DON'T FORGET TO "LIKE" BEE-OTCH OF THE DAY ON FACEBOOK!
Name: News Corp
Age: 31
Occupation: media giant
Last Seen: New York/Surry Hills, New South Wales
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Name: Dish Network
Age: 14
Occupation: satellite television provider
Last Seen: Englewood, CO
Age: 14
Occupation: satellite television provider
Last Seen: Englewood, CO
Both Bee-otched For: screwing over sports and Rescue Me fans
Friday SHOULD be an exciting day for us Red Wing fans.
It's the beginning of the NHL hockey season when the Wings fight off the Anaheim Ducks at Joe Louis Arena. Many fans will wonder if the Red Wings can have a better season after being thisclose to not being in the playoffs last year.
But, many Wing fans won't be seeing the game. That's unless both Fox and Dish Network get their shit together.
As of last Thursday, Fox Sports Net, FX and the National Geographic Channel are no longer seen on Dish Network. According to CEO Charlie Ergen, it is due to the fact that Fox parent News Corporation gave Dish a massive 50% rate hike that would have diminished profits for the satcaster and jack up rates for subscribers.
Fox has set up a website, GetWhatIPaidFor.com, that explains what's going on between them and Dish. So has Dish.
On Fox's website, they explain that they didn't ask Dish for that whopping 50% rate increase. They claim "We are simply asking DISH to compensate us fairly out of their massive profits for Fox’s entertainment and sports programming services they sell to their subscribers. We have made what we believe are fair and reasonable proposals to DISH – ones that are consistent with our agreements with the hundreds of other cable and satellite companies with whom DISH competes for your business. To date, DISH has not responded with a proposal that is reasonable by comparison to the hundreds of other deals we have in place for these same channels."
Dish Network has had a long history of not playing nice with their channels. Over the years, the satcaster has had similar battles with Viacom (MTV, VH1, Nickelodeon and Comedy Central) and Disney that resulted in them yanking some of their HD channels from Dish.
However, Charlie Ergen is trying not to be the bad guy; he has made available all non-Fox regional sports channels free to customers for the time being. Red Wing fans will be able to see Saturday's game against the Ducks on Comcast Sports California (ch. 9660) unless it's blacked out locally.
But, remember, my Sirius brethren, that Dish Network was thisclose to buying out Sirius/XM when it was in financial dire straits, and that Mel Karmazin ended up getting Liberty Media - rival DirecTV's owner - to get his company instead so Charlie and Co. wouldn't dick around with it like they're dicking around with their customers. Hell, maybe Charlie wouldn't consider re-signing Howard "to keep costs down".
You see, when two companies like Fox and Dish fight, everybody loses big time. Sadly, I have Dish, and I can't dump it because of my current living arrangements. I really want AT&T U-Verse, but lord only knows when they're coming to my area. I truly can't stand Dish, especially since I'm paying $85.83 per month and I'm not getting all the channels I want.
But, with the economy the way it is, what I REALLY want is ala carte programming, where I would pay only for the channels I watch. Right now, I'm paying $2-something per month for Fox News Channel, and I don't watch it. Same goes for Lifetime, BET, MTV, Nickelodeon and others. But since the economy blows and people are ditching the dish and cable since all their favorite shows are online as-is, maybe that's what they oughta consider.
Charlie Ergen and Rupert Murdoch: when they fight, we all lose.
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