[FCNYC]

FAQ: Comcast vs FOX Sports World

Updated September 4, 2002

Over the past 18 months, Comcast cable TV systems across the US, including those in the Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington, and Detroit markets, have removed FOX Sports World from their channel lineups once the carriage contracts had expired.

Because Comcast owns Outdoor Life Network (OLN), which competes directly against FOX Sports World for US TV rights to international sports events (Cycling, Skiing, etc.), Comcast considers FOX Sports World to be a threat to OLN.

As a result, Comcast would do whatever it can to make sure that FOX Sports World remains a weak competitor to OLN.

OLN currently reaches over 40 million households, while FOX Sports World reaches only 12 million households.

Because several other FOX digital cable channels (National Geographic Channel, FOX Movie Channel, among others) have higher priority than FOX Sports World, it is highly unlikely that FOX will force Comcast to carry FOX Sports World in the forseeable future as a condition for Comcast to maintain carriage of FOX-owned broadcast stations under the "retransmission consent" rule.

Once the acquisition of AT&T Broadband by Comcast is complete, Comcast will have control of over 22 million cable TV subscribers, as well as control of cable TV systems in 9 of the top 10 US TV markets.

[monster]

No offense, but this is old news that Ollie likes to peddle once in a while. The only new news is the new markets Comcast does this in.

And, really, there's so little recourse because of all the power the companies have. And Fox isn't helping by using FSW as a negotiation tool with the cable companies that do want to carry it, a point Ollie references regarding those other digital channels of theirs. My cable company said Fox is very hard to deal with when trying to get FSW on your network if you don't have it already, something the GM can't understand given its low penetration. He figured that with battles like this, Fox would do anything to get FSW on as many systems as possible.

This is unfortunately a prime example of the pissing contests between giants that hurts the Lilliputians.

[eric_appleby]

What you need to do is get a dish. Directv or preferrably EchoStar.

Lose your cable company. You'll be glad you did.

[monster]

Originally posted by eric_appleby
What you need to do is get a dish. Directv or preferrably EchoStar.

Lose your cable company. You'll be glad you did.

"Hey, these pants aren't one size fits all!!!!"



Do what works best for you.

[BrianCappellieri]

Originally posted by eric_appleby
What you need to do is get a dish. Directv or preferrably EchoStar.

Lose your cable company. You'll be glad you did.

Amen to that. Not having to deal with them and order PPV through iN DEMAND makes life so much easier.

I f***ing hate COMCAST!

[Dr. Wankler]

I hate to rat out the first poster, but his whole post is not only lifted verbatum from another site, that other site is in fact (as Monster noted) soccertv.com.

Could this be an old, and as yet undetected, Oliver Sockpuppet?

[BrianCappellieri]

Hard to tell. There are a few posters on this website that CONSTANTLY post SoccerTV news and a link.

[ej_dad]

I found for me that Direct TV works best.

I had been an ATT Cable subscriber for years. For the 2001 MLS season, I upgraded to ATT Digital Cable and ordered MLS ShootOut. FSW came with the digital cable.

Unfortunatly, ATT Digital couldn't deliver the MLS Shootout package reliably. I missed about 1/4 of the games, do to their technical inability to deliver. I spent many a first half, (45 minutes), waiting on hold only to be told "we don't know what is wrong".

During the 2001 MLS playoffs semi finals, a local College Football game had been blacked out on the channel the two hours before the MLS game was scheduled. After waiting 40 minutes on hold, I was told they didn't know how to 'un blackout the channel', but they would work on it. Over 24 hours later, for the next semi-final game, the channel was still blacked out.

When I requested 1/4 of what I'd paid for the MLS Shootout to be credited to my account, they refused. I returned the equipment and order DirectTV the next day. I've been a very happy DirectTV subscriber for almost a year now.

Along with FSW, the DirectTV sports package provides a lot of local Fox Sports channels. Everyonce in a while there will be a WUSA, A-League or College soccer game on one of the local Fox channels.

DirectTV is not for everyone, some apartments won't allow it. I found the costs compariable with ATT Digital with the packages I've ordered. The only drawback is I only got 2 receivers, so my 3rd TV only has local programming.

[FootyMundo]

Fox doesn't care all that much because FSW is profitable. All those informercials come with a price.

[monster]

Not Ollie unless he moved to a New York IP.

Anyway, I find it sad that the people who have the biggest trouble with Shootout are generally with the companies who own iNDemand. I don't blame them for jumping to dish.

However, others like me have good cable companies and dishes are a stupid option when you get a better deal via cable. It's not a magic bullet.

I'm interested in seeing how things shake out if SUM flourishes. NFL Sunday Ticket is only available on one dish system, correct? Who knows where MLS is headed in the future.