(PlagueX1)
We — just like you — have had it with stories about squabbling between cable/satellite providers and various networks. And yet, these nasty spats go on, and they always seem to come to a head at importune times. The latest: Fox has decided to pull 19 regional sports channels, FX and the National Geographic Channel from DISH Network subscribers while the two parties dicker over carriage fees.
DISH users will still have access to their local Fox affiliate, as well as Fox News (thank God!) and Fox Business (Amen!).
Here are the 19 stations that have been pulled from DISH:
FOX Sports Arizona
FOX Sports Detroit
FOX Sports Florida
FOX Sports Midwest
FOX Sports North
FOX Sports Ohio
FOX Sports Oklahoma
FOX Sports Southwest
FOX Sports South
FOX Sports West
Prime Ticket
SportSouth
Sun Sports
(These last 6 are channels that DISH subscribers only had access to as part-time/overflow channels)
Fox Sports Carolinas
Fox Sports Houston
Fox Sports Indiana
Fox Sports Kansas City
Fox Sports Tennessee
Fox Sports Wisconsin
Additionally, in a deal unrelated to the Fox negotiations, DISH users in the NYC area also no longer have access to the MSG network.
Said a VP from the satellite provider:
DISH Network is not going to allow FOX or any programmer to bully our customers into paying such an unconscionable price increase… FOX has a long history of trying to shake down pay TV providers, including Cablevision, Time Warner, and Bright House.
In fact, the American Television Alliance, which counts all of the above companies (and DISH competitor DirecTV) issued a statement excoriating Fox for the timing of the blackouts:
During the pennant races, Fox has struck out at viewers across America. FOX’s blackout of regional sports networks and other cable channels from DISH Network puts consumers in the middle of a business dispute, the same tactic broadcast networks are using in retransmission negotiations with pay-TV providers.
For its part, Fox calls DISH’s claim about the broadcaster’s demands “absurd,” and say the fees Fox is asking for are “consistent with our agreements with hundreds of other cable and satellite providers.”
FOX BLOCKS REGIONAL SPORTS CHANNELS FROM DISH NETWORK VIEWERS [Official DISH Press Release]
Fox sports channels, MSG drop off Dish in dispute [AP]
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Boooo! I just called Dish to switch to them from Comcast because Dish is $50 a month cheaper. I don’t really care about the regional sports channels as if it’s something local, another network usually has it, but my National Geographic channel? I protest! Fox, you suck!
This urinary olympics (pissing contest) between cable carriers and networks is getting old… We already know they’re going to pay them and raise our rates anyway, just tell us how much more it’s going to cost us every month and move on…
Seems to me another reason to tell cable and networks to bite the dust.
I just hope that they give me the chance to NOT pay for the Fox crap and not get it. Unfortunately, they’ll probably throw it in the package and charge me for it.
Oh, for the day when we can buy satellite a’la carte.
Actually, that is not a bad idea… whenever a broadcaster and content provider argue over pricing.. just have the broadcaster create a separate package of the channels in dispute, attach a price to it, remove all those channels from current package they are apart of, and set a price on the new separate package. Then let the consumer decide.
My guess is (at least in my case), I would dump the channels.
Although I doubt the broadcaster would reduce the cost of the previous package that originally had the contested content after removing said content.
I’d just like to point out that the loss of MSG has nothing to do with Fox. MSG and Dish failed to reach a carriage agreement completely independently.
Personally, I miss the loss of MSG. Especially from my fried rice. Good stuff.
I’m glad you pointed that out. I didn’t understand when the article said “Additionally, in a deal unrelated to the Fox negotiations, DISH users in the NYC area also no longer have access to the MSG network.” /s
When I made my comment, the article did not make the distinction. It had since been edited.
So please go choke on your snark.
How much do I save if I remove Fox entirely?
You don’t save any money, but you preserve at least 3 IQ points a week.
If you’re referring to FOX News, your soul.
They should stop airing Fox News right now as the election approaches. We’ll see how fast Fox caves in after they lose viewers of their propaganda channel.
FOX Networks, the owner of Regional Sports Networks, FX and National Geographic Channel, removed their channels from the DISH Network line-up on October 1.
FOX has blocked the following RSN’s from our customers:
* FOX Sports Arizona
* FOX Sports Detroit
* FOX Sports Florida
* FOX Sports Midwest
* FOX Sports North
* FOX Sports Ohio
* FOX Sports Southwest
* FOX Sports South
* FOX Sports West
* Prime Ticket
* SportSouth
* Sun Sports
Local FOX TV stations, FOX News/FOX Business News, FOX Sports Rocky Mountain, FOX Sports Pittsburgh and FOX Sports Northwest are not affected in any way
http://www.dishnetwork.com/news/fox.aspx
Bigger list on the Fox site:
* FOX Sports Arizona
* FOX Sports Carolinas
* FOX Sports Detroit
* FOX Sports Florida
* FOX Sports Houston
* FOX Sports Indiana
* FOX Sports Kansas City
* FOX Sports Midwest
* FOX Sports North
* FOX Sports Ohio
* FOX Sports Oklahoma
* FOX Sports Southwest
* FOX Sports South
* FOX Sports Tennessee
* FOX Sports West
* FOX Sports Wisconsin
* Prime Ticket
* SportSouth
* Sun Sports
So do your rates go down during this time? I doubt it….
No, the Dish sites say they are adding some other channels while they work on the deal:
HD Net Movies
HD Theater
NBA TV
New England Sports Network
NFL Network
NHL Network
Altitude Sports
Big Ten Network
Comcast SportsNet California
Comcast SportsNet Chicago
Comcast SportsNet Bay Area
Comcast Sports Network Mid-Atlantic
Comcast Sports New England
ESPN Classic
FOX Sports Northwest
FOX Sports Pittsburgh
FOX Sports Rocky Mountain
Mid-Atlantic Sports Network
Mid-Atlantic Sports Network2
SportsNet New York
SportsTime Ohio.
I miss HD Net Movies… Damn you Bresnan for being tight asses, your every few month rate hike should have allowed you to keep the channel.
As do I on DirecTV. Not because they don’t carry it, but rather they put it on a different tier of service than plain ol’ HDNet itself.
When I was on Comcast they both were carried under the HD service tier. I dislike that DirecTV chose to break them up.
So they’re trying to annoy ever more people to the point where they get fed up with this crap and cut the cord entirely? Seems like an odd business strategy.
Works for the networks, as if you ditch Dish you’ll just go to cable, which has the same negotiation issues.
It’s in the network’s own interest to alwasy get as much money from everyone as possible, but they rightly believe you’re going to pay for their network no matter what.
Your only solution is to ditch both cable and dish.
Thats what they want you to do. So then you go straight to fox channels online and then gouge internet advertisers. But atleast we will only have to have 30 minutes of commercials by then.
Judging by the dueling websites put up by both Fox and Dish, it would appear both companies are run by individuals with the maturity of a 5 year old. This sort of crud makes it really tempting to cut the cord.
Yes, it IS very childish, isn’t it? One would think grown adults who actually possess more than a little business acumen would be able to deal with these things in a more constructive way, rather than letting them deteriorate to the point where they sic viewers on their opponents.
About the only segments of the US population less mature than media executives, are politicians and infants. And I’m not even sure infants are less mature than either of those.
does News Corp still own a bunch of Directv stock?
Yes.
Don’t think this is in any way indicative of what may happen under Kabletown…
+1
Gimmie Ala-Cart channels .. and give them to me now and then we can get over all this BS.
Besides .. bundling FX, History and a bunch of 2nd rates sports channels together? ASIF they have the same audiences.
And besides .. if we are paying all the money to receive these stations via Satelite (or cable) why do are we not getting them commercial free? After all, we are paying to watch them, why do we have to suffer through commercials as well? double dipping anybody?
Yes, I equate this with having to pay to park at the mall, then having to pay to enter the mall. Crazy. But this is what it amounts to.
Ala carte would actually cost more than bundling. A lot more.
And there are folks, like me, who do watch channels like FX, The History Channel, HGTV, and Fox Sports (for baseball games). Some of us have varied interests, you know.
Me too. Yesterday’s programming choices? Colts game, Bears game, History International, and Investigative Discovery. DVR’d – Venture Brothers.
Channels that carry commercials and are re-transmitted unaltered should not cost the cable provider anything. A cable provider should not have to pay for the priveledge of increasing the exposure of some Networks ads.
Wow, you’re going to have a LOT of angry college football fans with this one. I won’t question why Northwest was spared, I’ll just be happy that I’ll still be able to watch the Oregon State game this Sunday. I know a lot of people who WOULD cancel their Dish network subscriptions if FSN Northwest was gone during college football season….
err, Saturday
I have Dish, and we still have FX, NatGeo Wild and NatGeo, but the sports stations are gone.
The males in this household are not amused.
Fox wants “more than a 50% increase in fees” according to my source starting 1 Jan. Dish has a habit of pulling programming they feel are demanding unreasonable increases.
So instead of $0.20 they want $0.40 per channel…
Fox blocked.
“DISH users will still have access to their local Fox affiliate, as well as Fox News (thank God!) and Fox Business (Amen!).”
Always nice when a site decides to go ahead and get political, when its not the point of the article. Can’t you guys just leave it out and stick to reporting?
well how else would the tea baggers get their news from a unbaised (FOX) news source?
Sports channels like Fox Sports West and Prime Ticket are the only reason we have cable. Glad we don’t have Dish.
Nice i think I will order Dish now I hate sports
^^
I got Dish put in about 6 weeks ago and I couldn’t be happier. The HD channels on my big screen are incredibly clear and the reception has never been a problem during storms and rain.
Dish is your best bet if you hate sports since they don’t even offer the MLB channel.
Of course, that in itself is why I’d never go with Dish Network.
My friend has dish network and over the years lots of channels have been pulled from it and yet the company still increased the price.
and nothing of value was lost
And ala carte pricing for channels is bad because?
Let the unpopular stations die. Less shit shows and useless networks.
I’d consider it a personal favor if Comcast also dropped FOX channels (including the ‘news’ channels, please). It would save me the trouble of having to block them individually on my cable box.
Y d ths bcs…..? Yr bycttng thm? hp nt snc yr stll pyng fr th chnnl… h ths dts nd thr stpd mnnglss prncpls. N n crs bt y. nd t mks m ht y. Stpd stpd ppl.
Lets take a look at what you posted here.
“You do this because…..?”
You don’t need that ellipse. You seem to be particularly fond of that little guy though.
“Your boycotting them?”
Oh, common snafu, you were looking for ‘You’re’.
“I hope not since your still paying for the channel… “
There seems to be two ‘thoughts’ here, you should separate them with a comma. Again, you seem to use ‘your’ when you meant ‘you’re’. Just remember if it isn’t indicating possession, you need an apostrophe and an ‘e’. Also, an ellipse is not a period.
“oh these idiots and their stupid meaningless principles.”
Like posting about their opinions on the internet? Good job on using the correct form of ‘there’, though given the rest of your post, I’ll assume it was purely accidental.
“No one cares about you.”
Except for this guy who took the time to post a poorly worded response to your post.
“And it makes me hate you.”
Glad to hear that by simply having a different opinion than you, you have decided to feel this way. You must really be a joy to deal with on a daily basis.
“Stupid stupid people.”
I’ll just let this one stand on its own.
Y’r th bggst f’n lsr n ths st b fr. h trst m ‘m nt plsr t dl wth. wld lv t pnch y sqr n th mth lng wth ll th thr dchbgs wh rn nd cmmnt n ths st.
Please feel free to go elsewhere.
Ah yes… the fabled Internet toughguy.
Let me guess – your Mom burned your pop-tart this morning and hasn’t apologized yet? Better luck tomorrow.
Why, I block religious channels all the time, it simply just skips them. That way I don’t have to worry about watching some preacher crap and that includes fox news.
Th nl thng ‘m tbggng s yr/y’r/r/dnt cr (dd gt ths ll cvrd y f’n grmmr nzs) mths.
Your is possessive
You’re is YOU ARE.
And your comment annoys the hell out of me.
The Teabonics is strong in that one.
And the reason I hate Faux is the reporters have a mindset like you. It is OK for someone to block opinions, Shows and News reporting that is lean to the right I prefer to block those people out because I’m sick of the blah whine blah.
Shits: I don’t give any.
How long before Fox blames this impasse on the Obama administration?
I’m waiting for Disney to pull ESPN from Comcast so my cable bill goes down $5/month.
A lot of people are looking at their cable/satellite bills and punting. After all, there is free broadcast TV, the internet, DVDs and even digital video download services like Netflix and iTunes. The only group resisting this trend consists of sports fans. They want to watch their teams play, and often this includes teams elsewhere in the country and not available by broadcast. Though I am not a sports fan, I’ve gotten the impression that it would take a fair bit of something to wean them from their sports video habit. Maybe this kind of garbage is it? Enough blackouts, especially during major games, and I can imagine just going to some website for scores and stills, or even back to audio.
There’s no real reason that advertising supported channels or networks should be charging carriage. It’s simple, really: if your advertising doesn’t cover your costs, you don’t get broadcast. Period.
Thing is, Fix is cutting off its nose to spite its face. By cutting off DISH, it gets fewer viewers on those channels, and so can’t charge the same advertising rates, thereby making less money. But never have facts gotten in the way of Republicans and Fox.
I’d like to see some seriously pissed off customers file a class action suit against DISH for breach of contract. Dammit, I pay extra for FSN.
I love how DISH places all the blame on FOX. Bastards. I’m sure DISH is hardly the innocent party here. Both are acting like spoiled brats.
A pox on both your houses.
“Breach of contract”? Um, no…have you actually READ your contract with them? “Channels, lineups, and pricing subject to change” or something like that
Holy shit … I have been a loyal customer of this company since 2000 … I am so sick and tired of this garbage … the customers should NOT have to fight Dish Network’s battles for them … if I am expected to call NewsCorp to quibble with them over a few cents, then Dish should not be raising my rates every year … in fact, they should put me on the payroll!
And it’s only a few cents, too … but I am sure the rate increase will be two dollars or more.
This bullshit stands squarely between me an’ my Sons.
If they don’t get this squared away by next Tuesday night at 10, I might have to give Comcast a call.
The biggest problem I have is that the $ports channels, such as E$PN and the Regional $ports Networks charge a high per-subscriber fee, then turn around and insist that their channels be carried on the lowest tier of channels. E$PN is part of Dish’s America’s Top 120 package and DirecTV’s Choice package, which is the lowest-cost package by each provider. So, you are paying for a $ports channel even if you have no interest in sports.
What also bothers me is that many people treat the loss of certain channels as a “life or death” situation. OMGWTFBBQ, if I can’t watch the latest “Sons of Anarchy” or “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia”, I am absolutely going to dieeee, even through the episodes will be repeated or available as part of a seasonal box set. Of course, you can’t say the thing about the $ports networks, which rely on “watch it live”. And, at this time of the year, we have baseball playoffs and the kickoff of both NHL this month and NBA next month.
Why do our lives revolve around television?
You do realize that “the mouse” holds their other channels ‘hostage’ unless providers put high $ channels like ESPN into the lowest tiers possible. Much the same with other programmers (Viacom, etc)…”you take the $5 channel or we’re not giving you the others”
It’s called leverage. It’s business and this is the model the networks use. Issues like this will be the end of the big providers one day. Seriously, there is no reason for them to do this publicly and in doing so it creates animosity toward the lot of them (Dish, Cable, et al). Networks will continue to provide content and will also continue to move toward direct-to-consumer via online content. The trick is just putting it all together by third-party apps/sites. Once that breakthrough happens and is accepted en mass, look out.
>>So, you are paying for a _____ channel even if you have no interest in ______.
Someone can fill in the blanks with every single channel on non-a la carte lineup. Nothing special about ESPN. Personally, I don’t have speak Spanish, but I still am forced to pay for 50-ish Spanish stations.
Except that last time I checked the sports channels are a lot more expensive than any of the other ones (excluding premium channels)
Well that’s timely. I just signed up for a sports package a few weeks ago, and now I don’t get the majority of the channels, and I what do get they are giving away for free. And I don’t see them refunding that $7/month anytime soon either…
Here’s the fun part…. these are the per-subscriber fees for 2009:
E$PN: $4.08 *
Fox $ports Network: $2.37
Fox News: $0.58 *
E$PN2: $0.54 *
CNN: $0.51 *
FX Network: $0.42
National Geographic: $0.20
E$PN Classic: $0.18 *
Source: http://www.dbstalk.com/showthread.php?p=2580010#post2580010
* Not a disputed, included for comparison
Funny how the interested of the consumer conflicts with the profit models of the channels.
Whaaat. Fox owns the national geographic channel? Nooooooooo!
Yeah, that was my thought. The only thing Fox is good for is Family Guy.
So here I am, watching none of the blocked channels. But I have DirecTV so I get to freaking PAY for the damn things and all the others I never watch.
SO I say good for Dish. Kick the channels to the curb, stomp on their faces and rip their damn throats out for forcing people to pay for stuff they don’t want and don’t watch.
DirecTV would never in a million years fight to keep prices low. They just pay, and in turn make all the viewers pay.
If all you people want these channels so badly, put them on tiers like HBO where it costs $5 or $10 a month and in turn take that hidden fee out of everyone else’s bills.
I have 0 pity for Dish or Time Warner in these negotiations. You love to pricelock a customer using a 2 year contract, then complain when your costs go up because you can’t pass it on to the customer because you forced them into a contract in the first place.
…and nothing of value was lost.
Darn. I moved to DISH after 3 frustrating years with Comcast. DISH had more for less. Now, if my Braves actually get the wildcard, I may not be able to follow
Facebook group for those who are fed-up and pissed off about this nonsense:
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?ref=home#!/group.php?gid=158802917478121
This mess is exactly why I dumpped paid TV years ago. I was paying $85/mo 4 years ago and one day checked off the channels I actually watched. The price per channel came out to $17/channel. Only 1 wasn’t available over the free air, so I took the hit and pulled the plug. So far so good. I haven’t had a price increase in over 4 years!
why not put all the sports crap on its own pay block of channels. That way only the idiots that watch sports can pay for their sports. I do not want to watch idiots that I do not personally know play a friggen child’s game, so why should I be forced to pay for it.
Disney laughs at your unprofitable idea of “sense.” You will pay $20+ for ALL of their networks, and you will like it.
Thought you could get away from it with switching hobbies to video games? Here’s ESPN3 raising the price of XBox Live, and you can bet they’re on their way to shoving it into Playstation Network too!
Robert Kotick (CEO of Activision) would kill for the kind of forced-gouging power Disney carries.
I’m not sure why these things have to be such ugly, confrontational and unflexible “non-negotiations”.
Conveniently, October 1st is near the end of the MLB regular season (the playoffs are on FOX national channels and TBS IIRC), and is before the NBA and NHL are in their regular seasons, so this is the time that blocking Fox Sport’s regional channels on Dish punishes viewers the least (at least in theory). It also gives both sides some time to negotiate.
Houston’s FOX owned and operated station (KRIV-26) is running a :30 second “Announcement” that Dish Network viewers no longer have access to FOX Sports Houston and other channels, directing viewers to visit a website listing other options (DirecTV and Comcast).
When a person signs a 1-2 year contract with DISH, DirecTV or Comcast, there should be a law allowing subscribers to break their contract without penalty if they lose channels due to a pissing contest.
In addition, the FCC and Congress should start investigating if consumers are getting screwed by FOX and Disney by indirectly forcing subscribers to subscribe to all channels they offer (versus a la carte).
Even the threat of these two Federal Actons might scare both sides into playing nice.
Sweet! Maybe I won’t have to pay for that trash anymore!
Dropped channels from July 2007 – DATE.
01- ABC Family HD
02- Animania HD
03- Disney XD HD
04- Disney HD
05- Equator HD
06- ESPNews HD
07- FamilyRoom HD
08- Filmfest HD
09- FOX Sports Arizona
10- FOX Sports Carolinas
11- FOX Sports Detroit
12- FOX Sports Florida
13- FOX Sports Houston
14- FOX Sports Indiana
15- FOX Sports Kansas City
16- FOX Sports Midwest
17- FOX Sports North
18- FOX Sports Ohio
19- FOX Sports Oklahoma
20- FOX Sports South
21- FOX Sports Southwest
22- FOX Sports Tennessee
23- FOX Sports West
24- FOX Sports Wisconsin
25- FU HD
26- Fuse
27- FX
28- Gallery HD
29- Gameplay HD
30- Gol
31- HDNews
32- Man TV
33- Monsters HD
34- MSG
35- MSG Plus
36- National Geographic
37- Prime Ticket
38- Rave HD
39- Rush HD
40- Smithsonian HD
41- SportSouth
42- Sun Sports
43- Treasure HD
44- Ultra HD
45- Weather Cast HD
46- World Cinema HD
Dropped channels from July 2007 – DATE
01- ABC Family HD
02- Animania HD
03- Disney XD HD
04- Disney HD
05- Equator HD
06- ESPNews HD
07- FamilyRoom HD
08- Filmfest HD
09- FOX Sports Arizona
10- FOX Sports Carolinas
11- FOX Sports Detroit
12- FOX Sports Florida
13- FOX Sports Houston
14- FOX Sports Indiana
15- FOX Sports Kansas City
16- FOX Sports Midwest
17- FOX Sports North
18- FOX Sports Ohio
19- FOX Sports Oklahoma
20- FOX Sports South
21- FOX Sports Southwest
22- FOX Sports Tennessee
23- FOX Sports West
24- FOX Sports Wisconsin
25- FU HD
26- Fuse
27- FX
28- Gallery HD
29- Gameplay HD
30- Gol
31- HDNews
32- Man TV
33- Monsters HD
34- MSG
35- MSG Plus
36- National Geographic
37- Prime Ticket
38- Rave HD
39- Rush HD
40- Smithsonian HD
41- SportSouth
42- Sun Sports
43- Treasure HD
44- Ultra HD
45- Weather Cast HD
46- World Cinema HD
Dropped channels from July 2007 – DATE
01- ABC Family HD
02- Animania HD
03- Disney XD HD
04- Disney HD
05- Equator HD
06- ESPNews HD
07- FamilyRoom HD
08- Filmfest HD
09- FOX Sports Arizona
10- FOX Sports Carolinas
11- FOX Sports Detroit
12- FOX Sports Florida
13- FOX Sports Houston
14- FOX Sports Indiana
15- FOX Sports Kansas City
16- FOX Sports Midwest
17- FOX Sports North
18- FOX Sports Ohio
19- FOX Sports Oklahoma
20- FOX Sports South
21- FOX Sports Southwest
22- FOX Sports Tennessee
23- FOX Sports West
24- FOX Sports Wisconsin
25- FU HD
26- Fuse
27- FX
28- Gallery HD
29- Gameplay HD
30- Gol
31- HDNews
32- Man TV
33- Monsters HD
34- MSG
35- MSG Plus
36- National Geographic
37- Prime Ticket
38- Rave HD
39- Rush HD
40- Smithsonian HD
41- SportSouth
42- Sun Sports
43- Treasure HD
44- Ultra HD
45- Weather Cast HD
46- World Cinema HD
Supposedly the Fox O&O Affiliate contract with Dish Network is up November 7th. I wonder if this will have any affect on the current negotiations.
Who do you support in this situation? The people who screw you or the people who screw the people screwing you?
Hey…you do realize that it’s just not NYC that is effected by this…the entire state of New York is not getting MSG or MSG+.
MSG and MSG+ used to be the only way I could watch my beloved Buffalo Sabres play on Dish Network…this crap plus them unwilling to budge on giving me free HD for life or lower my bill (the deal new subscribers get) after I’ve been with them for four years…they have now made my decision to switch that much easier…
Oh boy, now we get to listen to more radio commercials spouting the lies from both sides. It’s just greed and pathetic fist pounding. You’d think the legal negotiators were the same teams that were working for the Isrealies and Palestinians……
It reminds me of when I used to work for the state in California (university job). Every year, when the budget was late, the governor would threaten to stop paying the state workers until the crisis was over. Lo and behold, there was soon a deal. Being a pawn of that game really sucked, much as it does for those with Dish (or cable tv, or DirecTv), it’s never to the benefit of the consumer, just the channels or broadcast company.