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Sunday Ticket anti-trust lawsuit revived


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1 hour ago, Over 29 years of fanhood said:


I wonder if you call and say you don’t have line of site of southern sky or your HOA won’t allow if they can override the eligibility? 

 

So about 5 or 6 years ago, think it was the first year DTV offered the stand alone, I still had cable at the time.  Went to the DTV website and filled out a form, they asked:

 

1) Do you currently have DTV

2) Can you get DTV at your location

3) Have you ever had DTV at this location

 

I answered NO to all (which was a half truth) and did get the stand alone streaming.  At that point really wasn't all that good, feature wise was more limited, no multi game view,  etc.  A year or two later went with DTV and ST for maybe 4 to 5 years, but discounts were harder every year to get.  Got to point all credits expired, they'd give me like a total of $10 in new credits so I dumped them.  3 weeks later they offered me like $60 off to return.  If they had even given me half that amount I'd never have left.  But by then had bought a TIVO DVR and antenna so wasn't going back.  I now live in a new house so there never has been DTV at this location but really haven't even bothered to try calling, gave up on them.

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39 minutes ago, Over 29 years of fanhood said:

I think it’s asinine that this dinosaur of a company doesn’t realize they have a viable stand alone subscription service that they could probably charge more for, instead of stupidly mandating this ‘use our Satellite or else’. 
 

the fact is people live in areas with great streaming infrastructure and want to watch out of market games. But DTV is trying to force a market to exist. I lucked out that my townhouse was eligible. If It wasn’t I was never considering adding a dish. 

 

as to those blocked, I suspect the eligibility algorithm excludes home addresses and businesses, looks like townhouses are eligible, not sure about apartments. there is an alleged check between cc address and eligibility addresses, but it might only check zip code. 
 


 

 

 

Yes they do have a stand alone product, but would you pay over $1000 for a stand alone?  The problem is if they offered a stand alone, likely 1/2 their subscribers would dump DTV and they'd be losing probably at least $100 to $200 per person per month, easily over $1000 per year per account.  Doubt they can charge that much to make up for it AND keep DTV up and running.  They probably could make money on it if they shut down DTV  and just sold ST

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Sunday ticket should be it's own entity. Think of the Sunday ticket like Netflix. You pay a monthly subscription, get every game during the season (in and out of network) and have access to past games and/or the condensed games. Think of the content they could put on it. I'd much rather do that than deal with directv every year 

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1 hour ago, BuffaloBillies said:

Good. I hope NFL and ATT have to pay many, many millions...

either in reimbursement to subscribers and/or legal costs they will incur.

 

greedy aholes

 

 

Customers will get coupons and laywers will get millions.  It does fans no good.  Had one firm call me about a lawsuit and I said I will not join it for laywers are as greedy if not greedier than company being sued.

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43 minutes ago, LeGOATski said:

I always thought it was a stupid move to pay for Sunday Ticket. 

 

You enabled them.

I guess I’m guilty then..😳

I bought ST in ‘95 and moved from WNY to Florida. It was the only way I could see the Bills games. Kept that miserable dish for 20 years. 

Am I now a 🏴‍☠️?

 

youbetcha!

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1 minute ago, Ed_Formerly_of_Roch said:

 

Yes they do have a stand alone product, but would you pay over $1000 for a stand alone?  The problem is if they offered a stand alone, likely 1/2 their subscribers would dump DTV and they'd be losing probably at least $100 to $200 per person per month, easily over $1000 per year per account.  Doubt they can charge that much to make up for it AND keep DTV up and running.  They probably could make money on it if they shut down DTV  and just sold ST


see I don’t believe that part. They have 15 million sat tv subs and only about 2 million ST subs according to a few web articles. 
 

even if they lost all of that satellite tv revenue, but kept them as streamers only, plus picked up more streamers only, it probably a winning business. 

from a cost standpoint;

 

-subscriber acquisition cost is likely lower for ST only, everyone knows out of market nfl has one Legal option. and nfl does all the content marketing already 


-no truck roll/install

 

-minimal commissions

 

- No hardware to support and maintain 

 

- reduced satellite capacity utilization so you can lease it to others 
 

AT&T will figure this out and slay the dinosaur or just drop the agreement. They consider it a zero growth unprofitable business. 

 

 

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3 minutes ago, Over 29 years of fanhood said:


see I don’t believe that part. They have 15 million sat tv subs and only about 2 million ST subs according to a few web articles. 
 

even if they lost all of that satellite tv revenue, but kept them as streamers only, plus picked up more streamers only, it probably a winning business. 

from a cost standpoint;

 

-subscriber acquisition cost is likely lower for ST only, everyone knows out of market nfl has one Legal option. and nfl does all the content marketing already 


-no truck roll/install

 

-minimal commissions

 

- No hardware to support and maintain 

 

- reduced satellite capacity utilization so you can lease it to others 
 

AT&T will figure this out and slay the dinosaur or just drop the agreement. They consider it a zero growth unprofitable business. 

 

 

 

Well if those are the numbers then you're likely correct, didn't think it was so one sided for ST, they could likely make money as a stand alone.  Could be something in the existing contract prohibits them from doing this now, so they need to wait for a new one.

 

Will likely find out soon enough if ATT keeps it or not.  Does make you wonder if ATT did look at it long term when purchasing DTV, did they buy it strictly for 2022 when the existing contract expires and they will then offer and bid for a stand alone.  And will they again out bid everyone and then sell off DTV? 

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1 hour ago, Mango said:

I actually think the $3-400 price point is way too high for what is basically just access to the 1pm games on Sunday.  At $400 bucks I am tempted to just keep using my VPN and ripping the game off. With so many people cutting the chord, the NFL really needs to evolve here and start including all games through the app/streaming. Possibly include a single team package or a per game charge. 
 

That said, I am in Saratoga Springs. I tried calling to just get the streaming service. They said no I needed DTV. I have no use for a cable package. So I actually have an old athlete that is in Med School so I threw her a couple bucks to help me out. 

HDTV antenna and you'll get about 5-6 of the games free up here. The rest are found easily online and streamed to my TV.  I have zero shame for greed... 

Had DTV for 12yrs in Masshole land. 

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Back when Madden 25 came out (25th anniversary, think it was for the 2013 season), they had an option to buy the "anniversary" edition for $100 and the extra $40 got you a code to get Sunday Ticket mobile. I just connected my computer to my tv with an hdmi cable and was good to go.

 

The quality wasn't the best at first, which makes me think they did it as a one year pilot to test their streaming capabilities and the bandwidth data. Whatever the reason, it really sucked they didn't continue it.

 

I had already cut the chord then and basically paid $100 for the ability to stream bills games, plus I got a mediocre Madden game, which apparently is the last mediocre Madden game, and they have really started sucking the following year and for the last seven years when they really started going the micro transaction route with Ultimate Team. 

 

I'd say that Madden going downhill is a tangent, but it's not...another example of the nfl doing a single license thing, and the entity holding the rights to that license looking to maximize their immediate value without worrying about the brand they in many ways are tarnishing (look at what EA has done with Star Wars as an additional example).

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1 hour ago, Ed_Formerly_of_Roch said:

 

Well if those are the numbers then you're likely correct, didn't think it was so one sided for ST, they could likely make money as a stand alone.  Could be something in the existing contract prohibits them from doing this now, so they need to wait for a new one.

 

Will likely find out soon enough if ATT keeps it or not.  Does make you wonder if ATT did look at it long term when purchasing DTV, did they buy it strictly for 2022 when the existing contract expires and they will then offer and bid for a stand alone.  And will they again out bid everyone and then sell off DTV? 


https://www.foxbusiness.com/media/directv-nfl-sunday-ticket-deal

 

pertinent read.., 

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Quote

DirecTV is said to pay an average annual fee of $1.5 billion for exclusive rights to NFL Sunday Ticket, but loses more than $500 million each year on the deal, the Journal reported, citing sources familiar with the matter. The service has roughly two million paid subscribers.

https://www.foxbusiness.com/media/directv-nfl-sunday-ticket-deal

 

I don't have an MBA, but I'm thinking that's not a good business model.

 

 

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10 minutes ago, Over 29 years of fanhood said:

 

Hmmm... interesting.  But will the NFL just shuffle the deck and again go with someone else exclusively so can charge whatever they want like Apple TV.  Or will there be competing packages?  Will the NFL decide to go on their own.  Much more work and more costs to distribute, but keep all the profits too.

 

Maybe a unique way would be to give ST to someone like Apple, but then allow say Amazon  to sell 32 packages of individual teams only.  Maybe it costs half of the full amount, but would stop ST from getting to high in price as then people could switch.  Or like ESPN, it's available thru Hulu, Sling, You Tube, etc.

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14 minutes ago, Over 29 years of fanhood said:

 

Thanks for the posting. You know if the big boys, Amazon, Apple and Facebook are vying for entry then the price will go up and the NFL will make money.  Streaming was to break the power and exclusivity of cable. However, one has to wonder if the consumer will just be screwed in a different way.

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2 hours ago, Chandler#81 said:

I guess I’m guilty then..😳

I bought ST in ‘95 and moved from WNY to Florida. It was the only way I could see the Bills games. Kept that miserable dish for 20 years. 

Am I now a 🏴‍☠️?

 

youbetcha!

Always had the same problem myself as I've never lived in WNY.

 

Veteran :pirate: and local watering hole enthusiast!

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1 hour ago, Ed_Formerly_of_Roch said:

 

Hmmm... interesting.  But will the NFL just shuffle the deck and again go with someone else exclusively so can charge whatever they want like Apple TV.  Or will there be competing packages?  Will the NFL decide to go on their own.  Much more work and more costs to distribute, but keep all the profits too.

 

Maybe a unique way would be to give ST to someone like Apple, but then allow say Amazon  to sell 32 packages of individual teams only.  Maybe it costs half of the full amount, but would stop ST from getting to high in price as then people could switch.  Or like ESPN, it's available thru Hulu, Sling, You Tube, etc.


Seem like they have been dabbling. Ironically they already have the content delivery platform called game pass. They live stream preseason games and local market games through the nfl app already. 
 

I suspect they just don’t have the balls to say buhbye to that $1.5B dollar annual check in the hopes that could make kind of loot on their own. 

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The NFL could have made more money selling the rights ad hoc at a set price, non-exclusive to anyone that wanted to pay to air, the notion of keeping up with joneses could have made it a must. They could have banked by streaming services, then selling to other platforms. 

 

Cant tell me the exclusive rights money to a lone contract exclusive deal was higher than a model that could have given everyone acesss , at a nice price. Greed and arrogance. It was also a huge reach in the stability of DTV, whose reputation, rates, and price point disenfranchised consumers. This was a mistake. I think the exclusive money was simply a big figure they could not refuse with the least possible thought. The notion out of market games could be available to others was kinda of a new fringe concept. NFL did not have the foresight to see the future of cable. Perhaps they saw it as bonus cherry not requiring much thought in addition to all the other big TV deals.

 

I do think the future of the NFL is in its own network...

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