2011 NFL Season - A New Game

[Timby]

I keep praying for the day when Direct TV's stranglehold on that deal is broken and all cable and satellite providers can offer it. If it was over my cable system, I would grab it in a heartbeat. Of course, you know what they say about that, wish in on hand and shit in the other . . .

I believe the current DirecTV contract for Sunday Ticket runs through the 2014 - 15 season, but I can't see the NFL opening it up to all cable / satellite providers -- Sunday Ticket viewership doesn't count towards Nielsen ratings, and the broadcast stations rely on football for both national and local ad sales (which is why they fork out so much money for the broadcast rights in the first place). If Sunday Ticket were offered via multiple providers, it would basically gut revenues for everyone else in the television funnel (especially local affiliates).

 

[gh4chiefs]

Only to a certain extent. They block the local market team from being broadcast over direct TV, so in this market for example, if someone wanted to watch the Rams or the Chiefs, they have to go to their local affliatiates to get that. And if you're not a fan of the in-market team, then you're probably not watching the local affliates anyway.

Plus as I mentioned, if you have a PS3 and a stable broadband conncection, you already have the option to get it over the internet and bypass the local affiliates. So we're already partially there.

 

[tighr]

Only to a certain extent. They block the local market team from being broadcast over direct TV, so in this market for example, if someone wanted to watch the Rams or the Chiefs, they have to go to their local affliatiates to get that. And if you're not a fan of the in-market team, then you're probably not watching the local affliates anyway.

In addition to that, Sunday Ticket does not broadcast the SNF or MNF football game, nor the playoff games. Basically, they don't broadcast any nationally televised games. You have to watch those on your local network/ESPN.

This is a problem, because my home market is one of the last in the United States to STILL not have HD uplink of our local channels available on DirecTV, because "DirecTV doesn't have the room on their satellites for our feed". I've got several friends with Sunday Ticket who are unable to watch SNF in HD because of this.

Me, personally, I ditched cable earlier this year and mounted an antenna on my roof. I get all the locals in pristine HD for free.

 

[gh4chiefs]

Well I know it will probably never happen because DTV is willing to shell out BIG $ to keep that exclusive contract, and also for the reasons Timby has pointed out. Plus I'm probably in a small minority of people that a satellite dish just won't work for, most people who REALLY want the Sunday Ticket probably already have it. So there's probably no real push to do it.

I'm just thankful we now have the option over the internet, so at least it's a step in that direction.

 

[Timby]

Well I know it will probably never happen because DTV is willing to shell out BIG $ to keep that exclusive contract

Yep. It's basically the one unique selling proposition that DirecTV has over DISH Network, and as a result, DirecTV forks over a little over $700 million a year to the NFL for the rights (though the Internet options for people who can't get DirecTV at their residences came about via NFL mandate). That $700 million is a nice bonus to the $3+ billion that the NFL gets from the broadcast networks and ESPN. (Remember, back during the labor strife, the NFL wanted to use the television money as its war chest until a judge told them to fuck off and placed the money in escrow.)

 

[gh4chiefs]

(though the Internet options for people who can't get DirecTV at their residences came about via NFL mandate).

Interesting. I didn't know that. Somehow I had assumed Sony had coughed up some money to DTV to make that happen. Are there other internet options other than the PSN?

 

[Timby]

(though the Internet options for people who can't get DirecTV at their residences came about via NFL mandate).

Interesting. I didn't know that. Somehow I had assumed Sony had coughed up some money to DTV to make that happen. Are there other internet options other than the PSN?

If you do not have DirecTV, and you cannot get DirecTV because of line-of-sight issues (that's the only criterion; if your landlord won't let you mount a dish, tough rocks), you can get NFL Sunday Ticket To Go for $350. As of now, they don't pro-rate it. It works on any PC or Mac with Flash, Android phones and tablets, the iPhone 4 and the iPad. This was a condition of the 2009 contract extension that DirecTV signed with the NFL -- that options be made available for people who couldn't get DirecTV at home.

Sony's deal for Sunday Ticket To Go was in response to Microsoft grabbing ESPN3 for the Xbox 360. Xbox has ESPN, PS3 has Sunday Ticket.

 

[Pegaritaville]

I really wish I wouldn't have left Laurent Robinson on the bench on both of my fantasy teams.

Other than that, it was a good day of Thanksgiving football.

 

[gh4chiefs]

If you do not have DirecTV, and you cannot get DirecTV because of line-of-sight issues (that's the only criterion; if your landlord won't let you mount a dish, tough rocks),

I assume these restrictions don't apply to Sony's Direct Ticket? I say that because I actually had gone as far as ordering the ticket over the PSN and I just backed out before I actually paid for it and at no time did they bring any of this up.

 

[Timby]

If you do not have DirecTV, and you cannot get DirecTV because of line-of-sight issues (that's the only criterion; if your landlord won't let you mount a dish, tough rocks),

I assume these restrictions don't apply to Sony's Direct Ticket? I say that because I actually had gone as far as ordering the ticket over the PSN and I just backed out before I actually paid for it and at no time did they bring any of this up.

From DirecTV's website:

DIRECTV customers must subscribe to NFL SUNDAY TICKET™ in order to get NFL SUNDAY TICKET™ To-Go.

If you cannot get DIRECTV at your current residence, you can purchase NFL SUNDAY TICKET™ To-Go as a stand-alone product without DIRECTV satellite service. For more information, you can visit directv.com/sundayticketspecial. If you have a Sony PlayStation and cannot get DIRECTV at your current residence, you can purchase NFL SUNDAY TICKET directly through the PlayStation Network. For more information, you can visit Playstation.

 

[gh4chiefs]

I wonder how they would even know if you can get it or not without sending someone to your residence?

ETA: I may have answered my own question. When I got home I logged on started the purchase process and I see now that upfront they ask you if you can get Direct TV. So it looks like it might be kind of a honor system thing.

Incidentally they had pro-rated down to $200 for the remaining 6 games. Still think that's a little steep.

 

[Yoda]

Registration was in fact on the honors system.

Sunday Ticket on PS3 is awful. I canceled and got a refund. The image quality was decent. Softer than an HD broadcast, but where it really failed was the frame rate. It looked like they were dropping every other frame on the FOX 60fps broodcasts. 30fps might not sound that bad, but you have to remember that a true 30fps source would have motion blur, the result is that motion looked very choppy on the service.

If that was the only problem, I'd let it go. It often just didn't work. The video would randomly skip back to the pregame show. You were only allowed to watch one game at a time... not a huge deal, except that it takes around 10 seconds to change games, making it useless for quick flips between games.

They declared that I was blacked out for the Bears and Lions game. Which was wrong. I'm in San Diego, so A) I'm not in the blackout area, and B) It was not the game shown on our local FOX affiliate, which would be the two possibilities where maybe I should get blacked out of Sunday Ticket. Playstation support was unable to explain to me why I was being blacked out nor could they fix it.

And finally, even when it is working 'well' by its standards, it's undeniably laggy. I use U-Verse for TV, which is an IPTV solution, and I get my broadcasts seemingly 5-10 seconds behind people on Cable TV. If I load up a game on an illegal site, oftentimes that will also be a little bit ahead of my TV. The PS3 Sunday Ticket on the other hand was a full minute behind. That is just way too much. That's where you start getting text messages from people about plays you haven't seen yet. That's where if you're watching your fantasy football stats online you'll get spoiled on plays.

The service wasn't worth $100, let alone more than $300 that they wanted. It's back to the sports bars for me.

I did have DirecTV Sunday Ticket back in the day, and that was actually a pretty good product. But they completely fucked up their internet streaming service. What's funny is that the NFL actually had a pretty damned good streaming service for preseason games.

Oh also, you'll still miss games if you don't have ESPN and NFL Network. With Sunday Ticket on DirecTV it's not really a big deal since you'll have those channels anyway as part of the forced contract... but it's a joke that you don't get ALL the games at $340.

 

[SmoothieX]

I tried to get it this year, but apparently don't have a clear enough view in whatever direction I needed to in order to get service. Since I can't just knock down the trees in a town park, I was screwed. Need to get it when I move next year since Portland isn't exactly Pats country.

 

[1001001]

I have a Special Holiday Message for every Rams player and coach, except Steven Jackson, Brandon Lloyd, and Chris Long:

 

[ShamelessMcBundy]

In the Raiders-Bears game, I say the Raiders will win it by 3.

 

[Ar-Pharazon]

In the Raiders-Bears game, I say the Raiders will win it by 3.

More like 33

Even when they get a first down, they penalize themselves right back out of it.

Plus a holding penalty on a punt return that went nowhere.

 

[ShamelessMcBundy]

In the Raiders-Bears game, I say the Raiders will win it by 3.

More like 33

Even when they get a first down, they penalize themselves right back out of it.

Plus a holding penalty on a punt return that went nowhere.

I am genuinely surprised that the Raiders haven't gotten a penalty yet. Also, the Raiders have been in the Red Zone twice now, and the Bears are holding them.

Thank the gods for #11's Mighty Foot.

 

[Ar-Pharazon]

2nd interception for Hanie. Flashbacks of Grossman now....

 

[ShamelessMcBundy]

Let's see if the Raiders can actually score a touchdown on this drive. That would be fantastic.

ETA: Yeah, not so much.

 

[Starbreaker]

Bears will win this game. Just need to get Hanie going.