Watch ESPN

I don't know about that. How high can the 'ratings' be for anything on ESPN3? There have been a couple Iowa basketball games on ESPN3, playing nobodies. Iowa has three tiers of media rights that have to pass on it (ABC/ESPN, BTN, Mediacom) for it to drop down to ESPN3. If more than a thousand people are watching Iowa's ESPN3 streams I'd be shocked - these are all home games, so most of the hardcore fans are there in person.

I can get the contracts not wanting to pay for the ads, but aren't they allowed to sell different ads? They could sell ads to Netflix, Hulu and Spotify since you know the viewers like streaming

 

The thing is WatchESPN wasn't that big of an issue until 2 years ago. Prior to then nearly every live event that aired on ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPNU was simulcasted on ESPN3. Outside of Time Warner Cable and Cablevision, who restricted access to those with TV subscriptions for whatever reason, and ISPs that didn't have a deal like CenturyLink, most people were able to watch all of those events on ESPN3 via their ISP (something that went back to their days as the ISP only ESPN 360).

Eventually they started limiting events to the linear channels only, however some events like the this year's World Cip remained available via ESPN3.

For mobile access a lot of ESPN's live events including Sunday Night Baseball was available on the ESPN Mobile TV channel that was available via most cellular providers, even on non-smartphones, before it along with the mobile TV versions of ABC and Disney Channel were shutdown at the stroke of midnight last new years day. Sprint gave it to you for free while you had to get a seperate package for AT&T, US Cellular and Verizon Wireless.

They could but the thing is ESPN3 isn't an actual channel so it's hard to give a number of potential viewers and set a rate. It's not like people already get it on their TV via a package and will flip past the game while channel surfing. They have to intentionally go online or open an app on their phone or game console and select that specific game. I haven't watched ESPN3 in ages since most of the games I watch are on the regular networks, but I know the linear ESPN and ESPN2 streams put a bunch of This is SportsCenter ads and other promos in as filler followed by a be back soon slate until the break ends.

 

Sounds like they just need to change the way they sell these ads, and sell them like online ads are sold. They know how many people watch each stream, so they could sell them per 10,000 viewers or whatever. If I was buying advertising time, I'd much rather buy on a stream where people can't FF through commercials and I know exactly how many people are streaming, than buy on TV where many commercials are skipped and some percentage of "viewers" are using the TV as background noise.

As you say, it is more of a process to go online, open the app/browser, and select the specific game. Because of that, I think it is fair to assume the typical viewer of a game on ESPN3 is more engaged than the typical viewer of a game on ESPN2. So I'd pay more per viewer to advertise on ESPN3.

 

Have we lost sight of the fact that we are talking about ESPN here? If they aren't monetizing something, it's because they have done the research and realize it's not viable.

 

According to this report, Disney-Directv agreement expired at the end of September. If the points in this report are factual, negotiations have been going on for almost three months.

DirecTV, Disney Continue Carriage Negotiations

 

Disney and DirecTV do not air their dirty laundry in public. It is highly unlikely that the channels will go dark or that we will hear anything about the negotiations until after the ink is dry.

 

The deal is done, WatchESPN and the rest of WatchDisney are coming in early 2015, along with Fusion, Longhorn, ESPN Goal Line and ESPN Buzzer Beater, ESPN Classic will also convert to VOD:
http://investor.directv.com/press-releases/press-release-details/2014/DIRECTV-and-The-Walt-Disney-Company-Sign-Expansive-Agreement/default.aspx

 

Tweet from the Network Producer of the Longhorn Network:

Ande Wall ‏@AndeWall 6m6 minutes ago
LHN coming to @DIRECTV in January

 

Time for an updated sheet comparing who has what when it comes to TV Everywhere offerings:
View attachment 25959

S means that it was officially announced via a press release but not yet available.

Basically when it comes to channels that they carry, DirecTV is missing AMC Networks (they're in talks right now so that will probably change in the near future), Fox Sports Go (rumored to be coming early next year), and Hallmark (not sure when that's up)

 

Was there ever a doubt? :rotfl:

 

You left out the PAC 12 Net(s).

 

You missed this part of the post:

If you're going to include everything that has a TV Everywhere platform, that would also include Epix, MoviePlexe Play, MusicChoice and Revolt. However unless DirecTV comes to a deal to carry those channels, you won't get access to their TVE platforms.

 

I think he was talking National Channels and not Regional Sports Channels. Unfortunately, the Pac 12 is only a regional network who has chosen to go it alone at this point in time.

 

Pac-12 Nets is not one that's in talks about leaving! Pac-12 Nets is regional.

 

Well pac12 has a national channel they want in everyone's homes.

 

He even pointed it out in another post and people are still missing it!

Maybe if it is made harder to miss people will see why Pac 12 is irrelevant to KyL416's point

He was talking about digital rights for channels that Directv carries, not digital rights for channels Directv has never carried. Obviously Directv will never get digital rights for their viewers to stream channels Directv has no contract to carry, so not only Pac 12 but the Dodgers Channel, the Philly SportsNet channels and whatever other channels you can name that exist but Directv does not carry.

 

well they may want to get get ESPN3 content into bars and to have so that some bars don't have to go into the gray area of linking a tv to the Internet / useing some ones home login to make it work. also to get to areas that don't have the bandwidth / an ISP who will not play ball with ESPN.

 

well the home team has control and there have been games where the road team ending being on espn3 on a local cable channel for the game only.

also ESPN can use more feeds as well.

 

When it is has happened with Iowa it was a home game. The Iowa/North Florida game a few days ago was on ESPN3. This wasn't a case of the game being carried on a local cable channel. It wasn't carried anywhere but ESPN3. So I'm glad that Directv will carry ESPN3 content on satellite, we'll just have to see how complete the offering is, but I'm pretty sure that Iowa/North Florida game would have had no obstacles to be broadcast if Directv was already carrying ESPN3.

Won't find out for sure until next fall, the conference season starts next week!

 

Although this is a different topic, when does Directv expect the new satellite to be operational and able to add new channels? The degree to which multiple ESPN3 games could be shown at one time would seem to hinge on this.

And if multiple ESPN3 games are shown on Directv as part of a regular package, Full Court and Game Plan should probably just go away.