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Thursday, August 20, 2009

DirecTV Could Drop VERSUS

As of now, on September 1st DirecTV will no long carry Indycar's TV partner VERSUS.

They are currently in negotaions but if a deal can not be struck, it could be a huge blow to both the Indycar Series and VERSUS.

If you have DirecTV and would like to voice your opinion you can contact the television provider by phone at 1-800-531-5000, or by email.

6 comments:

fan...flippity...tastic. This wouldn't be as annoying if the IRL hadn't dropped their free leader cam feed online...guess i'll be makin' friends with Mike King and the radio boys after Chicagoland...

Just sent my email telling them that if VS goes, I go with it.

I am sure that will just kill the 150,000 fans still watching Indy Car Racing on that network.

Accepting that Versus deal, was the final nail in the coffin for Indy Car Racing.

Sign up with Dish Network and you get the added bonus of 3 months of HBO for free.

final nail in the coffin is hiring of terry angstadt /aka bikeman/ hahahahaha vs got cart light hahahahahaha cable is allways is tough to get good rating that why you must have good product hahahahaha i know tony george did his part for make his son fake racer that why he add all dumb under card race yes road track hahahaha he lost the intensity hahahaha i am oval

Cable company Comcast (NASDAQ : CMCSA) is the owner of Versus, and has successful deals with other non-Comcast outlets such as Charter, Time Warner Cable, and many local outlets. In the past, Comcast butted heads with The DirecTV Group (NYSE : DTV) over the exclusivity of NFL Sunday Ticket (and had some legislators in cahoots).

This is strictly a battle between DirecTV's people in Los Angeles and Comcast's people in Philadelphia. DTV claims because of ratings (61st of 74 English advertising-supported channels carried by them), they don't want to pay the higher per-subscriber fees offered by CMCSA as a result of Versus increasing its fees for carriage of the IRL, NHL, Zuffa (WEC), PBR, and the MWC. Comcast and CBS are partners in the Mountain West Network (The MTN), a network that works exclusively with that conference's sports.

They believe MTV (which killed one of the IRL's early providers) is more important than Versus. Remember, Versus carries two sports properties that the former The Nashville Network (which was acquired by MTV, and shut down, so its space could be used to make Spike; a college friend's cousin - Patti Wheeler - headed CBS' Charlotte operations that was the head of TNN and CBS racing, along producing Turner Sports' motorsports broadcasts until 2000) carried in the late 1990's before the move -- the IRL (yes, Mike Joy and Eli Gold called those races) and PBR.

ESPN's arrogance is starting to grow in light of winning the BCS exclusively that I believe they will go pay-per-view for the BCS Championship Game. As ESPN's per-subscriber fee is one of the most exorbitant in the basic-cable industry, this could be a weapon for companies to say "ESPN Only, No Comcast, No Fox" in the future.

The real issue is DirecTV's attitude against Comcast. We had DirecTV until recently, when the 14-year old television blew out and upon acquiring the new HDTV, we switched to Time Warner HD. The HD has been wonderful especially watching the IRL on VSHD.

Which is more important? Bob Jenkins or Lady Gaga? Justin McBride, Cat Man Do, Bones, and Code Blue or Rap City? Sadly, DirecTV thinks MTV is more important than those five Versus stars I just mentioned.

* Zuffa owns the UFC (heavier weight classes) and the WEC (lighter weight classes).

* Patti Wheeler is the cousin of a college friend at South Carolina.

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