Dish Network and BTN

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Duluthguy

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Anybody know the real story about Dish and BTN? Dish claims BTN dropped them. BTN says Dish dropped them. I can't find any independent news reports that tell exactly what is going on or if there's any chance for a resolution any time soon.

I managed to watch the Western Michigan game on vipboxsports but it looks like the Syracuse game will not be shown until Sunday night. Anyone know of any alternatives?
 

1. Existing contract expires.
2. The two parties can not agree on a new contract.
3. Each side blames the other.
4. Customers are SOL.

Pretty simple.
 

Alternative: Buy tickets and go to the game. :)

Or find a bar/friends house with it on.

(Un)fortunately for me, I will be camping and just hope they can get it figured out before next week.
 

I would suppose once the contract was going to run out Dish offered to continue showing at last year's rate until they nailed down the contract. And I'm sure BTN offered to stay on the air as long as they paid a higher rate until the contract was nailed down. So both can claim they were dropped and that the other was unwilling to compromise, when both are trying to get a better deal.

It's a tough situation because cable/satellite is probably at its peak right now. More and more content is being made available online, and people are slowly starting to get away from pay TV. However, the costs are going up because there are more channels and the channels' content is more expensive every year. Add to that the competition between Dish, DirectTV and cable, and pay TV is going to be in a tough place going forward. You will likely see more issues like this every year as companies have a tougher time justifying the costs with certain networks. Unfortunately regional sports networks on national networks will probably lead the way...
 

Somebody Is Lying

Dish or BTN/Fox? Somebody is lying or looking at both statements, it's possible that other carriers have been signed but the BTN wants more from Dish. DirectTV, by the way, is having a similar dispute with the Pac-12 Network.

http://www.annarbor.com/sports/dish...ld-affect-future-michigan-games/#.UFxnBI2PXF4

Michigan State Athletic Director Mark Hollis released a statement this week regarding the negotiations, saying he is “frustrated” with the lack of an agreement.

“Michigan State University is supportive of the BTN and its mission to provide coverage of all Big Ten sports to all Big Ten fans,” Hollis said. “It seems reasonable that an agreement between the BTN and Dish is possible, based on arrangements with all of the other major television providers.”

BTN released the following statement this week: “BTN has been working around the clock for weeks to try and reach a deal with DISH. They are now unwilling to sign a contract.”

And from Dish:

DISH released the following statement from Dave Schull, senior vice president for programming:

"Big Ten Network was demanding that DISH pay programming fees at least a third higher than any other major distributor. Such an increase would equate to more than DISH pays per subscriber for NFL Network, MLB Network, NBA TV, NHL Network and Golf Channel combined, and would result in unreasonable monthly fees for DISH customers.

“DISH will continue to work diligently around the clock in good-faith negotiations with Fox, part owner of Big Ten Network. We hope they will adopt a more reasonable attitude in regard to the price they want to charge, so we can make that channel available to DISH customers again.”
 


Typical negotiation crap but if BTN is charging Dish more than DirecTV or other distributers than I can understand why they would balk at the deal. As a Dish subscriber I hpoe they get it worked out soon but I'm not getting my hopes up. I certainly won't look to change providers though just because of the BTN, I will just make other arrangements to watch the Gophers and hope at some point they get high profile enough to not always be stuck on the BTN.
 

For what its worth, we have had a satillite for TV since about 1996. The size has changed, and we were with Direct till are phone company gave us a bundle price to switch to Dish. It was a billing nightmare. When it became a constant hassle, we swithed back to Direct. Now its an HD world, and I would claim the picture is better on Direct, but that's just me. For what its worth earlier this year Direct droppped viacom with TV Land, and all the MTV channels during one of these negotiiations it took about 2 weeks to iron it out. But to have this come up during the season is uncalled for.
 

husker70 said:
For what its worth, we have had a satillite for TV since about 1996. The size has changed, and we were with Direct till are phone company gave us a bundle price to switch to Dish. It was a billing nightmare. When it became a constant hassle, we swithed back to Direct. Now its an HD world, and I would claim the picture is better on Direct, but that's just me. For what its worth earlier this year Direct droppped viacom with TV Land, and all the MTV channels during one of these negotiiations it took about 2 weeks to iron it out. But to have this come up during the season is uncalled for.
Click to expand...

On the other hand, if it were off-season the BTN would have zero leverage and for sure nothing would be agreed upon until the season approached or was in season.
 

Cable and Satellite are stone age technology. The future is streaming via the internet.
 




Iceland12 said:
Will that be before or after we all start commuting by Jet Packs!
Click to expand...

Jetpacks exist, but aren't practical. Video over the internet exists, is practical and commonplace. I watch high-quality video on my TV via Netflix. Cable and satellite are just methods of data distribution, just like the internet. The difference is that cable and satellite are methods of data distribution from when it was difficult and expensive to distribute data, but now, it's cheap and easy.
 

Nate said:
Alternative: Buy tickets and go to the game. :)

Or find a bar/friends house with it on.

(Un)fortunately for me, I will be camping and just hope they can get it figured out before next week.
Click to expand...

Yeah - come down from Duluth and go to the game Duluthguy.
 

Dish and TN reach an agreement. They're back on 439 now.

http://www.iwantbtn.com/


Dear Valued DISH Customer,

DISH is pleased to announce that we have reached a long term agreement with Big Ten Network that restores your favorite Big Ten Conference programming! We appreciate your patience during this time. Thank you for being a loyal DISH customer.


Sincerely,
DISH
 



Too late for me, I already switched to Direct TV. Luckily I was out of contract. Don't mess with me watching my Gophers and recording every game!
 

Sweet I'll get to record the game! :)
 

I'm just outside Grand Rapids, am a season tix holder and go to the games but I'm on DISH and watch most of the other games on BTN(DVR). I called DISH b4 the cutoff and threatened to switch if they lost the BTN and they said it would be temporary and gave me some "sports package" free with a lot of mostly worthless channels. Then when it went dark last Sat., I called Sunday and again they said it wouldn't be that long and gave me a $20 monthly credit. If they didn't settle by next week, I was going to switch to DTV, but it appears BTN is back on DISH. Guide does not yet show today's games, but does have a BTN program on it.

(The problem is that the content providers are bundling crummy channels with good ones and raising rates for the pkg...my monthly bill continues to climb. Wish it was ala carte, I only need 15 of the 200 channels I have).
 

GRGOPHER said:
I'm just outside Grand Rapids, am a season tix holder and go to the games but I'm on DISH and watch most of the other games on BTN(DVR). I called DISH b4 the cutoff and threatened to switch if they lost the BTN and they said it would be temporary and gave me some "sports package" free with a lot of mostly worthless channels. Then when it went dark last Sat., I called Sunday and again they said it wouldn't be that long and gave me a $20 monthly credit. If they didn't settle by next week, I was going to switch to DTV, but it appears BTN is back on DISH. Guide does not yet show today's games, but does have a BTN program on it.

(The problem is that the content providers are bundling crummy channels with good ones and raising rates for the pkg...my monthly bill continues to climb. Wish it was ala carte, I only need 15 of the 200 channels I have).
Click to expand...

Then Animal Planet would not get their $84 mill per yr.
 

Some Day...Is Coming! said:
Too late for me, I already switched to Direct TV. Luckily I was out of contract. Don't mess with me watching my Gophers and recording every game!
Click to expand...

And in a year or two you will go through the same thing with DTV. Same thing, different provider...
 

highwayman said:
And in a year or two you will go through the same thing with DTV. Same thing, different provider...
Click to expand...

"Then Animal Planet would not get their $84 mill per yr."

Charlie Ergen, the Co-Founder and Board Chairman of Dish, has been pushing for ala carte pricing for years. He constantly complains that content providers want to bundle good programming with "bad" networks. So far the FCC has turned a deaf ear. Maybe Ergen is being a little self-serving. His company produces no content, unlike his main competitor DiretTV who's owner Fox, produces a LOT of content and a national network to carry it. Here Fox has a vested interest in the BTN. They have NO vested interest in the Pac-12 Network.

Guess which one Fox is carrying?

Ala Carte pricing has many forces against it, but most of us want it. The new "internet providers" have even more problems to face. Not only do they produce little to no original product, they can't pay for much outside programming and their target marketplace considers the only reasonable fee to be free!

Ask Netflix what happens when you ask that marketplace what happens when you ask for a little more. :clap:


Bottom line: cancelled by DiretcTV installation and got my BTN back!
 

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