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I’m told not to look for any resolution soon in that dispute between DirecTV and Comcast over the sports channel Versus. As you know, the El Segundo-based satellite TV provider on Tuesday stopped broadcasting Versus after Comcast wanted a huge money increase from DirecTV to carry the channel. So DirecTV called Comcast’s bluff, reportedly saying something to the effect that Half your programming is informercials, and the rest is bike races and bullriding and bass fishing. OK, it’s off. As one of my insiders puts it, “These wars are just beginning.”
Editor-in-Chief Nikki Finke - tip her here.
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Twitter has been lit up with cyclists petitioning DirectTV to keep it. My only questions is why would you be still on directTV when AT&T and Verizon have much better options!
I wouldn’t have COMCAST if they gave it to me for free.
Let Versus go! Who cares about informercials and bull riding?
Direct TV has enough crappy programing already. It could use a little thinning out.
Good for DirecTV.
Versus had to be the most worthless channel on satellite. A few NHL games and IndyCar races but overall a waste of bandwith.
I do not care about informercials but many people like bull riding.
The big one for me is hockey! Lets get Versus back on Directv! Comcast is being a pain charging 25% more to Directv. Directv offered to put it in there sports package so people that do not want it can make a choice, Comcast said NO.
Nikki,
Not taking sides, but I am sure this will get resolved quickly. Ask your new business partner.. he might know that the Indy Racing League is televised on Versus. And there is a well known owner with a Marlboro sponsored car that probably has some expectations of some eyeballs.
If Roger Penske can buy the Saturn car company on what was pretty much a whim, he can sure as hell play the role of Sidney Korshak in these silly cable tv / sat issues.
The Indy racing team is this man’s passion. And while I am sure he could care less about being on TV, I am guessing his sponsor does.
-SK
p.s.: on pins and needles to see the new site layout.
Yeah, well, some of us actually like that stuff (and Versus carries auto racing as well) and we didn’t get a choice. Not to mention DirecTV isn’t giving back money to customers when they cut channels, but we still have to pay our bill.
and USC FOOTBALL games!!?? i can tell you there are a lot of people worried about the future of versus — lots and lots of sc fans.
Charlie Mackenzie, you ignorant slut. Versus carries NHL games. They carry the playoffs. This may not mean shit to you since you didn’t grow up with hockey and you looooooooove your True Blood, but please don’t blather on about what channels should be cut when you have no idea what’s on.
Hockey has slowly become a niche sport, but in the Midwest and East Coast there’s a lot of money and fans involved.
They forgot to mention the same five craptastic movies rerun each and every night.
I don’t think I remember how to fall asleep without having flicked past Jean Claude Van Damme or Goldie Hawn at some point each night.
Comcast is the devil — as much I like the NHL, I’ll just catch all of it on my Center Ice package.
The only reason to have Direct TV is the NFL Sunday Ticket. As a transplanted New Yorker, I can still look forward almost every season to sitting back and watching Eli Manning and the Giants disappoint. I suffer through the rest of the Direct TV garbage for that privilege alone.
BTW, what the hell is Versus anyway?
Is this why I can’t watch Anthony Bourdain in HD on the travel channel on DirecTV?
Everyone in the cable/broadcast industry thought the retransmission fight would be the greatest with over-the-air affiliates. The greater battle would be those ‘niche’ cable channels that the MSOs deem disposable. Cable networks that bundle are the biggest culprits for too much commercial frequency, ex., MTV1, MTV2, MTV3, MTVetc… to ad nauseum: Why do I have to pay for the rest of the crap when all I want is ONE channel instead of splicing and dicing it into twelve? And the industry wonders why not just consumers but the cable operators consider a la carte service.
if directtv doesn’t carry versus, i’m taking a sledgehammer to my dish.
I told them so
DirecTV is such a superior product to Cable… I’ll roll with it.
Seems to me that one, ever day on Direct (maybe the others too) there are one or two “sales” channels added. So many now, it is crowding the “regular” channels making them difficult to find. Having no use for the “sales” they definitely make my viewing choices less happy. That and the pay movie channels running the same ones over and over again. Wish I could be a programer all I would have to do is recycle last months into the next. Adding the four or five “new” films into the mix. The dream is slowly dying, if it ever was a dream. As someone once said “we will have one thousand channels!” Yeah, and seven hundred of them will be merchandising, or I love Lucy re-runs. Direct and Dish kill cable, wonder what will kill Direct and Dish?
I look forward to the day when I can simply pay for the channels and/or programming I want and leave the rest off my radar. So many channels that I NEVER watch and wouldn’t ever miss having to scroll by. As for AT&T — it’s a slow roll-out as UVERSE isn’t available in my area, and I live in Van Nuys!
Games on Versus are blacked out on Directv’s Center Ice package, so you won’t see those games at all.
You want Vs…just get cable and stop whining. All you get is college football and hockey anyway.
What you are missing is Jeff Shell’s role in all of this. When he was tossed out of TV Guide by Newscorp he wanted to recreate his Fox Sports days at Comcast. He invested in the NHL thinking he would get the 8 game NFL package…and as everyone knows the NFL gave it to themselves. So now they have a C-grade sports channel that does deserve to be on the tier that DirecTV wants. Much of the programming besides the sports is modeled on E! — Sports Soup, Low Cost Movies, etc.
Like your new look ! Get versus only because I am a comcast subscriber. The channel is weak and NHL coverage is not very good. Entire channel is one step about the old cable public access stations we grew up with. Hope directTV plays hard ball as comcast deserves everything it gets.
Comcast is a cable company ripping off customers on a daily basis. I dropped Comcast FOR DirectTV because comcast has the worst customer service and robs people blind! Double billing, unexplained charges, late fees… all mistakes and they refuse to correct anything. Plus, just the fact that comcast is so concerned about Direct TV airing Versus proves NOBODY is watching anything on comcast. If you have comcast you’re getting robbed.
Versus… didn’t that used to be The Nashville Network? F Comcast and F nashville or versus or whatever those losers call it now. FN Rednecks.
Nobody watchs m.m.a.! I loved the channel cause u got to see the W.E.C.. W/out havin to pay 60+ bucks for some fights. I think both sides need to leave it be. They both make a grip of cash. I want my vs back.
I live in Los Angeles. What is Comcast and why should anyone care?
I was on the field at the 1984 Holiday Bowl for BYU’s improbable national championship. I went from Dish to DirecTV for two reasons:
1) I’m in a Comcast monopoly area now that they’ve bought out Adelphia. First thing they did was triple internet downtime and double the subscription cost. I WILL be SUBSCRIBER NUMBER ONE to Verizon when FIOS becomes available in this neighborhood, and from then on it’s FU Comcast.
2) the MWC’s goofy tv network, the MTN, is not available on Dish or I’d still be there. I’m a Pennsylvanian interested in TCU, BYU, Utah and Boise State football. I absolutely love seeing Mountain West teams kick the sh!t out of SEC and Big 12 teams.
BYU v. Florida State is day after tomorrow, exclusively on VS. October has a VS game between BYU and TCU, which figures to be one of the biggest football games of the regular season between any two teams. A lot on the line in that game.
My neighbor has Comcast cable tv. I’m loaning him my HDMI multimedia hard drive. He’ll record the game on his computer, dump it to my drive the second the final whistle blows, and I’ll come get the drive.
Guess how much remorse I’m going to feel pirating Comcast content on those two game days?
Comcast can go straight to hell. Not one dime for them or their advertisers.
Funny…….but wasn’t it Comcast that wouldn’t put Big Ten Network on…..saying they were “standing up for their suscribers” and that they would not be “pushed around by networks”? I guess “their” network is different and they don’t like it when someone DARES to stand up to them.
Hey DirecTV, send VS packing and give us something better–Universal Sports, for example.