Dish Wins Lockout - Sports TV Back!

The days of Rupert Murdoch and his huge company News Corporation trying to bully the TV industry are quickly coming to an end. The power from Murdoch’s Company trying to force Dish Network customers into paying most of the satellite costs; while letting Directv escape any rate increases won’t work! Why? Because Dish Network refused to give in, to these bullying tactics, in which News Corporation and Fox Network supported; along side their greedy leader Rupert Murdoch.

Fox Sports has had a rough month. After not getting approved for their attempts to steal money from Dish customers, on the days right before October 1st. They demanded their sports channels to be pulled from the Dish Network line-up of sports programming. The Dish company urged Fox Sports to leave the channels up; while they continued with the negotiations, between the two parties. Nope, the over-confident folks in charge over at Fox said they wanted their channels off the Dish Network now! They are the ones who had absolutely no respect for you and didn’t care if you were going to miss your college football games or any of the MLB games; as baseball played their final regular season games of the year.

This was NOT Dish Network who pulled the plug and left sports fans without access to their local sports programming. Fox Sports had full confidence, the largest satellite company in the land, would give-in and meet their rate increases. They just knew Dish would not want to face their customers, if they couldn’t offer them their favorite local sports team. The pressure from angry satellite subscribers is what Fox Sports was counting on, so they could get away with their new rate increases, which were more than 50% higher!

So with no options or room to talk like civilized business people, the only thing Dish Network could legally do, was to honor the requests of the owners of Fox Sports. Which was to terminate their sports channels immediately from the Dish Network family of channels. When Dish customers turned on their TV sets and saw there was no sports to be watched, a lot of initial reactions and blame went toward the Dish Network Company. Which was really unfair to them, since it was the Fox Network and News Corporation folks who had actually pulled the plug.

I am one of the biggest sports fans you will find. I love all of my local pro and college sports teams. Not having access to these Fox Sports Channels was every bit as rough for me, if not rougher, than any other sports fans out there, who was dealing with this Fox Blackout. I immediately wanted to see what was going on. Who was to blame? What options do I have? How much longer will this Dish Blackout last? I was in a high-speed panic mode and had no idea what my research and investigations was going to find, in this Sports Blackout; which was going on between Dish and Fox Sports.

One of the first things I was able to find out for sure, was the company responsible for the blackout. It was Fox Sports who demanded to Dish Network, for them to pull their channels off the air. Dish Network was not left with any choices at this point, so by laws governing the air waves in America, the satellite company took away these sports channels.

After learning how the end came to be, I wanted to know what Dish Network had did wrong, for them to even be put in this situation. I was ready to uncover these Dish mistakes and highlight them online, for everyone to know what led to the Fox Network’s decision to pull these channels off the air, in such a brute and angry manner.

Well it’s hard to explain each and every detail, but if you wanted to try and put it in a nutshell; I guess you could say Dish Network’s mistake, was not having Rupert Murdoch for a owner or TV partner? I know that may sound a little lame, but you can’t even imagine how the real details of this 21st century high-tech battle for television revenues played out.

It all started with the recession in this country; which we are not just beginning to work our way out of it. Since these hard times in our nation’s financial troubles, we are not as rich as we use to be. Our country does not hold the wealth it once did just 5 or 10 years ago. At least 1 million college educated employees, who had been working for the same company for at least 1 year, was suddenly out of a job and having trouble finding a new one. As people lost their jobs, they could no longer afford to pay for their monthly mortgage bills. While banks were foreclosing on these home owners in debt, they were left with no loan payments coming in for their spending money. Finally the whole thing just caved in and the Government had to step in and start bailing companies out and pumping money into the economy with the stimulus package.

Now I know most of you know this story, because we all lived through it. In one way or another, the recession has affected all of our lives and in many cases, it is still uncertain how we will get our next job or pay check. Everybody in the United States of America knew this country was in financial trouble and just how unstable the Amercian home and family are right now. The fabric of our society is being held together by a paper thin thread. The slighest trouble for any industry these days, could have a domino-effect on an entire sector of the market. While we all know this as Americans, it seemed the people running Fox Sports had no knowledge of Americans losing jobs and homes.

The reason I know Fox Sports knew nothing about the recession or troubles facing Americans today, is because they asked for Dish Network customers to pay for their expensive homes, luxury cars, corporate office buildings, and other expenses they have acquired; while operating their sports programming around the country. All the executives from Fox Sports did, was to figure out their bills and how much money their company owed in expenses and how much money they would need to maintain their comfortable lifestyles. Once they got their dollar figure of the money they needed to make, it was time to bill their customers, who were using their television sports services.

Since Rupert Murdoch, had ties with Fox, News Corporation, and Directv, they would not be asking for any pay increases from these customers, who were related to Murdoch services. The satellite company called Directv would be free of any pay increases or rate hikes, so their satellite services and prices could stay competitive with their biggest competitor Dish Network. While not increasing the Fox Sports rates for Directv Customers any, the Dish Network customers would see a rate hike, and they could just finish paying off the bill; for the money figure Fox Sports needed to operate on and to maintain luxury lifestyles.

 

What Fox Sports didn’t realize, they were trying to increase Dish customer’s rates by more than 50%! And they were shocked when Dish Network refused to accept these outrageous charges? After seeing all of this, I knew the culprit was Fox Sports and they had been the blame from the start. So what finally caused Fox Sports to give in?

Well after Dish not only refuses to pay higher rates, they are also left with 0 money owed to Fox Sports. In order to survive this sports blackout, they would have to increase rates to Directv customers and advertisers. Which Directv would not be too happy with and why would advertisers pay more; when their TV ads would be seen by less people? The World in which Fox Sports executives were living-in, no longer exists now. They were the last group in America to be affected by the recession. Now what future costs will Fox Sports be paying for their childish and spoiled rich ways?

All advertisers who are seeking advertisements on television today, do want to continue avoid Fox Sports, the Fox News Channel, the local Fox stations, and the Fox Business Channel. Any TV channel that has the Fox name attached to it, is not a safe or wise long-term choice for advertising. The situation at Fox Sports is still very unsteady and they are not out of the woods yet. They still have to reconcile with the NCAA, Major League Baseball, NHL Hockey, and the National Basketball Association; which has just started up their season and was unable to bring their first games of the season to Dish Network sports fans, because Fox Sports blacked them out.

Advertising on Fox TV Stations is NOT recommended. The sports world is going to have a long talk with Fox Sports for their senseless acts and all the problems they caused for them self and sports fans who missed out on their favorite teams playing. I wouldn’t be surprised to see the NBA and MLB go to other networks and if this happens, don’t expect the NHL to hang around either. Fox Sports will be working their way out of this deep hole for a long time to come and I will be directing advertisers away from Fox Sports and Fox Channels every chance I get.

The final conclusion is the Dish Network Company won and did the right thing, by not paying ridiculous rate increases. Now by standing up to a huge corporation like News Corporation, it gives this satellite company something the other satellite company doesn’t have. A backbone!