Golf Channel Could be Removed from DIrecTV?

[iacas]

According to SportsBusinessJournal :

"DirecTV could drop Golf Channel at the end of the year, potentially taking away about 15 million subscribers from the Comcast-owned channel. Golf Channel’s affiliate deal with the satellite distributor expires Dec. 31..." and parties are apparently still far apart on quoting an appropriate price.

I will say that I don't think Golf Channel will be lost, and DirecTV will figure out a way to get the deal done, but I will also say that if they can't get it done, I may very well use this as grounds to ditch my DirecTV subscription altogether, and I've been a subscriber for 10 years and love their newest DVRs with Whole-Home setup.

[ghalfaire]

I'm with you.  If Direct TV lost Golf Channel they will lose me too.  In this area we have a cable company that carries Golf Channel and there is also Dish TV. I don't care much for the cable guys however so probably would give Dish TV a try.  I've been a Direct TV customer for 15 years now.  A good company with good services so I'm pretty sure they will get it worked out.

[tristanhilton85]

I'd be surprised if things didn't get worked out... I have Time Warner and they were in a similar situation with ESPN... at the end of the day the deal got done; I'm pretty sure that's how it'll play out with the Golf Channel and DirecTV.

[iacas]

Originally Posted by tristanhilton85

I'd be surprised if things didn't get worked out... I have Time Warner and they were in a similar situation with ESPN... at the end of the day the deal got done; I'm pretty sure that's how it'll play out with the Golf Channel and DirecTV.

It doesn't help that Comcast - a competitor - owns GC. ESPN is kinda off on its own.

[iacas]

A better link that actually has information.

I'd quote parts of it, but the whole article is worth reading if you're a DirecTV subscriber.

[Clambake]

It would be a pity, as DIRECTV and The Golf Channel had a special relationship going back to TGC's original launch when DTV was one of the first to carry the channel.    As a former DTV exec, I fondly recall the early days when TGC treated us to a day at Industry Hills, and I also enjoyed a dinner with Arnold Palmer as part of the companies' relationship.     I'm a very long time DTV subscriber (my account number is triple digits!) but I would switch if they don't close the deal.

BTW, this isn't the first feud between Comcast and DIRECTV.      Comcast previously tried to prevent some of its content from being carried on DIRECTV, and the FCC ruled against Comcast, a ruling that was appealed and ultimately backed up by federal court of appeals.    Comcast then resorted to increasing its programming rates significantly (not a little, but a lot) to satellite carriers.    After much negotiation, DTV closed a new deal for Versus but dropped G4.

At risk with all of this is a major impact of the business models for the multichannel TV industry.    The complaint from DTV and DISH are that Comcast uses unfair market power to drive programming costs much higher by either not allowing content on satellite (struck down by the FCC) or made egregiously expensive.   Comcast counters that DIRECTV has exclusivity to the NFL Sunday Ticket, denying them the right to programming.    One major difference, however, is that the NFL programming is a business deal done between DIRECTV and the NFL, who owns the programming (and DIRECTV pays heavily for that exclusivity).     But Comcast is both a distributor AND an owner of content, and they're using their ownership to wield un-consumer friendly market power.     Many years ago the government broke up the film industry for the same type of problem - the studios could no longer own both the content and the distribution (i.e. the theaters).

Overall, I would expect that the two parties will close a deal just like they previously did with Versus.    DTV's 18+ million subscribers are just too large of audience for Comcast to ignore, and The Golf Channel is enjoyed by a passionate and generally higher income customer demographic at DIRECTV.     A high stakes game of TV industry chicken!

[Camo]

" But Golf Channel’s viewership, particularly out of season, has been low. In November, the channel ranked 78th of 90 cable networks in total-day viewership, averaging 55,000 viewers on a 24-hour basis. Of sports channels, only Fox Soccer, MLB Network and NBA TV ranked lower. "

WOW, that quote is pretty telling. TGC is out of their gord asking for more money when DTV is already in the process of eliminating channels that don't have the eyeballs.

[Shindig]

I don't subscribe to TV of any sort at the moment, but I probably will when I finish school.  The thing is, there aren't that many channels that are on my wish list -- Golf Channel is one of the few.  And a big deal for me is how much I'd have to pay for the channels I want.

Any carrier without Golf Channel won't even be on my radar screen.  And any that move it to one of those tiers where you have to buy a ton of channels I don't care about to get it probably won't be on the list, or would be very low.

Even with TGC ranking low, I wonder how much DirectTV stands to lose if they lose the channel.

[Clambake]

Originally Posted by Camo

" But Golf Channel’s viewership, particularly out of season, has been low. In November, the channel ranked 78th of 90 cable networks in total-day viewership, averaging 55,000 viewers on a 24-hour basis. Of sports channels, only Fox Soccer, MLB Network and NBA TV ranked lower. "

One thing that isn't reflected in these ratings is the demographics of the viewers.   The annual income for TGC viewers is much greater than many other cable channels, and these subscribers are also a very desirable demographic for DIRECTV as they spend more on programming in general and don't tend to churn (i.e. switch to competing providers) as frequently.

[Camo]

Originally Posted by Clambake

Quote:

Originally Posted by Camo

" But Golf Channel’s viewership, particularly out of season, has been low. In November, the channel ranked 78th of 90 cable networks in total-day viewership, averaging 55,000 viewers on a 24-hour basis. Of sports channels, only Fox Soccer, MLB Network and NBA TV ranked lower. "

One thing that isn't reflected in these ratings is the demographics of the viewers.   The annual income for TGC viewers is much greater than many other cable channels, and these subscribers are also a very desirable demographic for DIRECTV as they spend more on programming in general and don't tend to churn (i.e. switch to competing providers) as frequently.

also not reflected in that data is the rest of the year. I wonder  what the High end of the scale is or even the averages.  but 55,000 daily viewers. I don't see how they could possible survive on those numbers.

FYIY... TGC is pretty much always on in my house. Not that I sit down and watch it very often but it is on as background noise.  for some reason I enjoy the Hannny project the most and actually DVR it.

[Boyder]

The TV show I work for airs on the Versus network, and a year ago Direct TV dropped Versus for about 6 months. Our numbers dropped, but it was eventually worked out. Seems Direct likes to play hardball with their networks .... it's a pattern with them.

[Clambake]

Originally Posted by Boyder

The TV show I work for airs on the Versus network, and a year ago Direct TV dropped Versus for about 6 months. Our numbers dropped, but it was eventually worked out. Seems Direct likes to play hardball with their networks .... it's a pattern with them.

In this business they pretty much have to play hardball fairly frequently.   If they acquiesced to the prices by the networks each time the contracts come up for renewal, we'd all be paying $300 a month for our basic programming package.    The other sides play hardball too, bundling programming together to try and force the service providers into carrying more of their content.   It's a major league game - no room for slowpitch softball in the TV business!

[plum]

when cablevison dropped the golf channel here about 10 years ago, i dropped them and installed DTV in less than 24 hours. looks lik im going to have to do the same to DTV now. OH WELL....

[RemyM]

Originally Posted by Camo

" But Golf Channel’s viewership, particularly out of season, has been low. In November, the channel ranked 78th of 90 cable networks in total-day viewership, averaging 55,000 viewers on a 24-hour basis. Of sports channels, only Fox Soccer, MLB Network and NBA TV ranked lower. "

WOW, that quote is pretty telling. TGC is out of their gord asking for more money when DTV is already in the process of eliminating channels that don't have the eyeballs.

What's really telling is Golf Channel gets more viewers then MLB Network and NBA TV, and I'm sure D* has no intention of dropping them.

[iacas]

Originally Posted by Boyder

The TV show I work for airs on the Versus network, and a year ago Direct TV dropped Versus for about 6 months. Our numbers dropped, but it was eventually worked out. Seems Direct likes to play hardball with their networks .... it's a pattern with them.

The problem is that Comcast is both a content producer and a content carrier, and it's likely illegal to use one to the advantage of another.

Originally Posted by RemyM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Camo

" But Golf Channel’s viewership, particularly out of season, has been low. In November, the channel ranked 78th of 90 cable networks in total-day viewership, averaging 55,000 viewers on a 24-hour basis. Of sports channels, only Fox Soccer, MLB Network and NBA TV ranked lower. "

WOW, that quote is pretty telling. TGC is out of their gord asking for more money when DTV is already in the process of eliminating channels that don't have the eyeballs.

What's really telling is Golf Channel gets more viewers then MLB Network and NBA TV, and I'm sure D* has no intention of dropping them.

They probably don't ask for the incredibly high cost Comcast wants for Golf Channel.

Consider this, given that some basic cable channels provide 200 channels or so. At 25 cents per channel, that's $50 a month DirecTV would have to pay just to deliver content. No profit at all, just their costs. Never mind their costs for satellites, the techs, the hardware, billing, etc.

Now obviously DirecTV doesn't pay 25 cents per channel for every channel (ESPN charges more, and bundle several channels together in packages - I've heard that ESPN costs $3 to $4), but Comcast currently gets 25 cents and wants more than that.

[clubchamp]

I think a deal will get done plus when they lost versus I got the nhl package free when I called to complain. Pretty much as long as directv has the sunday ticket and I can watch Raiders games every sunday I will have directv.

[PhilsRHman]

When I lived in Philadelphia for a while I had a weird cable service that didn't include The Golf Channel. I think I paid less attention to golf in those two years than in my entire life. I'd say that TGC is my default channel, I always start there before flipping around, and if nothing else is on, I'll end up doing work, or messing around online with TGC as the background. It's also the one channel my wife and I can agree is good for going to sleep to (she says Fox News and CNN give her nightmares LOL).

I also have DirecTV for a year or two and didn't love it as much as everyone told me I would. I always had trouble with my dish, which I don't think was installed properly because if more than two TVs were on in the apartment it would start losing the signal and too often we'd lose the signal entirely. I found they were very difficult to deal with and they wanted to charge a lot for a service call despite my insistence it was done wrong to begin with. At this point, I have Comcast and while they're far from perfect, I think they're quite good, far better channel selection than Cablevision, and they include ESPN3.com online, which is awesome during college football season (some saturdays you'd get 10 games online that you couldn't see on TV, all in decent quality).

Funny that this story broke as the hubbub over Point Break. I wonder if that was a test to see what sort of response they get (even a negative response could show how many loyal viewers they have).

[Chas]

This is scary.  I live in a gated community and have no choice as to provider of cable or internet service (it's a Time Warner cable package).

What if TWC chose to drop TGC!!

hmmm, maybe I'd play more golf rather than watching so much on the boob tube and lower my scores ....