Why You're Still Paying For Sports On Cable When There's No Live Sports (arstechnica.com) 57
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Cable-TV companies are still charging customers for sports channels even as the coronavirus pandemic forces the suspension of all major sports leagues. The continued charges include Regional Sports Network (RSN) fees, which often add almost $10 to customer bills in exchange for access to local professional and college live-sports broadcasts. But RSN fees are just one piece of the puzzle, as national sports broadcasts on channels like ESPN, NBC, ABC, and Fox account for some percentage of the bundle charges paid by TV customers. Complicating matters is the sheer number of parties involved in live-sports contracts. Individual teams in the NBA, NHL, and MLB sell the rights to their games to regional sports networks, which in turn sell the rights to carry their channels to cable, satellite, and streaming TV providers. In addition to individual teams, the major sports leagues have big contracts with programmers for games that are broadcast nationally instead of just in the regions where the participating teams are located.
Another wrinkle is that cable companies often own the broadcasters that air live sports. Comcast owns NBC, including regional sports networks, so other cable-TV companies have to pay Comcast for the right to broadcast many national and local sporting events. AT&T owns Turner Sports and RSNs, while Charter owns or operates several Spectrum-branded sports channels. We've asked these companies about how they're handling the contracts they have with other TV providers but haven't gotten any substantial information. Charter said, "We are in constant touch with the teams and our network distributors on this issue. We will, of course, abide by our contractual obligations." "There probably won't be definitive answers about refunds for TV customers in the U.S. any time soon," the report adds. "Customers might eventually get refunds even if they make no changes to their service plans, but the size of those refunds could end up being disappointing. People who subscribe to cable TV mostly for live sports may want to downgrade or cancel their TV packages until sports leagues come back, but they'll have to be careful in cases where they are subject to cable contracts and early termination fees."
If this were Europe, "it's easier to buy sports channels. separately instead of the traditional cable bundle," reports the Inquirer. Europe's Sky Sports, for example, is allowing customers to pause their subscriptions until the action resumes.
Another wrinkle is that cable companies often own the broadcasters that air live sports. Comcast owns NBC, including regional sports networks, so other cable-TV companies have to pay Comcast for the right to broadcast many national and local sporting events. AT&T owns Turner Sports and RSNs, while Charter owns or operates several Spectrum-branded sports channels. We've asked these companies about how they're handling the contracts they have with other TV providers but haven't gotten any substantial information. Charter said, "We are in constant touch with the teams and our network distributors on this issue. We will, of course, abide by our contractual obligations." "There probably won't be definitive answers about refunds for TV customers in the U.S. any time soon," the report adds. "Customers might eventually get refunds even if they make no changes to their service plans, but the size of those refunds could end up being disappointing. People who subscribe to cable TV mostly for live sports may want to downgrade or cancel their TV packages until sports leagues come back, but they'll have to be careful in cases where they are subject to cable contracts and early termination fees."
If this were Europe, "it's easier to buy sports channels. separately instead of the traditional cable bundle," reports the Inquirer. Europe's Sky Sports, for example, is allowing customers to pause their subscriptions until the action resumes.
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The cable companies and television networks signed multi-year / multi-billion dollar contracts with the various professional/college sports leagues. Anyone expecting a refund has no understanding of how the real world (i.e., greedy, money grubbing Jews) works.
The same is true for everyone with cable. They are either in a multi-year contract with their cable company, or they are actively choosing to keep their cable package during the shutdown.
The next story will be how car insurance companies aren't lowering their rates while people have nearly stopped driving for a few months. And how my yearly gym membership isn't giving refunds, or how AAA isn't giving refunds, or how my yearly membership to my local museum is the same price, or ....
Everyone still has rent to
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My car insurance is giving 15% of three months coverage back, so it's not all insurance companies that are that greedy. I suspect they are making out like bandits anyway due to not having to payout as many claims.
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Everyone still has rent to pay, and most of these businesses are hurting right now.
Tough. Laid off employees still have rent to pay, but they can't demand their former employers keep paying their salaries.
Just another example demonstrating the truth of my sig.
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I wonder if I can get my taxes for schools back.
car insurance companies (Score:2)
"The next story will be how car insurance companies aren't lowering their rates"
I think they will have a lot of customers not paying their bills right now, but they are still advertising on TV
OMG (Score:3, Interesting)
"If this were Europe, "it's easier to buy sports channels. separately instead of the traditional cable bundle,""
If this were Europe, you wouldn't give a fuck anymore about sports channels.
You would have universal healthcare, 52 weeks paid sick leave,14-52 weeks maternity leave, paid paternity leave, 30 days paid vacation, sometimes vacation bonus, a dozen to14 paid holidays....
Who'd have time for sports, with those benefits you have to fuck and have kids.
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Cable is the ‘Circuses’ part of our Bread & Circuses here in the US. Well, that and the Internet.
Now, sit back while I tell you in glorious detail everything that you do wrong while being mute about my own faults.
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Just 'cause I got more paid holidays than you have vacation days I can still be greedy and want my sports channel for FREE as well!
Wait, I already got that.
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The employer does give you a significantly reduced salary though during that time.
Depends on the country. Where I live it's mandatory 104 weeks at full salary if the doctor so orders. Reduced salaries normally kick in in most countries *after* the protection period.
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BTW you CANNOT call-in sick for more than one day without a doctor's note, and even those one-day sick leaves can get you Bradford-ed based on an undisclosed algorithm if you abuse them (so try to avoid them if possible).
Not true in the UK public sector, you can "self-certify" for up to 3 days (effectively write yourself a note saying you were too sick to work). Good luck firing someone for being sick for too long or too often, try proving someone wasn't suffering from a chronic mental health or pain problem when you're hauled in front of an emplyment tribunal. Getting a note from your doctor to say you were sick is trivial because not only are they so overworked that they just sign it without even reading the details but t
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even those one-day sick leaves can get you Bradford-ed based on an undisclosed algorithm if you abuse them
Undisclosed? https://www.ciphr.com/advice/u... [ciphr.com]
It's kind of designed to show up those taking lots of little one day leaves, instead those taking longer leaves
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You would have universal healthcare, 52 weeks paid sick leave,14-52 weeks maternity leave, paid paternity leave, 30 days paid vacation, sometimes vacation bonus, a dozen to14 paid holidays....
Ah, another European dick envy contest.
Well, dunno about anybody else, but for me at least, that would be a net downgrade. Granted, my paid sick leave is 180 days maximum (I've had to use it to take 30 days one time, and then something like 70 days another time) but honestly it's not something I can say I run into often, and both times were extraordinary circumstances (kidney transplant, and then a year later a bad CMV infection from the transplant.) I currently get 22 days of PTO (though if you interspers
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Unlike Europeans though, I don't cherry pick
Except you cherry-picked your own case. Which, if you cared to look around a little, is the exception rather than the rule in the US. In Europe, it is the rule. Often literally, with a healthy amount of paid time off, paid sick leave, and maximum working hours mandated by law.
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^^ Hey look everyone, we found a well off arsehole who doesn't understand what a privileged white fuck he is.
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We have sports channels, mostly football and also rugby. Some stuff has to be free like international matches involving national teams, but most of it is on pay channels these days. You can watch free highlights or listen to the radio if you don't want to pay.
A lot of people do pay though. It doesn't seem to be as bad as the US but it's not great either.
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Who'd have time for sports
Erm given all the maternity and paternity leave, paid vacation, vacation bonuses, and holidays we have a shitload of time for sports.
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You should probably get off the Internet entirely and build yourself a Unibomber shack in the woods.
Curious who actually cares about the cable tv indu (Score:3)
I'm honestly curious who cares about the cable tv industry at this point. I think people are betting on whether cable tv or coal power plants die first. I haven't had cable TV in probably 16 years at this point. Sure a lot of people are still subscribing to this dying industry, but does anyone still care how they are screwing over their remaining customers?
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Cable TV cant die fast enough afaiac
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In my case, it's the local telephone company, from which I buy gigabit fiber service. I don't use them for telephone.
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I'm honestly curious who cares about the cable tv industry at this point.
I don't care at all about the cable TV industry. However, I care a great deal about my sports teams and watching those teams. Many Americans don't watch live sports, but many do. Over the last five years, the most watched TV show each year was the Super Bowl, and NFL football broadcasts occupy more than half of the most watched broadcasts every year for the past five years. According to Gallup [gallup.com], around 60% of Americans describe themselves as sports fans.
Of course, this is obvious, as the billions of doll
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Remember, they blurred the line between cable, phone, and Internet services. AT&T can sell you TV, Comcast can sell you phone...
You can't cut the cord completely these days. At least, you need Internet to reach Slashdot.
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Which cord? Coax? None of that going to my house, thank god. I do have two fiber lines from two different fiber providers coming here though, after de-subbing from one and picking up the other because they only charge $65/month for gig service here in Phoenix.
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I'm an early Boomer. I live in a condo. Every condo in the city is stuffed with us Boomers downsizing from detached houses and Millenials trying they can scrape together a down-payment for one. Condos buy TV services from one of two providers, cable company or phone company. There's only one of each. It's bundled into my condo fee. True, it's at a significant discount off the cost of an individual subscription. The owners all get the "enhanced basic" tier of services. You can't opt out, or put an antenna on
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Aussie here.
$249/year for mobile phone with unlimited calls and texts and (now) about 200 gigs of download, thanks to unused data usage rolling over.
25/5mbs internet is $70 ozbucks/month, I can & do stream 4K video, I have no data cap.
It's sorted, quite satisfactorily for my needs, other's needs may not be met.
I don't think I've actually watched TV at home this year, on my 165cm 4K dumb tv (which is my win10 HTPC/XbOneS/FetchTV monitor)
And internet is via fixed wireless, so rarely drops out compared to
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It is kinda interesting watching them slowly fail.
WWE is a fascinating example. They are contractually obligated to keep producing their shows but can't have spectators any more so are performing in empty arenas. That's a big problem for professional wresting because they rely on the crowd to help hide the fact that it's all fake.
For example the wrestlers need to rest a lot. It's very physically demanding so they will spend a lot of time with one on the mat and the other showboating to the crowd, and that i
Remember (Score:2)
Making it possible to watch a cable channel in your home without paying the cable company is a felony.
Taking your money without providing content, however, is no crime at all.
Because the charge is not for "Live Sports"? (Score:4, Insightful)
The charge if for the channel, and nothing more. If ESPN is not delivering Live Sports that's a programming deficiency on their end. No one here is signing a contract with "live, not prerecorded, sports matches" as a term.
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This. Many sports and channels have come up with alternatives. F1 changed to esports. My local football crazed channel has been re-running some of the most classic games in history. None of the channels appear to be blank or showing those coloured bars.
You Pay Because You've Agreed To (Score:4, Insightful)
There's no other reason.
If you don't want to pay, unsubscribe.
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I didn't agree to. I cancelled my subscription the instance COVID-19 hit. :)
News please cover... (Score:2)
NBC Sports Boston has been duplicating the morning show from co-owned NECN lately. Maybe other sports channels can air regional news for the time being.
For DirecTV subscribers, there's a hidden option (Score:2)
If you are a DirecTV satellite customer, call or chat and ask about the unadvertised "PREFERRED Xtra" package, which is cheaper than CHOICE, has more channels, and NO RSNs. (It does have ESPN, however.)
tl;dr (Score:2)
Greed.
Fuck Sports (Score:3, Interesting)
Even if they give you a sports refund... (Score:2)
Belarus still plays football (Score:2)
Bucking the world's trends, Belarus still has the country's football championship in progress [usatoday.com], and fans of the sport world-wide are watching.
I hear, the Football Club of the town Slutsk (FC Slutsk [wikipedia.org]) is especially popular among foreigners.
Same Reason For Other Things (Score:2)
I have yet to get around to canceling the gym membership even though I haven't used it and they still charge me.
Don't worry.... saturday bill fix is coming!
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My gym automatically suspended membership charges while they're closed.
Why You're Still Paying ... when there's No Live (Score:3)
Their general problem is that they're not discoverable -- there is no overarching calendar showing EVERYTHING available so that I might become interested in something else, it's multiple, independent silos. And at least for marching, it's live no reruns or reshows, period. Why? I understand because of legal tie-ups: rights to: visual, audio, performance, atmospheric, and who knows what else. So they don't bother / can't get the rights and count themselves lucky they can show anything. Right now my channel is silent, they're talking about "Virtual Drum & Bugle Corps", Fan Favorites, showing bands practice sessions, Designer Commentary, and other background noise.
That's nice; don't care. I would easily enjoy single performances from previous seasons (or the entire seasons), but they can't make that available, I'm not even sure they HAVE it to show. So, why am I paying? Because some of the other "channels" do have reruns. Like:
Dance, 2020 World Championships. (No Audio.)
Women's Volleyball, 2019 (Starting Soon)
Track: (Simulation, Virtual Miles, Workouts)
Racing: 1997 Full Replays (3 of them)
Foolball: 1 replay
Bikes: 2019 stage 2 only.
They're hurting badly since they have rights to show things live but not rebroadcast, and there's nothing to show now BUT rebroadcasts. So: Why am I paying? I'm not, I'm canceling my subscription a month before it renews and hoping in the meantime they can somehow obtain rebroadcast rights to more than I can find on YouTube and elsewhere. They're a nice outfit, I like what they do, but I suspect the virus is going to kill THEM as well. It's mostly not their fault, they're just unlucky.
Sky TV suspended subscriptions. (Score:2)
Here in the UK Sky TV suspended subscriptions until live sport resumes. Literally a few days after the lockdown when event after event was cancelled, the Football Association announced the suspension of matches, Formula 1 cancelled events they sent an email out to every subscriber with a link to click to suspend the subscription.
What they've also done though is keep the sports channels running showing archived content and allow you to continue to watch them even though your subscription is suspended.
Subscr
Not me (Score:1)
Old games (Score:1)