Comparing Time Warner vs Direct TV
One of the best things about modern cable and satellite television is the explosion of sports programming now available to customers across the country. Specialized sports packages like ESPN Gameplan give the customer access to nearly 20 college football games every weekend. Even the NCAA Men’s tournament has expanded coverage with the Mega March Madness package on Direct TV.
The motto today is “Content is King” and as the saying goes the networks of course want to bring as much content as possible to the customer so they can make more money on advertising. Quite a few new all-sports channels have popped up over the past few years. Included among these are Altitude Sports, which carries NBA Nuggets and the NHL’s Colorado Avalanche games, as well as the Big 10 network and the mtn, the network of the Mountain West conference.
Sure these channels are great for folks in certain regions of the country, but disagreements between the providers of content and cable networks that deliver the content have brought trouble at times to the customer. For example, the Big Ten Network began broadcasting in 2007, but the network was unable to strike a deal with big cable provider Time Warner. Subscribers of Time Warner in Indiana were unable to watch some of the home town teams play because of the carraige dispute. While the battle lasted a whole year, the companies involved came to an agreement before the 2008 season, so subscribers could remain with with Time Warner rather than having to switch over to one of the satellite television companies like DISH Network or DirecTV. An important thing to do when considering providers is to consider all factors, comparing DIRECTV against Time Warner.
Out of market sports packages are another consideration for the customer. Some Dish Network customers have switched providers because the NFL Sunday ticket is exlusively with DirecTV. This has upset some pay television subscribers, who do not understand why a package Sunday Ticket isn’t available to every provider, especially a bicompany like Time Warner. Alternative packages though are more fan friendly, like the National Hockey League Center Ice and the NBA League Pass, which are available on almost every cable TV and satellite provider. Direct TV seems to have all of the sports programming like the NFL Sunday Ticket package.
