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DirecTV and Uverse dropped CBS Sports Network

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Hagbard Celine

Hagbard Celine 10,763

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asshattery avoidance engine:

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https://www.textise.net/

 

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Millions of DirecTV subscribers lost access to CBS programming this weekend after talks over a new distribution deal collapsed.

 

CBS Corp. and AT&T Inc., which owns El Segundo-based DirecTV, failed to reach an agreement by the Friday night deadline. Without a contract in place, AT&T no longer has authorization to include CBS station signals in its television packages in more than a dozen cities, including Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, San Francisco and Sacramento. The station signals were pulled about 11:15 p.m. Pacific time on Friday.

 

Nearly 6.6 million AT&T subscriber homes in the country — including 1.4 million in the Los Angeles region — lost access to their local CBS station.

 

CBS owns two stations in Southern California, KCBS-TV (Channel 2) and KCAL-TV (Channel 9), and both were included in the blackout. The outage extends to CBS’ Smithsonian Channel, the CBS Sports channel and four television stations owned by CBS that carry CW programming. Customers of AT&T’s other TV platforms — U-Verse and DirecTV Now, a streaming service — now are also without CBS programming.

 

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It was not immediately clear how long the standoff would last.

 

“While we continue to negotiate in good faith and hope that AT&T agrees to fair terms soon, the loss of CBS programming could last a long time,” CBS said in a statement shortly after the outage began. “CBS is simply looking to receive fair value for its popular programming.”

 

CBS has been demanding higher carriage fees from pay-TV distributors. The New York broadcasting company has been steadily increasing the revenue it receives from so-called retransmission fees so that it is less reliant on advertising. TV ratings have been declining but programming costs are on the rise. CBS is also preparing to head into crucial contract negotiations with the NFL. Analysts say CBS and other broadcasters probably will have to fork over hundreds of millions of dollars more annually to retain their NFL game packages.

 

CBS uses revenue from retransmission fees to help cover the high cost of football.

 

 
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But CBS’ push comes as AT&T and other pay-TV companies are struggling to hold the line on programming costs because they fear losing even more subscribers to lower-cost streaming services such as Hulu and Netflix.

 

“The problem is that broadcasters, like CBS, demand more money for shows that their viewers — our subscribers — are watching less,” AT&T said Friday in a letter sent to members of Congress, warning of a possible blackout. “Our customers are fed up with these tactics. They are tired of the endless cycle of price increases and blackouts.”

 

The Dallas- based telecommunications giant has been under increasing pressure to control costs as it grapples with a huge number of customer defections. AT&T is the nation’s largest pay-TV provider with nearly 24 million homes, but it has lost more than 1 million DirecTV subscribers in the last year. So the company has been balking at CBS’ demands.

 

The outage means that AT&T subscribers in major markets (where CBS owns the local station) no longer have easy access to “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert,” “CBS Sunday Morning” and “60 Minutes.”

 

“We had hoped to avoid any unnecessary interruption to any CBS-owned stations or national channels that some of our customers care about. But CBS refused,” AT&T said.

 

CBS blamed AT&T for the impasse, adding that it offered AT&T a contract extension so the two sides could try to reach an accord.

 

“AT&T’s willingness to deprive its customers of valuable content has become routine over the last few weeks and months, and recent negotiations have regularly resulted in carriage disputes, blackouts and popular channels being removed from their service,” CBS said in a statement.

 

The blackout comes as AT&T already is feeling the pinch. Last year, AT&T purchased programming company Time Warner Inc., which was the parent of CNN, HBO, Cartoon Network, TBS and the Warner Bros. film and television studio. AT&T took on enormous debt to finance that acquisition, as well as the DirecTV purchase in 2015. Investors have been encouraging AT&T to find ways to reduce costs and pay down its debt of more than $150 billion.

 

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CBS last negotiated a retransmission agreement with DirecTV in 2012 — three years before AT&T acquired the satellite TV company. The television landscape has changed dramatically since, and CBS appears to be looking to make big gains in this round of negotiations.

 

This is the second time this month that AT&T has lost programming of a major television station group. In early July, AT&T was forced to drop carriage of 120 Nexstar TV stations after AT&T refused to agree to Nexstar’s demands. Nexstar, which is based in Irving, Texas, currently serves such communities as San Francisco, Fresno, Bakersfield, Colorado Springs, Colo., and Wichita, Kan.

 

Some members of Congress have called on Nexstar and AT&T to settle that dispute.

 

To prepare for the blackout, AT&T has been steering consumers to its Locast app, which enables viewers to stream programming from their ABC, CBS and other broadcast stations via the Internet. AT&T also recommended that its subscribers sign up for the CBS All Access streaming service, at $5.99 a month. In addition, consumers can install digital antennas to receive the signals of broadcast stations, including CBS. The use of such devices has been on the upswing.

 

 
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Hagbard Celine

Hagbard Celine 10,763

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“The problem is that broadcasters, like CBS, demand more money for shows that their viewers — our subscribers — are watching less,” AT&T said Friday in a letter sent to members of Congress, warning of a possible blackout. “Our customers are fed up with these tactics. They are tired of the endless cycle of price increases and blackouts.”

"our subscribers - are watching less"

asshattery.  if you didn't overprice your compressed HD bandwidth where fiber hasn't gotten to, if you didn't deliver cell software that drops calls regularly and malfunctions ALL THE TIME, and if you didn't act like the corporate deathstar you have become, your customers might "watch more" (i.e. not tell you to fuck off with joy after getting raped by you for decades at a time).

your customers are fed up with your bitchassedness, and laugh at your leveraged debt position.

fuck you, and fuck ajit pai.

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Sbbruin

Sbbruin 21,736

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Yeah, I pay WAY too much for my bundled package of Directv, shitty internet, and a landline (yes, a landline,  for a phone I haven't answered in close to a year).  Once I stop being lazy, I'll deal with this issue.  Just waiting for that moment to come.

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jimmyjazz

jimmyjazz 45,558

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This appears to be an issue in select cities, not nationwide.  I'm a DirecTV subscriber and can still get KEYE (Austin CBS).

Now, I can't get KXAN (Austin NBC), so I'm all about raging on the bullshit that happens between networks and distributors on a fairly regular basis, but honestly, I'm not sure which entities are more to blame.  At this point, though, it appears that CBS is still available throughout most of the US for AT&T customers.

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jimmyjazz

jimmyjazz 45,558

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I was pretty "eh" about losing KXAN while the 2 fought it out, because the only NBC programming I watch tends to be local news (Jim Spencer Tornado Boner FTW) and then some crappy in-season programming that I can live without . . . but this weekend it occurred to me that The Open from Northern Ireland wasn't gonna happen and I got a little ragey.

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DLev

DLev 12

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48 minutes ago, Hagbard Celine said:

"our subscribers - are watching less"

asshattery.  if you didn't overprice your compressed HD bandwidth where fiber hasn't gotten to, if you didn't deliver cell software that drops calls regularly and malfunctions ALL THE TIME, and if you didn't act like the corporate deathstar you have become, your customers might "watch more" (i.e. not tell you to fuck off with joy after getting raped by you for decades at a time).

your customers are fed up with your bitchassedness, and laugh at your leveraged debt position.

fuck you, and fuck ajit pai.

What are you babbling about?  How is anything in this post related to the relative viewing audience of one channel versus another, which was the point of what you quoted?

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Pato del Muerto

Pato del Muerto 52,342

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33 minutes ago, jimmyjazz said:

I was pretty "eh" about losing KXAN while the 2 fought it out, because the only NBC programming I watch tends to be local news (Jim Spencer Tornado Boner FTW) and then some crappy in-season programming that I can live without . . . but this weekend it occurred to me that The Open from Northern Ireland wasn't gonna happen and I got a little ragey.

How did I just watch the open on the nbc sports app with dtvnow credentials?  

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Red Five

Red Five 40,664

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They sure seem intent on driving people to cut the cord. "Hey Red Five, good news. Your bill is going up by 30% and you no longer get fucking NBC. But don't worry, you still get 14,000 channels you've never watched and don't even know you have."

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jimmyjazz

jimmyjazz 45,558

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10 minutes ago, Pato del Muerto said:

How did I just watch the open on the nbc sports app with dtvnow credentials?  

I don't know.  I was able to stream it on a computer -- presumably, I could have done so on TV but all mine are older and don't really play nice with the internet -- so I assume the real disagreement is between local affiliates and AT&T.

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Vic Mackey

Vic Mackey 46,936

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They usually work out a deal in the end. I have Dish Network and I remember losing Fox Sports and NFL Network at one point and they came back sooner than later.

Greedy fucking networks and providers having a pissing contest.

Also, fuck DirecTv in the goat's ass. Especially once ATT came into the picture. They ruin everything.

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Nueces River Rat

Nueces River Rat 5,529

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Thanks to AT&T, most of the Astros TV market can't watch their games because the primary carrier  for cable  outside of Houston is Spectrum and a few other regional cable providers.   So if you don't have Direct TV or AT&T U verse , you are Astroless unless they playing the Rangers on FSW or a national telecast on Fox Net, FS1 or ESPN.  

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David Dennison

David Dennison 18,658

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3 minutes ago, Nueces River Rat said:

Thanks to AT&T, most of the Astros TV market can't watch their games because the primary carrier  for cable  outside of Houston is Spectrum and a few other regional cable providers.   So if you don't have Direct TV or AT&T U verse , you are Astroless unless they playing the Rangers on FSW or a national telecast on Fox Net, FS1 or ESPN.  

https://www.reddit.com/r/MLBStreams/

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AUinHsv

AUinHsv 576

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2 hours ago, Hagbard Celine said:

"our subscribers - are watching less"

asshattery.  if you didn't overprice your compressed HD bandwidth where fiber hasn't gotten to, if you didn't deliver cell software that drops calls regularly and malfunctions ALL THE TIME, and if you didn't act like the corporate deathstar you have become, your customers might "watch more" (i.e. not tell you to fuck off with joy after getting raped by you for decades at a time).

your customers are fed up with your bitchassedness, and laugh at your leveraged debt position.

fuck you, and fuck ajit pai.

and if you didn't bundle a gazillion useless channels I might care. Give me ala carte now and let me pay only for the 20-30 channels I want.

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Beau Vine

Beau Vine 54,001

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1 hour ago, Red Five said:

They sure seem intent on driving people to cut the cord. "Hey Red Five, good news. Your bill is going up by 30% and you no longer get fucking NBC. But don't worry, you still get 14,000 channels you've never watched and don't even know you have."

Don't forget about all of the music channels. 

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jimmyjazz

jimmyjazz 45,558

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2 minutes ago, Beau Vine said:

This.  If you're missing the Rice game because you inexplicably still pay money to Directv, that's your own fault.

Well, if you have a great suggestion for getting 7 people the smorgasbord of channels they watch across 4 TVs, I'm all ears.

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Drew

Drew 2,331

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Really don't get the hate for Direct only here...it's both parties fault.  Both want more money than any of this is worth.  Streaming is about to make it all obsolete anyways.

 

Also, I switched from ATT cell service after having it for the last 17 years because I finally wanted to pay a cheaper price, and checked out everyone...I had the new company 3 months before going back to ATT.  When it comes to service they're still top notch for me.

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Beau Vine

Beau Vine 54,001

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10 minutes ago, Drew said:

Really don't get the hate for Direct only here...it's both parties fault.  Both want more money than any of this is worth.  Streaming is about to make it all obsolete anyways.

 

Also, I switched from ATT cell service after having it for the last 17 years because I finally wanted to pay a cheaper price, and checked out everyone...I had the new company 3 months before going back to ATT.  When it comes to service they're still top notch for me.

We had DIrectv and ATT cell for 20 years.  Directv used to be the provider who you could count on to provide every channel you wanted; you'd pay extra for that, but OK.  Then they got bought by AT&T and they turned to shit.  We dropped both of them within 3 months of each other because the service had gotten so bad.  My wife handles the phone account.  She shopped Verizon, then called AT&T and asked them to match.  They said no.  She said, "You're about to lose some 20 year customers."  They didn't care. 

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Drew

Drew 2,331

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Oh I did the same thing...switch to Verizon.  Lasted 3 months before going back.  Wife was PISSED I switched us, did nothing but bitch and gripe.  More dropped calls in 3 months than we had the entire 17 years with ATT.  It was just the price.  When we went back to ATT our priced dropped drastically. So I guess it was worth it.

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Sbbruin

Sbbruin 21,736

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18 minutes ago, Drew said:

Oh I did the same thing...switch to Verizon.  Lasted 3 months before going back.  Wife was PISSED I switched us, did nothing but bitch and gripe.  More dropped calls in 3 months than we had the entire 17 years with ATT.  It was just the price.  When we went back to ATT our priced dropped drastically. So I guess it was worth it.

Verizon is lightyears more reliable out here than AT&T.  

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Lhorn

Lhorn 4,885

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5 hours ago, Sbbruin said:

Yeah, I pay WAY too much for my bundled package of Directv, shitty internet, and a landline (yes, a landline,  for a phone I haven't answered in close to a year).  Once I stop being lazy, I'll deal with this issue.  Just waiting for that moment to come.

This is EXACTLY my MO in dealing with DTV and ATT

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mulletpelini

mulletpelini 5,209

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5 years+ without anything but internet.  Don't really feel like I've missed much.  I get 64 channels from an old antenna I found in the attic from the previous owners.  Would suck if reddit isn't available come football season though.  Guess I'll go to Emerson Bigguns

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Nueces River Rat

Nueces River Rat 5,529

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14 hours ago, Sbbruin said:

Verizon is lightyears more reliable out here than AT&T.  

Unfortunately in  portions of the Hill Country and Big Bend areas AT&T is the only signal you can pick up, so I have to go with AT&T.

I've heard T-Mobile has picked up it's game in some areas of the Hill Country and I'm thinking about giving them a test run when I go up there to see if that is accurate.    I'd love to give AT&T the one finger salute once and for all.  

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Thiefery

Thiefery 4,969

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One of the few perks of living in VA is having verizon Fios as my internet/cable provider. Customer service has always been good so I haven't done the cord cutting yet.  Only gripe is that the LHN channel is still only available in Standard definition. However it's HD off my PS4.

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ImissWallyPryor

ImissWallyPryor 9,045

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23 hours ago, Hagbard Celine said:

"our subscribers - are watching less"

asshattery.  if you didn't overprice your compressed HD bandwidth where fiber hasn't gotten to, if you didn't deliver cell software that drops calls regularly and malfunctions ALL THE TIME, and if you didn't act like the corporate deathstar you have become, your customers might "watch more" (i.e. not tell you to fuck off with joy after getting raped by you for decades at a time).

your customers are fed up with your bitchassedness, and laugh at your leveraged debt position.

fuck you, and fuck ajit pai.

Strange that AT&T recently bought CNN with their viewership being way down. Subscribers viewing less is a selective excuse. 

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