[tquinn22]

Is DirecTV in breach for not providing CBS content, thus allowing customers to cancel their service?

 

[sigma1914]

No.

 

[texasbrit]

Absolutely not...

 

[peds48]

You agreed that DIRECTV can drop channels at the drop of a dime when you signed your commitment without affecting such contract...

(d) Our Programming Changes. Many factors affect the availability, cost and quality of programming and may influence the decision to raise prices and the amount of any increase. These include, among others, programming and other costs, consumer demand, market and shareholder expectations, and changing business conditions. Accordingly, we must reserve the unrestricted right to change, rearrange, add or delete our programming packages, the selections in those packages, our prices, and any other Service we offer, at any time. We will endeavor to notify you of any change that is within our reasonable control and its effective date. In most cases this notice will be about one month in advance. You always have the right to cancel your Service, in whole or in part, if you do not accept the change (see Section 5). If you cancel your Service, a deactivation fee (described in Sections 2 & 5(b)) or other charges may apply. Credits, if any, to your account will be posted as described in Section 5. If you do not cancel, your continued receipt of our Service will constitute acceptance.

 

[dpeters11]

Funny how they word that though, when in reality they don't have the unrestricted right to delete programming or move it to another package. But it doesn't change the answer in terms of the end user.

 

[James Long]

Funny how they word that though, when in reality they don't have the unrestricted right to delete programming or move it to another package. But it doesn't change the answer in terms of the end user.

In relation to their customers, they do have the right. In relation to their suppliers (channels) it is all part of the negotiation process. If, for example, they agree to renew carriage for "The Weather Channel" but only if it is provided in Choice and not Entertainment they can do that to their subscribers. They only need permission from the channel.

(Some state laws may allow a person to end their contract if a substantial change is made to the service. But such protection is not guaranteed.)

 

[fleckrj]

Funny how they word that though, when in reality they don't have the unrestricted right to delete programming or move it to another package. But it doesn't change the answer in terms of the end user.

I assume you are speaking in terms of the contract with the providers, which is true; however, the statement is necessary for the end user to cover DirecTV when the contract with the providers ends. DirecTV cannot guarantee that it can come to terms with every provider every time a contract expires (although their track record has been pretty good).

 

[dpeters11]

Oh I know. I've heard rumor at least of people getting out of their cell contracts because of changes that were beneficial to the subscriber, just to get out of it. "More data for the same price? That's a material change, I want out!"

 

[ejbvt]

Is DirecTV in breach for not providing CBS content, thus allowing customers to cancel their service?

Where do you live? You can probably get CBS for free with an antenna.

 

[dpeters11]

Where do you live? You can probably get CBS for free with an antenna.

Seems to be San Diego but it would be a question as to range. I know that for me, even though I live in the city, for Cincinnati stations I have to at least put my antenna on the second level to get good signal. And San Diego is much larger (though maybe more powerful transmitters.)

 

[Barry in Conyers]

Seems to be a reasonably neutral article.

http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/2015/aug/14/KFMB-direcTV-uverse-blackout-san-deigo-chargers/

 

[dpeters11]

Hard to believe there was no warning. Every dispute I've seen, the channel has put things up on their website and a scroller saying to call DirecTV and have them sign the deal.

I have no idea how many DirecTV subscribers there are in that DMA. If it's 12.5% of the DMA, that would be about 400,000 which would mean they want $3 million extra per year.

 

[trdrjeff]

They ended the dispute in time for last nights Charger game