#CoxBlocked

[calvegas04]

Looks like there is a very real possibility that a majority of Vegas won't be able to watch VGK games this year. IMO this would be a huge brutal blow to the VGK team

https://twitter.com/JPetschauer/status/900133366774718464

Click to read more...

 

[Boris Zubov]

Typical.

The team has 2-3 years of solo ownership in the market before the NFL shows up. The consequences of throwing away a full year of local viewership while negotiating a cable deal would disastrous to their long term success.

Something tells me cooler heads will prevail & an agreement will be worked out.

 

[KnishOfTheCrease]

They'll get a deal done. They still have a month.

 

[calvegas04]

They'll get a deal done. They still have a month.

1# The VGK should never have picked a station that no one has ever heard of

#2 They should have had this worked out a long time ago, they did have Cox do a documentary on the team after all

 

[LadyStanley]

Hopefully that means that Cox customers will not be blacked out on NHL Center Ice for games if they don't carry AT&T Sportsnet.

(But in all likelihood will have to watch opponent 'casters)

 

[BattleBorn]

This whole thing is stupid. I wonder how many networks made a bid for the rights if they picked a network without an in-state distribution.

Don't get me wrong, I always wanted ROOT for most of the reasons they chose them, but I figured they'd have an insider track on whether or not Cox was in with adding the network. However it shakes out, it's between Cox and AT&T now.

Hopefully people switch to Directv en masse if Cox doesn't have the games.

 

[VegasVic67]

As you locals know, Cox and Channel 8, (KLAS), also had a midnight standoff awhile ago. The deal got done, albeit a couple days after the contract expired. I can’t believe this one doesn’t get settled before the season starts.

 

[calvegas04]

Hopefully people switch to Directv en masse if Cox doesn't have the games.

How many people do you think are going to make the switch then the channel is on Direct TV's most expensive package?

 

[BattleBorn]

How many people do you think are going to make the switch then the channel is on Direct TV's most expensive package?

I'm sure that will change. AT&T didn't spend the dough for the rights to have it on as few TVs as possible.

 

[Ginormousthumbs]

People that are laying the blame on Cox are stupid and probably don't understand how cable works. Especially that tweeter in the first post.

 

[Matias Maccete]

This kind of crap is why traditional TV is dying, and it'll only get worse until they cut the crap.

 

[GKG18]

So, Ginormousthumbs, people are stupid for believing that Cox is in business to turn a profit?

 

[Ginormousthumbs]

So, Ginormousthumbs, people are stupid for believing that Cox is in business to turn a profit?

I'm not a marketing or business expert but if up to 70% of your local market are Cox subscribers, you sure as hell don't select a network that isn't carried by that company.
And it's not only one channel that's in play. There are typically multiple channels involved with these kind of deals and bandwidth is also involved. So Cox is the bad guy if #1 They don't like the deal that AT&T is offering and #2 they don't want to pass the expense of carrying these channels to people who won't care about the Knights.
I'm sure it has to be financially advantageous to both sides. I'm fairly confident that a deal will get worked out simply because of the Knights working relationship with Cox and hopefully that will be enough influence to put pressure on AT&T. This all could have been avoided had team management not been so lazy.

 

[Ginormousthumbs]

And feel free to add or correct my assessment. It just feels like to me other than the season ticket holders, the local viewing representation is not a big deal and that they'd rather capture Utah, Wyoming, Montana, etc.

 

[BattleBorn]

I think we're all kind of jumping on this a little early.

When it comes down to it, Las Vegas is not a huge market. I'm guessing when everything is said and done, they'll dump one of the Southern California regional networks and replace it with the local Las Vegas regional network AT&T Rocky Mountain or whatever they wind up calling it. The price will likely be the same to Cox, perhaps a little higher for AT&T RM than the replacement Fox Sports West/Prime Ticket since it is a smaller market.

They've got time, I'm sure they'll figure it out. If not, DirecTV it is.

I'm more worried about Playstation Vue, since that's my television service. We get a ridiculous amount of sports networks on PSVue, I don't know if they're going to add a whole new one just for the small market we've got.

 

[Blue Goose]

I'm sure that will change. AT&T didn't spend the dough for the rights to have it on as few TVs as possible.

Yeah, that has to be the case. At the moment, Root Sports Rocky Mountain is probably in the most expensive tier with the other Root Sports channels (including the one in Pittsburgh) because it doesn't really cover the local area. Now that the re-branded AT&T Sports Rocky Mountain is covering the "local market team", I would imagine the channel will get bumped down to the same tier with FS West, Prime Ticket, Time Warner Sportsnet, etc.

I will say that the whole thing is unfortunate, but I can see the pros and cons of each side. I don't think there's any "bad guys" in the scenario: Foley/VGK wanted to establish a footprint in the Rockies and introduce a new channel into the Vegas market for the widest amount of coverage, while Cox has to answer to their own subscribers, many of whom might not want to see their cable bill go up because of a channel they might not watch (and could end up cutting the cord as a result).

I'm a DirecTV subscriber and I live in Los Angeles. I don't really care about the Lakers/Dodgers, so when the Lakers announced the new TW Sportsnet channel, I was worried that my bill would go up to carry a channel that I wasn't going to watch. I couldn't change my programming tier, because TW Sportsnet was in the same tier as several other sports channels that I DID watch. Sure enough, once the standoff was settled and DirecTV picked up that channel, a new "regional sports fee" was introduced onto my bill - it goes up incrementally every year (I think it's around $7-8 now), and I have to suck it up so that I can watch the other sports channels.

Now when the Dodgers/TW tried to do the same thing again, DirecTV (rightfully) dug in their heels and said no. Quite frankly, if we had been forced to pay for THAT channel too, I would have cut the cord at that moment, and I think that's what DirecTV realized. It's been three years and DirecTV seems fine with their amount of subscribers, so I'm not sure how the Dodgers will ever get that channel to us - and if no one cares to switch with the season the Dodgers are having right now, they may be doomed. I'm convinced that the only reason the Dodgers aren't on DirecTV is because the Lakers got their channel on the service first (why they didn't just combine the Lakers/Dodgers onto one channel, I'll never know).

PS. DirecTV is also dealing with the same issue with the Pac-12 Network. At some point, they've said enough is enough and don't want to have to pass these costs onto their subscribers, for channels that they don't believe we want. The hilarious part is that DISH Network carries the Pac-12 channel and they would run ads trying to get DirecTV customers to switch by saying it was the best satellite service for "football fans", completely oblivious to the fact that DirecTV is the exclusive home of the NFL Sunday Ticket.

 

[BattleBorn]

Doesn't the Pac12 have four networks too? I thought they grouped up the schools and created regional versions of the network for the specific area, unlike the SEC and B1G that just carry one network with associated secondary channels.

Has that changed? Carrying six Pac 12 channels would likely make anyone cringe.

 

[Blue Goose]

Doesn't the Pac12 have four networks too? I thought they grouped up the schools and created regional versions of the network for the specific area, unlike the SEC and B1G that just carry one network with associated secondary channels.

Has that changed? Carrying six Pac 12 channels would likely make anyone cringe.

You know, I never realized that but you're correct - there are six regional Pac-12 networks in addition to the national one. I would imagine if the DirecTV stalemate ever ended, we'd get both the national channel and the Pac-12 Los Angeles channel together.

 

[Nevada Jones]

This all could have been avoided had team management not been so lazy.

This. Although I'm not sure if it's laziness, incompetence or something else.

Hope it's okay to link this: https://www.reviewjournal.com/spo...-pull-goalie-on-vegas-golden-knights-tv-deal/

It's a June R-J column from Ron Kantowski in which Foley is quoted "I can’t imagine Cox not doing business with AT&T.â€

Now that gives me great confidence!

Kantowski also wrote that "Kerry Bubolz seemed surprised to learn who owned what when asked to allay the concerns of local cable subscribers."

Huh?!? Who was in charge of the TV deal I wonder. Shouldn't Bubolz know something about all this. Or maybe an underling just cruised into Bubolz' office one day, dropped a signed contract on his desk and said "Here ya go, boss. We're going with Root."

Seems like a TV deal should be a well thought-out process. Especially if what you're doing is not so unlike asking ABC to carry CBS programming.

Again, I think this has much to do front-office types having no knowledge of the local market and not bothering to make themselves informed.

It just feels like to me other than the season ticket holders, the local viewing representation is not a big deal and that they'd rather capture Utah, Wyoming, Montana, etc.

And this.

Maybe "Vegas resident" Foley wants to make sure he can kick back in front of the fireplace this winter with a bottle of his fine wine at one of his places in Montana and watch the Knights.

I'm beginning to conclude Foley may simply be a too-rich old man who doesn't really know what else to do with his money. How about I make a sports team?!?

How many folks from Whitefish or Boise own season tickets? How many will be at T-Mobile forking over $15 for a beer or sucking down an $11 slice of pizza? Will more merch be sold in Ogden than Las Vegas?

I can't afford season tickets, but I'm hoping at attend one game a season anyway at T-Mobile. But my interest in the Knights will drop dramatically if I can't at least follow along on the TV. I'm old school in many ways, but listening to the games on radio just ain't gonna cut it for me.

Trying not to repeat my rant from an earlier related thread, I'm now counting on all you optimistic folks out there to make this deal happen!

Thank you for your time.

 

[GKG18]

As a Dodger fan, there is one thing I have learned about content distribution: Networks would rather hemorrhage millions of $$ than compromise their principles. Why they are so inflexible is beyond me, but just because everyone thinks a deal is of the utmost importance, doesn't mean one will get done.
Hope for the best, expect the worst.

 

[CHRDANHUTCH]

Doesn't the Pac12 have four networks too? I thought they grouped up the schools and created regional versions of the network for the specific area, unlike the SEC and B1G that just carry one network with associated secondary channels.

Has that changed? Carrying six Pac 12 channels would likely make anyone cringe.

actually, Fox has the same setup for its college division, BB, FCA, FCC, AND FCP, SEC is half-owned by ESPN, And in essence is two channels, the main network and an overflow network...

ACC is also expected to follow suit, following the SEC and Longhorn (Texas), although didn't ROOT buy out Comcast in Houston, when CSN Houston collapsed.

 

[Nevada Jones]

Doing some more thinking...usually not a good thing!

Maybe I'm not seeing it, but can someone make a case as to why DirectTV would even bother to offer a deal to Cox that would be acceptable to the cable company?

What's in it for DirectTV? Seems like it would be to their advantage to propose a deal that Cox would never accept, thereby allowing DirectTV to pick up those hardcore VGK fans who would switch from Cox to their service in order to view the games. Looks like offering their channel to Cox at an exorbitant and unacceptable cost to make sure VGK games are not on Cox would be a win-win for DirectTV.

And based on the Cox statement, adding ATT SportsNet doesn't seem to carry any particular importance or urgency anyway.

I'm thinking that unless VGK brass get involved somehow (and I'm not sure this mess is of any importance to them) a Cox deal is gonna be a longshot.

Do hope I'm wrong though.

 

[BattleBorn]

Doing some more thinking...usually not a good thing!

Maybe I'm not seeing it, but can someone make a case as to why DirectTV would even bother to offer a deal to Cox that would be acceptable to the cable company?

What's in it for DirectTV? Seems like it would be to their advantage to propose a deal that Cox would never accept, thereby allowing DirectTV to pick up those hardcore VGK fans who would switch from Cox to their service in order to view the games. Looks like offering their channel to Cox at an exorbitant and unacceptable cost to make sure VGK games are not on Cox would be a win-win for DirectTV.

And based on the Cox statement, adding ATT SportsNet doesn't seem to carry any particular importance or urgency anyway.

I'm thinking that unless VGK brass get involved somehow (and I'm not sure this mess is of any importance to them) a Cox deal is gonna be a longshot.

Do hope I'm wrong though.

That's a decent point, but I'm sure AT&T would like to get some of that annual investment back through carriage fees on cable networks. They don't really benefit much from keeping VGK on their platform alone outside of whatever incremental subscriptions they gain from having the rights to the Knights and ad fees. Who knows how many people will subscribe for the Knights anyway?

Now, if you could get a few dollars per Cox subscriber with AT&T Sports Rocky Mountain in their package every month, that's easy to quantify for AT&T/DirecTV. Plus, the ad spots during VGK games get a little boost in the ratings since the market penetration for the network in Las Vegas would be a lot higher with Cox than it would be without.

 

[Nevada Jones]

That makes some sense.

Hopefully those in negotiations are thinking like you!

 

[HanSolo]

This is depressing to watch