Posted on 02/07/2007 6:16:11 AM PST by presidio9
A proposal to make Major League Baseball's "Extra Innings" exclusive to DirecTV has drawn the ire of Sen. John Kerry.
The Massachusetts Democrat said he plans to raise the matter with the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission at a hearing Thursday.
"I am opposed to anything that deprives people of reasonable choices," Kerry said in a statement. "In this day and age, consumers should have more choices - not fewer. I'd like to know how this serves the public -- a deal that will force fans to subscribe to DirecTV in order to tune in to their favorite players. A Red Sox fan ought to be able to watch their team without having to switch to DirecTV."
"Extra Innings" is a service that allows viewers to watch games involving teams not in their local markets. In past years, the service has been available through a range of providers, but a pending deal would make the service only available to DirecTV subscribers.
FCC Chairman Kevin Martin is a scheduled witness at Thursday's hearing of the Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee.
How? I hear so many people say that DirecTV is cheaper, but we priced it out, and if I included the extra charge for getting network channels like ABC, etc, it cost the same as having Time Warner for us.
With TW, I have two dual tuner DVRs and the expanded digital package with all movie channels. I would have had to pay way extra for TiVo boxes with DirecTV. My husband really wanted the Sunday Ticket, which would have been even more, and we seriously considered DirecTV when TW took over Adelphia, and we lost the CW network (yes, I watch that network).
After figuring all the numbers, our $125 TW bill (includes internet) was lower.
I think John spells it "Kapitalism".
That should keep him busy.
That's great that you're happy with it. I'm not drilling through my roof to install an ugly dish and I'm not paying for a land line that I don't need. (By the way, fewer and fewer people have land lines.) I've done the math and DirecTV would be considerably more expensive for what I get, so I've never believed that satellite was that cheap. I don't like being tied into a contract (thanks, Verizon!).
MLB won't be the ones who see revenues drop. I'm sure DirecTV would make a lucrative offer, and they still have the MLB.TV service. (Maybe their plan is to ramp MLB.TV sales up by shutting out the cable market, which would be a stroke of evil genius.)
This means 160 times 2 = 320 games "blacked out", along with whomever they are playing, and this INCLUDES ROAD GAMES!!! Since I'm a ST. Louis Cardinal Fan, I STILL get a very limited ammount of Card games...very upsetting.
In fact, the first person that fixes my problem, I would ALMOST be willing to give them my Barry Bonds Rookie Card!!
Why should I have to go to a Chevrolet dealership to buy a new Chevy, that's an unreasonable restriction of my "right" to choose.
Kerry is retarded.
If you just heard something whistle past your head, that was the point of this discussion.
Hundreds of places sell burgers. There is only one professional baseball league. If Burger King decided to buy an exclusive contract on burgers, then you might begin to understand this. Similarly, there are hundreds of car dealerships and many different automakers. If you suddenly had the choice of buying a Chevy only - at a Chevy dealership only - you might understand this.
"I am opposed to anything that deprives people of reasonable choices," Kerry said in a statement."
Unless of course it involves chosing how to spend your own money or unless it involves health care choices, and any other market driven choice that is available.
What part of the constitutional right to contract doesn't he understand? Yet another reason to be happy that Francois never will be President.
As usual, Kerry has absolutely no clue about what a United States Senator should be doing. He - like most liberals - stopped growing intellectually in seventh grade. He is more interested in baseball than in trying to figure out how to stop insidious government spending and win the war on terror. Just check his Senate record. If I had done as little as this man has done in the last 20 years or so, I would have been in the unemployment line years ago.
By the way, you'll still have other options for watching sports, comrade. Hundreds of places sell spectator sports. And even with baseball, you're wrong--there are multiple professional baseball leagues. Single A, double A, triple A, bush leagues, are all considered "professional."
Oh, I know those aren't quite as good as the MLB, but maybe there are those who don't think other burgers are quite as good as the Big Mac. Maybe some folks don't think other cars are quite as good as Chevys.
Or maybe there are just a few people left who actually still like freedom and don't think the government has the authority to dictate how a private business should be run.
If you just heard something whistle past your head, that was probably one more fleeting liberty that used to make this country great.
I want free ketchup... and pickles too. If it reasonable for MLB top be forced to give away their product, why not Big Ketchup? 
If anybody is stopping other investors from starting their own competing sports leagues, then you have an argument. But since other leagues have come into existence from time to time (the AFL, & the ABA being the most successful), your point is not valid. Right now Burt Rutan is the only name in the space tourism business. Does that mean that he's got a monopoly?
LOL. I love that card.
I cannot have a dish. I live in Manhattan and most buildings have rules about things like that. And, even if my building didn't have such a rule, I only have a Northeastern exposure, and satellites only work with Southwestern exposures.
It stinks. I am a HUGE baseball fan, and they are thumbing their noses at me and millions of other people who have cable. Now I'll have to watch games on my computer, which is not quite the same as seeing them on a real TV set.
Obviously, they have the right to do this. I just think it's very short-sighted on their part. DirecTV has about 15 million subscribers. Cable alone has several times more than that, and the combination of cable and Dish Network is more than that. And, of those 15 million subscribers to DirecTV, how many are die-hard baseball fans? Baseball is shrinking as a percentage of the sports fan's dollar, so making a concerted effort to shrink the pool of available viewers is bad business over the long term.
You don't need a land line for the Dish to function; you just need a land line to buy pay-per-view and things like that.
DirecTV TELLS you that you need a land line, but it's a dirty little secret that you don't.
Interestingly, years ago, when my dish was being installed, the installer told me that if you don't have the phone line hooked up, you can still order PPV, receive the PPV, but you won't be BILLED for the PPV until you plug in your receiver to the phone line. I have no idea whether or not this is true because I never tried it, but it's an interesting bit of information that, for some reason, I haven't forgotten.
What, it's your position that DirecTV couldn't remain in business without Sunday Ticket?
Kind of makes you wonder how Dish Network is able to keep the ship afloat without Sunday Ticket, considering that it's pretty much the exact same service as DirecTV.
P.S. Manufacturers are entitled to enter into exclusive dealings contracts. They do it all the time. Sorry if you don't like it, but it's the free market in action. Deal.
You don't have to have a land line to have satellite TV regardless of what you might have heard. The only reason that Dishnetwork and DirectTV tell you need one is to facilitate ordering pay for view features. If you have a landline connected to your satellite box, then you can order pay for view using your remote. You can still do pay per view via the internet or from your cell phone. Of course the satellite guys have figured out that you'll order more pay per view if you can use your remote. They may tell you it is 'required' but if you push you'll find out that 'required' is not really required to subscribe to their service.
But other than that you are correct, there are other disadvantages to satellite vs. cable. Of course, in my neck of the woods, cable is not an option so there are advantages to satellite as well. BTW, in my neck of the woods, over the air is not an option either.
Libertarians are so much fun. If you disagree with one, you're a communist. Yep, I'm sure that's it.
What you're saying still fits with my (your) original burger example. I could then say that you still have other food options. While minor leagues are considered professional, they aren't televised nationally, which I would argue automatically excludes them from consideration.
This isn't about freedom - it's about the (possibly unlawful) restriction of the market. If it were a product you liked, you might understand it.
I did learn something, though. I didn't know underhanded artificial market control mechanisms are a "fleeting liberty that used to make this country great."
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