Pac 12 network / direct tv (PACN now on fuboTV streaming)

[SD Buff]

The bottom line is and no one here wants to admit it.

That's fairly easy to admit. No one really cares about any of the conference networks at all really, let alone the PAC. But its no secret at the very start DirecTV told the PAC our passionate fans would choose Sunday Ticket over the PAC and there wouldn't be the demand. We saw it play out exactly like that on all the PAC message boards with post after post how they got free Sunday Ticket and other incentives.

Then the PAC gave a favored nation contract to Dish, gave them exclusive sponsorship on PAC campuses and launched a campaign for PAC fans to drop DirecTV. Was it the right move? Easy to say in hindsight it wasn't.

But the ATT merger is more than likely to go be approved over the next couple months. Although they are planning on running them separately, TV insiders seem to think it will help facilitate a deal getting done by the 2015 season. No question a deal needs to get done for people to view the PAC 12 Networks as a success. Adding DirecTV would translate to roughly a few million a month in revenue and add to the visibility. Outside of DirecTV however, the networks have been a fairly decent success going at it alone without a partner.

 

[Eggon]

May be worth an exploratory call per new "X1 Platform" change at Comcast. Not always a fan in terms of Comcast billing and expense, but new platform is a better product, fastest internet, all sports and all movies, up to 4 locations, DVR communicates with all 4. More storage etc. One price product, no modem rental, no box rental, one price plus taxes. This was my experience as I recently engaged them on a two year price guarantee.

Not looking to promote Comcast, but if you are a customer, investigate X1 platform and expense for the products you may need. I did a 2 year deal, same money, and much greater function and feature. Obviously includes PAC 12. I also have phone as well for Biz.

Just a heads up on a significant platform/relationship change. Competitive environment so products to fit individual needs. Will not be a fit for everybody. Not sure how small a relationship you can cut in terms of products on this offer?

 

[sackman]

If Comcast didn't suck so bad on the customer service side of things, we would still be there. It got so bad I had no choice but to drop them. Believe me, I'd like nothing better than to tell DTV to kiss my ass, but the sad fact of the matter is that they are better than their competition.

My fingers are crossed that I'll have a chance to drop them and go to streaming in the next 6 months or so. I'd like to get that done prior to the upcoming football season. I don't have any faith that DTV will carry P12 net prior to this season. They're being obstinate jackasses, and Larry Scott is being just as bad. They can't deny that they've lost customers, but it's clear that the number of lost subscribers falls within an acceptable range for them.

 

[MiamiBuffs]

If Comcast didn't suck so bad on the customer service side of things, we would still be there. It got so bad I had no choice but to drop them. Believe me, I'd like nothing better than to tell DTV to kiss my ass, but the sad fact of the matter is that they are better than their competition.

My fingers are crossed that I'll have a chance to drop them and go to streaming in the next 6 months or so. I'd like to get that done prior to the upcoming football season. I don't have any faith that DTV will carry P12 net prior to this season. They're being obstinate jackasses, and Larry Scott is being just as bad. They can't deny that they've lost customers, but it's clear that the number of lost subscribers falls within an acceptable range for them.

Ive seen the contractors stringing fiber around my area. Fingers crossed here as well. **** directv

 

[Eggon]

Sack my customer record of discussions with Comcast is really ugly honestly. And never call India at night. But product compelled me to stay for at least the time being. If it gets ugly in the future, I figure competition will continue to evolve. X1 is actually a good product, as an aside from customer service interaction historically.

 

[sackman]

Actually took a look at Dish. Decent pricing. I'm not thrilled about another two year contract, but I can always drop centurylink for my Internet once we are hooked into the fiber.

 

[tante]

Anyone running internet through centurylink fiber? The dsl is painfully slow.

 

[sackman]

Anyone running internet through centurylink fiber? The dsl is painfully slow.

Currently, that's my set-up. I am really looking forward to getting fiber-optic through the city. It'll be like going from a tractor to a Ferrari. If we can do the voice over wi-fi thing, we can also cancel our land line. The only drawback will be the loss of our long-standing e-mail address. If that could be kept, it would be perfect. Alas, nothing in life is perfect.

 

[sackman]

Oh, and I almost forgot to say: I think I have the green light from the family to drop DTV in favor of Dish. I am going to absolutely LOVE making that call to DTV.

 

[GoBeers]

What would you figure the P12's actual revenue and per subscriber costs to be if you dispute this data? I do not have enough information to provide an informed opinion.

I agree our take home revenue should be quite a bit higher than what the B1G takes home since we run our own network, but our costs are well above zero, too. IIRC, the P12 provided no disbursement to teams in year 1 to cover start up costs. I have not heard since then what any estimates may be for per team revenue.

Regardless, this data does very much support the idea that the SEC is winning for now due to the leverage available with ESPN.

No idea what Pac 12 Network revenue is at/ going to be. They've been much more secretive about the whole thing than the other conferences. I do think the 80 cents per sub quoted in that source sounds right. Same with $1/sub for the BT and $1.40 for the SEC network. But it still is a Clay Travis article and the totals seems all kinds of out of whack. My main gripe was that he lines up the stations by revenue per sub, which again makes no sense with the way regional sports networks charge for in market and out of market. Out of Market, the Pac 12 Net is unfortunately in the more expensive premium tiers on Dish and Comcast, which really drives the number of subs down, but doesn't do much to revenue since the P12N barely charges for out of market subs. So Clay Travis' assertion that the P12 Net isn't getting distributed because it cost more per sub than the SEC and BTN is just flat out wrong. Pac 12 Net costs less per sub by a good amount, but the markets just aren't as into college sports.

Anyway, I just saw this article about the SECN getting a projected $5m per school for their inaugural year. Big Ten Net pays $7.6m per school. according to OregonLive's John Canzano, the P12N numbers were $800k per school (I think that would be for for 2013-14, but it could be for 2012-13). But P12N is fully owned by the conference, so there are definitely startup costs to be paid off. Maybe those numbers jump and we might know this as soon as some of the public schools release the 2014-15 budgets in the summer.

What we don't know about the SECN contract is how much ESPN keeps of total revenue, and if they had startup costs that they have to recoup before paying full shares to the SEC members. But they did quickly gain agreements that give them almost the same size distribution as the BTN, so at least for now, I don't see how one can project the SECN to have 2x the revenue as the BTN.

One thing the SECN has in it's favor is the ESPN partnership. ESPN already owned SEC 2nd tier content, and moved a good amount over to the SECN to force it's carriage. That might have come at a monetary price (as in ESPN gets a bigger share), but it certainly helped the SECN's carriage issue. I'd expect the BT could retain more rights in their next round of negotiations with TV partners as their package is up soon. That could push the value of the BTN up again... but they might not want to do that since they have to split with Fox. Or they could partner with Fox for 1st and 2nd tier and as part of the agreement, negotiate a larger cut from the BTN.

 

[JOEinDenver]

If Comcast didn't suck so bad on the customer service side of things, we would still be there. It got so bad I had no choice but to drop them. Believe me, I'd like nothing better than to tell DTV to kiss my ass, but the sad fact of the matter is that they are better than their competition.

My fingers are crossed that I'll have a chance to drop them and go to streaming in the next 6 months or so. I'd like to get that done prior to the upcoming football season. I don't have any faith that DTV will carry P12 net prior to this season. They're being obstinate jackasses, and Larry Scott is being just as bad. They can't deny that they've lost customers, but it's clear that the number of lost subscribers falls within an acceptable range for them.

Ive seen the contractors stringing fiber around my area. Fingers crossed here as well. **** directv

CenturyLink is stringing all that cable around town, and that is their Prism TV you are going to be able to get. :thumbsup:

 

[sockdolager]

Oh, and I almost forgot to say: I think I have the green light from the family to drop DTV in favor of Dish. I am going to absolutely LOVE making that call to DTV.

Be happy to give you a referral. Save you 50 dollars.

Also be sure to look into the new super joey for your 2nd tv. It gives you two more tuners for a total of 5 instead of just three with the standard hopper and joey set up. No more conflicts when recording and watching different shows in each room. The super joey is only another three bucks a month I think.

 

[SD Buff]

How many tuners does xfinity have?

from phone

 

[MiamiBuffs]

CenturyLink is stringing all that cable around town, and that is their Prism TV you are going to be able to get. :thumbsup:

Sacky and I both live in Longmont. The trucks say "Contractor on behalf of Longmont Utilities" or something to that effect on the sides. But, hey, thanks JOEinDenver. Im glad you could see so far from down there :smile2:

 

[HRBuff]

[video=youtube;WiSaMQcogG4]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WiSaMQcogG4[/video]

No CenturyLink fiber in Longmont.

 

[sockdolager]

How many tuners does xfinity have?

from phone

I think they have five tuners. The three tuners in the hopper was a weakness in the dish system which they have addressed with the super joey. It's made a huge difference in eliminating recording conflicts in our household.

 

[sackman]

Dish is being installed tomorrow. We only have one TV, so I'm not concerned about other rooms.

 

[DBT]

Dish is being installed tomorrow. We only have one TV, so I'm not concerned about other rooms.

How did DTV handle the divorce?

 

[sackman]

How did DTV handle the divorce?

Haven't called yet. I'm waiting for Dish to be up and running smoothly before I cancel. It'll probably be on Tuesday.

 

[Deleted member 807]

Haven't called yet. I'm waiting for Dish to be up and running smoothly before I cancel. It'll probably be on Tuesday.

I cancelled my DirecTV subscription three weeks ago. The rep DOES make the cancellation process seem like a break-up.
I watched a few YouTube videos before calling the service desk just to brace myself. You can't cancel on-line.

Lessons:
1) Take pictures of your equipment and be ready to recite the equipment numbers. Make sure the equipment serial numbers match what is on the DirecTV web site. It's best to resolve any equipment misunderstandings up front.
2) The service rep is being paid to retain you. I politely asked if the rep was "forced to ask me a bunch of retention questions"? He said, yes. I have to make a living. I laughingly acknowledged this necessity and let him know I'd be happy to play along in an as expedient way as possible.
3) The rep tries as hard as they can to understand why you are leaving Directv. My approach was to answer any question about why I was leaving with the response, "It's my customer preference." Do NOT give them a price reason or a content reason or a service reason. Any detail beyond "customer preference" leads to an offer to discount your service, offer more movies, give you a sports package, blah, blah, blah. I didn't touch the P12 or the monthly price or the movie selection or anything. I'd confirm that I was perfectly happy with my service choice, and that "at this time my preference is to discontinue service." At one point the rep said "Customer preference…I don't understand what that means." Since it wasn't asked in the form of the question, I sat quietly on the phone until he moved on to the disconnect instructions. I wasn't being a dick. I was just treating the whole exit process as I would being on the witness stand. DirecTV has no right to know why I am canceling, and I wasn't playing along with their sales script.
4) The big financial whammy comes from not returning equipment on time. DirecTV gives you seven days after you receive a box to return their equipment. The box didn't arrive for 4 days after my disconnect date. I loaded up all the crap in the box and drove it to the nearest UPS store the same day. I just received a final notice indicating DirecTV owned me money and that my account is closed.

 

[buffaholic]

Disagree. You tell them you are cancelling because they don't offer the P12 network. That you don't care what they offer you, even if they gave you everything they have for free, you NEED the P12 network.

It will get logged accordingly. Thank You.

 

[sackman]

I cancelled my DirecTV subscription three weeks ago. The rep DOES make the cancellation process seem like a break-up.
I watched a few YouTube videos before calling the service desk just to brace myself. You can't cancel on-line.

Lessons:
1) Take pictures of your equipment and be ready to recite the equipment numbers. Make sure the equipment serial numbers match what is on the DirecTV web site. It's best to resolve any equipment misunderstandings up front.
2) The service rep is being paid to retain you. I politely asked if the rep was "forced to ask me a bunch of retention questions"? He said, yes. I have to make a living. I laughingly acknowledged this necessity and let him know I'd be happy to play along in an as expedient way as possible.
3) The rep tries as hard as they can to understand why you are leaving Directv. My approach was to answer any question about why I was leaving with the response, "It's my customer preference." Do NOT give them a price reason or a content reason or a service reason. Any detail beyond "customer preference" leads to an offer to discount your service, offer more movies, give you a sports package, blah, blah, blah. I didn't touch the P12 or the monthly price or the movie selection or anything. I'd confirm that I was perfectly happy with my service choice, and that "at this time my preference is to discontinue service." At one point the rep said "Customer preference…I don't understand what that means." Since it wasn't asked in the form of the question, I sat quietly on the phone until he moved on to the disconnect instructions. I wasn't being a dick. I was just treating the whole exit process as I would being on the witness stand. DirecTV has no right to know why I am canceling, and I wasn't playing along with their sales script.
4) The big financial whammy comes from not returning equipment on time. DirecTV gives you seven days after you receive a box to return their equipment. The box didn't arrive for 4 days after my disconnect date. I loaded up all the crap in the box and drove it to the nearest UPS store the same day. I just received a final notice indicating DirecTV owned me money and that my account is closed.

I plan on letting them know that their inability to provide me with the Pac 12 network is the driving force behind the switch. They can offer me whatever they want, I know they can't offer me the Pac 12 network. I also plan on telling them that they had two years to get the Pac 12 network and failed to do so while I was their customer.

 

[patebuff]

I cancelled my DirecTV subscription three weeks ago. The rep DOES make the cancellation process seem like a break-up.
I watched a few YouTube videos before calling the service desk just to brace myself. You can't cancel on-line.

Lessons:
1) Take pictures of your equipment and be ready to recite the equipment numbers. Make sure the equipment serial numbers match what is on the DirecTV web site. It's best to resolve any equipment misunderstandings up front.
2) The service rep is being paid to retain you. I politely asked if the rep was "forced to ask me a bunch of retention questions"? He said, yes. I have to make a living. I laughingly acknowledged this necessity and let him know I'd be happy to play along in an as expedient way as possible.
3) The rep tries as hard as they can to understand why you are leaving Directv. My approach was to answer any question about why I was leaving with the response, "It's my customer preference." Do NOT give them a price reason or a content reason or a service reason. Any detail beyond "customer preference" leads to an offer to discount your service, offer more movies, give you a sports package, blah, blah, blah. I didn't touch the P12 or the monthly price or the movie selection or anything. I'd confirm that I was perfectly happy with my service choice, and that "at this time my preference is to discontinue service." At one point the rep said "Customer preference…I don't understand what that means." Since it wasn't asked in the form of the question, I sat quietly on the phone until he moved on to the disconnect instructions. I wasn't being a dick. I was just treating the whole exit process as I would being on the witness stand. DirecTV has no right to know why I am canceling, and I wasn't playing along with their sales script.
4) The big financial whammy comes from not returning equipment on time. DirecTV gives you seven days after you receive a box to return their equipment. The box didn't arrive for 4 days after my disconnect date. I loaded up all the crap in the box and drove it to the nearest UPS store the same day. I just received a final notice indicating DirecTV owned me money and that my account is closed.

Why wouldn't you tell them you are leaving because they don't offer the Pac 12? Isn't that the point?

 

[prime teets]

i just set up comcast internet and dish network at my new place in minneapolis (comcast doesn't carry P12N up there for some reason). i have gotten three calls from comcast already wondering why i don't want their television. "you don't have P12N, if you did I would go with you." conversation over.

 

[sackman]

Why wouldn't you tell them you are leaving because they don't offer the Pac 12? Isn't that the point?

I don't get this, either.

 

[Deleted member 807]

I plan on letting them know that their inability to provide me with the Pac 12 network is the driving force behind the switch. They can offer me whatever they want, I know they can't offer me the Pac 12 network. I also plan on telling them that they had two years to get the Pac 12 network and failed to do so while I was their customer.

Why wouldn't you tell them you are leaving because they don't offer the Pac 12? Isn't that the point?

At some point in a relationship, you get bast the bargaining phase.

I've gone down the path of asking for the P12 a number of times over the length of my contract. I've e-mailed them, I've called them, I've signed petitions, I've threatened to leave. If DirecTV had their **** together, they would look at my customer records and should KNOW that Pac12 network was an outstanding issue of mine. If getting this issue off my chest one more time would have been therapeutic, I might have said something. But by the time I had made the decision to fire DirecTV, I didn't want them to offer me the NFL Gameday for free. Been there, done that. My goal was to call and cancel service. My goal wasn't to force some guy in a call center in Tennessee to pitch me something that he was told to pitch me. I

It would have been AWESOME if the rep asked, "I see you have contacted us regarding the Pac12 network availability in the past. Is this a reason you are canceling?" But they didn't. So screw 'em.

The whole point is to cancel service. I have no loyalty to DirecTV. Why give them info that they have habitually ignored? That company has gotten several thousand dollars from me over the past 30 months. Why give them anything more at this point?

If you want to waste time talking sports package with a union rep who is paid to try and retain you, then knock yourselves out. Next time I want to get pissy with a dummy, I'll just take Quatrro off ignore.

 

[buffaholic]

The whole point is to cancel service. I have no loyalty to DirecTV. Why give them info that they have habitually ignored? That company has gotten several thousand dollars from me over the past 30 months. Why give them anything more at this point?

Because your previous calls meant nothing to them as you were asking, pleading, threatening to cancel....

The one call that was meaningful was when you cancelled. They will put down the reason you actually left. Now they have no idea. Telling them the P12 network is why you left ends the sales pitch. They can't offer you that. End of story.

:wow:

 

[Deleted member 807]

Because your previous calls meant nothing to them as you were asking, pleading, threatening to cancel....

The one call that was meaningful was when you cancelled. They will put down the reason you actually left. Now they have no idea. Telling them the P12 network is why you left ends the sales pitch. They can't offer you that. End of story.

:wow:

You give the power of my consumer feedback more credibility than it deserves. Directv has millions to spend on focus groups and marketing. They know exactly the cost/benefit of adding the P12 on their churn and retention rate.

There is NOTHING the rep could have done to satisfy me because he had no power other than to register my reason for disconnect under "content, P12N". His attempts to satisfy me would have only pissed me off. So why go through the drama?

 

[prime teets]

You give the power of my consumer feedback more credibility than it deserves. Directv has millions to spend on focus groups and marketing. They know exactly the cost/benefit of adding the P12 on their churn and retention rate.

There is NOTHING the rep could have done to satisfy me because he had no power other than to register my reason for disconnect under "content, P12N". His attempts to satisfy me would have only pissed me off. So why go through the drama?

so in the grand scheme of things, your opinion/actions don't matter. that's kinda how us credit card users feel.

 

[Deleted member 807]

so in the grand scheme of things, your opinion/actions don't matter. that's kinda how us credit card users feel.

I never said my opinion doesn't matter. It's just that my opinion isn't consistent with DTVs value proposition.

Besides, after AT&T's acquisition, DTV's current model will be overhauled anyway. My bet is that post-merger, DTV will get P12N. I just didn't feel like waiting that long.