"Blackout" news for DishNetwork subscribers

[VF21]

I just received a response to an extremely irate email I sent to the Director of Corporate Communications for DishNetwork after my very frustrating dealings with them this week-end. (Believe me, it wasn't nice...)

Anyway, here's his response:

We apologize that you were blacked out for the King's game this weekend. DISH Network just signed a long-term carriage agreement late Friday with Comcast Sports Net and we now have the new blackout patterns they sent us. These are now being implemented. If you continue to have difficulty accessing the games, please contact me.

I fast-forwarded my guide to tomorrow night's game on channel 409 and lo and behold the little "blackout" sign ISN'T on the listing when I hit the "info" key.

Whoooooooooooo!

 

[Purple Reign]

Hey, can I see the e mail. I have Direct TV and just in case I go through the same stuff, I would like some ammo.

 

[quick dog]

I just received a response to an extremely irate email I sent to the Director of Corporate Communications for DishNetwork after my very frustrating dealings with them this week-end. (Believe me, it wasn't nice...)

Anyway, here's his response:



I fast-forwarded my guide to tomorrow night's game on channel 409 and lo and behold the little "blackout" sign ISN'T on the listing when I hit the "info" key.

Whoooooooooooo!

Agent VF21,

Your new assignment, should you accept it as written, is to raise hell with DirecTV management regarding their impending Comcast Sports coverage. We realize that DirecTV has yet to do anything wrong regarding the pending contract, but harassment-for-effect appears to be an effective means to guarantee action on the part of potentially dangerous and recalcitrant satellite-television providers.

This message will eventually self-destruct, or otherwise become irrelevant.

The Director of Secret Media Affairs










Beware of mountain women in tennis shoes.

 

[VF21]

Agent VF21,

Your new assignment, should you accept it as written, is to raise hell with DirecTV management regarding their impending Comcast Sports coverage. We realize that DirecTV has yet to do anything wrong regarding the pending contract, but harassment-for-effect appears to be an effective means to guarantee action on the part of potentially dangerous and recalcitrant satellite-television providers.

This message will eventually self-destruct, or otherwise become irrelevant.

The Director of Secret Media Affairs










Beware of mountain women in tennis shoes.

FOR YOUR EYES ONLY!!

DSMA - It is my understanding that DirecTV channel 656 will be coming online tomorrow, and WILL carry the Kings game and all future Kings games, except those carried on TNT, ESPN and News10. I have been told (by a very reliable source) that one reason for the delay on the part of DirecTV was to make sure they had everything in place to PREVENT problems such as those experienced by DishNetwork subscribers.

That is all...

AVF21

































I'm not taking credit for solving the problem, but I certainly must have rattled a cage or two...

 

[6th]

I just received a response to an extremely irate email I sent to the Director of Corporate Communications for DishNetwork after my very frustrating dealings with them this week-end. (Believe me, it wasn't nice...)

Anyway, here's his response:



I fast-forwarded my guide to tomorrow night's game on channel 409 and lo and behold the little "blackout" sign ISN'T on the listing when I hit the "info" key.

Whoooooooooooo!

Congrats, my friend. Somehow I just knew it would all work out. What was happening made no sense. Of course your threats to their first-born didn't hurt.

 

[quick dog]

Oddly enough, I have been taking vicarious pleasure in following your exploits against the evil corporate television empire. Your words are incouraging. Actually, this entire affair has unfolded, more or less, as I expected.

Every dollar must be extracted from the viewing public before corporate capitulation.

 

[VF21]

And the sage continues...

Wanting to make sure my on-screen program guide was giving the most current information, I turned off the receiver, waited and then turned it back on. After the signal was reacquired, and the program guide downloaded, I checked again.

Guess what?

Any guesses?

Yep, the "blackout" emoticon of death is there!!!

Nasty email - part 2 - has just been sent.

 

[G_M]

Oddly enough, I have been taking vicarious pleasure in following your exploits against the evil corporate television empire. Your words are incouraging. Actually, this entire affair has unfolded, more or less, as I expected.

Every dollar must be extracted from the viewing public before corporate capitulation.

QD-

Like you I am a DIRECTV customer. Have you read anything about the cost for DIRECTV to carry the Comcast channel? Will they eventually pass along the cost of the programming? I know they are not just going to absorb that kind of financial hit.

 

[VF21]

QD-

Like you I am a DIRECTV customer. Have you read anything about the cost for DIRECTV to carry the Comcast channel? Will they eventually pass along the cost of the programming? I know they are not just going to absorb that kind of financial hit.

Comcast offered the package to all other carriers at the rate of $1.60 per subscriber. It most likely will be made up through advertising revenues, at least during the season. It could be used when the carriers are determining their next rate increase...

 

[quick dog]

QD-

Like you I am a DIRECTV customer. Have you read anything about the cost for DIRECTV to carry the Comcast channel? Will they eventually pass along the cost of the programming? I know they are not just going to absorb that kind of financial hit.

There is a statement in the NBA announcement of the Comcast-DirecTV deal suggesting that the service would be included in DirecTV's Total Choice programming package. I believe that Total Choice costs $39.95 per month. DirecTV's Total Choice Plus package, which includes a dozen more cable channels, costs $42.95. I suspect that the Comcast Northern California Sports channel will indeed be included in one of those packages. Who knows?

I hope they just get it done. The watering hole where my wife and I have to watch the games has bad pizza.

 

[VF21]

After another exchange with the aforementioned "big" at DishNetwork AND a phone call from him to moi, it appears all is well and it is merely a matter of time. (I did stress to him the importance of a "matter of time" being BEFORE 7 p.m. tomorrow).

The original list they were working from had to be updated and they now have the right information from the NBA and Comcast Sports Net to input into their system.

That's DishNetwork. I suspect there will be some tech issues with DirecTV, too, but one can always hope it won't be as frustrating as this has been.

Well, at least I'm not bored...

 

[Prophetess]

WAY 2 GO! glad you got it solved.

 

[kingskings!]

Soooo, how did you see last night's game? Was it a nationally televised game? Your play-by-play did not indicate that you were hefting slices of bad pizza and brew next to QD!

P.S. QD, I love your dog! I just haven't had much time to play your C&W artists thread so I was sorry to see it go, but I LOVE your dog!

 

[VF21]

I spent an extra $5.99 a month for the Multi-Sports package from DishNetwork. It includes NBA-TV and a lot of Fox Sports channels that are blacked out.

So, yes - I saw last night's game.

 

[kingskings!]

I spent an extra $5.99 a month for the Multi-Sports package from DishNetwork. It includes NBA-TV and a lot of Fox Sports channels that are blacked out.

So, yes - I saw last night's game.

As usual, I'm still clueless...may I ask another question?
The reason I may appear a bit intent on this is that I want to leave Comcast but the reason I haven't is because of their Kings coverage. So if I understand you, you can get basic Dish service (much less than basic Comcast, unless you got a new subscriber deal) and pay only $5.99/mo for a sports package that gives you ALL of the Kings games carried by Comcast? Or is it only the Kings home games? Forgive me, please, for being so confused. But you could not see Saturday night's game and yet you could see last night's game? Or should you be able to see the Kings games on Dish and DTV without paying that $5.99/mo.?

Other than Kings coverage, would you say you generally like your Dish service? I think I read comments last night (don't remember from whom) that talked about bad signals and storms so if that's the case, I am probably not interested in switching since it looks like we're in for an El Niño winter!

P.S. I declare myself a non-employee of Dish, DTV, or Comcast before anyone accuses me of being a "ringer". I am truly interested in the answers/input from anyone in our position!

 

[VF21]

Let's see...

I couldn't see Saturday night's game because it was only carried by Comcast. It turns out that my zip code was blocked in error and the problem should be corrected by tomorrow.

In order to get the Comcast channel on DishNetwork, you have to subscribe to one of their packages - I believe it's the Top 80. That isn't the basic package but isn't the most expensive either. I'm guessing it's a base price of around $30/month but I'm not sure.

NBA-TV is usually provided to DishNetork customers as part of League Pass. League Pass costs $189 and is NOT for local fans who want to see their home team. It's for fans who want to see all the other league games. In fact, if you live in Sacramento and subscribe to League Pass, the Kings games are blacked out a good deal of the time. (There are exceptions but I'm trying to keep this simple.)

I don't have League Pass, so in order to see the games being broadcast on NBA-TV this year I signed up for the Multi-Sports Package at the additional cost of $5.99/month. It gets a lot of sports channels, but the only one I cared about was NBA-TV. They are carrying 7 more Kings games between now and the end of the season so I'm pretty much paying $30 for those 7 games - which may or may not be shown on Comcast for me. I don't know yet...

Comcast cable or the Comcast channel on either DishNetwork or DirecTV will, I believe, carry all the games not shown on either News10, ESPN, TNT or ABC.

In general, I'm very satisfied with my DishNetwork. When I was talking about the signal sometimes being distorted in bad weather, it's because my dish occasionally gets completely covered with snow - which has a bad effect on the signal.

Right now there are deals to be made between DishNetwork, DirecTV and Comcast. In fact, I've heard Comcast is willing to throw in a lot of stuff just to keep viewers.

I hope that's answered your questions.

The whole thing is very confused right now.

 

[6th]

I checked the television schedule that I printed and it does not show any games on NBATV. So, it is my guess that the games you refer to that will be covered by NBATV are games being broadcast by someone else that NBATV is just picking up (much like last nights Comcast broadcast was shown by NBATV). In other words, if you have the Comcast Sports Network there would be no need to also pay for the package that includes NBATV.

 

[kingskings!]

Let's see...

I hope that's answered your questions.

The whole thing is very confused right now.

Nope, I'm as confused as ever but I do appreciate you taking the time to try to explain it! And I'm sure your explanation helped those less dense than me!

All I know for sure is that my signal SHOULDN'T be interrupted by heavy snowfall if I decide to switch to a satellite service since I'm in the valley!

Oh, lord! I probably just sentenced Sacramento to 3 feet of snow this winter!


KK!

 

[quick dog]

Don't forget the flying pigs, geese, and ducks.

The last C&W guy was Johnny Gimble (sp?). He played with everyone, including Bob Wills and Merle Haggard. Hung out in Sacramento when Tiny Moore was still around.

 

[quick dog]

Well, I'll be dipped.


I turned on the TV this morning and went immediately to DirecTV channel #656. Lo and behold, there was an electronic duck-call advertisement. Then there was a kid in Texas shooting a deer. The call letters of the channel looked like Comcasts Sports yada, yada. I believe we have contact Houston. Now all I have to do is sweat the black-out issue.

 

[iheartBrad]

wait am i to understand that VF21 that you with DISHNETWORK didn't see the games this weekend because of a blackout...i mean i thought you were out of the blackout zone

anyway....hopefully no more blackouts for you in the future otherwise you might as well ditch DishNetwork

 

[VF21]

The main problem, come to find out, isn't actually with DishNetwork. It is with the NBA, who controls the blackout regulations. They have to send zip code listings to Comcast, who in turn has to send them to the satellite providers. From what I've been told, the most recent list was only received by DishNetwork late yesterday afternoon...

Although I can't speak for everyone and do NOT have access to the actual lists, I do know my zip code is on the "good list." It's just a matter of DishNet getting the info into their system and then sending the signal to the receivers to allow the smart-card to retain it for future broadcasts.

From what I've gathered, as long as you're within what can be even remotely considered as the Kings regional area, you're going to be able to get the satellite broadcast on your dish, provided you have the proper service package to do so...

The DishNetwork guy I've been speaking to (9 emails and 4 phone calls) was very honest. He said they're doing everything they possibly can to get the system up and working properly by tonight's game.

I'll post any additional pertinent information I may be able to get...

 

[quick dog]

When you live so far in the boonies the federal government has forgotten about you, and you don't even have a zipcode, you may be a redneck.

 

[VF21]

The latest information is that DishNetwork is working hard to get the information sent to the "set-top boxes" in time for tonight's game. He did warn me that it might not happen in time for everyone and there's simply nothing they can do to get it done any more quickly. He did say that if it isn't done by tonight's game it will certainly be done in time for Friday and the rest of the season...

Let's all keep our fingers crossed!!!

 

[Bricklayer]

When you live so far in the boonies the federal government has forgotten about you, and you don't even have a zipcode, you may be a redneck.

Not only might you be a redneck, I think you may be living in redneck heaven.

 

[quick dog]

I am apparently in the loop. San Diego State is playing the Air Force Academy. The schedule shows the Kings coming up.

 

[VF21]

SD State vs. Air Force?

Whoooooooo!

 

[VF21]

Grrrrrrrrrrrrr.

 

[6th]

Okay, now why am I not getting tonight's game. My LP channel is blacked out. I was thinking maybe because they are playing the Bulls. However, I am 200 miles from Chicago. So, then I thought maybe someone is carrying it in my sports regions. FoxCh is carring College Soccer...that's not it. It is not on WGN who carries some of the Bulls games, so...that's not it. There is supposed to be a Comcast Sports Net Chicago.....but, I can't find that in my guide.


So, I am paying for League Pass. I am 2000 miles from Sacramento and 200 miles from Chicago. Why in the hell can't I find the game on my Dish????

 

[6th]

Okay, seems I am in the same boat as VF has been, only in my case it is the Bulls. I am in their territory, so LP is blacked out for me because I am in their area and it is being broadcast by their regional sports coverage. Never mind the fact that I am 200 miles away and cannot receive their regional sports station here is Springfield. NBA blacked me out anyway. I have come to the conclusion that they are total idiots......oh, wait......I already knew that. Would it be totally out of character if I called them something much worse than that?


ARRRRGHHHH!!!