Dish Officially Adds SECNetwork...

[engie]

Deal finalized today.

Be interesting to see how far Comcast/Time Warner and DirecTV are willing to draw it out. They let it get into August and things could get interesting.

[Political Hack]

damn. that could be problematic.

[engie]

14 million DISH subscribers nationally. 5.5 million UVERSE TV subscribers nationally. We'll round up to 20 million combined by launch date(conservative estimate given UVerse's monumental growth pattern as it is instituted nationally).

If we assume a direct correlation of population in SEC states/nonSEC states to cable subscribers(30% of the entire population of the country reside in SEC states now), that means about 6 million subscribers in the SEC footprint, and 14 million outside thusfar. Assuming the numbers reported are accurate($1.30 per subscriber inside the footprint and $0.25 per subscriber outside the footprint), this bitch is already worth $135million per year plus RIGHT NOW -- a full 5.5 months prior to launch -- on top of what we already make -- and before you quadruple bowl revenue as we will next year. The money is about to get crazy boys...

[preachermatt83]

Glad ive got dish... now all I need to know is whats it gonna cost me and if I can add just that channel. I have the sports pak now but feel certain it wont be included in that pak. Pac-12 network is tho so maybe sec net will be.

[FISHDAWG]

well I certainly hope DTV gets it soon ... if they don't then I'm hoping whatever game the network shows that I want to get will be available for a $ 25 purchase (per game) from ESPN game plan ... that's what I have always done in the past for our games that weren't picked up on the usual media .... my question is will we be on there very often and how many other marquis games will they have scheduled

[engie]

Glad ive got dish... now all I need to know is whats it gonna cost me and if I can add just that channel. I have the sports pak now but feel certain it wont be included in that pak. Pac-12 network is tho so maybe sec net will be.

My understanding is that it's going on their basic tier and will be available to all dish subscribers the day it launches with their current contracts...

[DownwardDawg]

well I certainly hope DTV gets it soon ...

Me too. I'll be pissed if I have to switch from DirectTv to Dish just because they don't carry the SEC network. I can't imagine them not doing it though.

[engie]

well I certainly hope DTV gets it soon ... if they don't then I'm hoping whatever game the network shows that I want to get will be available for a $ 25 purchase (per game) from ESPN game plan ... that's what I have always done in the past for our games that weren't picked up on the usual media .... my question is will we be on there very often and how many other marquis games will they have scheduled

The SECNetwork will have a pregame "College Gameday" show that airs from one of the 14 campuses every week. After that, there will be 3 games per Saturday on the SECNetwork, and some of them will be marquee games to pressure providers. CBS will still get their first pick, but the time slot is not exclusive anymore(SECNetwork will air a 2:30 game). After that game, espn and the sec have full power to put the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th best games of the week onto the SECNetwork if they so choose. I look for them to heavily leverage the sec's geographic outliers on the channel to lock up providers on the fringes of the conference, meaning a lot of aTm, Ark, Mizzou, Kentucky, SCe.

First game on opening Thursday is aTm @ USCe. That's by design for leverage on the outliers...

[Jack Lambert]

They will all carry it. Too many subscribers to lose if they don't.

[FISHDAWG]

thanks ... I will switch if I have too .... DTV is by far the best provider for sports, surely they will come through and pick this up ... only question is how long will they wait before doing the deal ... I won't wait until a week before the season to pull the plug ... that would have to be done well before then

[NCDawg]

Up here in NC, we have Time Warner Cable who has not yet signed on. If they don't, I have U Verse available at my location which I can switch to.

[engie]

thanks ... I will switch if I have too .... DTV is by far the best provider for sports

I thought that too -- until I got uVerse...where I've had every sports channel or any channel for that matter of interest since it's launch. For the first 6 months, I even got all of the Fox regional channels -- not just Fox SportsSouth.

Another huge aggrivation with direcTV is that it takes 5 seconds to change the channel making it damn near impossible to watch multiple games at once. UVerse is immediate like cable...

[PassInterference]

+1 for Uverse.

My only gripe is that it won't hide SD channels, especially SD channels for which there is a HD duplicate. For instance if you search for and record "Big Bang Theory", you'll want to be careful to select the search result that is the HD CBS affiliate channel and not the SD CBS affiliate channel.

And there is no global option to hide all SD channels from the program guide. You have to page through all 753 pages of channel options and individually hide about 1,000 SD channels if you don't want them in your program guide. And even if you go through this trouble you'll still get SD search results.

[NCDawg]

+1 for Uverse.

My only gripe is that it won't hide SD channels, especially SD channels for which there is a HD duplicate. For instance if you search for and record "Big Bang Theory", you'll want to be careful to select the search result that is the HD CBS affiliate channel and not the SD CBS affiliate channel.

And there is no global option to hide all SD channels from the program guide. You have to page through all 753 pages of channel options and individually hide about 1,000 SD channels if you don't want them in your program guide. And even if you go through this trouble you'll still get SD search results.

Can you advise me of the approximate monthly cost of U Verse? Right now, I'm on a bundled promotion with TWC, where I pay approx. $155.00 for internet, unlimited telephone service, and cable (with premium channels HBO, Showtime, Cinemax, and TMC). TWC internet speed is very fast, and I've heard that U Verse is not quite as good.

[The Croom Diaries]

The SECNetwork will have a pregame "College Gameday" show that airs from one of the 14 campuses every week. After that, there will be 3 games per Saturday on the SECNetwork, and some of them will be marquee games to pressure providers. CBS will still get their first pick, but the time slot is not exclusive anymore(SECNetwork will air a 2:30 game). After that game, espn and the sec have full power to put the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th best games of the week onto the SECNetwork if they so choose. I look for them to heavily leverage the sec's geographic outliers on the channel to lock up providers on the fringes of the conference, meaning a lot of aTm, Ark, Mizzou, Kentucky, SCe.

First game on opening Thursday is aTm @ USCe. That's by design for leverage on the outliers...

To add to that, from what I've read every game that was formerly on CSS, FSN and local SEC Network (JP Dave Neal game) will now be on the SEC Network. We had 5 of those in 2013. And the games that used to be on ESPN3 (i.e. FCS games and some low level non-conference games) will be on the SEC Network streaming service.

You not only need your cable/satellite provider to carry it, but also internet....especially come baseball season.

[PassInterference]

Can you advise me of the approximate monthly cost of U Verse? Right now, I'm on a bundled promotion with TWC, where I pay approx. $155.00 for internet, unlimited telephone service, and cable (with premium channels HBO, Showtime, Cinemax, and TMC). TWC internet speed is very fast, and I've heard that U Verse is not quite as good.

I have U300 plus HBO channels and I THINK 6Mbps internet for $200 after all taxes and fees. The U300 does include Showtime channels and a dozen or so other movie channels - Stars channels, and TMC channels I think.

I got that package a few years ago. Not sure if the current non-promotional rates are better or worse than this.

I did run a speed test recently and came up with slightly over 6Mbps. I think 6 is what I'm supposed to have. The down side, if it matters, is that unlike cable, it is not the same speed in both directions. The 6Mbps is the download speed. Upload speed is much slower. Maybe 512kbps or 1Mbps or something I'm not sure. The upload speed usually only matters to gamers or to folks that upload videos and such to places.

[Todd4State]

I hate that CBS has the first pick still. I wish ESPN/ABC had the first pick.

[SouthMsDawg]

I have Comcast and recently switched over b/c we have had a lot of stuff on CSS (basketball/baseball)

I hope and pray they sign on, if im not mistaken they are based out of Atlanta and cover a lot of places in the South. I know that Hattiesburg, Laurel, Meridian, Jackson, and Tupelo. Im sure there are others as well but I know those are Comcast cities here in MS.

[engie]

Comcast just bought Time Warner -- so they cover the whole southeast and all of MS now basically..

They will have it. Very little doubt in my mind on that one...

[FISHDAWG]

Me too. I'll be pissed if I have to switch from DirectTv to Dish just because they don't carry the SEC network. I can't imagine them not doing it though.

I finally asked and this was the response :
Subject
SEC Network
Administrator
Thank you for writing about the upcoming SEC Network. DIRECTV is in discussions with the owners of the SEC Network, which is set to debut August 2014. We will have more information as we draw closer to its launch date.