Why does Directv hold the NFL Games hostage?

[Da Phinishisher]

Same reason Madden has exclusivity ... they paid for it. At least DirecTV offers a good product whereas Madden is stale and really not a good football game in comparison to the 2ksports version years ago. 2ksports has always made better sports games than EA....smh

 

[BGtoKNfor6]

I went into work today and crossed my arms and stomped my feet and told my boss that his policies weren't fair...he told me to suck it up and that life wasn't fair. ::shrugs::

 

[DolfanISS]

I was at Best Buy last week and the Directv salesperson was there. They are offering new customers the NFL package for free. When I got home I called Directv to gripe. I've been a Directv customer for 10 yrs and stopped purchasing NFL Sunday ticket 3 yrs ago once the price exceeded $300.00.
After discussing this with customer service, they lowered the price to $180.00 for me.

That's the same deal I got. The biggest positive of direct TV holding it hostage is at least when another provider comes door to door or calls me alls I have to do is say I need Sunday Ticket and the sales pitch is over. We get visits and calls from Fios and Comcast all the time here.

 

[WeVie]

You are confused. The NFL sold Directv the rights, they are the ones who want it to be this way. Directv has almost no power in the situation, the NFL makes the rules. The reason the NFL wants it this way is because they are scared of losing some of TV revenue if they allow a larger provider to sell this package.

Also, directv is now selling the NFL sunday ticket over the internet only, no monthly tv subscription required if you are unable to get directv due to geographic restrictions.

How would this happen?

 

[sn9ke.eyes]

How would this happen?

Here is what the networks are paying for the 2011 season under current contracts:
CBS $622.5 M
NBC $650 M
FOX $712.5 M
ESPN $1.1 B
NFLNetwork $0

Total $3.085 B for a single season

Directv is paying about $700 M per season to broadcast the Sunday Ticket, and it's only possible because they take the feeds of CBS and FOX already broadcasting the game.

How can CBS, FOX, NBC, ESPN make money when they are all paying more than $600 million per year? They sell advertising. Some of these ads are national level (cars, beer, ...) but more of them are regional. So imagine you are a local restaurant or car dealership and paying some insane amount of money for a 20 second commercial during halftime because you know NFL games draw X amount of viewers in your target market. Now imagine the NFL network is available on multiple cable systems (comcast, time warner, directv, dish network, brighthouse, ...). Suddenly instead of X amount of local viewers, it is way way less. Now you don't want to pay that insane amount of money because you have less chance of hitting your target audience.

From wikipedia:

Still, the NFL has indicated that another reason they accepted DirecTV's bid was to limit the availability of the product so that the television networks and especially their local affiliates would be protected. In particular, NFL Sunday Ticket viewers do not count towards local Nielsen ratings; thus offering NFL Sunday Ticket on cable might cost CBS and Fox affiliates millions of dollars in lost revenue from local commercial breaks (as opposed to national ads sold by the networks). In turn, affiliates help subsidize the networks' programming costs.

Now personally I think nielsen ratings are a huge unscientific scam which could be beat easily with new technology, but I'm not a marketing executive.

 

[WeVie]

That does make sense. I had no idea how that would work. It's a wonder the networks doesn't demand any money from Direct TV as well.

 

[ChrisTRD]

Like it was said before... Find a bar with Sunday ticket. It's fun times.

 

[Kdawg954]

Like it was said before... Find a bar with Sunday ticket. It's fun times.

Also alot more expensive over the course of 16 games, unless you go to the bar and don't drink alcohol and just eat a side of fries and a refillable soda for 3 hours . . . but then the "fun" is harder to come by.

 

[ChrisTRD]

Also alot more expensive over the course of 16 games, unless you go to the bar and don't drink alcohol and just eat a side of fries and a refillable soda for 3 hours . . . but then the "fun" is harder to come by.

Very true but I've built some nice friendships going to one. Some Sundays are tighter than others when it comes to money. Also I go most of the time but do skip some Sundays here and there.

 

[Gonzo]

I'm just glad the option is there. I remember being stuck watching whatever was showing in my area, which was the Phoenix Cardinals and a lot of cowgirls games...It was horrible.

When I can't afford NFL Sunday Ticket or when I move into a place that doesn't allow satellite, I can always go to a bar, which is just as fun.

 

[Gonzo]

Also alot more expensive over the course of 16 games, unless you go to the bar and don't drink alcohol and just eat a side of fries and a refillable soda for 3 hours . . . but then the "fun" is harder to come by.

When you add the beer and food you have at home it comes pretty close to par. Add the fact that I'm probably going to the bar anyways...it works out.

 

[Kdawg954]

When you add the beer and food you have at home it comes pretty close to par. Add the fact that I'm probably going to the bar anyways...it works out.

Thats true also . . . even if you are paying the 300 for directTV, you have to eat during the games. More cost effective if you got 3 buddies chipping in with you every week, but yea it gets expensive either way.

 

[DUB]

As a fin fan in the midwest I don't know what Id do without my dtv.

 

[Gonzo]

[youtube]8r1CZTLk-Gk[/youtube]

 

[Jersey DolFan]

b/c having sunday ticket is a HUGE reason why directv has subscribers. they are willing to pay a high cost for exclusive rights to keep them exclusive. Digital cable is better than satelite imo so the only reason ppl have directv is nfl sunday ticket. giving it up would be losing a huge percentage of market share .