Whoa! Hopefully we'll get a better selection of European channels now. I'd love to see RAI international show up on DirecTV.
I wouldn't mind seeing someone does an analysis on this news and how it impacts soccer coverage. I am guessing not much but it's just a guess.
Mixed Bag On the one hand, we might get better access to international sports, e.g. soccer. On the other, we're sure to get more tabloid journalism and right-wing tripe. Murdoch is evil to the core, yet a shrewd businessman. A 21st century Hearst. Now if Murdoch changes DirecTV's name to Rosebud, we're all in trouble. ;-)
Re: Mixed Bag Did you watch Citizen Kane again, too? The one thing I heard on NPR that gave me the willies as a soccer fan: the idea that Murdoch now has an outlet to directly sell his channels to US consumers leads some to believe that he will raise the prices of his Fox products so that his competitors (like, oh, say Comcast/AT&T) will be priced out of the market for some or all of them. I suspect that in the long run this doesn't bode well for FSW on Comcast. But at this point, it's too early to tell. BTW, how readily available is DirectTV? Can you get it anywhere.
Re: Re: Mixed Bag The Murdoch-Hearst-Kane saga continues. I get DirecTV instead of Comcast because of FSW. It was bad enough that I was getting my soccer fix via News Corp. Now that Murdoch will own DirecTV, I'm really going to have to hold my nose. North Americans with a clear view of the southern sky can get DirecTV.
Re: Re: Re: Mixed Bag Unless their apartment building manager or gated community standards say otherwise, that is.
Re: Re: Re: Re: Mixed Bag Actually: The FCC says that an apartment manager Home Owner’s assn or any other entity CANNOT prevent the installation of a Sat dish in an "Exclusive Use area." An "Exclusive Use area" is defined as an area that the owner/leaseor/renter has exclusive use of in regular use of the property. Nor can they require "fees" or extra "insurance" or otherwise restrict the ability to receive sat signals. While they can restrict the permanent alteration of the property there are many ways that a dish can be installed without any holes are any other permanent changes. Any lease clause that violates this is invalid. For more info see: http://www.fcc.gov/cgb/satellite.html There are many ways of making an attractive and virtually invisible install including concealing the dish under a fake rock, or the outdoor umbrella stand dish mount. EDIT: I wanted to add that for a good part of rural America DTV is not directly available. You MUST go through a company called Pegasus and they provide the DTV service. This does not change any of the rules BUT it can make getting the service and/or buying the equipment more of a challenge. Of course the Pegasus service uses exactly the same sats as DTV and the same equipment. It is just managed by a Pegasus.
Re: Re: Re: Mixed Bag I knew there was one more thing: DTV cannot be legally received in Canada. I am not sure about Mexico. So not all "North Americans" can legally get DTV.
I love DTV, but I hate News Corp, so I'll be holding my nose as well when I pay my monthly bill. Any guesses as to how long it will be before Fox News (channel 360) and CNN (ch 202) swap places? I don't see any major changes in programming -- no Sky. It will be interesting to see how hard Murdoch now tries to stick it to cable for the Sports Nets.
Ain't that the truth. Sigh. Too bad I've become too much of a soccer junkie. I'll pay the dealer for my fix.
While on the subject of satellite TV, I hope this sale means that international channels will be available on an "a la carte" basis on DirecTV, just like it is on DISH Network. I hope that it means we can get Le Championnat on French TV, J-League and Japanese baseball (not to mention sumo) on NHK, Greek League on Greek channels, etc. Does this purchase increase the likelihood of that happening? I hope so.
Re: Mixed Bag Oh goody. I like tripe!! BTW: How can you be so down on the good man who provides London with all those Page 3 girls?
You hate the company that gave us and still provides FSW, wonderful. How can a man that started FSW be evil? Long live Rupert! God bless FSW, FNC, DirecTV & News.
Heather Knauert and Jennifer Eccleston (spelling?) deserve their own channel. Now all we need is Norah O'Donnell (again, spelling?), unless we've got her already. =NLK=
You may get it despite of Murdoch. There is a service called TARBS in Australia that tried to get into the American market. It's an international service with channels from Italy, Serbia, Macedonia, Greece, Turkey, etc. It has been trying to launch in the U.S., but requires a separate receiver, 30" dish and a KU LNB that costs over $300, plus a $30-40 monthly subscription. In this economic times, it's a definite no-no. The supposed launch date is April 2003, but the plan has been aborted. Now that TARBS is trying to get on the Directv platform, much like the Cantonese service JEDI. It's a wise move, because customers don't have to buy separate equipment, and they could use the existing customer serivce, billing, and installation infra-structure from Directv. Currently, TARBS is available on MPEG2/FTA. There had been soccer games from Serbia, Macedonia and Greece. I have no interest in these leagues, but there had been some international games, even Euro 04 qualifiers on the Serbian and Macedonian channels. Some UEFA Cup games involving the Greek teams were also available late least year. The full TARBS service in Australia also has a Turkish 1. Ligi package. If TARBS can really get on Directv, it can rival Dish Network in ethnic programming. More about TARBS on www.tarbs.com For the currently available TARBS channels that you can receive with an MPEG2/FTA in the U.S., check out http://www.lyngsat.com/g10r.shtml
murdoch and directv but look at it this way. fsw along with fse get moved to the basic directv package and out of the exclusive sports tier. lots more soccer for a lot less. we can only hope.