Is AT&T Hedging their bet with NFL ST?

Not sure about all the behind the scenes... but I just can't see NFL ST on cable

I feel like att / D* would loose like 10M customers and restaurants and bars

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Wasn’t here just a thread on this?

 

Don't you know it. I go to the store today to end my 21 year romance with AT&T wireless and hop into bed with Xfinity Mobile. Then March Madness continues in a few weeks with a 30 day trial of their full blown tv package and 1 Gig internet vs. my current D* Xtra package and the one big change will be me getting MLB.TV instead Extra Innings. All 3 of Xfinity's sports packages (MLB, NHL, NBA) have 2-4 HD games a night, the rest in SD. All 3 sports have "beta" products that show all games in HD but with no rewind or pause functions. They have been in beta for THREE, yes, THREE seasons.

If they do get NFL ST, open your windows, you'll be able to hear the screaming from miles away. They do SOME things right. Sports and full blown HD (premium movie channels) are not 2 of them.

And this discussion doesn't even go down the 1080 vs 720 road.......

 

Yea cable is hot garbage

Only 3 HD games a night , also com crap is compressing all channels down to 720p


Some politics person needs to step up get rid of POS cable and everyone should have access too FTTH

Just my 2 cents

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Actually, Xfinity could VERY easily now do this (in full HD quality on ALL games), as they are already now doing it on their other season ticket packages (MLB-EI, NBA-LP, NHL-CI, etc.) via their IP-based linear TV offerings. The only catch is, you have to have X1 boxes to view...which they are not installing in commercial establishments yet. But that's supposed to be changing very soon, as they are wanting to get as many people off their old legacy EPG platforms, & onto X1. As someone else mentioned, there's no DVR or trick play functions on these season pass channels...but obviously you DON'T need that in a bar.

They also have added 3 new IP-only HD cable channels to basic TV packages, Newsmax, i24 News & Z-Living...along with a whole slew of a la carte international channels, many that are in HD as well. Of course, you must have X1 boxes to receive any of these new channels...HOWEVER, unlike the season pass channels, at least the 3 basic channels above, CAN all be recorded &/or trick play functions used; I've seen it firsthand. (not sure on the internationals, as I don't know anyone that has them...)

These initial IP-only channel offerings appear to be "beta tests" of a much larger IP-only offering; once they get the vast majority of their TV sub base on X1, they would most likely start migrating lesser viewed &/or premium channels to their IP-only platform (think premium channels, etc.) which would then enable them to free up more bandwidth by needing less & less QAM-based channel capacity.

 

Sunday Ticket disclaimer?

Legalese here, nothing more.

Since there is even a remote chance DirecTV may lose ST, they must protect themselves from lawsuits from customers claiming they signed up because of ST.

Not much to see here if you ask me.

 

Since the NFL is able to end the contract early after the upcoming season if they want (otherwise it ends after the 2022 football season) Directv has to put that language in there since they can't absolutely guarantee they will have it the following season.

Realistically the NFL couldn't afford for Directv to not have it unless they had a LOT of other partners. Neither cable nor streaming offer the reach Directv does to cover all the bars and restaurants that currently carry it, which are an important part of the NFL's strategy to maximize viewership.

So while it is possible the NFL could decide to renegotiate and offer it on a non-exclusive basis, both the NFL and Directv have very strong incentive to make sure Directv continues to carry it. Dish is the only possible option for a partner to carry it on an exclusive basis, no single cable company nor anyone's streaming has enough reach for the NFL to offer it to them as an exclusive.

 

Those reports are re: the (legacy) QAM based HD channels...which DID most definitely started happening a couple years ago. The IP-only offerings, are on a separate part of their network, & because IP takes up less space, shouldn't need the level of compression to save space, like the QAM service does.
Unfortunately, because those X1 boxes have NO native pass-thru capability...as well as the fact that there really isn't any duplication of the (HD) IP-only channels in QAM, it's going to be more difficult to judge just how much reduction is being done on the IP streams. I don't have an X1 box, as I have Tivo's, so I have not had a lengthy amount of time to judge any of the IP-only channels myself.
And to be honest with you, because Tivo's DO have N/P, the (more compressed) QAM HD channels, IMHO, don't look all that much worse, than DISH does. (since I have both it's easy to readily compare them)

 

The NFL is never going to give a provider the exclusive rights that only a subset of their customers (aka only those who have a X1) will even be able to access. It would be like if DirecTV made Sunday Ticket a HS17 exclusive or if Dish got it and made it a Hopper 3 exclusive. Not to mention having the X1 requires that you also get internet from Comcast, so it isn't available to their television only subscribers who rather use fiber via their telco provider since it's faster than Comcast in many areas, or people living in areas where the X1 isn't available at all, since Comcast has a history of neglecting some acquired areas. Plus the X1 "exclusive" channels are usually limited to things that tend to be distributed OTT like Cheddar, or lesser channels who rather take the limited X1 only availability vs not being carried at all on Comcast like I24 News and some international packages, they wouldn't do it for something major like the NFL.

Not to mention, Comcast does NOT have a nationwide footprint, there will be major cities, including NYC, Dallas and most of Los Angeles, where it won't be available at all, along with other NFL cities like Buffalo, Charlotte,
Cincinnati, Cleveland, Green Bay, Indianapolis, Kansas City, New Orleans, Phoenix and Tampa. Even if they do it via iNDemand, who handles the NHL, NBA, MLB and MLS packages for digital cable and telcos, they would be at the mercy of individual systems, since there's tons of systems who still don't offer the out of market packages in HD, or don't offer out of market packages at all, including systems lagging behind on upgrades owned by the 3 major providers who co-own iNDemand Comcast, Cox and Spectrum. Not to mention to consolidate their C-Band transponder space, iNDemand recently switched to 720p only for their HD feeds, even for games that originate on 1080i networks.

The NFL is its own monster that requires dedicated feeds, so for satellite it isn't just remapping RSNs they already carry with some bonus feeds of non-carried channels. For Dish, they would need the bandwidth set aside on Sundays for 15+ additional HD feeds on both arcs and 15+ additional SD feeds for the western arc (since the NFL won't let them make the package HD only). While each cable system would need additional dedicated feeds since many systems do not support IP/switched delivery for their entire subscriber base, if they support it at all, and because of the schedule overlap iNDemand can't just repurpose their existing GAME and TEAM channels for NFL.

 

I can see Apple or Amazon driving truckloads of money to the NFL HQ to get them to opt out after the 2019 season.

 

I wouldn’t say there was reports. It was pretty much confirmed fact. And how many exact markets are they offering IPTV. I suspect the number is small right now

 

Xfinity can do it With X1 just need to rush that out to commercial establishments. But they may also risk some big cable card laws issues even more so if the FCC changes in 2020.
QAM can be done as well.