For all of you Cable lovers out there...

[RedEyE]

11/9/2004 - No ‘NFL Sunday Ticket’ for Cable (Multichannel News)
No ‘NFL Sunday Ticket’ for Cable

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By Mike Reynolds 11/8/2004 7:36:00 PMDirecTV Inc. has tackled the exclusive rights to the National Football League’s “NFL Sunday Ticket” out-of-market package through 2010.
Valued at some $700 million per season from 2006-2010, the deal again shuts cable out of sports’ most lucrative pay-per-view package.

Sources familiar with the negotiations said cable companies had an opportunity to get a piece of Sunday Ticket, but they balked at the high price, which totals some $3.5 billion and supersedes the last two seasons of the current contract.

The DirecTV announcement comes in concert with NFL agreements with Sunday-afternoon incumbent carriers Fox and CBS, valued at a combined $8 billion, through the 2011 season. The NFL's current deal with the broadcasters ends after the 2005 season.

The pro-football league, at press time, had not yet come to terms on its primetime packages, currently held by ABC and ESPN.

Those packages could be complemented by an additional primetime cable offering late in the season that evidently would meld games on Thursday nights after Thanksgiving with Saturday-afternoon games that were previously televised by CBS and Fox.




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[Stewie]

Yeah except for one thing.. Direct TV is paying roughly double what they were before, on an annual basis.

Expect the Sunday ticket to be in the $300-350 range next year.

[RedEyE]

Yeah except for one thing.. Direct TV is paying roughly double what they were before, on an annual basis.

Expect the Sunday ticket to be in the $300-350 range next year.

You need to also take into consideration that they've nearly tripled profits in the last 5 years.

The Sunday ticket will remain the same price as long as you've been a DirecTv member. They continue to offer it to you at the same price you initially bought it. The longer you wait to get satellite, the more money you'll pay to get the Ticket.

I'll be paying the same price.

[THATHURMANATOR]

Exactly Redeye. I switched over to direct tv and it is a much better service. More channels and clearer picture.

[RedEyE]

Exactly Redeye. I switched over to direct tv and it is a much better service. More channels and clearer picture.

Isn't it sweet as hell? I have the HD package as well, and there is nothing like watching the Bills in HD.

The Sunday ticket has about 99-110 games played in HD this season. Next year, it will be a little closer to every single game.

[THATHURMANATOR]

I don't have High def but it just seems overall clearer! I have season tix but the games I don't go to my roomates and I have 3 boxes and 3 tvs set up and we watch football all day. It is awesome!

[RedEyE]

I don't have High def but it just seems overall clearer! I have season tix but the games I don't go to my roomates and I have 3 boxes and 3 tvs set up and we watch football all day. It is awesome!

I'd much rather have the season tickets.

[Mr. Cynical]

What about the NFL Network? That's on cable and shows all the games.

[RedEyE]

What about the NFL Network? That's on cable and shows all the games.

The NFL network doen't show all the games. They pick 2 games and show them later in the week. Taped.

[unpaid_bills]

DirecTv NFL ticket is great. I am not able to see many games live as I am in CA. I try to make a home game and a road game or two on the west coast. Plus with my little boys watching the games at home is a great way to go. Plus I can watch other games as well.

[Dannyboy]

You need to also take into consideration that they've nearly tripled profits in the last 5 years.

The Sunday ticket will remain the same price as long as you've been a DirecTv member. They continue to offer it to you at the same price you initially bought it. The longer you wait to get satellite, the more money you'll pay to get the Ticket.

I'll be paying the same price.

They raised the price on me the first couple of years I had it. It has only been the last couple of years where they have not raised the rate if you keep the package. If they have done it before they will do it again if need be. Maybe the reason they bid so high and forced the cable groups out is that they are betting on more people signing up since it is now the only way an out of market fan can watch the game he wants to plus the benifit of watching other interesting matchups.

[DaBills]

I like having Sunday Ticket. I ****ING HATE Direct TV though otherwise. I'd have better luck getting the games with morse code.

Reception sucks ass during overcast weather. And if the weatherman even mentions the WORD rain in the forecast, my signal cuts out. Forget elevating it, or southern exposure, etc., I can't get consistant signal. Their tech support/service is worse than cable ever was in my experience. I'm going back to cable after the season and then I'll just read the ****ing paper next season on Monday mornings for the scores.

Like the result's going to be any different next year with this line?

[Throne Logic]

I like having Sunday Ticket. I ****ING HATE Direct TV though otherwise. I'd have better luck getting the games with morse code.

Reception sucks ass during overcast weather. And if the weatherman even mentions the WORD rain in the forecast, my signal cuts out. Forget elevating it, or southern exposure, etc., I can't get consistant signal. Their tech support/service is worse than cable ever was in my experience. I'm going back to cable after the season and then I'll just read the ****ing paper next season on Monday mornings for the scores.

Like the result's going to be any different next year with this line?

Dude, you need a better installer or something. I've NEVER had signal cut out, unless the power was out. That includes the first part of Hurricane Isabel (we eventually lost power), the rediculous amounts of snow we got around here in South Central PA a couple years back, and numerous super-charged lighting storms. The most I've EVER seen is a second or two of snow, and that's extremely rare.

My only gripe is that I have to have both DTV and cable so I can have my modem. DTV's HS Internet is way too expensive and not as fast bidirectionally.

I do have a couple of gripes about the Sunday Ticket, itself. You don't get any primetime or playoff games. This means that you have to have local channels, this tends to mean cable for anyone in farm country. Recently, local channels became available for me via DTV. Unfortunately, that means that three games from the Sunday afternoon schedule are now blocked out in the package in favor of local networks. So, of the 15 games typically broadcast each week, Sunday Ticket only gives me access to 10 of them. This number will get even smaller when Thursday and Saturday are added to the NFL schedules near the end of the season. This doesn't prevent me from watching the games, but dammit, I paid for them. Plus, it's annoying to have to surf between the single digit area and the 720's.

Still, I'll keep on buying it 'cuz it lets me watch all the games that aren't broadcast nationally.

[RedEyE]

I like having Sunday Ticket. I ****ING HATE Direct TV though otherwise. I'd have better luck getting the games with morse code.

Reception sucks ass during overcast weather. And if the weatherman even mentions the WORD rain in the forecast, my signal cuts out. Forget elevating it, or southern exposure, etc., I can't get consistant signal. Their tech support/service is worse than cable ever was in my experience. I'm going back to cable after the season and then I'll just read the ****ing paper next season on Monday mornings for the scores.

Like the result's going to be any different next year with this line?

I'm willing to bet that either your dish is not properly mounted, you need to repeak your antenna, or you're pointing at something mobile in heavy winds, like trees.

Let's start here: What is your current signal strength?

[Jeff1220]

I'm done with DTV, at least for now. As soon as the season is over I'm ditching it. I'm tired of losing my signal during a light rain, and not being reimbursed. Yesterday, in clear weather, we had no local channels for 2+ hours during prime time. When we tried to call 1800Directv, the line was busy. My wife was feakin about missing the OC. It's not worth the money anymore. I'll watch channels 2-15 for $8.99 a month.