I would like to use the valuable real estate of this web site to tell the folks at Adelphia Cable to go f–k themselves, the greedy bastards.
If you think I am paying 30 bucks to watch the WVU/Miss. State game, you are sadly mistaken. I will listen to it on the radio, and I will turn off my tv and not watch anything else during the game on any other channel, so your advertisers are not getting any bang for their buck in my household.
/rant
Steve
Isn’t Mississippi State a truly awful team? Ask if you can pay 2 bucks for the first 5 minutes, it ought to be over by then.
KC
I’m 100% with you John. I have Comcast cable for my internet and television. Before I moved in with my girlfriend, I noticed on my bills they kept attaching wierd fees for things I never heard of. I would call them and bitch and usually they would reverse the charges. When they stopped doing that though, I told them to take a hike–I’d listen to the Giants (SF Giants, that is) on the radio.
Anything to make a buck these days.
Davebo
It’s most likely you should be blaming the athletic director or either WVU or MS state.
And given the two’s relative ranking you could probably narrow it down to WVU.
Bas-O-Matic
It’s most likely you should be blaming the athletic director or either WVU or MS state.
Blame it on whatever local station declined to carry the game. Or on ESPN, Fox, or the College Sports Networks for deciding the game was not important enough to carry.
Really though, why they don’t charge 5 bucks or so for “games of local interest against marginal team that the local team is sure to beat” boggles the mind. A lot of people would impulse buy the 5 dollar game. Only die hard nuts and sports bars will pay for the 30 dollar game.
dsmooth
John, I gotta one-up you on the dispicable selling-out of fans by NCAA coverage contracts: we didn’t even have the option to overpay to watch Wisconsin’s game on TV. It could ONLY be seen on the internet by overpaying for the “ESPN360” stream. But wait, it gets worse: you had to be a Verizon DSL subscriber to even get the priviledge of overpaying ESPN for an internet stream, because ESPN charges the ISPs to even carry the stream and the local cable co wouldn’t pony up.
We are getting sold out by the NCAA and I think the schools need to hear about it from disgruntled fans.
Pb
What’s the deal–is this some kind of Pay-Per-View thing? If so, then yeah, that’s totally wrong. Pay-Per-View is generally reserved for Sex, Violence, and first-run movies that likely contain both–this sounds like None of the Above, and something that’d normally be broadcast on VHF to boot.
Pb
WTF. Isn’t that the same sort of idiocy that a net neutrality bill was supposed to prevent? So much for that.
dsmooth
Yeah, I was trying to figure how this plays with net neutrality, but in this case the content owner is charging the ISPs a premium to provide access to the content on the internet — as opposed to the ISPs charging the consumer a premium for preferred access to popular sites. I suppose though if ESPN is allowed to extort the ISPs AND collect pay-per-view revenue directly from the consumer, why wouldn’t the ISP evenetually pass that content-specific cost onto the consumer? This ploy can only go so far to get Verizon new internet customers. This is farmland, fer crissakes.
Ultimately, I think the net neutrality aspect is secondary. Once ESPN owns exclusive broadcast rights to an event, they can charge whatever they want. One would think limiting the content to particular ISPs wouldn’t be the best model to maximize unit sales on the pay-per-view side, but who knows how much Verizon paid them. Obviously it was too high a price for Charter cable.
It’s the fans that drive the enormous college sports industry, and I think it would behoove the schools and the NCAA to be a little more careful about shitting where they eat.
Pb
I’m not buying that excuse, because…
It’s effectively the same thing as far as I’m concerned. Charge the consumers for the event online, period. Who cares who the ISP is, besides the ISP?
Kit Smith
If ESPN can make more money off of selling the rights to an ISP than just selling it across the intarweb, then ESPN cares who the ISP is. I’m sure that they’ve got all sorts of models to determine how to maximize profit for an event like this, and Net Neutrality only comes into play if the ISP is trying to charge ESPN for the pipe, charge them again to carry the content at quality speeds, and then charge the consumer for access as well.
You know how the people who advocate leaving everything to the free market say it will solve all of our problems? This is one of those problems that has been solved courtesy of the free market. Unless, of course, your problem is watching the games that are relevant to you, at which point you’re just S.O.L.
Punchy
JC–
#1–what about a bar? Most have the college gameday packages.
#2–MissST. sucks ass. YOu’d been bored watching this snoozer. Slaton had a monster game. It’s a shame that some preppy cracker from Media Universtiy (Notre Damn) gets all the pub
#3–What about my Hawkeyes? Nice bounce-back. And can we stop all the Ahhh-burrhhhhhn hype? Worthless….AT HOME.
#4–You’re team’s on autopilot for the next two weeks. Hope Roddy can fire them up and not look past that tough UCant game (laughing hysterically)
Bob In Pacifica
Cal is rolling now. After that awful start in Tennessee they’re awake. Two great tailbacks, three great receivers, a big offensive line. Whew! Watch out, USC.
Sherard
Bob –
The truly funny thing is, 15 years ago, teams used to say the same thing about the UCan’t basketball team. You can expect the same reversal of fortune. And trust me, UConn fans will certainly remember who decided to laugh at their football team when the time comes. We already whoop your ass at least annually in hoops. The day will come sooner than you’d like when that stretches beyond basketball.
Vladi G
I can’t believe it took us all the way to Punchy to point out the obvious. There are these things called “sports bars”. They have TVs. They serve beer and food. You could go to one, pay $10-$15 for a nice meal and some refreshing beverages AND watch the game.
Perhaps these “sports bars” haven’t quite made their way to West Virginia just yet.
Andrew
Maybe West Virginia will test a nuclear weapon in order to force Adelphia to lift the cable blackouts.
Inhumans_99
Andrew…heh, if Bush wants to reinstate the draft and attack Iran before they become untouchable (like his friends in North Korea, who just inoculated themselves against retaliation), he better do it fast. Because if Iran is smart, they will simply outright buy a nuke or two to keep Bush off their ass (Iran is probably looking at North Korea with envy tonight, saying, dam!!!, those smart SOBs in NK have now made us the only ripe target in the Middle East, well played my friends, well played).
Of course, Iraq is such a cluster, even King George and his homies Rove, Chenney, and Hastert, may not be able to credibly push this country into accepting another neverending war.
By the way John, I know this comment really belongs in an open thread, or one specifically designed to address the NK Nuke situation.
Inhumans_99
Andrew…heh, if Bush wants to reinstate the draft and attack Iran before they become untouchable (like his friends in North Korea, who just inoculated themselves against retaliation), he better do it fast. Because if Iran is smart, they will simply outright buy a nuke or two to keep Bush off their ass (Iran is probably looking at North Korea with envy tonight, saying, dam!!!, those smart SOBs in NK have now made us the only ripe target in the Middle East, well played my friends, well played).
Of course, Iraq is such a cluster, even King George and his homies, Rove, Chenney, and Hastert, and Frist may not be able to credibly push this country into accepting another neverending war.
By the way John, I know this comment really belongs in an open thread, or one specifically designed to address the NK Nuke situation.
Punchy
Sticking with the football theme….
Worthlessberger….well…worthless again. Haven’t won since Chaz Batch pounded Miami. I’ve said it before, and I’ll continue to point out the obvious–you wont win with Benny at QB. He’s lost his swagger, his confidence, and his appendix. All of those losses take a huge toll…