Extra Innings Exclusively on DirecTV

[Frayed Knot]

On a side note from the TV world, the traditional Saturday afternoon 'Game of the Week' is somewhat improved.

First of all they're actually having one every week, and they're doing so right from the beginning of the season through the end -- Sked
No more weeks-long gaps because ... eh, because they felt like showing something else instead.

The other change is a move to a 3:30 EDT (prolly 4:00 actual game time) start for those games on the network.
What that means it that, since local telecasts can't compete with the national games, things will essentially work backwards from how they've been done in recent years:
Now, if the Mets are NOT part of the GotW package, their Saturday games will be 1PM starts (or the occasional night game) - and if they are part of the regional package (like the first week of the season for instance) it'll be a 4PM game.

Looks like we're on tap for about 8 Saturday GotW games plus maybe 1 or 2 more at the tail end of the season if those games affect a pennant race.

[Guest Edgy DC]

A possible sweet cherry on top of that sweet bonus is perhaps, by showing a game every week, FOX will be less inclined in the post-season to treat viewers like they've never seen a baseball game before. ("A change-up is a pitch that goes reeeealy sloooow.")

[Guest Yancy Street Gang]

I'm wondering: Am I really the only out-of-towner on this forum who watches the Mets on Extra Innings?

If our (small) sample size is anything to go by, maybe this won't affect many people after all.

[Guest cooby]

We had MLB Extra Innings last year, but I still could not watch the Mets.

Their in-market parameters are bunko, hunko.


(hey, it rhymes)

[Guest Yancy Street Gang]

It really is absurd that you're in the Mets blackout area.

It would only make sense if you were able to somehow order SNY. (Is it possible that you are?)

[Guest cooby]

Nope, comcast said no.

[Guest ScarletKnight41]

Comcast suxx

[soupcan]

Yancy Street Gang wrote: I'm wondering: Am I really the only out-of-towner on this forum who watches the Mets on Extra Innings?

My father-in-law had it at his summer house in Massachusetts last summer and it was great.

We go up there with the kids as often as possible, so after years of being Mets-less during summer weekends, finally being able to watch them there was a treat.

He said he enjoyed it so much that if he has to get DirecTV he will.

[Frayed Knot]

Yancy Street Gang wrote: Am I really the only out-of-towner on this forum who watches the Mets on Extra Innings? If our (small) sample size is anything to go by, maybe this won't affect many people after all.

The number ordering 'Extra Innings' isn't all that many when viewed on a national scale -- about 700-800K homes from what I've read - with more than half of them already getting it through DirecTV and a certain portion of the rest will (or at least can) switch to it now.

All of which explains why both Selig and sports radio jocks have been quick to dismiss the fuss over this as "no big deal".


My father lives out of state and has been a EI customer for years now (thru DirecTV) specifically to get Met games

[Guest Yancy Street Gang]

soupcan wrote: He said he enjoyed it so much that if he has to get DirecTV he will.

That's exactly how I feel. I placed the order last night, and installation will probably be next week.

[Guest Yancy Street Gang]

Well, I am now a DirecTV subscriber. The dish was installed on my house on Saturday, and I have three receivers, one for each television.

It will end up costing about $6 more per month than I had been paying for cable, but I'm now getting a bunch of additional channels. The picture is nice and clear, but it hasn't been tested by bad weather yet. The kids are enjoying Cartoon Network's Boomerang, and I am too. (Classic episodes of The Flintstones, The Jetsons, Magilla Gorilla, Wacky Races, etc.)

The downside is that now that cable is gone I can't watch one live show while recording another on TiVo. We don't do that all that often (we rarely watch live TV) but it was a nice option to have.

I can also get the Sports Premier package (I think they call it) which would allow me to get SNY, YES, and all of the various Fox Sports channels from around the country. As I understand it, I'd be able to watch SNY except for when a Mets game is on. At that point it would black out and I'd have to watch the game on Extra Innings.

If I had the option of getting SNY a la carte, and without the blackouts, I'd opt for that over Extra Innings. Although I enjoy sampling other team's broadcasts, I'd prefer to see Gary, Keith and Ron do each game. And I'd be able to see pre-game and post-game shows and whatever else SNY offers. But I don't care to pay for that whole sports tier; it's more than I'd care to spend. Maybe one day I'll ask if I can get SNY a la carte, but I suspect the answer would be no.

[soupcan]

Yancy Street Gang wrote: I'd prefer to see Gary, Keith and Ron do each game. And I'd be able to see pre-game and post-game shows and whatever else SNY offers.

That's a good bonus. That was the one thing I missed watching Extra Innings. The game would basically begin on the first pitch and pretty much end right after the last out.

[A Boy Named Seo]

Add one to that 800K figure as I'm a new dish/Extra Innings person, too. Guy just left about a half hour ago. I ordered the same thing Yancy did, and am planning on the sports thing, too, to get SNY and Fox Soccer.

[Frayed Knot]

'Not so fast' says 'In Demand'

"IN Demand said Wednesday it will offer to match the terms of DirecTV's $700 million, seven-year deal with Major League Baseball on behalf its owners, who are affiliates of the companies that own Time Warner, Comcast and Cox cable systems ... iN Demand also said it would carry The Baseball Channel when it launches in 2009 to at least the same number of subscribers who will get the channel on DirecTV."

Bob DuPuy, baseball's chief operating officer, said he would have to find out details of iN Demand's offer before commenting.

[Guest Yancy Street Gang]

Too late!

That cable spokesman said a week or two ago that DirecTV's offer would be "impossible" to match.

I suspected he might be posturing, but I didn't want to delay my decision. And I figured that if he WAS posturing (which apparently was the case) then he was messing around with his own subscribers, who were poised wondering what to do.

So in all of this, DirecTV was the only entity that wasn't messing around with its client base. (MLB and cable clearly were.) Because of this, I don't regret ditching cable. (I may come to regret it, of course, if DirecTV turns out to work poorly for me. But so far so good.)

[Guest Kid Carsey]

http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D8O0O7F00.htm

Cable, MLB argue over out-of-town games

by RONALD BLUM

NEW YORK

Cable television said it offered to match DirecTV's deal for the "Extra Innings" package of out-of-market games, but Major League Baseball said the proposal fell short.

When baseball announced its $700 million, seven-year deal with DirecTV on March 8, it gave the other incumbent carriers until the end of the month to match the deal.

In Demand, owned by affiliates of the companies that own Time Warner, Comcast and Cox cable systems, said Wednesday it was agreeing to the terms and that its partners would carry The Baseball Channel when it launches in 2009 to at least the same number of subscribers who will get the channel on DirecTV.

"As the current home for 'Extra Innings' for more than 200,000 cable subscribers, we have extended ourselves to do our best to be able to continue to provide this package to baseball fans and our customers," iN Demand president Robert Jacobson said. "This offer meets all the conditions set forth by MLB last week. "

Not so fast, said Bob DuPuy, baseball's chief operating officer.

"The communication sent to our office today by iN Demand is not responsive to that offer," he said. "In spite of their public comments, the response falls short of nearly all of the material conditions (among them requirements for carriage of The Baseball Channel and their share of the rights fees for Extra Innings) set forth in the Major League Baseball offer made to them on March 9."

DuPuy said the March 31 deadline to match remains.

"Extra Innings" had more than 500,000 television subscribers last year plus about 60 percent more on MLB.com, the sport's Web site.

EchoStar Communications Corp.'s Dish Network also has carried the "Extra Innings" package. Dish spokeswoman Kathie Gonzalez did not return a call seeking comment.

IN Demand is owned by Time Warner Entertainment-Advance/Newhouse Partnership, Comcast iN Demand Holdings Corp and Cox Communications Holdings Inc.

[Guest Yancy Street Gang]

Here's the latest on my DirecTV adventure. Anyone who's planning to get MLB Extra Innings this season should pay attention:

The original installation was on Saturday, March 17. While he was at my house, the installer asked me if I needed to get the phone lines hooked up to my satellite receivers. Since none of my three televisions are near a phone jack, I asked him if it was necessary and he said no. It was only required if I wanted to order any Pay Per View movies. (A customer service rep from DirecTV had told me the same thing before I had even scheduled the installation.) Since I had no interest in Pay Per View, I told him he didn't need to bother.

Then, last week, I was browsing around on DirecTV's web site looking to see if I could order SNY a la carte. (I can't, by the way. But I can get the Sports Tier that includes SNY for $12 per month. I may eventally decide to do that for the baseball season months. But that's another story.)

Anyway, while at directv.com, I read the following:

]Why do I need to have a land-based phone line connected to receive sports programming? In order for us to comply with the blackout rules established by each professional sports league, we require our sports customers to have a continuous land-based phone connection to their DIRECTV Receiver.

I call DirecTV to verify this, and they say yes, it is necessary because the phone line is used to see which market I'm in so that the satellite box knows which games need to be blacked out. The rep I was speaking to told me that I don't need to wire any phone jacks, I can just buy wireless jacks at Circuit City or Wal Mart. (You plug a transmitter into your phone jack and a receiver into an outlet behind your TV.) She even gave me a couple of make and model numbers that are compatible with DirecTV's satellite receivers.

I go to Wal Mart's and Circuit City's web sites, and find that the model numbers no longer exist. They've been discontinued. I can get them on eBay, but they run about $40 to $50 each. Since I have three TV's, that's a lot of money to spend since the installer was willing to do it as part of the free installation.

So I call DirecTV again, and they tell me that my installation comes with a 90-day warranty, and since it wasn't completed to my satisfaction, they'd schedule a follow-up at no charge. I arranged for them to come yesterday morning, since I was working from home.

At 9 a.m. a two-man crew arrives. I explain the situation, and the guy tells me that 1) it's NOT necessary to have a phone line for sports programming because the box already knows where it is, which is why I'm able to get Philadelphia local channels and not channels from other markets, and 2) that he doesn't do phone lines anyway (Clearly they sent the wrong guy.) and 3) he has the NFL package with no phone line and it knows to blackout the Eagles games for him.

He then calls his boss on the phone, and the boss verifies that no phone line is needed for Extra Innings.

I tell him, look, some people tell me I need a phone line and others don't. But I DON'T want to turn on a baseball game next week and find out that I can't watch it. But since the guy in my house can't do phone lines, there's no point in keeping him hostage. We agree that I'll try to view a ballgame on Monday when the season opens, and if I can't they'll deliver me four wireless jacks on Tuesday at a total discounted cost of $100. (The normal price, according to this one guy, is $80 each.)

What can I do? I agree to that deal and let him go.

THEN, later the same day at 5:30 p.m. a DirecTV van pulls into my driveway. I had no idea they were coming. They're the guys who can install phone jacks. They again make a convincing argument that I don't need the jacks. They do these installs for a living and they've seen many customers who get the NBA or NFL packages and don't have or need a phone line.

Maybe it's different for MLB, I ask?

No, he answers. If it was, they'd have been briefed in a meeting. But he'll call DirecTV anyway to get the straight scoop.

He calls, and they tell him that yes, you DO need the phone line. It's in order to enable all those silly interactive features that Bud Selig is so excited about. I ask, I don't care about interactive features. I just want to watch a baseball game. Can I watch the game without the phone line?

And the answer again is no. The interactive features are apparently bundled in with the rest of the Extra Innings that the whole deal falls apart without a phone connection.

So the guys reluctantly agree to install the phone jacks. They had been on their way home when they got dispatched to my house, and thanks to me they had to extend their days by three hours to install these jacks that may or may not have been necessary.

And that's where we are now. I have the jacks. Everything seems GO for baseball season.

Hopefully this is the last chapter of my DirecTV installation story.

If you're getting Extra Innings and you don't have phone jacks near your television, you may want to start making some phone calls.

[Frayed Knot]

Two things:

* Installing or moving your own phone jacks is real easy. For $10 bucks you can buy a length of wire and a new jack or two and simply run a wire from an existing jack to wherever you want to put the new one. Phone wire is all color coded and low voltage so, if you do get caught short, you needn't neccesarily wait for a potentially expensive service call or rearrange your whole house in order to link the two.

* Due to a bout of insomnia this morning, I was channel flipping at about 4AM and stumbled across CSPAN in time to see a replay of Sen Kerry's Tuesday hearing with MLB honcho Bob DuPuy and the cable/satellite guys.
Nothing was settled of course.
- The 'InDemand' spokeman talked about how matching MLB's offer to match the DirecTV deal would saddle it with 60% of the costs for only 40% of the benefits (and other such breakdowns).
- DirecTV says they paid extra specifically for the exclusivity of it all and that they had a different price in mind if they were going to share this feature.
- DuPuy was very up front about how this is all about pushing the future MLB channel
- And Kerry is wondering why they can't all get along and tried to get them to promise to talk further seeing as how the season is 4 days away.

[Guest Yancy Street Gang]

I wouldn't have known how to even begin to install new phone jacks. It took those technicians three hours to do it, so I can only imagine how long it would have taken me to do it.

Especially since in two of the three cases the TV was on the opposite side of the room from the phone jack. And in the third case, there's no jack at all in the room with the TV. I would have had to run the line under the carpeting or all the way around the baseboards. Otherwise I would have ended up stringing a line across the room that would have been constantly tripped over.

The installer guys ran the thing through the basement and through the insides of the walls. I very much want to watch the Mets this year, but if I had to run wires myself to do it I'd prefer to just become a Phillies fan.

[metirish]

What a run around you got Yancy...hope all is ok after that crap.

[A Boy Named Seo]

Yancy- Thanks for the heads up. My install guy told me the same regarding the phone line. I would need it for PPV, but not for the Extra Innings package. I have a phone line connected to the receiver in the living room anyway, but not to the receiver in the bedroom. The install guy said it wouldn't matter for the baseball package, I'd be able to watch it in the bedroom just the same and it looks like he's right.

II ordered Extra Innings online and now if I go to channel 217 (the order Extra Innings channel), it says in my bedroom (no phone line) that I am authorized for that programming. I don't know about any new or different features, but it looks like I'm okay from that room. You might want to check that channel, too.

[Guest Yancy Street Gang]

Thanks, I'll do that.

[Frayed Knot]

"I wouldn't have known how to even begin to install new phone jacks. It took those technicians three hours to do it, so I can only imagine how long it would have taken me to do it."

Nothing wrong with having it done for you of course, particularly if it's part of the initial service. Plus, part of their expertise in it comes from doing what you said about having to rout the wire through walls, around obstacles and what not.

But for simple jobs - like say moving a jack to a different spot in the room - it's usually simple, safe, and requires nothing beyond a screwdriver.
Basically the wire that feeds a phone jack has several (up to 4) color coded wires in it which attach to standard screws inside the jack. A new wire can then be led from there and strung to a new locale with the green wire attaching to the same terminal where the green is already attached from the old wire; the new red wire to where the red already is, etc.
Single-line phones use just the red & green; if you have 2 phone #s feeding that jack then all four wires will be used.

[Guest Yancy Street Gang]

They're a day late and a dollar short, but I got a letter from Comcast today telling me that, as a 2006 Extra Innings subscriber, they'd offer me a one-time $89.00 credit towards the purchase of a year's subscription to MLB TV.

They're trying to make it sound like MLB TV is an adequate substitute for Extra Innings. I can get the baseball anyway, and I don't have to get rid of my cable!

Like I said, too late. If money was an issue this would be tempting. I would save the money I spent on Extra Innings and I'd get MLB TV for free for 2007.

I'm sure a bunch of people will take that offer. But they're probably the ones who weren't going to drop cable anyway.

[Guest Kid Carsey]

The whole saga from start to finish sBHMC. I'm glad you're happy, but I
think the fans were screwed and there could have been a way to get Extra
Innings to all types of service providers. As I think I stated earlier in this
whole thing, the "all types of companies should be able to provide stuff and
end the monopoly" thing is supposed to be good and save people money but
all it's done is create a clusterfuck of choices and competition for ways to screw
the end user out of phone, tv, and internet dollars.

I blame Al Gore and his rock 'n roll lyric hatin' wife.

[Guest Yancy Street Gang]

I don't know that I'm happy.

I'm glad that I'll be able to watch the games. But I'd much rather that I didn't have to jump through all these hoops to enable that to happen.

[Guest cooby]

I predict that in a year or two, you'll be going through a whole nuther process to watch them.

But I hope I'm wrong, Yancy

[Guest Yancy Street Gang]

I have a feeling you're right, cooby, although your timeframe is probably a little too pessimistic. This DirecTV deal runs seven years, so I should be good for that long. A better option may come along before the seven years is up, though, so I may jump ship before 2013 but if I do at least it will be by my choice.

This recent nonsense aside, I would think (or hope) that as the years unfold, it should become easier to access out-of-market games. My prediction is that MLB TV will be more easily viewable on television sets as the gap between television and Internet narrows. Right now MLB TV isn't a viable alternative for me, but someday I expect it will be.

[Frayed Knot]

The biggest change over the next few years is likely to be the introduction of the MLB channel and whatever programming will wind up being shown exclusively there.
The sheer volume of MLB games means that it'll never be able to control their product the way the NFL does. But, after several years of just providing "extra" programming, the NFL is now trying to tempt fans towards their channel (and to their exclusive provider: DirecTV) by hording a handful of late-season games so that most fans could get them by no other means.

[Guest Kid Carsey]

Broke down and got mlb.tv for a month today to try it out. It kinda sucks but
in a way it's kind cool too to have a tv on any pc you may be on. For 50 cents
a day I guess it's worth it.

Braves vs. Phillies in all it's grainy glory is on as we speak.