Comcast/BTN issue has been settled

#26      

Dan

Dan
Admin
Dan
NBB1979 said:
Am I reading this tweet wrong? Comcast is dropping BTN in NON-Big Ten Markets? So, I assume we would retain them if we live in a Big Ten Market?
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Comcast dropped BTN in non-B1G markets a few months ago. With a 10-yr agreement about to end in August and a lack of any sort of negotiation thus far, the B1G is concerned that Comcast could indeed drop BTN (and B1G games on FS1) nationwide on September 1st. Comcast is the major cable provider in 10 of 14 B1G markets.

For some fun reading on the topic here's BTN President Mark Silverman today at B1G Media Days:
http://asaptext.com/asap_media/media/44/477/transcripts/30342.pdf
 
#27      

Epsilon

Epsilon
M tipping over
Pdx
Epsilon
I will have to look at that YouTube channel option. This article was very timely. I live out in Oregon and just got a mailer from Comcast with a rate that I could deal with, and I specifically asked if they still had BTN. Now knowing that this will be dropped in 30 days, this probably saved me almost $400 and a lot of aggravation at having a crummy product. Thank you!
 
#28      

Second and Chalmers

S
Second and Chalmers
Dan said:
Comcast dropped BTN in non-B1G markets a few months ago. With a 10-yr agreement about to end in August and a lack of any sort of negotiation thus far, the B1G is worried that Comcast will indeed drop BTN (and B1G games on FS1) nationwide on September 1st. Comcast is the major cable provider in 10 of 14 B1G markets.

For some fun readying on the topic here's BTN President Mark Silverman today at B1G Media Days:
http://asaptext.com/asap_media/media/44/477/transcripts/30342.pdf
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What do B1G games on FS1 have to do with anything? Are those blacked out to non-BTN subscribers? I've never heard of something like that.

Or are they going to drop FS1 altogether?
 
#29      

Dan

Dan
Admin
Dan
t7nich said:
Regarding YouTube TV.. I remember reading that it wasn't available everywhere. What about central Illinois??
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It's available in Champaign & Springfield-Decatur via

Anyone know if YouTube TV can handle rollover games?:)
 
#30      

Dan

Dan
Admin
Dan
Second and Chalmers said:
What do B1G games on FS1 have to do with anything? Are those blacked out to non-BTN subscribers? I've never heard of something like that.

Or are they going to drop FS1 altogether?
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B1G games on FS1 are apparently part of the B1G-BTN-Comcast agreement. Presumably FS1 would stay but B1G games on FS1 would get blacked out of if Comcast does indeed drop BTN nationwide on September 1st.

"Now, in addition to the BTN agreement expiring, so is the agreement for all Big Ten games that air on FS1. BTN and FS1 have made proposal to Comcast dating back to February, and we've had no substantive response at all."
http://asaptext.com/asap_media/media/44/477/transcripts/30342.pdf
 
#32      

lonelytylenol

L
lonelytylenol
Dan said:
It's available in Champaign & Springfield-Decatur via

Anyone know if YouTube TV can handle rollover games?:)
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Not sure whether this answers your question directly, but if you visit btn2go and attempt to login, youtube tv is listed among the tv providers.

Since roll-overs are presumably available via btn2go, I'd think the answer is yes.
 
#33      

lonelytylenol

L
lonelytylenol
I'm in the process of evaluating live tv streaming options, and I agree with the positive assessments of youtube's offering. From what I can tell, Hulu's live tv service also seems competitive (and also shows up among the valid providers on btn2go ... see the immediately prior post for context).
 
#34      

Second and Chalmers

S
Second and Chalmers
lonelytylenol said:
I'm in the process of evaluating live tv streaming options, and I agree with the positive assessments of youtube's offering. From what I can tell, Hulu's live tv service also seems competitive (and also shows up among the valid providers on btn2go ... see the immediately prior post for context).
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Yeah, and with Hulu you also get their streaming library which is terrific if you're into bingeing old shows
 
#35      

sacraig

sacraig
The desert
sacraig
Dan said:
It's available in Champaign & Springfield-Decatur via

Anyone know if YouTube TV can handle rollover games?:)
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I don't see the overflow channels on my list but I do have access to BTN2GO.
 
#36      

jmilt7

J
Waukegan
jmilt7
Greensboro said:
I kind of doubt that ;), but just out of curiosity what did you tell us that is now happening?

Personally, I think this is negotiation, Comcast wants to pay less (who doesn't) & Big10 wants to maximize revenues (which is there job). Big10 is trying to raise pressure on Comcast to give in by having it cost them customers who are scared they will lose BTN & Comcast is trying to hold out until BTN drops prices. But they both lose out if BTN isn't available when football season starts. Is it all part of the master plan on communist cable cutters, not really, but the revenue portion is always part of the equation.
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Agree. Seems like I have seen this several times before (not just B1G and Comcast, but some others as well). There are all these ads about some cable channel being dropped and to write to whomever is doing that or to your congress person. Then about a week before the drop is to take place. lo and behold they come to terms and crisis averted. It's all about the fees.
 
#37      

Epsilon

Epsilon
M tipping over
Pdx
Epsilon
lonelytylenol said:
I'm in the process of evaluating live tv streaming options, and I agree with the positive assessments of youtube's offering. From what I can tell, Hulu's live tv service also seems competitive (and also shows up among the valid providers on btn2go ... see the immediately prior post for context).
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One more thing to consider. One of the issues that I had with Comcast was that even though their mailer showed an increase of $15 from my current base plan, it would have cost me about $33 more per month, and I would have been locked into a year contract. The reason for the extra money on top of the base plan wasn't just taxes (which I don't think you pay on those online subscriptions), but additional fees for sports channels (even if they are included in the base plan) and broadband / network channels or whatever. With the online subscriptions you don't have to pay for that junk. I did do Sling a couple of years ago but back then they didn't include BTN (I could only watch games on ESPN and I think FS1 with one of their plans). I thought that was supposed to change, but haven't looked into it recently. Does anyone know if you can purchase BTN on Sling yet? I'd still probably not do Sling though, yet, as I've had other frustrations with them, most notably that if you get kicked out of a movie, you can't pick up where you left off (not sure if that is for all channels, but it did for the ones I wanted to watch). Anyways, it seems YouTube and Hulu streaming may be the best options right now for those of us out of market...
 
#38      

ktal

ktal
ktal
Although its still a few years off, the B1G Network should cut a deal with Starlink for distribution (global broadband satellites).

And why not cut a deal with Netflix of Amazon Prime and tell Comcast to shove off? They add virtually zero value.
 
#39      

CAIllini

CAIllini
West Coast
CAIllini
HoopCity said:
How is the reception streaming? My experience has been good and bad, have not tried any of the services just Illini streams.
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For YouTube TV I've been very happy with it...1080p, 60FPS HD on many channels that carry sports. And most importantly it's been stable...no buffering or low resolutions periods of the stream. Both the resolution and stability are obviously a function of both the service and your internet provider, so results may vary. In my opinion, it's night and day compared to some of those early BTN streams that had student announcers and all sorts of issues. (though even BTN2Go seems to have gotten it's act together recent years with decent quality streams).
 
#40      

lonelytylenol

L
lonelytylenol
Epsilon said:
The reason for the extra money on top of the base plan wasn't just taxes (which I don't think you pay on those online subscriptions), but additional fees for sports channels (even if they are included in the base plan) and broadband / network channels or whatever.
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Based on my initial youtube tv bill, I do pay sales tax at my local rate, but can confirm no other mysterious taxes or fees ... very much what you see is what you get, at least with the base package.
 
#42      

Epsilon

Epsilon
M tipping over
Pdx
Epsilon
lonelytylenol said:
Based on my initial youtube tv bill, I do pay sales tax at my local rate, but can confirm no other mysterious taxes or fees ... very much what you see is what you get, at least with the base package.
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If it's just sales tax that's good to know (we don't have any in Oregon); that's pretty clean and straight forward, but there are all kinds of taxes for cable TV (aside from mystery fees).
 
#44      

Second and Chalmers

S
Second and Chalmers
redwingillini11 said:
Comcast is such a trash company. They should realize that consumers will have little patience for this kind of garbage in the cord cutting era.
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I despise Comcast, but let's be very clear here. Comcast would be OVERJOYED to offer BTN on an a la carte sports tier that college sports fans can pay a little extra for and watch to their heart's content. It is the Big Ten that is refusing to do that, holding their games and their fans hostage in order to extract $1 a month out of every grandma in the entire area who wouldn't be able to find BTN if they tried. That is why BTN makes money, not because people are actually watching. It's a scam, it has always been a scam, and while they may get their way this time, it is only a matter of time until the scam falls apart.
 
#45      

The Sprouting Divot

The Sprouting Divot
Invisible and Bulletproof
Miracle Mile
The Sprouting Divot
breadman said:
Came across an article about a year or so ago saying that AT&T is looking to retire the Directv satellites within 3 to 5 years time in favor of streaming, hence, DirectvNow.
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This certainly explains why their latest "upgrade" is such a disaster of unusability. It's very obviously and cleverly designed to be maximally enraging - such terribleness couldn't possibly have been the result of a thousand different accidents, but rather focus-grouped to bring about the worst possible interface with the most frustratingly unreliable equipment.

I hate it so much that I'm actually looking forward to switching to Dish when I move in a few months - not because I harbor any illusions about the quality of Dish's service or programming, but because I now affirmatively hate DirecTV so much, I can't wait to stop giving them my money.

I've been a DirecTV customer for over 15 years now, the first ~10 of which I was extremely pleased. The service went downhill well before the AT&T merger, but bringing those clowns aboard certainly hastened their demise.

I hope every AT&T/DirecTV corporate officer dies of diarrhea in public.
 
#46      

det0321

det0321
det0321
Almost 2 years on PSVue with roku streaming devices, Core pkg, and about 90% used for sports which includes BTN + alternates. $50 per month and the service is very good. Over $85 less than my old cable bill. I get all 4 nationals in my area but that varies geographically. Streaming plus antenna is a very viable, and economical, alternative in some places. I believe all 6 streaming services offer free trials. This has worked very well for me. /end testimonial.
 
#47      

JoseyWales83

JoseyWales83
JoseyWales83
Dan said:
It's available in Champaign & Springfield-Decatur via

Anyone know if YouTube TV can handle rollover games?:)
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They do not handle rollover games...If i know a game before is going to run late I just use the BTN2Go app and use my YouTube TV login.
 
#48      

BWBW

BWBW
BWBW
Do any of the cord cutting solutions include NFL Red Zone?
 
#49      

Deleted member 643761

D
Guest
Deleted member 643761
Second and Chalmers said:
I despise Comcast, but let's be very clear here. Comcast would be OVERJOYED to offer BTN on an a la carte sports tier that college sports fans can pay a little extra for and watch to their heart's content. It is the Big Ten that is refusing to do that, holding their games and their fans hostage in order to extract $1 a month out of every grandma in the entire area who wouldn't be able to find BTN if they tried. That is why BTN makes money, not because people are actually watching. It's a scam, it has always been a scam, and while they may get their way this time, it is only a matter of time until the scam falls apart.
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Yep.

I said this back in the last round of negotiation. Hell, even people who love big ten sports aren't watching that much BTN over the course of a year.

In an a la carte streaming era, all these negotiations are about who's going to blink first. People who are getting stuff "free" want to keep getting it free. The purveyors of the "free" stuff hope that Comcast and other providers will not want to piss off people. Comcast certainly doesn't want to give people an additional excuse to cut the cord. BTN, which could do more in the way of streaming is holding back in part to try to keep pressure on Comcast.

It's been fun while it lasted, and of course, we're likely to have plenty of options in the future, but we'll be paying more for them, as we probably should.
 
#50      

Second and Chalmers

S
Second and Chalmers
Here is a good column on the whole situation.

Don’t pass the hat for the Big Ten quite yet.
In five years though? In 10? Will there even be such a thing as basic cable to profit off?
And if not, then what’s the real value of some of these expansion teams? Rutgers has been non-competitive on the field and mostly a hot mess off of it. Other than some initial football victories, you can say the same about Missouri and the SEC.
The only thing either brought to their respective conferences was basic cable subscribers in their populous home states. What if that no longer matters and the schools actually pulling the freight (Ohio State, Alabama, Penn State, so on) are faced with belt tightening?
Do they cut sports and staff? Or do conferences splinter apart? Do the strong cut off the weak to protect themselves? Is smaller actually better than bigger?
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Not gonna lie, it's nice to see the bolded stated by someone who isn't a cranky message board weirdo like me. I've been shouting this from the hilltops for like 5 years now.