NFL Sunday Ticket Will Remain DirecTV Exclusive Until 2014
Sorry, cable and FiOS subscribers — the NFL and DirecTV have extended their Sunday Ticket exclusivity agreement until 2014 — with DirecTV paying a whopping $4 billion for the rights.
There is hope, however, as the "Red Zone Channel" (aruguably the best part of NFL Sunday Ticket and maybe the greatest thing in the history of television) will be made available on cable, mobile phones and the internet.
DirecTV will by 2012 provide the package through broadband to extend its reach to fans who can't receive satellite transmissions. The league and DirecTV also will make available through cable, mobile phones and the Internet the Red Zone channel, which switches between games as teams move into scoring position.
NFL, DirecTV Extend Sunday Ticket Package Through 2014 Season [Bloomberg]
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just cancelled my direct tv. not really b/c of the bad economy though, but maybe they are expecting a bailout and can afford it lol.
And the consumer is screwed again.
Non-DirecTV customers will not be able to purchase an item they might want.
DirectTV customers will continue to pay a fee unburdened by the forces of competition.
Wait, don't they know the worlds ends in 2012? Their broadband had better include Aethernet.
Meg:
Read this article on SI.com by NFL writer Peter King. It talks about how this deal might have been made for other than obvious reasons.
Ugh. I'm getting more and more annoyed with DTV's customer service--we won't let you cancel that package until after it renews, and then we'll just keep billing you for it until you call us 3 more times!--and the only reason I stick with them over other reasonable alternatives is Sunday Ticket. I really wish I lived in my team's local market!
@Yoko Broke Up The Beatles: And not having to be subjected to the NFL's painful advertising and sponsors to pay for over-inflated player salaries? Sounds... like a good idea, actually!
@Yoko Broke Up The Beatles: Or do what I do since I don't live local to my hometown team. I sent my mom a slingbox basic and had her install ultraVNC.
I don't like this at all, but I live in my team's market, albeit not their core one. So I guess if I ever move out, then sorry, 'Boys. Can't afford Sunday Ticket, and don't particularly want DirecTV. Besides, I'm not optimistic that the team will ever get it together as long as Jerry Jones has this "Oh yay fun a circus" mentality.
Any readers out there with a legal background that can explain why the other cable providers can't band together and find someway to bring an ant-trust suit against DTV and/or the NFL for something like this? DirecTV has horrible customer service and overpriced service, but many people, myself included, are stuck with them if we want to watch our teams.
Gregg Easterbrook (columnist for Atlantic Monthly and does part-time work for ESPN) makes very good points about the NFL's control over this and the NFL Network. Long read, but worth it.
@cjones27: Gregg is the only sports columnist I read anymore. He has a good grasp on many non-sports related topics as well. (ducks from muzzle flash of distant intergalactic doomsday device)
Somehow I doubt they will recoup 4 billion from just people buying their special NFL package. Methinks everyone else ends up paying higher rates just because some people want to watch foosball. Just like how XM/Sirius could probably charge $7.99 a month and still make a profit, but they have to recoup their ridiculous Howard Stern, NASCAR, etc contracts, so everyone has to pay up, even people that just want to listen to music.
King's article is somewhat incorrect in that while the NFL would get paid the full amount in 2010 in the event of a lockout future payments would be less to make up for the work stoppage.
[www.profootballtalk.com]
DirectTV's exclusivity is why I go to a local sports bar every Sunday. I would buy the package if I could get it with my cable company, but there's no way I'm getting satellite purely for this.
Sounds like an antitrust violation to me.
And sounds like the NFL should lose its favored nation status if this isn't changed.
If I were CBS I'd want to know why I can't make some ad $$ by broadcasting alternate feeds in SDTV on part of my digital channel.
@zonk7ate9: Because the NFL has the right to license the retransmission of their product to whomever they choose, maybe?
The consumer is screwed again? What? There is no law in the constitution that mandates the NFL Sunday Package is available to all. Somehow, I think we will survive.
@cromartie: Wouldn't that be like Sony being the only able to use Blu-Ray drives in next-gen consoles because it's their technology and they won't liscense to Nintendo or Microsoft?
@JGKojak: I don't see how this is an illegal trust. Presumably another network could have gotten this instead if they'd put in a higher bid.
@zonk7ate9: Sony actually has done that kind of stuff in the past. They aren't now because it's a good way to shoot themselves in the foot; new media formats need wide acceptance to succeed.
This might be a stupid move but that doesn't make it illegal.
Here's the deal.
It is in the NFL's best interest to limit who gets access to Direct Ticket, in order to preserve the value of their over air broadcast package.
In a sense, Sunday Ticket allows the NFL to compete with itself. Let's say you live in Detroit, and the Lions game is on and the Lions suck. Unless you are a DirectTV customer, that is the only game you get during that time slot. If Sunday Ticket were available on cable, you would switch off of that game and into a more interesting one, thereby reducing the rating of the local market game and the broadcast network that antis up to broadcast it.
Multiply this decision by millions of viewers and you see the problem. The short term gain of selling people Sunday Ticket on cable is offset by a long term decline in the value of the broadcast channel property.
From the NFL perspective, having Sunday Ticket on satellite is perfect. It enhances their revenues from the broadcast rights without too much of a negative impact on the over air rights fees paid for by Fox, NBC and ESPN. They get to have their cake and eat it too.
Sunday Ticket is the only thing about Direct TV worth having, or so I'm told. It serves as a loss leader to attract subscribers.
Frankly, I'm shocked they conceded the Red Zone Channel.
@JGKojak: Agreements signed by NFL rights holders do allow them to broadcast portions of feeds of other games.
@cromartie: It's not the only reason to have DirecTV, but it's one of the main two reasons. Contrary to the deceptive claims made by Comcast commercials, DirecTV actually has the most HD channels (OnDemand doesn't count, pluse DTV has this if you download it to your box and I assume some of it is HD, therefore cancelling out Comcasts OnDemand). Even if I could get Sunday Ticket on Comcast, I don't think I could go back to watching all those SD feeds.
@Murph1908:
I'm not a huge fan, but this is what the NFL does to consumers after the stadiums are financed with taxpayer funds. Way to make this available to a larger population NFL. And let's not forget that not everyone can get a DirectTV signal.
Except nobody else was offered the chance to bid, despite promises by the NFL. This lie is a big reason why Comcast and Time Warner refuse to carry NFL Network on a basic package (price is the biggest reason).
@rocketbear79: Easterbrook's words:
Disney's CEO, Michael Eisner, is Jewish; the chief of Miramax, Harvey Weinstein, is Jewish. Yes, there are plenty of Christian and other Hollywood executives who worship money above all else, promoting for profit the adulation of violence. Does that make it right for Jewish executives to worship money above all else, by promoting for profit the adulation of violence? Recent European history alone ought to cause Jewish executives to experience second thoughts about glorifying the killing of the helpless as a fun lifestyle choice.
For all of the non-stop bitching about Comcast that goes on here, I would have expected that this would be viewed as a win for the forces of good.
/they can take my Sunday Ticket from my cold, dead remote.
@ncpeters: I still don't see how this is any more of an antitrust violation than, say, Sirius signing an exclusive deal with Howard Stern.
@HIV 2 Elway Resurrected: Pointing out hypocrisy does not equal anti-semitism. But I do see your inferred point that it might not have been a wise comment to make.
@rocketbear79: I'm really just passing on the opinions I've heard from others. There may or may not be more examples.
No wonder I keep getting called by the DirecTV people. I switched to Dish Network, and for the next several months (until I told them to please cut it out), I would get a couple calls a week from their customer retention people.
Note to CSRs of companies that I just fired: I will only answer your stupid "why did you quit" and "what can we do to get you back" questions once. After that, I get hostile.
1. No, DirecTV's service is fine. Dish Network's is just better and cheaper.
2. DirecTV can't get me Syracuse area local channels. Dish can, so they get my business. I'm finished playing with my roof antenna.
3. I can get free Encore and a DVR (and lots of temporary freebies) for the same price I used to pay with DirecTV.
4. Dish offers German TV.
5. Dish's user interface and remotes are better.
If DirecTV is willing to spend about fifty metric shitloads of Rupert's money to bring their service up to Dish's, I might talk to them again in two years when my Dish Network service agreement expires, and the offer I get had better really kick ass.
In any case, I don't know why they think I would spend a whole afternoon with the installer guy changing out all my sh1t just so I can spend another one with a DirecTV guy re-installing the same equipment I just had the Dish guy rip out. It makes about as much sense as leather seats in a Yugo.
@HIV 2 Elway Resurrected: I'm not shooting the messenger. My days of e-fighting are long since over.
@kwsventures: There's also no "law in the constitution" (!?) that mandates I get a pony party if I pay for a pony party. This doesn't mean I haven't been screwed if I instead receive a bag of cold rocks.
I just boycott the NFL.
@cromartie: Hey, reply is working! Yippee!!
Anyway, I took DirecTV when I moved. Of course, that was a number of years ago and since the house had the dish on the roof, I figured why not. Anyway, I just didn't want TimeWarner since I had problems with them in my apartment. But now Directv has jacked up the rates again (I guess to pay that $4,000,000,000 fee). I have reduced my package (which is no longer offered) so that I have no premium packages. As I am a fan of no naming rights, I can't sit through any sporting event without going bonkers over all the 'official this and that' ads, so no sunday ticket or redzone or blue zone or any zone ticket for me.
@cromartie: Um, that would make sense except that Comcast and other cable companies have identical packages for NCAA et al for big $$$$ too, just like the Sunday ticket.
People aren't saying they want the Sunday Ticket as part of basic cable, they're saying they want the option to get Sunday Ticket THROUGH cable providers like Comcast and are happy to fork over $200 for that each year.
IMHO if the NFL really wanted to broaden its reach/make fans happy it would open up ST to cable.
The way Direct TV makes so much is because it charges BARS a LOT more $$$ to have the Sunday Ticket than individuals. Per TV etc. It probably makes them viable as a company. I'd guess if they didn't have Sunday Ticket they'd be bust by now.
@GuidedByLemons: their customer service is a trainwreck. i canceled back in december & had to call back 3 times to make the cancel official (the first 2 times, the CSR simply inactivated my service instead of canceling it outright).
i've had to call another 3 times to get them to pick up their receivers (which they still haven't done). i'm thinking i'm going to start charging them monthly storage fees of $50/box until they decide to take them back.
@that charlie sedarka: I enjoy the imagery conjoured up by your juxtaposition of pony party and cold rocks. +1
@rocketbear79: @rocketbear79: I also use a slingbox setup at my parents house to watch the game, but was wondering why you used ultraVNC with it?
@Yoko Broke Up The Beatles: Unfortunately, my hometown team is the Seahawks, and they were doing badly enough last season that I considered charging them for me to continue watching their games.
NFL continues to be a VORTEX OF SUCK until 2014.
Look here NFL douchebags. There are these things called TREES. Some of us have a FOREST of them in our way. Some of these FORESTS are wildlife preserves and can not be cut down.
You need to provide at least one other method of getting the NFL Sunday Ticket.
Did I mention that you suck NFL?
@Papa Midnight: Yep, proverbial nail on the head. Makes it easier on everybody if she can just set it and forget it.
Darn, I guess I'll have to continue to see my hometown team on my local broadcast station. For free.