A common question is answered

how do those numbers roll with what people had been thinking were subscribed??

 

I would have guessed higher. Man, soccer fans are cheap SOBs.

 

And we like to bitch about ESPN alot too.

Seriously though, about 6 months ago a number was bandied about from a reliable source but for the life of me I can't remember what it was.

For some reason I want to say it was 50,000 or 20,000 subscribers - needless to say those numbers is a far cry from the 10K figure that is being reported.

Heck - I bought 2 of those packages this year. I also had 2 friends buy it for the first time this year.

Let's just hope there's even more next season.

 

I'll be buying next year if Digital cable becomes available in my area..if not I'm still SOL.

 

Even with 10,000 subscribers, it means the league made $500k for doing nothing.

Even if you take out the system provider's cut, as long as the league makes $1 from it, its a positive.

I'd like to find out how the MLS shootout subscriber numbers compare to that of the WNBA league pass or the NHL season pass.

 

For the 10,000 who did get the shootout package, I wonder how many others with digital cable would have liked to order it but their local cable system refused to carry the iNDemand feed?

I live in 2 places, both of which have digital cable but neither offered the shootout package.

If it had been available, I would have bought it twice!

I still think that $49 for a season package is a steal! I'd pay twice that price for it in a heartbeat.

 

with me not having digital cable or a dish

i have this question... maybe stupid, but whatever

how much do single games cost? or are they not available for purchase??? for some reason or another i was thinking they cost around $5 but i can't ever recall seeing this or for what reason i thought this

thanks

-jim

 

They were $4.95 last season. This year it's not available-although I'm not 100% sure because last season the "buy" option for individual games stopped appearing on the screen mid-season. I e-mailed TWNYC and they said you could still get individual matches and the "buy" option returned.

 

Could be 10,001 subscribers... could be 100,001 subscribers. I'd guess it's closer to the former than the latter, but you can't really derive that from this quote.

 

My guess - and this is only a guess from experience in trying to spin these kind of things - is that if it were anywhere near 10,500, they would have told Ridge "almost 11,000."

That's what I would have done if I were in MLS Communications.

 

If it weren't so confusing to figure out how to go about ordering it (or even if it's available through my cable provider) I would have done so without any consideration of the cost, which really is minimal for a season's worth of games.

If cable is digital, I would think all providers would be able to make available all In-Demand programs without any additional overhead. It's all run by computers, no? Why is it so difficult to make available to customers all of the content that's out there and the ability to order it themselves through the digital interface (as you can with some of the programs) or at least through a web site. It shouldn't be that hard.

 

I ordered the package twice this season....both times it was very difficult, the first time they gave me the MLB package TWICE!!! and i was like MLS, Soccer, MLS, and I'm a 19 year old bad tempered "kid"...So both times yelling was involved, but ultimately I got both my packages this season, one in Olmypia, Washington, and the other in Phoenix, AZ...both of them though were from digi cable so i missed alot of the beginning of the season...

 

I have Cablevision's digital cable in LI. They do not offer the MLS shootout package. They offer all the other sports packages by InDemand, but not soccer's. I would certainly order it if it is available.

 

Re: Re: A common question is answered

InDemand does make the feed available to all of their partners services... the problem lies in the fact that different cable providers have different bandwidth capabilities, different priorities, and different local agreements.

Company A - has five "open channels" to carry content, realizes that sports packages are kind of hot, and adds the MLS package in and rotates it with non-conflicting sports packaging (I get 5 of the 10 college football channels for the last month of the season because it shares channel space with the Shootout package)

Company B - has a smaller pipe and has to be more selective about programming. Their local infrastructure is shoddy, perhaps. As a result, they opt for the high-demand stuff like PPV movies and one-off events.

Company C - has the same bandwidth as Company A, but instead opts to use those five spare channels to increase their bluegrass music offerings. Don't ask me. Maybe Company C is in Kentucky or something.

DirecTV and Dish are certainly easier to order it from, as one company is providing both the content and the method of delivery. However, as flawed as it is, InDemand is the best way to deliver PPV content across multiple cable providers.

The demand for the package has to be perceived by the cable provider itself, in order for them to allocate bandwidth (and don't be fooled - channel space/bandwidth = money to the provider... if a channel doesn't get used, it's an operating loss) to the content.

 

Not all cable is digital. Or has the capacity for digital signal.

Cox Communication here in Fairfax County (approx 1 million people) is having to replace ALL the cable in the county to upgrade to digital. They are spending over $1 million a day to do it.

It depends a lot on when the cable was originally installed. If you are in an older area that had some of the original coaxl cable laid, it will take longer to retrofit to digital.

And some of the smaller areas just don't feel they can recoup the costs of providing the upgraded services.