way is TWC going to jam Univision Deportes down the throats of its Wisconsin subs at $1 per month to get it for the LA market. I'm also going to postulate that the growth in illegal streaming renders certain leverage positions as less valuable than in the past. With a high-speed connection and a little effort, you could watch a stream (decent quality) of most NFL games this year pretty easily. I'm going to venture that when the US played Honduras in WC 2010 qualifying on that closed-circuit network, that far more people watched unauthorized streams in this country than authorized streams.
The NFL Network does not have the "bundling" leverage that the likes of Univision, Disney (ESPN), and FOX have. Univision can "bundle" Univision, TeleFutura, Galavision, and Univision Deportes into a "take it or leave it" package: $2/subscriber each month in English-language expanded basic on every system owned by an MSO, or nothing. Univision knows that the MSOs will not dare drop the flagship Univision network because of the telenovelas from Televisa, which has over 70% prime time market share among Spanish-speaking customers. Cable TV systems in almost every rural small town that has a meat processing plant or a chicken processing plant now need the Univision Networks in order to sign up new customers. (Univision now has an affiliate in Little Rock, Arkansas. Why? Tyson chicken has many plants in Arkansas and many Mexican immigrants now work in those plants.) Ditto every resort town with lots of hotel rooms. (The likes of Vail, Aspen, and Park City would not function without Hispanic labor.) Expect Disney to play the same game in Texas when contracts are up for renewal: ABC, ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNEWS, ESPNU, Longhorn Network, etc. etc. etc.: $10/subscriber each month in expanded basic for the entire bundle, or nothing. This is a game of high stakes chicken. Each side is probing the others for the "threshold of pain".
ESPN, Inc. wanted the Saturdays 7:45am ET, 1st pick on Saturdays at 10am ET, and Sundays at 8:30am ET when the 3-year sublicense was negotiated (not the emergency sublicense that FOX had to do after Setanta couldn't pay its bills, but the sublicense the year after.) ESPN, Inc. ended up getting the Monday night matches and a whole bunch of mid-week matches instead of the Sunday 8:30am ET slot. Furthermore, ESPN, Inc. only got about 12 Saturday 10am ET matches. This time around, the sublicensees have leverage against FOX because FOX needs a lot of money from the sublicensees to fend of the Emir of Qatar. No doubt in anyone's mind that FOX may have to give up "1st pick in Spanish" for all 38 EPL rounds if FOX wants Univision to contribute to "the alliance". The other option is for FOX to walk away, knowing full well that Comcast is ready to "steal" the telecasts for the big EPL matches to be aired on NBC, likely on a leased time basis, if the Emir of Qatar were to win the U.S. rights to EPL. Comcast is capable of pulling off the "slick" move.
Univision is over-the-air in most of the major cities, as is Telefutura. It's not like most of the urban audience needs a pay TV subscription to see it. It's not ESPN or another pay-only channel. Yeah, folks may drop the cable if it doesn't have the Univision main channel but if they hit the TV mode switch on their set to antenna it will still show up. And you are incorrect on Longhorn Network already. Disney just did a 10-year deal with Comcast which did NOT include the Longhorn Network but included all of the Disney networks, ESPN, and local Houston ABC retransmission rights. Comcast is the main cable company in Houston so if there was a time to force it down their throats in a negotiation, it was then. And I think TWC did a Disney-ESPN deal a few years ago. I actually suspect the Longhorn Network was excluded specifically to try and send a message that every team starting its own cable channel isn't going to be able to leverage Comcast like they once did to get the channel on. I imagine that every cable channel targets the same folks to get distribution - Comcast, TWC, Cox, Directv, Dish and Cablevision. I suppose if you get 3 of those you are golden.
How are the US tv rights for the 1st division teams divided (and how do the networks Telefutura, Telemundo, Azteca America and Universion relate...are any of these subsidiaries/sister channels of the other)? I'm basically wondering how it is that this new network has the rights to 12 of the 18 teams. (And what are the other 6 teams? Chivas, Tijuana, UNAM, Puebla, Cruz Azul and one other?) Edit: is Morelia the 6th?
Chivas home games will still be aired on Telemundo.. Cruz Azul, Jaguares, Tijuana, Puebla, and Morelia will still be aired on Azteca America free over the air..unam this winter went back to UNivision
I'm not getting it for some reason. I reset my receiver and all I'm picking up is UDEP2 at 870, in standard definition. Is this normal?
You need to subscribe to either DISH America's Top 200 or above, or DISH Latino Clasico or above. The "limited" packages such as DISH America, DISH Family, DISH Value, DISH Latino Basico and DISH Latino Plus do not have Univision Deportes Network. Make sure you have a modern DISH. If you have an old DISH that only points to the 119 orbital slot, you won't get either channel. If all else fails, unplug your receiver and remove your smart card. Wait 1 minute minimum. Re-insert your smart card. Plug in your receiver.
I got both sd channels but from what i've read at satelliteguys there are no hd channels. That blows wont be able to see El Clasico Regiomontano in hd tonight.