"No hockey for you."
Posted on 10/21/2005 12:59:46 PM PDT by ZGuy
The owner of The Dish Network said Thursday it pulled the Outdoor Life Network from its system after the cable channel failed to provide NHL games to the nation's second-largest satellite television provider.
EchoStar Communications Corp. spokesman Marc Lumpkin said the network did not show games on Oct. 10-11 and on Monday and Tuesday as advertised. "We were not given advance notice that they would not show the programming," he said.
Although best known for broadcasting the Tour de France and cyclist Lance Armstrong, OLN this fall took over broadcasting National Hockey League games on cable from ESPN, a unit of The Walt Disney Co.
"We are surprised and disappointed that Dish has unilaterally chosen to stop providing OLN to its customers, and denied fans the opportunity to watch sports coverage on OLN," spokeswoman Amy Phillips said.
The contract dispute between EchoStar and OLN revolves around OLN's placement in a higher-priced channel package by Dish Network, which is distributed to fewer viewers.
OLN, owned by cable giant Comcast Corp., set a requirement that the channel must be seen by 40 percent of a cable or satellite TV system's viewers in order for it to broadcast the NHL games. It said the Dish Network has failed to meet that requirement.
Lumpkin declined to comment on the specifics of the dispute.
EchoStar would have to move the channel from its top package to a lower-cost package that may have fewer channels but more viewers. That would raise the fees Dish Network viewers pay.
"We work hard to provide choice for customers and to keep prices low," Eric Sahl, an EchoStar senior vice president, said in a statement. "Most of our customers have made the decision they do not want to pay the additional cost of watching the channel."
EchoStar hasn't been afraid to take on networks before. In March 2004, it pulled Viacom Inc. programming — including MTV, the Comedy Channel and Nickelodeon — from the Dish Network for two days until an agreement was struck on a long-term contract.
Based in suburban Englewood, EchoStar's Dish Network has about 11.4 million customers.
The only reason I'd like to see hockey on OLN is when the playoffs roll around next April.
I love it!
"No hockey for you."
Sounds like Dish Network didn't fullfill it's contract with OLN and OLN pulled the channel. Dish Network want's to charge it's customers a premium while cable and Direct TV offer OLN on the basic package. Mmmmm ....
I had Dish Network years ago and their coverage of the Rockies was terrible, maybe 50% of the games. Dumped them. Looks like they are up to the same old game, gouge the customer.
I haven't liked OLN since they pulled the "Sea Hunt" reruns a couple of years ago.
While I like to watch NHL on TV, I get much more hockey (and enjoy it more) going to my son's high school team's games.
IMHO, if you love hockey, you'll go out and find it!
Gotta go! Game on!
He's on a "LEO" team. All the players are cops.
The shooting needs improvement, but the checking is brutal!
And I agree with you. There's hockey all over the place!
Wrong.OLN has been where its at on Dish well before this happened.OLN (Comcast in disguise) got hockey and claims that the contact it willingly signed with the NHL requires OLN to be on a more basic tier for hockey to be shown.Dish told Comcast to take a hike.
Dish doesn't control coverage of MLB, so you can't blame them for your Rockies problem.
If you are a TRUE Texan, you will be mad at missing the World Finals of the PBR bull riding, Oct. 30-Nov.6...I am a former Texan and there are gonna be a bunch of us fans that are furious about this!
Hockey-Smockey!
"The contract dispute between EchoStar and OLN revolves around OLN's placement in a higher-priced channel package by Dish Network, which is distributed to fewer viewers."
Sounds like both are trying to take advantage of eachother and forgeting the veiwers who keep them both in business.
So who has the upper hand? Looks like a wash to me.....
Media conglomerates won't allow it. It's "all or nothing" as far as they are concerned. Let's say for example OLN was part of the ESPN/ABC/Disney media giant. If a cable system or satellite system yanked OLN, ESPN, ESPN Classic, ESPN2, ESPNU, ABC Family, and the local ABC station would all have to go as well.
This happend earlier this year when a contract dispute occured between Echostar and Viacom. All Viacom owned stations like MTV, VH1, VH1 Classics, TV Land, Nickelodeon, Noggin, CMT, Spike, etc., including the local CBS affiliate had to be yanked until a new agreement was hammered out.
Echostar didn't bother fighting as hard as they normally do, since the contract expired a week or so before the Super Bowl, and Echostar made sure it's viewers had their CBS affiliate.
DISH doesn't control sports blackouts of your local RSN (regional sports network), those are arbitrary rules set by the leagues, and have been in place for over 20 years.
OLN doesn't pull the channel, the cable/satellite provider (DISH in this instance) does. The channel itself decides which tier they want to be on, and I suspect OLN decided they wanted to be on the 2nd tier rather than the basic tier.
For example. DISH has always thought ESPN and it's clones should be on the second tier, because they charge confiscatory "must carry" rates to the provider. ESPN doesn't want to be on the second tier, because they wouldn't have the number of viewers on the second tier as they would on the basic tier. In order for DISH to recoup the loss, they pass the rate increase onto the customer base.
You just keep that Lone Star southern border safe from the illegals, and we'll keep an eye on the northern border for those crazy canucks.
;-)
But C-band is not digital
The fact is that Dish can give free center ice at a cost of $69 per person (wholesale) who complains, which would be about 40,000 viewers tops, than pay 10-20c per month to OLN for 4,000,000 subscribers.
4M x 15c x 6 months of hockey = 3.6 Million
40,000 x $69 (free center ice for year) = 2.8 Million
It's a no brainer.
Whoops... I though Dish had 4M subscribers... not 11.4 Million.
Triple all of the numbers involved.
We went in for Center Ice. My son is a huge hockey fan and it was kind of a birthday present. There are up to 3 hockey channels on it. I guess it shows every NHL game there is. I think it's 3 payments to Dish of $30 or 40 each, during the season. It pays for itself if you don't go to live games.
No, C-Band is not. But back when I had a C-Band, Digital was just emerging. There was some sort of modification one could get for the C-Bamd which allowed it to pick up digital channels. In fact, there was a pont in which channels were "dropping off" C-Band after they went digital only and dropped their analog feeds. I started having problems with my C-Band around that time, and as more people were getting mini-dishes, it became next to impossible to get my big dish serviced, and it would have been expensive for that digital upgrade. So, I trashed it and went with DiSH Network. I only mentioned C-Band because they are the only guys AFAIK that did a-la-carte programming.
The signals I get in HD with rabbit ears blow standard digital Dish away, IMO.
I have no problem getting the games.
We have Comcast cable here in Virginia, and everything is fine.
GO FLYERS!!
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