Devil Rays on HD? Not for Bright House customers.

[JayMunOne]

Why do they continue to drop the ball?

MORE LOCAL HD: FSN Florida will produce 75 regular-season games, including 39 in high-definition.

The HD games, up from 30 games last season, are available on Verizon FiOS and DirecTV only. Bright House Networks does not offer the FSN Florida HD package.

So forget the local market of fans the Rays are trying to build a market for, but everyone else across the country (except for the lucky few in North Pinellas and Hillsborough who receive FIOS) can watch Rays games in HD.

So cable companies will be able to offer Extra Innings. Big Deal. Here in Bright House country--we get the games, but unable to get those which will be broadcast in HD. While Bright House customers will pay the same amount for the Extra Innings package as DirecTV customers (a very generous $179), we will be UNABLE to receive the HD feeds of those games which DirecTV customers get at no extra cost.

Still no NFL network. No Rays games in HD. No FSN Florida HD package. And we just NOW get ESPN 2 in HD after another missed college hoops and football season? And my bill still reads close to $200 a month.

See how bright life can be?

[Resco]

Jay,

Check out I believe channel 651. There is a list of D-rays games coming up that will be shown in HD.

[JayMunOne]

Two corrections. My apologies.

First, the information above in italics is from the Tampa Tribune, where I got the information regarding Devil Rays games in HD. I see that Bright House will be airing SOME of those 39 games FSN Florida will be broadcasting in HD. Some, not all. Still, in a major metropolitan area with three major sports teams, the primary cable outlet should offer FSN Florida in HD.

Secondly, regarding Extra Innings, DirecTV charges an additional $40 a year to receive all the HD feeds of those games available daily in HD.

My mistake--but still, Bright House themselves has unmistakably dropped the ball in the sports department.

[Resco]

Jay,

You were not completley wrong!

The Rays game tonight on channel 651 was NOT in HD.

It was just a stretched screen SD version of channel 17.

This was similar to late last year when BHN indicated they were going to broadcast the games in HD and they were in SD.

I am curious how the game on Friday is going to be.

[JayMunOne]

That wasn't Bright House's fault. Per the Tribune article, only select Rays games on FSN Florida will be produced and broadcast in HD. Last night's game was a WXPX/ION game. The first FSN Florida game isn't until Sunday--should that game be broadcast on 651, we will then see what's what.

Regardless, we are TV market #12. Come on--we should have FSN Florida AND Sun Sports in HD.

I know I am ranting, but all this has made me question something else. I am curious if we are the largest market WITH an NFL team whose primary cable outlet does not carry the NFL Network. I'm going to do some research on that one.

[JayMunOne]

Here's what I found out:

1 New York 7,366,950 6.616
-Main cable companies: TWC and Cablevision. Neither carry NFL Net.
2 Los Angeles 5,611,110 5.039
-No NFL team. Who cares.
3 Chicago 3,455,020 3.103
-Main cable company: Comcast. Bears fans rejoice.
4 Philadelphia 2,941,450 2.642
-Also Comcast country. No problem.
5 San Fran/Oakland 2,383,570 2.141
-Comcast is the major cable outlet.
6 Dallas-Ft. Worth 2,378,660 2.136
-Three major cable outlets: TWC, Grande (TX-only co.) and Comcast.
The first two do not, Comcast does.
7 Boston 2,372,030 2.130
-Comcast. Tom Brady's kids can watch.
8 Washington, DC 2,272,120 2.041
-Comcast and Cox, which both carry the NFL net on a premier tier.
9 Atlanta 2,205,510 1.981
-Comcast.
10 Houston 1,982,120 1.780
-TWC up until 2007. Now Comcast. Now NFL.
11 Detroit 1,938,320 1.741
-Comcast.
12 Tampa-St. Pete 1,755,750 1.577
-Primary cable outlet: TWC.


I guess I could've stopped at New York, since that answered my question. However--Tampa Bay is next at #12.

[Resco]

Jay,

Nice research!

BHN should remove the games listed on 651 that indicate HD when in fact they are just SD ION stretched telecasts.

Can you provide a list of the HD games broadcast on FSN?

[h8makingbogey]

Great posts Jay. Maybe you (or anyone else for that matter) can educate me on something. With regards to the deal that was just struck, allowing cable companies to carry MLB Extra Innings....What would it take for the same type of deal to happen with the NFL Sunday Ticket?

[JayMunOne]

Thanks a lot. I really don't want to complain, but as a diehard sports fan (especially with out of market teams), I want to be able to support local companies (Bright House-Clearwater over DirecTV) while maintaining a good balance of programming. I honestly believe that we do not get that with Time Warner Cable.

As for your question, it was one I raised several years ago to my contracts professor in law school with Sunday Ticket. The question is one which was answered by InDemand/Charter and Major League Baseball this week. If a second party is willing to abide by the same provisions as the original contracted party, can a exclusivity agreement be breached (or altered) if it is in the best interest of the consumer? I'd like to think this kind of agreement could happen with football, but it is pretty unlikely.

First, this issue with regards to Sunday Ticket was never raised initially by any cable companies. While this week has changed the field a bit when it comes to these out-of-market sports packages, this wasn't raised when the Sunday Ticket deal was signed by the NFL and DirecTV years ago. When Sunday Ticket was launched in 1994, it was strictly a DirecTV/C-band enterprise. Cable was NEVER in the mix. This was before digital cable, when the potential for expanded programming was impossible without buying a dish. From what I remember, Extra Innings has always been available on both cable and satellite.

Secondly, it's all about $$$$. The Extra Innings agreement is approximately $700 million for 7 years. The Sunday Ticket agreement is approximately $700 million per year. Huge difference.

Thirdly, if a deal regarding Sunday Ticket were to resemble the Extra Innings agreement, cable companies would have to agree to carry the sports league' respective flagship channel. And as we already know, even if a deal could be reached with cable companies, Time Warner won't carry the NFL Network.

However, since Verizon currently has an agreement with DirecTV to offer the satellite service in their "phone-web-cable" packages in areas where FiOS isn't available, I wouldn't be surprised if the two negotiated a reciprocity agreement whereby FiOS could carry Sunday Ticket, under guidelines provided by the National Football League (in other words, $$$).

Hope this helps.

[h8makingbogey]

Exactly what I was looking for Jay. Thanks again.

[Roger 9]

Jay, DirecTV has absolute exclusivity to the NFL and the contract states that cable cannot "buy in." They fork over that kind of yearly $$$ because without the #1 sport people have no reason, other than those who live in the 'burbs where no cable is available, to hang a dish on their house.

You saw politicians stumbling all over themselves when it came to MLB EI. There was nary a one who piped up when NFL jumped to DirecTV. There were no gray areas in the football agreement. Even if there were provisions for cable operators it would have been clearly cost prohibitive.

Another reason why MLB bent with EI was the more the income the more they had to build and have the biggest rollout of any cable station in history with the MLB Channel. Not only that, the regular price jumped from $159 to $199 (regular price). Times that $40.00 increase by 200,000 customers that's $16 mil over two years - on top of what they were already making through cable - to build that station. That doesn't even include the $$$ agreed to by DirecTV. You won't get the channel for two years but you are paying for it NOW. PT Barnum was right, there ARE suckers born every day.

In addition, the way the contract was written with DirecTV, MLB knew the cable operators would eventually acquiesce so they could get their channel on all the systems and if I am not mistaken, it will be unlike the NBA where it will be on basic.

You are correct though that it was all about the Benjamins and when MLB yelled "Show me the money," the cable people handed it over right after coughing.

[Palmateer]

To sum up the topic of this thread:


Here in Pinellas County (and perhaps in other Florida locations), Bright House Networks has set up an HD channel (651) which they labeled "Rays HD Games."

You would think that all the Rays games shown on this HD channel would be in High Definition, right?

You might assume that this channel would include the 39 HD games announced by FSN for this season, right?

Wrong. Most are Faux HD, Phony HD, High Definition for the Stupid!

Channel 651 only presents the ION games. Even worse, most of the games shown on channel 651 are SD (4:3 ratio) games that are upconverted and then stretched horizontally to fill the 16:9 ratio. Roger 9 and I have bombarded BHN with complaints about this so-called "Rays HD Games" channel, so Bright House responded by adding the following qualifiers to channel 651’s menu:

"Games brought to you by ION Media" and
"HD Carriage subject to change."

The only Rays HD Games being shown on channel 651 are the six ION games that are in real HD. The first of these was shown on May 4, and it looked terrific! The rest of the true HD games are scheduled to be shown on June 23, July 13, July 14, July 27, and July 28.

[JayMunOne]

I agree. We're not idiots (at least, not some of us). I don't intend to continue spending $150+ a month for Bright House to insult my intelligence.

See how bright life can be?

[Roger 9]

I agree. We're not idiots (at least, not some of us). I don't intend to continue spending $150+ a month for Bright House to insult my intelligence.

See how bright life can be? Too funny. :D :D :D

Time Warner (BHN parent) is located in NYC and they are trying to bring their big city pricing to an area that doesn't have a lot of disposable cash. They figure that just because people want something they are willing to pay for it. To some extent I agree but not when the quality doesn't measure up to cost.

I am lucky to be able to pay for HD programming but am thinking of going to Dish basic with HD until FiOS is available. What I am paying for digital/HD/HD upper is nearly identical (I live in a condo and get BHN basic as part of my monthly fee). I lose about three channels, gain seven and will get the HD programming from FSN Florida, not to mention a better signal.

See, even BHN has made ME brighter too! :p

[Bschneider]

Time Warner (BHN parent) is located in NYC

Correction. Time Warner is NOT the parent of BHN.

[JayMunOne]

Jay, DirecTV has absolute exclusivity to the NFL and the contract states that cable cannot "buy in."

Not necessarily true. First, they can contract out of that exclusivity, and as a partner with Verizon, DirecTV could, hypothetically, engage in a simulcast agreement with Verizon.

Additionally, as I stated above, Sunday Ticket was an enterprise first launched with C-band (ie. the BIG dish) customers in mind. This was 1994, when DirecTV was in its' infancy. While DTV was indeed a party in the contract, they were not the player C-band was in the deal.

And as far as I know, Sunday Ticket is still offered to both DirecTV and C-band customers.

[Resco]

B,

I have attached an article explaining the "relationship" between, Time Warner, Advance/Newhouse and Bright House. It is an interesting partership they have.

One can draw their own conclusions on who is calling the shots:

Time Warner Cable and Advance/Newhouse Announce New Cable Partnership Structure
June 24, 2002

NEW YORK and STAMFORD, CT, June 24, 2002 — Time Warner Cable, a division of AOL Time Warner Inc. (NYSE: AOL), and Advance/Newhouse Communications today announced a new structure for their cable partnership.

This new structure will enable Advance/Newhouse to take a more active management role in the day-to-day operations of certain cable partnership systems. Serving approximately 2.1 million cable customers, the systems that Advance/Newhouse will manage are located in Central Florida; Tampa Bay, FL; Birmingham, AL; Indianapolis, IN; Bakersfield, CA and Detroit, MI; and will include several smaller systems in Alabama and northern Florida.

As a result of this restructuring, Advance/Newhouse's economic interest in the cable partnership will track only those systems that it will manage rather than one-third of all cable partnership systems. The economic stakes of AOL Time Warner and Time Warner Entertainment Company, L.P. (TWE) — a separate partnership between AOL Time Warner and AT&T — will track the cable partnership's other systems. When the transaction is complete, Time Warner Cable will continue to fully manage cable systems serving a total of 10.8 million cable subscribers.

Time Warner Cable will continue to provide certain management functions, including programming, for all of the cable partnership's systems. In addition, all of the cable partnership's systems, including those to be managed by Advance/Newhouse, will continue to support multiple ISPs — including AOL High Speed Broadband, Road Runner and EarthLink services — and will roll out other new service technologies like video-on-demand (VOD), subscription VOD, digital video recording and home networking. In the future, the partners will explore ways to work together to provide technological and new product development services jointly for all of the cable partnership's systems.

"We are pleased that this agreement will keep Advance/Newhouse and its cable subscribers in the family," said Glenn Britt, Chairman and CEO of Time Warner Cable. "Together, we will ensure that our customers enjoy a seamless transition, while we continue to benefit operationally from the existing advantages of scale."

"We are pleased to be assuming oversight of the day-to-day management of these fine cable systems. With their strong management teams and dedicated employees, we look forward to providing our customers a great video and data experience and a very high level of customer service and support," said Robert Miron, CEO of Advance/Newhouse. "At the same time, our customers will benefit from the continued cable partnership with Time Warner Cable through the rollout of multiple ISPs, video-on-demand and other advanced services."

All local management decisions at the Advance/Newhouse-managed systems will continue to be made at the local level, just as they have been under the Time Warner Cable structure. No layoffs or job eliminations are planned by virtue of this restructuring.

Advance/Newhouse is expected to assume management responsibility for these systems later this year. After that time, the assets and liabilities and the results of operations — including revenues, EBITDA and operating income — of the cable systems managed by Advance/Newhouse will no longer be reflected in the consolidated financial statements of AOL Time Warner or TWE. This transaction is not expected to have a material impact on the operating metrics, such as subscriber penetration and average revenue per subscriber, of the cable systems fully managed by Time Warner Cable.

For the first quarter of 2002, the impact of deconsolidating the cable systems which Advance/Newhouse will manage would have reduced the revenues and EBITDA of AOL Time Warner's Cable segment by approximately $350 million and $160 million, respectively. For the full-year 2001, the impact of deconsolidating the Advance/Newhouse-managed systems would have reduced the revenues and EBITDA of AOL Time Warner's Cable segment by approximately $1.250 billion and $570 million, respectively. As of March 31, 2002, AOL Time Warner's net debt would have been reduced by approximately $800 million as a result of this transaction.

As part of this new cable partnership structure, Time Warner Cable will acquire Advance/Newhouse's interest in Road Runner, the world's largest high-speed cable modem Internet service, and consolidate Road Runner's assets, liabilities and results of operations in the consolidated financial statements of AOL Time Warner and TWE. After considering the elimination of intercompany transactions between AOL Time Warner's Cable segment and Road Runner, for the first quarter of 2002, the impact of consolidating Road Runner would have increased revenues and decreased EBITDA for AOL Time Warner's Cable segment by approximately $25 million and $30 million, respectively. For the full-year 2001, the impact of consolidating Road Runner would have increased revenues and decreased EBITDA for AOL Time Warner's Cable segment by approximately $90 million and $170 million, respectively.

Formed in 1995, the objective of the original cable partnership between Time Warner Cable — through TWE — and Advance/Newhouse was to pool their resources to create stronger cable clusters. Time Warner Cable and Advance/Newhouse contributed approximately 3 million and 1.5 million subscribers, respectively, to the original cable partnership. Through this cable partnership, the two operators were able to build more economically valuable clusters in cities and put themselves in a better position to trade with other cable operators to create new cable clusters.

The cable partnership of Time Warner Cable and Advance/Newhouse currently serves approximately 7 million subscribers, including those systems to be managed by Advance/Newhouse, and major clusters in upstate New York and the Carolinas, as well as 1.2 million subscribers served by Texas Cable Partners, a 50%-owned partnership, whose financial results are not consolidated with those of AOL Time Warner.

The completion of this transaction is subject to customary closing conditions, including required regulatory approvals.

About Time Warner Cable
Time Warner Cable owns and manages the world's most advanced, best-clustered cable television operations, with 92 percent of its customers in systems of 100,000 subscribers or more. It is a division of AOL Time Warner Inc.

About Advance/Newhouse Communications
Advance/Newhouse is a privately held company headquartered in Syracuse, New York. In addition to its interest in the TWE-A/N cable partnership, Advance/Newhouse holds interests in Discovery Communications, Inc. and Time Warner Telecom, Inc. Robert Miron, the CEO of Advance/Newhouse, has held various positions with Advance/Newhouse for over 30 years and, in addition to other industry positions, has twice served as Chairman of the National Cable Television Association.

Advance/Newhouse is owned by the Newhouse family. In addition to its cable television and programming interests, the Newhouse family's businesses include Condé Nast magazines, PARADE magazine, Golf Digest Companies, Fairchild Publications, daily newspapers serving 26 cities (including Birmingham), American City Business Journals, which publishes business journals in over 45 cities (including Tampa, Orlando and Birmingham), and Advance Internet and CondéNet, producers of online services.

Caution Concerning Forward-Looking Statements
This document includes certain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements are based on management's current expectations or beliefs, and are subject to uncertainty and changes in circumstances. Actual results may vary materially from those expressed or implied by the statements herein due to changes in economic, business, competitive, technological and/or regulatory factors, and factors affecting the integration of the businesses of AOL Time Warner Inc. More detailed information about these factors may be found in filings by AOL Time Warner and Time Warner Entertainment Company, L.P. with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including their most recent annual reports on Form 10-K and quarterly reports on Form 10-Q. AOL Time Warner and Time Warner Entertainment Company, L.P. are under no obligation to, and expressly disclaim any such obligation to, update or alter their forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise.

[Bschneider]

I am quite aware of the relationship between Time Warner and BHN. Greg has even stated that they use Time Warner for negostiations for cable carriage.

But where does it state in that article that Time Warner is the parent company of BHN? Having a partnership and being a parent company is two totally different things. I am still correct, 'Time Warner is NOT the parent of BHN.'

[Resco]

B,

The question is more about what percentage or stake Time Warner and/or Advance/Newhouse has in Bright house.

Perhaps Greg could shed some light on this.

As to the statement that Time Warner is the parent of BHN, it shoud be something more like this, Time Warner has a somewhat indirect control over BHN. How much is unknown.

Below is from BHN web site:

Advance/Newhouse manages Bright House Networks, which serves over 2.2 million subscribers in cable television systems located in and around Tampa Bay, Central Florida, Indianapolis, Birmingham, Bakersfield and Detroit along with several smaller systems in Alabama and panhandle Florida. Advance/Newhouse is a privately held company headquartered in Syracuse, New York. The Advance/Newhouse partners’ other interests include Condé Nast magazines, PARADE magazine, daily newspapers serving 26 cities, American City Business Journals, which publishes business
journals in over 40 cities, Advance Internet and CondéNet, producers of online services, and a significant interest in Discovery Communications, Inc.

[Roger 9]

It was a bit tongue-in-cheek when I said TW was parent to BHN because they all live in the same house, which in our neck of the woods isn't very bright. ;)

Not necessarily true. First, they can contract out of that exclusivity, and as a partner with Verizon, DirecTV could, hypothetically, engage in a simulcast agreement with Verizon.

Additionally, as I stated above, Sunday Ticket was an enterprise first launched with C-band (ie. the BIG dish) customers in mind. This was 1994, when DirecTV was in its' infancy. While DTV was indeed a party in the contract, they were not the player C-band was in the deal.

And as far as I know, Sunday Ticket is still offered to both DirecTV and C-band customers.

It is still for bird customers only. As I said in my previous post it is cost prohibitive for cable to jump into that pool.

[Resco]

Roger,

In your research regarding BHN, who owns them?

Is it Advance/Newhouse, TW or a combination of both?

there is not a lot of information on this.

Thanks

[Bschneider]

Here is the Time Warner - Advance / Newhouse Partnership Agreement Contract. This contract took effect in 2002 and expires in 2045. This should clear up the answers..

http://contracts.onecle.com/time-warner/advance.partner.2002.08.01.shtml

[Bschneider]

Here is another interesting article about the partnership.

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0DIZ/is_12_14/ai_84593503

[Resco]

B,

Very interesting reading! Thank You!

Per the second article ( I am not a lawyer and have not read all of the contract you posted ) it appears that Advance/Newhouse has a 1/3 stake and TW has a 2/3 stake in the parternership.

[Bschneider]

I read that too. But if you read the contract, I am not too sure about those stakes.

[Roger 9]

I guess that's why they're lawyers and we're not, huh? :rolleyes: