Dish last night lost NESN, the TV home of the Boston Red Sox and Boston Bruins, in a carriage dispute. The departure means that the satellite TV service now does not carry a single regional sports network, having previously lost the NBC Sports RSNs, the AT&T RSNs, the Bally Sports RSNs and MASN, among others.
The satcaster has sent e-mails alerting affected subscribers in the six New England states where NESN’s local game broadcasts were available. In a message posted on its Dish Promise page, Dish accused regional sports networks of asking for excessive carriage fees, a complaint it has made previously when it lost other RSNs.
“The current Regional Sports Network model is fundamentally broken as it requires nearly all customers to pay for these channels when in fact only a small percentage of customers watch them,” Dish states. “As the cost of these channels continue to escalate, we no longer think it makes sense to include them in our TV lineup.”
Dish would prefer to offer the regional sports nets a la carte which would permit subscribers to pay for them only if they ordered them separately from their programming bundles. However, the RSNs have rejected this concept because it would mean they would be available in fewer homes, which would reduce their carriage fees.
“DISH has offered multiple solutions to keep NESN on your service which would provide the best value to all our subscribers,” the company’s post says. “We have offered NESN to be part of select DISH programming packages – they refused. We have also offered NESN to be a separate stand-alone package, similar to premium channels like HBO or Showtime – they refused this as well.”
NESN has not issued a statement as of *;47 a.m. ET today.
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GOOD FOR CHARLIE !!
Putting these OVERPRICED and greedy channels in there place is NOT going away anytime in the future !
They make ridiculous demands and that ship has SAILED !
THE FUTURE for soprts WILL be totally ALA-CART and you can be certain it WILL be EXPENSIVE too.
One has to wonder IF sports (SPECIALLY “REGIONAL” sports can even survive.
ONE THING IS FOR CERTAIN though, NON SPORTS FANS will NOT BE HELPING to FOOT THE BILL for the EVER SHRINKING cored of sports fans on TV…
Dave, Your statement is correct,
What the sports channels are doing is like
going to the supermarket to buy a quart of milk
and the Manager insists:
You Buy the WHOLE Cow,
ALL Cable and Satellite companies should get together
and tell the sports channels they have decided to
ONLY carry the sports channels Ala-Carte.
Millions of Cord cutters would come back and it would stop deflection.
Millions come back ? nope I doubt that very much LOL…the ALA-CART COST would scare the beJesus out of even the rich !!
What you are suggesting amounts to collusion. That’s illegal.
As these sports teams pay their players with million dollar contracts, someone has to pay for these extreme salaries. Customers that don’t watch sports refuse to pay these exorbitant fees. This is one reason that the fees I pay Dish are lower than DTV.
Chucky,
What they are doing is GOUGING, That is Illegal.
You have any ideas to Stop customers from Bailing ?
“S” has a lot to learn if you want to continue to have any notice here…this goes FAR deeper the sports r[p offs…basic cable AND satellite (especially DRECTV) is for all intentions, ON DEATHS DOORSTEP…SREAMING WILL LAST FOR A WHILE BUT only FR THE ESTABLSHED. dv “p”) stream will die and and newcomers will not fare well
If I was being charged for those channels we lost in September and just find out in December 22nd I think all current customers deserve credits to there accounts including mine same for my CBS channel I will not pay 12.00 until I get wtsp back if I don’t get it back then I will have to report tegna to the fcc if the run channels are free I will take them
The RSN model is completely broken, and the major sports wedded to it (NBA, NHL an MLB) know this. They are all looking for a way out themselves (the NFL and CFB have no such problem). Charlie is just playing for time, waiting for the inevitable collapse of the current model. It has to morph into something else, everybody knows that.
I wanna cancel my dish subscription ! This is bullshit . Direct tv is cheaper and has dish . Good buy
YES FOOL get into bed with an ever MORE garbage service that COSTS EVEN MORE then you are paying now…DO IT so the rest of the world can LAUGH at you !! DO IT so your service WILL DROP OUT in BAD weather…DO IT so that when you get your first BILL you will need a LINE OF CREDIT ON YOUR HOUSE to “attempt” to PAY FOR IT…DO IT so YOU can then BITCH about the NON EXISTENT customer service at DIRECTV…YES BY AL MEANS “switch” to AT&T and the ASSCLOWNS that own it…YES and b4 you do , do yourself a favor and GO BY a jar of Vaseline so it WON’T hurt so bad when America’s TERMINAL TELECOM company bends you OVER…