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DirecTV: sucking the life force out of the NFL
03/01/07
by Clay

I'm no fan of DirecTV. In fact, we might even be classified as enemies. That's what happens when you go on a 50-day pudding strike to protest the un-American and antitrust nature of the NFL's Sunday Ticket television package. Yep, 50 days of only pudding. My parents are still proud.

As just about everyone who reads this column is aware that if you're a displaced fan who no longer lives in your local market, satellite television is the only option for watching your favorite NFL team play. If you aren't able, required by the nature of your rural residence, or willing to shill out the money for DirecTV's substandard reception, signal, service and convoluted remote control and channel-changing capabilities, then you have to go to a sports bar in order to watch your favorite team play.

For the otherwise fan-friendly NFL, restricting fans who want to buy their NFL Sunday Ticket exclusively to DirecTV subscribers is almost worthy of a coup d'etat. That's because the DirecTV deal is by far the worst decision anyone in the NFL has made in the past 15 years. The only other error that is even remotely close is the pact that gives Electronic Arts and its Madden franchise the exclusive right to make NFL licensed video games. What both have in common is that they are each exclusive deals that hamstring innovation and restrict access to fans.

Welcome to the 21st century of sports fandom, where, for certain leagues, fewer fans are able to watch their favorite teams play than were able to in the 20th century. Ain't technology grand?

Last week I wrote about the flourishing of new technology and the way the world was opening up to sports viewers as never before. I said my credo as a fan was: Every American fan should be able to watch any sporting event he wants to when he wants to. Period.

And I said I would discuss the greatest threat to continued future expansion of availability and access for sports fans to follow their favorite teams. Here's the biggest threat: exclusive content deals with corporate providers who aren't universally available to all subscribers. The NFL Sunday Ticket is the most glaring current example of that threat.

But, as I expected, DirecTV has not been willing to stop its exclusive sports dealings with the NFL. Why would it, when otherwise there's no reason to consume its product? Especially in an increasingly HD world. Signing up for DirecTV HD is like getting each of your teeth pulled without anesthetic while a chimpanzee repetitively punches you in the groin.

Word recently surfaced that Major League Baseball and DirecTV were close to a deal that would restrict the Extra Innings baseball package to purchase by DirecTV subscribers only. Extra Innings allows baseball fans who no longer live in their favorite team's local market to pay a yearly fee and continue to watch their favorite teams play. It also allows huge baseball fans to watch any other team or player they might like to follow. Currently the Extra Innings package is available to 75 million cable and satellite subscribers. Selling the exclusive rights to Extra Innings would end the universal availability of the MLB sports package and restrict purchase to just 15 million DirecTV subscribers.

So MLB's purported deal would immediately cut off 60 million households from being able to consume its product. Since there are about 750,000 current Extra Innings subscribers from within that 75 million households, MLB would be sacrificing its most ardent fans on the altar of the almighty and shortsighted dollar.

The end result would be that hundreds of thousands of the most diehard baseball fans -- who have already been willing to part with their hard-earned money to support their favorite teams -- would see the holy grail of baseball fandom, the opportunity to watch all 162 of their team's games, vanish into thin air. While hell might have no fury like a woman scorned, somehow I think Major League Baseball is going to find out that a baseball fan who can no longer watch his favorite team play comes pretty close.

Worst of all, with both the NFL and the MLB in its restrictive sports pocket, I guarantee you the NBA's League Pass would become DirecTV's next sporting target. Right now the NBA's game offerings are available to the same 75 million cable and satellite subscribers. But if baseball and football both chased the money instead of their fans, why should we expect basketball to hold steady forever?

Seeing the money that large corporations are willing to shill out for exclusive content, college pay-for-view packages like ESPN's GamePlan and the NCAA's March Madness package could become the next venue for restrictive access in the future. Before long the smorgasbord of future fandom's expansive access starts to look a lot more like the early 1950s than it does the early days of the 21st century.

Look, I'm not some Che Guevara of sports fandom who thinks that everyone should be able to watch every game they want for free. I understand profit motivates networks, companies and leagues to make their product available for consumption. All I'm asking for is that fans be given the opportunity to pay to follow their favorite teams. Did you get that?

It's gotten to the point where fans have to pound the table, complain and bellyache to be able to pay for a product. That's downright un-American. But idiots in suits don't recognize that they are mortgaging the goodwill of their fans for a piddling few extra dollars, thus alienating and restricting the growth of the next generation of their fan base. So someone has to shake these guys until they come to their senses.

Thankfully, and amazingly, politicians from both parties are starting to take note of the looming threat of these restrictive agreements for sports fans. Democratic Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts released a recent statement detailing his opposition to the reported decision by MLB to mortgage their soul to DirecTV.

"I am opposed to anything that deprives people of reasonable choices. In this day and age, consumers should have more choices, not fewer," Kerry said. "I'd like to know how this serves the public -- a deal that will force fans to subscribe to DirecTV in order to tune in to their favorite players. A Red Sox fan ought to be able to watch their team without having to switch to DirecTV."

Kerry later told the New York Times, "There's a whole movement toward fans being screwed by consolidation which raises prices and reduces options."

And Republican Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania has threatened to examine the anti-trust implications of the NFL's deal with DirecTV. When it comes to restrictive sports agreements on Capital Hill, bipartisanship actually exists. Probably to a certain extent because Kerry and Specter also reside in a city where they have to scramble to watch their favorite sports teams play. And they recognize the obstacles that leagues are constructing to their product being consumed by displaced fans.

But it's not just politicians who have combated these exclusive content deals. Fans have also stepped up the fight. Daniel Asnis has recently set up an online petition to protest the proposed MLB deal with DirecTV. On Monday night I became the 3,685th person to sign Asnis' petition to keep MLB's Extra Innings package available to cable subscribers and I would encourage all of you to sign as well.

When reached for comment, Asnis stated that he was motivated to start the petition because "I felt kind of helpless. I felt like a petition was the only way I could make a statement for me and other people who have cable."

Asnis said that he purchased Extra Innings through Comcast in 2006. So, yet again, we have a man who is willing to start a petition to allow Major League Baseball to continue to accept his money so he can consume their product. When you get right down to it, all Asnis is asking for is the opportunity to continue to give a sports league more money. This is insane.

Even if you aren't interested in MLB's Extra Innings package or particularly bothered by its potential move to DirecTV, you should sign this petition. Because, I promise you, if the exclusive deals with sports leagues keep screwing fans, sooner or later something you value being able to watch is going to disappear. And the amazing future of sports availability that I wrote about last week is going to dry up, shrivel and die.

Yep, sports access is going to become the proverbial raisin in the sun. If he were still alive today, even Langston Hughes would be crying.

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