NFL's new RedZone channel won't be seen by most
By Ben Drawbaugh 
posted Aug 16th 2009 11:57AM
posted Aug 16th 2009 11:57AM
posted Aug 16th 2009 11:57AM
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Of the $13.8 billion worth of returned products in 2007, only 5 percent were because gadgets were actually broken, according to a 2008 study.
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We have Directv for one reason: Sunday Ticket. We love Sunday Ticket (all $400 of it a year) for one reason: Red Zone Channel.
I have zero problem with the NFL's "greed". They have a product people want. Eventually the NFL WILL do away with CBS, ABC, Fox, ESPN for broadcasting games. Eventually all games will come from the NFL on NFL owned channels and the NFL will reap all of the profit from advertising.
They will control every facet of the NFL in the media. They have a product people want and they can maximize profit this way.
Deal with it.
That day can't come fast enough. The quicker I don't have to hear about the 3rd string left tackle on the Lions who injured their right earlobe on ESPN, the better. I'm already burnt out on the NFL and it hasn't even started yet.
your wrong youfacethetick, the nfl makes more money by allowing abc fox and cbs to BID for those games. they wouldnt dare put every game on the nfl network, very stupid. they make millions and millions every year off of the major networks.
If you click on the full article you will see a box that says, "Directv to test sunday ticket broadband in manhattan" You get a 404. Whats that about? I tried googleing it and didn't come up with much. Looks like a few years back maybe verizon was offering sunday ticket to DSL subs.
The interesting thing is the nfl already broadcasts games online to markets outside of USA(North america?). They really should try what mlb did this year with the iphone app. Its really great.
We'd be all over a broadband only option and thus avoiding Directv altogether. I see no reason to have cable/sat TV other than NFL. For most of the year our DTV account is suspended and then reactivated for the NFL season.
directv.com/manhattan
It's DirecTV's NFL Supercast service sold standalone, without the need to get Sunday Ticket or Superfan. Or even DirecTV, for that matter.
I was a sunday ticket sub for many many years until they started charging more for HD content. Sunday ticket was around $150-$180 in those days. Now a few years later its $400 for HD. I moved to P2P feeds. I'd come back for some $100-$125 broadband/mobile solution. Manhattan would be perfect to run this trial as most people aren't able to put up a dish and are customers who would never get DirectTV anyways.
Woah, directv.com/manhattan is $390 with tax. Thats pretty astronomical for broadband only streaming. MLB and NHL do it for around $125 with many more games in the season.
I subscribe to both of those and although they are pretty nice. Especially the iphone mlb app or the integration of mlb.tv into plex and boxee.. I just can't shell over $390 for the NFL. Here is my math.
Miss 4 games a year doing something with the wife
My team is on sunday night or monday night 2, 3 times a year
$400/10 games = $40 per game. I can just go to find the game anywhere in manhattan at a brunch place and get some nice food for that price.
100% disagree tick. NFL needs to be careful. I know its king and god of sports. But die hard fans also need their money. NFL network Thursday night games have already showed that people wont spend money to watch a game on Thursday. NFL is not stupid and wont leave networks, its their number one show and the NFL's cash cow for life.
Just ask ABC how much they should of kept Monday Night Football and how much worse the ratings are on ESPN.
I had Sunday Ticket from the second year it was on DirecTV until last year. I finally got sick of paying for it. I'm an NFL junkie. I watch every game I can but half the time I'm over at someone else's house on Sunday. The remaining weeks I find it cheaper and better to go to my neighborhood bar and watch all the games in HD, have lunch and a few beers for about $30 per weekend which ends up saving me money.
The NFL channel isn't available on Cablevision and I can't say I care. I hate the fact that the NFL wants to jam this channel down everyone's throats. Sure I WANT this channel. I watch the thursday games at the bar or at my friend's house but I also hate all of the CRAP that comes with getting ESPN that I am forced to pay for. I don't want or need that Disney idiocy but it's jammed down my throat just the same. I want more a la carte. I want to be able to pay for what I want and be able to skip the stuff I don't.
You know what? The NFL knows that if Cablevision got its way and was able to charge for the station then everyone would drop it from January through August. It simply doesn't have enough programming to justify its existence. Well then, NFL, maybe the games should just be on ESPN and just make this failed attempt at a network a "bonus" for sunday ticket subs.
Go Big Blue!
$30 per weekend x how many weeks is the regular season?
MATH!
Ya, but he's getting lunch and a few beers out of the deal as well.
Plus, do you really need to spend $30 at a bar? You could get a sandwich and a few beers for $10.
$10x17=$170
This is bad news for Direct. I'm an NFL fan who wants the NFL Ticket bad, but I am a Dish subscriber who also loves their great DVRs and have external HDs crammed with hundreds of HD movies. If Dish gets Red Zone, I would have no reason to switch to Direct.
Not everywhere. You couldn't get 2 beers alone for $10 in most cities.
You guys need to read his post again. He said half the time he goes to a friends house and the rest of the time he goes 2 a bar.
I think everybody knows if DirecTV is no longer the exclusive provider of the NFL ticket, the company is dead. Don't get it twisted; They'll give the NFL ticket away for $10.00 a year before they let other providers transmit their meal ticket!
Right, because Dish network is doing so poorly right now...
Even if DirecTV didn't have the Ticket, I still wouldn't switch to cable. I'd consider Dish as an alternative if DirecTV service started to slip, but right now they have the best customer service, bar none. Plus, being able to watch stuff on my PC that I recorded on my DVR is pretty damn sweet.
So I don't understand your argument.... you admit that 90% of time is spent watching the Red Zone and then you bitch about NFL offering it... ok....
I have long thought that major league sports should offer a "compilation" of each game. It is total BS to watch 4+ hours of a game when only an hour or so is worth watching.
Ahh, the NFL. The corporation that lets convicted felons play. No thanks, I've got better things to do than watch criminal thugs bash each other.
and these "better things to do" include posting on an NFL story...
Like watching the steroid infused MLB?
I agree somewhat with Big. You just could of said it nicer. I would rather have felons playing football and working than sitting at home collecting taxpayers dollars, doing nothing (maybe causing more trouble).
And no offense, people need to stop getting pissed at one another, and respect opinions.
Ben Drawbaugh, you've got it slightly twisted.
You said that "one channel would be available to every provider in the US instead of just to DirecTV Sunday Ticket subscribers," but I read the story to indicate that there will be two separate channels, both of which happen to be called RedZone channel.
Sunday Ticket subs on DirecTV will get their same channel, which comes live from DirecTV-branded studios with the excellent Andrew Siciliano as host. Meanwhile, Comcast subs will get a different, NFL-produced version with a yet-to-be-named host in a new studio. The only thing they have in common is their name and their function.
Nice story, but you might want to clarify this discrepancy.
I would love to have access to this channel, but as a single channel option for a reasonable price. I have Directv, and i bought the NFL Sunday Ticket for the first 3 years of having Directv, but it's not worth it. There are, at most, 20 games a year i'd like to see that i can't get without paying $400+ for the over-bloated Sunday Ticket/Superfan package. That's about $20 a game, which is crazy. It would be great if you could buy each game, individually, as a pay-per-view event. But since so many overpay for the excessive package they have now, i don't ever see them offering that service. So the next best thing would be offering the Redzone Channel, but separate from the Sunday Ticket package. Just like with Comcast now, i think it's in their "sports package", with only costs an extra $5 a month. That would set me back about $40/season, as opposed to $400/season. If Directv doesn't offer it as a separate option by next season, i believe i will be going back to Comcast!