Looks Like I'm Getting DirecTV

Jeremy Ordan

Jeremy Ordan

Major Contributor
I love my cable. I love having the OnDemand stuff for HBO and PayPerView... I like the way my DVR is set up and I like that I get more HBO channels than DirecTV. I don't have HD yet so the fact that DirecTV has more channels doesn't bother me. I like my cable... Then this is announced after a week of speculation

Extra Innings Throws a Curve, and Fans Cry Foul
By RICHARD SANDOMIR
Jeanette Bottone cried last week when she heard that the Extra Innings package of major league baseball games that she has diligently watched on cable since 2002 was about to migrate to DirecTV in April.

“It’s really a big part of our summertime,” she said by telephone from her condominium in Wellesley, Mass. “But that didn’t last long. And then I felt angry.”

Bottone and her husband bought Extra Innings to keep track of the Yankees. Her father, Lou, was a minor leaguer in the Yankee system in the 1930s.

“But it’s exciting to watch the other teams if the games are important, and because there are certain players I like,” she said, adding, “I’m sad, but it won’t really hit me until those channels won’t have the games.”

Bottone is part of the resentment expressed on fan forums, blogs and inside my e-mail inbox against a pending seven-year, $700 million deal that would shift Extra Innings this season into an exclusive arrangement with DirecTV after five seasons of being available to 75 million cable, DirecTV and Dish homes.

A writer on the Cards Fan Union blog said, “I feel as though I’ve just had my teeth worked on with a drill that entered my body through my big toe.”

On the umpbump.com fan site, a screed against the deal was titled, “MLB Only Needs 700 Million Reasons to Tell You to Drop Dead.”

The deal would also make DirecTV the exclusive home of the 24/7 baseball channel that will launch in 2009 — but that is not the concern of the devotees who will be disenfranchised by cable’s and Dish’s loss of Extra Innings if the agreement is completed. It will be difficult for them to see much besides Major League Baseball getting $30 million more a year than what InDemand, the consortium that distributed Extra Innings to cable systems, bid to renew it.

This is a case of taking something that a part of the fan base has grown accustomed to and selling it to a higher bidder, which is available to 15 million subscribers, less than one-fifth the cable universe.

And it raises these simple questions: Why anger any part of your fan base? Why marginalize any part of your fan base?

“It’s shocking to me because it’s a move to have less of an audience and less coverage nationally,” said Dan Quinn, a graduate student from Newton, Mass., who roots for the Yankees.

Without Extra Innings, he added, “I’ll be stuck watching the Red Sox.”

It will not assuage those fans with cable or Dish, who should expect to see their Extra Innings ties broken, that they will still be able to watch hundreds of games a year on local stations, regional sports networks, Fox, ESPN and TBS. They have been treated to a somewhat privileged view of baseball from 10 Extra Innings channels — and now that will be taken away.

This situation is different from that of Sunday Ticket, the package of CBS’s and Fox’s Sunday afternoon, out-of-market N.F.L. games that are available only on DirecTV, which pays $700 million annually for it. Cable subscribers never had it, and while they may covet it, they can’t complain that they once had it but that it was sold to DirecTV, because DirecTV has always had it.

There will be only two options for discarded Extra Innings fans. They can switch from cable to DirecTV, which is impossible if landlords or condominium boards prohibit dishes, or if their exposure is wrong to snare the signal.

Baseball is counting on fans who lack any building or geographic hindrances to change to DirecTV. It may be right, even if it has to wait for the anger of fans to dissipate.

But Mark Requet, the co-owner of a weekly newspaper in rural Shelbina, Mo., said he would not switch from Dish to DirecTV, even if it means curtailing his ability to watch Mets games, his sole reason for buying Extra Innings for the first time last year. “I’m pretty satisfied with Dish and I’ve heard other people say they have trouble with DirecTV in bad weather,” he said.

The second option is subscribing to a seasonlong package of mlb.tv, the video streaming arm of mlb.com, for $79.95, nearly $100 less than last year’s suggested retail price for Extra Innings for cable subscribers.

It requires a broadband connection, which is increasingly common; there are 57 million subscribers, through cable and telephone connections, according to the Telecommunications Industry Association, a trade group.

Bottone said that mlb.tv is her backup, but she must go to her husband’s office a town away to watch. “But it doesn’t work that well,” she said.

Even with planned upgrades to mlb.tv’s video quality, watching a game on a computer screen is a different experience than taking it in on a TV screen, which allows viewers to be more than three feet away.

Yes, newer televisions allow for a relatively easy connection from the computer, but the quality of the picture degrades in the transfer. And streaming can be bedeviled by breakdowns and choppy pictures.

Baseball isn’t talking for now. How it eventually explains the deal — and tries to temper fan discontent — will be fascinating
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The only reason I moved up to digital cable in the first place was for my baseball package...

We are in the process of pricing out DirecTV now, but after watching 150 Yankee games last season I can't go without this year. This sucks...

20 days until pitchers and catchers report, though....
 
God speed, Jeremy. :thumbsup:

As long as you can watch your Yankees games it's all good. :beer:

Would there be any advantage to having both during baseball season? Is that even possible?
 
Yeah, I did the math though and because you need a year contract for DirecTV then it comes to like $700 for the baseball package (to keep cable and just get satellite for the baseball)... and as die hard as I get during the baseball season, $700 is freaking insane just for the package.

At least this gives me a reason to invest in HDTV... Still I'm pissed.
 
thats pretty lame indeed. im glad im in my teams market, the A's. But now my buddy is strong armed into the direct TV to watch the dodgers. Atleast we will still have the Mlb.tv , hopefully this year it works a little btter on the Mac than last year. the 24" iMac is a good substitute for my 56" screen and allows me to watch something on TV while watching the game on the iMac. Still weak as hell imo.

And cutting the possible viewers to 20% of the old possible viewer base is not nice at all.

This is another bad decision for the fans after the Exclusive MLB 3rd Party Video game license signing, which allowed 2006 to go without a single good MLB game on any system.
 
Cynic821 said:
thats pretty lame indeed. im glad im in my teams market, the A's. But now my buddy is strong armed into the direct TV to watch the dodgers. Atleast we will still have the Mlb.tv , hopefully this year it works a little btter on the Mac than last year. the 24" iMac is a good substitute for my 56" screen and allows me to watch something on TV while watching the game on the iMac. Still weak as hell imo.

And cutting the possible viewers to 20% of the old possible viewer base is not nice at all.

This is another bad decision for the fans after the Exclusive MLB 3rd Party Video game license signing, which allowed 2006 to go without a single good MLB game on any system.
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mlb.tv sucks. the quality, regardless of PC or Mac, always leaves something to be desired. I have just never been a fan of watching live TV online... When you live hundreds of miles outside the local market you're screwed...

BTW: your A's are in for an interesting season...
 
I love my DirecTV, hopefully you will find it to your liking once you make the switch. Nothing worse than being unhappy with your subscriber TV provider.

One good thing about DirecTV, at least I think so, is that the music channels are provided by XM Satellite Radio :)
 
Jeremy Ordan said:
BTW: your A's are in for an interesting season...
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???


I dont mind the MLB.tv games, because i just want to watch the game, dont care what it looks like, obviously i prefer the HDTV signal, but my only way of watching the Dodgers is online as well. My team is the A's, my NL team is LAD, mainly because my buddy, and ive been watching them for 5 years now with him, so they grew on me.
 
Larry R said:
I love my DirecTV, hopefully you will find it to your liking once you make the switch. Nothing worse than being unhappy with your subscriber TV provider.

One good thing about DirecTV, at least I think so, is that the music channels are provided by XM Satellite Radio :)
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I already have XM so that doesn't do much for me... although... actually, nope doesn't do it for me. Honestly, I am sure that DireTV is going to be fine but it just pisses me off that satellite cannot offer the OnDemand stuff that cable can offer. Plus I am keeping my internet with cable so it's just an extra bill.

Cynic821 said:
???


I dont mind the MLB.tv games, because i just want to watch the game, dont care what it looks like, obviously i prefer the HDTV signal, but my only way of watching the Dodgers is online as well. My team is the A's, my NL team is LAD, mainly because my buddy, and ive been watching them for 5 years now with him, so they grew on me.
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I was talking about your A's, not your method of viewing...

I am still picking ya'll in the west though, but I think LAA could be unique team this season.
 
Blaine said:
Go Big Blue!!!
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I was going to wait another 20 days (when pitchers and catchers report) for us to go into our annual 2007 picks... can the baseball faithful of DVXUser (all 11 of us) wait almost three weeks?
 
If we can have a good June, then it shouldnt be too hard to finish the season as the #1 or 2 team in the league, but if its another slow start as usual, it will come down to the wire.

We get to play the Gigantes in June so im looking foward to that for sure. Not a fan of the giants at all obviously cuz the LAD thing.

its still ANA with me btw

I can wait. Im following my Warriors in the meantime and watching aquisitions, and thinking about my futures bets.
 
Nope, i mean the league, theres no better second half team than Oakland.

Remember the first game of the season last year? LOL. Zito got lit up by NYY
 
Jeremy Ordan said:
I already have XM...
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I thought you might since they broadcast all MLB games. I bought XM for my dad for that very reason (he is also a baseball fanatic).

Honestly, I am sure that DireTV is going to be fine but it just pisses me off that satellite cannot offer the OnDemand stuff that cable can offer.
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I switched to DirecTV several years before cable offered OnDemand, so I just don't know what I'm missing...best to keep it that way, I guess.

Plus I am keeping my internet with cable so it's just an extra bill.
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I did the same thing...though the big problem with that (which I'm sure you've already found out) is they usually charge more for the cable internet if you don't subscribe to the TV service too (that made me mad enough that I instantle cancelled the cable internet and got DSL...a little slower, but not enough to notice most of the time. And a LOT cheaper).

Good luck with the transition...hope it goes well for you.
 
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