As 3rd and others have mentioned how does Direct TV/Kick program who to blackout in DFW area and very quickly? TWC is not everywhere. I live in University Park and can't get it (Charter Cable exclusivity) but a few blocks over it's TWC. BTW Direct TV/Direct Kick webpage show its still out of season and is not giving any schedules. Plus they havent charged me yet which is odd. Anyone else noticing this? Something is off there.
As someone with UVerse (due to the fact that it is far cheaper than TWC) this is a joke. They're alienating the fans that they do have, as well as decreasing any casual viewers that could turn into ticket holders. Short term they may make/save some money, but long term they're going to get eaten alive. As soon as those casual fans with Fios/Uverse descend into apathy of not having the games, they won't sell as many tickets and won't earn as much advertising revenue for the network. Stupid, stupid move long term IMO.
not true at all. FCD games were constantly getting bumped to Fox Sports Plus which is not in HD for many cable systems and often didnt even start at the proper times.
You really need to look at El Jefe's post, this is happening every where across the country, it's not some random neglected Dallas issue that seems so damn prevalent on this board that it's depressing.
I understand what he's saying, but the problem with it to me is if their plan doesn't work before FC Dallas descends into the "irrelevant Dallas area minor-league sports franchises" category, it won't matter that the Rangers will eventually be on it. Not that FCD isn't irrelevant compared to the major franchises right now, but they can't afford to lose more fans with a half-empty stadium each week. I hope it works out, I'm just not sure it's going to.
Sorry, no. Didnt know there was another Gator on the board. I hope that doesn't mean I'm going to be judged! I've started posting more lately now that I'm back in the area. You guys were a good way to keep track of the goings on while I was in college.
so we're the first ones in the metroplex...sounds like a plus to me in the long run if painful for many in the short run. also makes me think that twx will go all out to produce fcd games well in order to be able to sell the "big" sports clubs in town as to how well they can do this (of course $ talks). also, hopefully the londoner has twx.
I have to ask why any cable company should have exclusive rights to sports content. They should have to offer their channel to competitors for a reasonable fee just like Fox or ESPN. If they are trying to keep costs down it makes them more money. If they are trying to run out any competition they won't share. It can also get ridiculous if all the giants in a market pick off one team. Imagine AT&T gets all rights to the Cowboys for U-Verse only, Verizon nabs the Rangers for Fios, DirecTV the Mavs etc. There would be no way to subscribe to all those providers. Come on FCC. BTW, isn't there precedent for this with whatever the network the Yankees are on? They were forced to offer to others I believe.
Still don't have a clue what we will be stuck with here in Fort Worth. But, w/ the upcoming changes with FOX-SC and ESPN losing the rights to EPL next season, I will be all ears for good advice on TV programming. It seems that long-term contracts are not the way to go.
I'm sure Time Warner would be happy to sell their Dallas Sports Channel content to other providers (just as they have done in LA with SportsNet). But until a big fish (Mavs, Stars, Rangers) jumps onto the channel, those other providers don't have much incentive to pay their competitor for "mediocre" content.
So the Time Warner Sports Net on DrecTV won't be carrying the games? I'm confused and a bit pissed. I'd gladly pay for MLS Direct Kick but now it depends on TWC's presence in my neighborhood. And Lord knows it may be block by block and I can only imagine how that may be a pain to make sure games aren't blacked out in certain areas. Damn. I try hard as hell to support FCD but all they do is continue to alienate my family and I from being passionate supporters.
Apparently no need to worry about MLS Live blackouts - FC Dallas FCDallas RE: MLS LIVE - all of D/FW will be able to watch #FCDallas matches on MLS LIVE with no blackout restrictions.
Excellent news, thanks for the info! In that case, who gives a f*ck what terrible cable company is doing what. If you have cable you've literally signed up to be robbed blind and mistreated.
They don't. Most of those channels that I mentioned are available on DirecTV. About the only ones that aren't are Comcast SportsNet Philly, which is sort of a special case, and Comcast SportsNet Houston, which is pretty new and is supposed to be on "any day now." But CSN Chicago, CSN Bay Area, CSN California, and TWC SportsNet LA are all on DirecTV. I'm chuckling where you said "reasonable fee" when talking about ESPN. Fortunately, the business model for most of these new channels depend on other cable and satellite systems' paying them for retransmission, so you'd expect them to work to get them on other systems. Different case. The Yankees started their channel without any buy-in from the local cable companies, so for a while, the only way you could get it was on DirecTV. Eventually, Cablevision and Time Warner grudgingly capitulated, but it took several months. I think that the only cable or satellite carrier that doesn't have it in New York now is Dish Network, but that's a recurring theme with Dish. A better example would be SportsNet NY, which is co-owned by the New York Mets and Time Warner Cable, which was launched in 2006 and had some initial stickiness with Cablevision, but is now on all the local cable and satellite systems, except again for Dish.
That's pretty much Time Warner SportsNet LA. They carry Lakers games and they'll be carrying the Galaxy this year. I'm guessing that Time Warner is looking to start Time Warner Sports Net Dallas or somesuch and for now, they've locked up FCD, and will be looking to lock up other local sports teams as time goes on, but for now, they're not going to be on DirecTV until they can lock more teams. Pretty much, yeah.
When the mlslive site crashes from demand, what Spanish radio station do I turn to? Hopefully, I'll be able to match names with "gollllll".
I think its great that FCD made a decision that saves the club money and gives them coverage/all HD and on-site talent… But they traded for that at the expense of distribution. FSSW can be seen in 80+% in DFW simply because it is carried by EVERY provider in the market. Time Warner Cable is available in only 28% of the market. So now those of us, the majority, that either don't even have TWC as an option or (for good reason) choose not to pay TWC for their historically crappy service, we now have to pony up good money to watch matches. We have been promised that MLS Live will not be blacked out, but frankly I am not of the mind to pay to watch compressed, buffering prone video. Its just a suspect product. DirectKick is intended to be a "out of market" product. The idea is for Galaxy fans not living in LA can still watch their team. It was never intended for Dallas fans to pay for access to Dallas matches while living in Dallas. Of course this is where TWC's lack of coverage helps because those of you without TWC as an option, in theory, won't face blackouts. But those of us who chose something over TWC, are screwed. I understand why the club made the decision it did, but as the season goes and more and more people realize they aren't going to be able to watch almost all of the road matches without paying for a service, or switching their provider - they're going to wonder if it was worth it.
As a cable-cutter, I've bought MLS Live the past two seasons, and had VERY little issue with it. I stream to my iPad and AirPlay to an Apple TV to the big screen and I've had very few problems with lags or dodgy signal. I've surprisingly been impressed with the exceptions of inane blackouts due to things like the Uni/Galavision games being blocked out as "nationally available."
Same here, I've found the quality of MLS Live to be great, my biggest issue has been that as primarily a Galaxy fan, and they have so many games on national tv, most were blacked out (and with no other tv...) i've had to resort to other sources of viewing the game.
This is good to hear. My experience in the 1st year was understandably shot with holes and issues. FCD has told us they've gotten the blackout restrictions lifted, but I still take umbrage with the idea I have to pay extra to watch a local team, locally. And online, no less. More $$$ for a lessor product. I also assume that MLS Live users won't get access to the pre-post match shows since that is TWC exclusive? Getting those in the package would at least add to its value.