OT: I Enjoyed That

[e_blazer]

I just canceled my DISH service after hooking up to my local cable company, Wave Broadband. Wave just signed a deal with Comcast to get CSN, meaning that tonight will be my first Blazers game on that network. I REALLY enjoyed answering the sales rep's question as to why we were canceling.

I told her that I thought they'd be losing a lot of other customers in this area and that their bean counters had really screwed up in not getting a deal done. She said they already were noticing a loss of customers. She suggested I sign up for NBA League Pass, to which I said that, A) Why should I pay for coverage that others are getting for no extra charge, and B) the Blazers are blacked out in the local area on NBA League Pass anyway. She didn't have much to say to that.

Hopefully, as this type of thing spreads to other smaller cable and TV companies around Oregon and Washington, the satellite providers will crack and make a deal. I'm not saying that they're totally in the wrong, but I have to wonder how the economics works for the small guys, but not for the big satellite companies.

 

[Ed O]

Good for you! Power to the consumer!

Go Blazers!

More exclamations!

!!

Ed O!

 

[Rodolfo]

Enjoy the beautiful broadcast this evening...you'll be shocked at how crisp and clear the picture is...

 

[Pontius]

I'm not on the side of Comcast in this, so I believe your little lecture should've been saved for a Comcast rep. THEY are the ones asking for an unprecedented surcharge; THEY are the ones who are screwing fans left and right. Oh well, I'm glad you have the opportunity to see a Blazers game on Comcast even if a lot of us don't even have the choice.

 

[timmay]

I'm not on the side of Comcast in this, so I believe your little lecture should've been saved for a Comcast rep. THEY are the ones asking for an unprecedented surcharge

Can you link up the article that establishes Comcast charging more for the Blazer channel than their other ones?

(Both sides are at fault here. This is a set of poor negotiation tactics from both ends. It's good to let Dish/DTV know you're unhappy... and Comcast/Blazers should know too.)

 

[maxiep]

I'm not on the side of Comcast in this, so I believe your little lecture should've been saved for a Comcast rep. THEY are the ones asking for an unprecedented surcharge; THEY are the ones who are screwing fans left and right. Oh well, I'm glad you have the opportunity to see a Blazers game on Comcast even if a lot of us don't even have the choice.

Yeah, all Comcast did was to build a station from scratch around OREGON (not Seattle) sports, pay the Blazers $13MM annually and pay the Ducks too. God forbid they charge what the market will bear.

 

[maxiep]

I just canceled my DISH service after hooking up to my local cable company, Wave Broadband. Wave just signed a deal with Comcast to get CSN, meaning that tonight will be my first Blazers game on that network. I REALLY enjoyed answering the sales rep's question as to why we were canceling.

I told her that I thought they'd be losing a lot of other customers in this area and that their bean counters had really screwed up in not getting a deal done. She said they already were noticing a loss of customers. She suggested I sign up for NBA League Pass, to which I said that, A) Why should I pay for coverage that others are getting for no extra charge, and B) the Blazers are blacked out in the local area on NBA League Pass anyway. She didn't have much to say to that.

Hopefully, as this type of thing spreads to other smaller cable and TV companies around Oregon and Washington, the satellite providers will crack and make a deal. I'm not saying that they're totally in the wrong, but I have to wonder how the economics works for the small guys, but not for the big satellite companies.

Fantastic! That's the only way they'll listen. Man, I love the free market at work.

 

[BoBoBREWSKI]

I'm not on the side of Comcast in this, so I believe your little lecture should've been saved for a Comcast rep. THEY are the ones asking for an unprecedented surcharge; THEY are the ones who are screwing fans left and right. Oh well, I'm glad you have the opportunity to see a Blazers game on Comcast even if a lot of us don't even have the choice.

WRONG.
They are asking about the same price they got from Dish/Direct TV in Sacramento when they launched a CSN station there. And all that CSN station had at the time was the Kings. CSN here has Trail Blazers and Ducks.

 

[Crimson the Cat]

Capitalism rocks!

 

[Денг Гордон]

That's one of the reasons I voted for Barack Obama. He is in favor of reestablishing net neutrality, while John McCain was against it. I don't want to see this crap happening on the internet in the near future if they don't get net neutrality reestablished. Ron Paul and most of the other Republicans are being nutjobs thinking that the market will make no need for net neutrality.

 

[maxiep]

That's one of the reasons I voted for Barack Obama. He is in favor of reestablishing net neutrality, while John McCain was against it. I don't want to see this crap happening on the internet in the near future if they don't get net neutrality reestablished. Ron Paul and most of the other Republicans are being nutjobs thinking that the market will make no need for net neutrality.

Have faith in the Invisible Hand. A decision made tens or hundreds of thousands of times by individuals is almost always superior to one made by a bureaucrat.

 

[Денг Гордон]

Have faith in the Invisible Hand. A decision made tens or hundreds of thousands of times by individuals is almost always superior to one made by a bureaucrat.

The problem is that telecoms tend to become natural monopolies as a result of the infrastructure costs that a company needs to put in to spread the internet to people. It is not a perfectly competitive market and that's why we need net neutrality.

 

[Tortimer]

To all the poster in this thread that think Comcast is asking for the same amount as other Comcast Sportsnets then you are wrong. Comcast wants ESPN money plus they want CSNW to be including in Dish and Directv basic package. All other regional sportsnets are included in their sportsnet package which cost extra. Comcast was asking for around $2.00 per subscriber(local: OR & SW WA). If they included it in their basic package it would cost both Dish and Directv a lot more. Dish/Directv each have around 20 million subscribers to their basic package and at $2.00 or even $1.00 per subscriber it would cost way more then they could get for such a small market. Directv and Dish will never carry CSNW unless Comcast charged the same rate and would allow them to carry CSNW in the regional sports packages. I think Comcast is doing this because they really don't want DirecTV/Dish to carry this channel at least not for a while until they can get as many new sub's as possible.

 

[timmay]

To all the poster in this thread that think Comcast is asking for the same amount as other Comcast Sportsnets then you are wrong. Comcast wants ESPN money plus they want CSNW to be including in Dish and Directv basic package.

It's not that I don't believe you (this sounds like something Comcast would do), but can you source this?

I've never heard of a company asking for a regional channel to be in a basic package for other regions. NFL network is a whole different story.

 

[Tortimer]

It's not that I don't believe you (this sounds like something Comcast would do), but can you source this?

I've never heard of a company asking for a regional channel to be in a basic package for other regions. NFL network is a whole different story.

Comcast tried this with I think at least a couple of their other regional sports networks but they finally gave in a let Dish/Directv carry it in their sports package. Comcast really wants to get the regional networks to be considered a premium network like ESPN which is a joke IMO. There is no source unless you want to talk to someone that works for Directv or Dish. I think there are links to where Comcast was asking for $2.00+ per subscriber when the going rate is $1.00 or less. ESPN charges around $2.00 per subscriber. Maybe Comcast has lowered there asking price from $2.00+ but until they drop the demand for basic package Dish/Directv won't even listen to them. The deal would be done in a heart beat if they were asking for the same deal that Comcast got for the other Comcast regional sports networks.

 

[e_blazer]

I'm not saying Comcast is blameless in this deal. I've referred to them as Scumcast in previous posts.

I'm not saying that Dish and DirectTV don't have legitimate reasons to think that Comcast is charging too much.

I'm just saying that I DON'T CARE! I'm no longer a pawn in the power play between these groups, having exercised my right to seek service elsewhere. Hopefully, as more people like me start to jump ship, the satellite providers will feel pressure to get a deal done and this ridiculous situation will get resolved so that all Blazers fans will be on a level playing field when it comes to having access to see our favorite team. I've missed 1.1 seasons of CSN-coverage and I'm just happy that I won't be in that position any longer.

 

[crowTrobot]

meanwhile charter still laughs at me when i ask them about it

 

[Tortimer]

meanwhile charter still laughs at me when i ask them about it

I know. Directv/Dish and Charter are the only providers I can get at the coast. If any of them ever carry CSNW I will subscribe to them. I doubt it will happen this season.

 

[Pontius]

http://www.mailtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20081029/SPORTS/810290318

Comcast SportsNet Northwest purchased the Blazers' television rights for $130 million over 10 years and launched last November. The channel also owns rights to some University of Oregon and NHL content.

Negotiations between Charter and Comcast representatives have currently stalled, said Craig Watson, vice president of communications for Charter's Western Division.

"Nothing has fundamentally changed from the Comcast side and that's unfortunate," Watson said. "We've said all along that we are interested in the channel and many of our customers are as well. But the deal on the table is unreasonable."

Watson said the cost to Charter of adding the channel is "millions of dollars over the course of the contract."

"The question is how do we recoup that loss?" Watson said. "The only way is to raise the rate to 100 percent of customers when 100 percent aren't interested in the channel."

Watson has asked Comcast to consider allowing Charter to place the channel on a sports tier or on a pay-per-view basis to avoid an increase in cost to all Charter customers.

"They are not interested in that at this time," Watson said.

David Manougian, Comcast's executive vice president of sports programming, said negotiations with all providers continue and "it's our top priority to try to get as broad of distribution as possible."

"It's frustrating because we want great sports fans to see the product," Manougian said. "We are anxious to get on as many distributors as possible, and we will do everything on our part to make that happen."

In regards to the channel being on a sports tier, Manougian added: "We feel that based on the popularity of the channel, it deserves to be on a platform that is more widely distributed."

This is all I could find. I remember reading somewhere else about how other comcast channels are indeed part of sports tier packages around the country. This is why I said that the CSNW negotiations are unprecedented. They are asking above and beyond what they have asked for around the country. All the while they are fucking over countless fans around the state who have no choice in the matter.

I also HATE them for advertising to call a number for CSNW service only to redirect your call to your satellite or cable provider, so that you can let them know you want the service. That's just downright scummy.

 

[Nikolokolus]

WRONG.
They are asking about the same price they got from Dish/Direct TV in Sacramento when they launched a CSN station there. And all that CSN station had at the time was the Kings. CSN here has Trail Blazers and Ducks.

Is that second part a bonus or a drawback?

 

[Tortimer]

Is that second part a bonus or a drawback?

What are you saying? The Ducks and Blazers are not worth as much as the Kings?

Or are you only picking on my Ducks!

 

[Tortimer]

I think most if not all the deals Comcast has is with small cable company's except Fios which is new and doesn't have many sunscribers yet. Those small local cable company's can pay the asking price per subscriber because all or most of their suscribers would like CSNW. 95+% of Dish/Directv and Charter's customers don't even want or care about CSNW especially if it would raise their rates to get the channel.

 

[maxiep]

meanwhile charter still laughs at me when i ask them about it

Does Charter's refusal to agree with Comcast confuse anyone else? Isn't Paul Allen their largest shareholder? I understand corporate independence, but at some level you know PA could make a call if he wanted to do so.

 

[Tortimer]

Does Charter's refusal to agree with Comcast confuse anyone else? Isn't Paul Allen their largest shareholder? I understand corporate independence, but at some level you know PA could make a call if he wanted to do so.

It must be a bad deal if PA and Charter won't make a deal. PA still wants to make the right deals and isn't going to have Charter lose anymore money then it is already.