Versus is for Rednecks
September 15, 2009
Versus is for Rednecks
Sports Commentary by Mike Jaret
Hello friends, my anger today is squarely directed towards the good people of Comcast Cable. In an effort to boost their own profits it appears that Comcast has raised the rates for the network, Versus, that they own.
This means that Cox, DirecTV, DishNetwork and all other providers will now be required to pay higher fees to carry Versus. That's fine, DirecTV said hell no....and in most circumstances I would just laugh and say HUZZAH DIRECTV GOOD JOB....unfortunately this is ADDING to my problems. Last season the great people that own the MSG (Madison Square Garden) networks, which are the networks that carry all the New York area hockey teams (Rangers, Islanders, Devils and Sabres), decided that no networks can get their HD feeds. I can still watch Ranger games in standard def but NOT in HD unless the opposing teams HD feed is being shown on that particular night. And if its any type of NY area rivalry match between the Rangers, Islanders, Devils or Sabres....well then NO HD FOR ME.
Back to my main point, Versus signed a long term exclusive deal with the NHL to be the only broadcaster of regular NHL games (Except the occasional Sunday morning NBC feed and the Stanley Cup Finals) and by virtue there is no longer any NHL games to be broadcast to DirecTV subscribers. How can the NHL let this happen? Shouldn't some sort of anti-trust suit be brought against Comcast for trying to price gouge providers on a channel that is essentially keeping the NHL alive? Last season was one of the highest rated NHL seasons in years and I PROMISE it will go way down now that a huge chunk of the market will be eliminated. Add to this any other cable companies that remove the channel from their lineup, which if they were to ask me, I think they should ALL remove it and make Comcast choke on their own precum!
I switched to DirecTV from Comcast for the following channels: YES-HD and MSG-HD for hi-def NY Yankee and NY Ranger games. I payed a lot of money to be able to watch all my sporting events in HD and now I am down to only one...YES-HD, and my passive Hockey network is now gone. Dont take this the wrong way, 94% of Versus programming is for retards, but losing hockey is rough. Its a sad time for sports fans, and I am starting to feel the anger that all football fans feel towards the NFL and DirecTV for making the exclusive deal on NFL Sunday Ticket!
Bookmark/Search this post with:
Delicious | StumbleUpon | Propeller | Reddit | Newsvine | Furl | Facebook | Google | Yahoo | Technorati
Dont take this the wrong way, 94% of Versus programming is for retards, but losing hockey is rough.
Damn right brother. I'm down to having to watch on a freaking laptop on the Gamecenter program. No Vs games, no NHL network games, worse coverage than the Center Ice package. The local cable company (charter) doesnt carry Center Ice or NHL network "in my area". Bastards. And if I want DirecTV the only place the housing authority will allow me to put a dish will only get one sd sat. The other four HD sats get less than 4% reception thanks to a tree.
Yeah, I know, if I wasnt tryin to make something of myself right now, I'd be enjoying that tree as chairs, tables, firewood, etc. But now that DirecTV wont bow to comcast, I'm just screwed.
Must have my hockey.