"Cheap Charlie" has picked 2 fights to start October, one against NewsCorp, and one against Cablevision/MSG. As of October 1, DISH Network is NOT carrying regional sports networks owned and operated by NewsCorp. FOX Sports Ohio (Cincinnati and Cleveland) FOX Sports Indiana FOX Sports Midwest FOX Sports South FOX Sports Carolinas FOX Sports Tennessee SportSouth FOX Sports Florida Sun Sports FOX Sports Southwest FOX Sports Houston FOX Sports Oklahoma FOX Sports North FOX Sports Wisconsin FOX Sports Arizona FOX Sports West Prime Ticket DISH Network is also NOT carrying MSG or MSG+ to viewers in the New York market. (That means DISH is only carrying NESN, CST New Orleans, the Liberty Media-owned FSNs in Pittsburgh, Northwest, and Rocky Mountain/Utah; and the Comcast SportsNets including SNY; NONE of which in HD full time.) == It seems that these spats between satellite TV operators and sports programming providers tend to take place at the start of the NHL season. Recalled that DirecTV pulled Versus last September and did not restore the service until March.
Maybe because it coincides with the end of baseball season, which is usually the most valuable content an RSN has- or at least it offers the most quantity in terms of games and ad slots. Honestly, if you're a sports fan, even cable is better than DISH, let alone Fios/U-Verse or DirecTV.
Cheap Charlie? What ever Newscorp gets from the negotiation, Charlie is not going to pay a penny for it. It is the subscriber who has to shell the additional cost for programming. And the way Subscription cost is set-up, people who don't like sports has to pay for the additional cost. Keep in mind, that Newscorp has a dual revenue stream, subs and Ad Sales, and right now all Ad sales revenue is down. Do you know why? because every mayor advertiser is cutting down cost, so the only alternative is to iscrease subscription revenue. So let's think about this, if mayor companies are cutting down cost, what do you think Pay tv subscribers are doing? Does this make sence?
Yeah, local nhl ratigns about to take a huge hit, and Dish will lose tens of thousands of subs if they dont air the NHL..then hundreds of thoudand if the NBA gets involved
what does this mean for the Champions League matches on FSN - will they still be on that special HD channel they have?
DISH Network still carries Comcast Sportsnet New England, Mid-Atlantic, Chicago, and Bay Area, all 4 of which are affiliated with FSN and 3 of which (New England, Chicago, Bay Area) offer UEFA CL matches live. (Some FSN live events air on Comcast Sportsnet California instead of Comcast Sportsnet Bay Area due to conflicts with the MLB S.F. Giants or the NBA G.S. Warriors) For the time being, DISH Network is offering its "MultiSports Pack" free of charge and is putting live events from FSN that are being shown by at least one Comcast Sportsnet on a part-time HD channel (in order to save bandwidth). == DISH Network's clientele are "low end" subscribers and "international" subscribers, whereas DIRECTV's clientele are "high end" subscribers including most sports fans who have satellite TV.
I have the Direct Kick package on Dish Network, and earlier in the season, they used to have an HD sports channel (454) that showed almost all of that day's matches in HD. But that was just too much of a good thing to continue, so they now just leave the channel blank (like today when are no conflicts) or show Sports PPV on there. It's most likely a bandwidth issue that they make these half-assed attempts at giving people more value for their money. The SD quality on the other Direct Kick channels are horrible; it's compressed so much you can only make out the colors but can't see the players faces or shirt numbers.
Why not pick August 1 then? Right when the baseball races are starting to heat up. Unless you are an NHL fan or NBA fan - it is probably not a big deal to not have the FSN stations. If it lasts any amount of time for the NHL and NBA season and they lose a bunch of subscribers - do they go out of business (DISH)?
I am pretty annoyed at this situation. At the moment, I only know Dish's side of the story, having flipped through MSG and MSG+ (as I wanted to catch some Rangers pre-season hockey). 'That said... Dish has already had to pull TVChile, HTV and GolTV from its lineup with the common denominator being...you guessed it: Dish Network. Is there any faint hope that I will be able to watch NYR hockey this season on Dish??? -- What numbers are these channels on the Dish lineup? Also, that "NHL Network" is what number?? And would I be able to watch the Rangers on there. (Sorry for sounding repetitive here re: the NYR questions.)
So glad I dumped Cheap Charlie for DirecTV earlier this year. My total bill with DirecTV is about the same as Dish anyway, plus I get more HD sports. Why did it take me so long to figure things out.
http://www.dishnetwork.com/downloads/Channel-Lineup/StandardHDChannelGuide.pdf says NHL Network is Channel 403. With MLB Network the games are blacked out in the teams' local market (a different game or no game is shown) and the same could be true of NHL Network but I don't know for sure. Maybe go to www.nhl.com for more information. Games are also occasionally on national TV on Versus. Those game anybody who gets Versus will get because they are not on regional sports networks also.
What Spencer said. If Dish subscribers are locked in their contracts, they'll either: 1) Deal with it, and Dish continues to get their monthly fees and keep the subscriber. 2) Terminate early, and probably pay a huge fee. Dish wins, at least temporarily. And, if they play their cards right, they'll pick up a new subscriber along the way. Look at cable TV subscribers. A lot of people have had cable TV service dating back to when it was the only option. I'm betting a lot of people don't change from what they have because change is inconvienent. Sure, you'll have a few people here and there who switch providers, but I wonder what percentage of the population that is, and it's probably not a huge one. It's probably the same way with other providers, and maybe even moreso satellite, considering the contracts.
Does DirecTV offer MSG currently? In other words, if I were to switch to DirecTV (from Dish Network) today, would I be able to view MSG??
Every year Dish Network pull up the same excuse: Oh big bully TV company are too greedy for us to keep on carrying their channels. You would think as they keep dumping channels year after year we would see a drop in the price they make us pay, but not at all in fact they charge us even more. This is it for me; adios Dish Network!