DODGERS The TWC/SPECTRUM NIGHTMARE Thread

Discussion in 'Los Angeles DODGERS' started by THINKBLUE, Mar 27, 2014.

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When will deals strike with other providers?

  1. Opening Day

    0 vote(s)
    0.0%
  2. 10 games into season

    5 vote(s)
    20.0%
  3. 20 games into season

    5 vote(s)
    20.0%
  4. 30+ Games into season

    6 vote(s)
    24.0%
  5. Never

    9 vote(s)
    36.0%
  1. MZA

    MZA MODERATOR Staff Member

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    I honestly think we should start instilling in kids that you make way more money as a baseball player. They won't think it's slow and boring when they start realizing you'll make more money as an average player.
     
  2. back2back x 2 + 1

    back2back x 2 + 1 DSP Legend Damned

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    25 year TV deal.

    for TWC it's pretty much 1st down with 40 seconds left on the play clock..the QB hasn't even gotten the call from the sideline yet. Magic is right, but he also has to say what he said.
     
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  3. Gebbeth

    Gebbeth DSP Legend

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    The news on the possible blocking of the merger is good news if you are a Dodger fan. It's an indication from the government that they don't like Comcast's business practices, and that TWC's monopoly on a big swath of S.Cal isn't going to change that behavior.

    In other words....TWC better show some love to DirecTV and other providers quick. Comcast better do everything in their power to open their cable access to local providers, including offering some games and other shows to local broadcast stations (KCAL etc)
     
  4. irish

    irish DSP Staff Member Administrator

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    How to watch the Dodgers on TV
    by Chris Erskine | Los Angeles Times — 16 hours ago
    [​IMG]
    My life is a series of small pathetic failures broken up by unsustainable microbursts of clarity and achievement.

    That's why getting the Dodgers on TV the other night was so rockin'. My kid and I hugged as if we'd just climbed some digital Kilimanjaro. Which in a sense, is exactly what we'd done.

    Emboldened by the buzz surrounding a new service, we changed a DNS code that masked our location. That allowed us to access an MLB.TV subscription, which till now had blocked Dodgers telecasts if you didn't have a Time Warner Cable account.

    If such hocus-pocus seems beyond your skill set, let me refer you back to Scene 1, Paragraph 1. In short, if I can do this, you can do this. I don't see why everybody doesn't do it, despite the $130 MLB season subscription.

    Keep in mind, that's roughly what you'd spend at the ballpark on parking, two beers and four anorexic hot dogs.

    Even better news: The whole setup took less than 30 minutes.

    The bad news? It requires a small investment, a bit of patience, and the right electronic chassis. My self-made Dodgers for Dummies kit also included an Apple TV device, which makes hooking up to subscriptions such as Netflix and MLB.TV about as easy as setting up a new coffee maker (previously, we'd used gaming consoles to access such things, but the Apple TV device is much simpler).

    So, here I sit watching Clayton Kershaw and Adrian Gonzalez on TV after a yearlong forced abstinence. When that cute redhead crowed, "It's time for Dodger baseball!" I'll confess to getting chills — and an extra beverage from the beer fridge outside.

    My work-around comes from Unlocator.com, an online service that guides even Luddites like me through an easy setup menu.

    Essentially, Unlocator allows you to access Dodgers telecasts by telling you how to change what is known as your system's DNS, which fools MLB.TV into thinking you're outside the blackout zone. Sure, that sounds sinister, but Unlocator reps say you are doing nothing more than what millions of VPN users do every day when they sign on to their corporate network from home.
    [​IMG]
    Can you get into trouble for it? Time Warner Cable declined to comment on the work-around. The Danes who run the Copenhagen-based Unlocator.com won't guarantee that some local regulations might crop up. But for the most part, they say, only Iran and the United Arab Emirates have laws that prohibit this sort of digital zigzag, known in the Nerd World as "proxy service alternatives."

    Proxy, shmoxy, all I know is that the Dodgers and Giants are on my TV right now. And I'm far from alone.

    "My brother has this setup," says fan Matt Shupper, who has been using the service since the start of the year. "My dad has it, and five people from my son's baseball team are using it.

    Fine print deep in the MLB.com website warns of a $100 fine and service cutoffs to anyone trying to circumvent blackouts, though I have found no signs of any such crackdowns so far.

    "I've had zero issues," Shupper says.

    Of course, overriding the Dodgers' blackout goes back to the start of the standoff a year ago, when techie types started rerouting MLB feeds through foreign servers to disguise their locations. As you may know, a computer's IP address is the digital lighthouse that lets a cable provider know where you are. TWC , which owns rights to Dodgers telecasts, has failed to get other major services to buy in so it has blacked out about 70% of local TV households from seeing the games on satellite or cable.

    Savvy users had to download programs that spoofed the IP address, so that MLB.TV would think the user was in the Bahamas or Nova Scotia — pretty much anywhere outside TWC's dragnet.

    "Finding a good connection can take a while," says one college student, who asked not be identified, and who still relies on a Canadian server. "But it's much better than watching pixilated games on Moldovan gambling websites like my friends do."

    Locator.com is different in that it requires no software downloads, just the DNS alias and the instructions on how to change it.

    A device known as Slingbox has become another popular way of getting around the blackouts. But it requires a TWC account someplace, often at a second residence in an area covered by TWC. In that case, Slingbox allows viewers to redirect — or sling — that cable signal over the Internet, where they can access the games on home TVs, phones and tablets.

    "It's extremely reliable, a very crisp signal. It works extremely well," says one user, a JPL executive who asked not to be identified. He said the $120 device is about the size of a hardcover book and was an easy install.

    But he's a rocket scientist, after all. Me, I'm just a lost soul with a hole in his shoe on the boulevard of broken dreams.

    And one of those dreams was to see Vin Scully in my den again, singing songs for a summer's night.

    Done.

    chris.erskine@latimes.com
    Twitter: @erskinetimes

    HOW TO GET STARTED

    Unlocator.com: The service provides an alternate DNS number and instructions. Cost: $4.95 a month. Free seven-day trials also offered.

    MLB.TV: Unlocator requires this subscription. Yearly subscriptions are $130. But if you don't want to commit, monthly fees are $25.

    Setup: Unlocator requires a wireless network or an Ethernet connection. It works with all sorts of gaming consoles, household routers, operating systems and media players such as Apple TV, Roku or Chromecast. In our case, Apple TV proved a 10-minute install, plus another 15 minutes to subscribe to MLB.TV via an iTunes account.

    Slingbox: The streaming device is about $120, and install is simple. Also necessary: a TWC account that you can access over the Internet.​
     
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  5. TuborgP

    TuborgP DSP Legend

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  6. THINKBLUE

    THINKBLUE DSP Gigolo

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  7. TuborgP

    TuborgP DSP Legend

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    As I have said before tick tock it is now the uncertainty stage
     
  8. THINKBLUE

    THINKBLUE DSP Gigolo

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    Does this allow for discussions to resume at least?
     
  9. irish

    irish DSP Staff Member Administrator

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    lol, probably gonna require greasing the palms of the justice department and fcc it appears
    good luck twc :rolleyes:
    and fuck comcast too while we're at it
     
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  10. TuborgP

    TuborgP DSP Legend

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    Why? Directv etc has made their position clear. TWC probably has less leverage now and the industry is changing. Verizon and ESPN are the newest combatants with Verizon wanting to unbundle their lineup.
     
  11. KOUFAX0000

    KOUFAX0000 DSP Legend Damned

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    I sure hope the Dodgers had an out clause because they're going to need one.
     
  12. THINKBLUE

    THINKBLUE DSP Gigolo

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    They should've just rebranded prime ticket for a similar dollar amount. How they didn't foresee this is beyond me.
     
  13. TuborgP

    TuborgP DSP Legend

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    It has been difficult for many to focus on the complex financial, regulatory and soon to be more evident societal media change of the Dodger purchase and subsequent events. Mark Walters has been the most honest and Kasten for the most part quiet. Sports writers are at best focused on sports and the spin of various Dodger Spin Doctors. There are still many unknowns that are futile to speculate about or discuss. Hopefully a financial publication will soon publish a piece on the future of sports broadcasting and cable/streaming unbundling.
     
  14. THINKBLUE

    THINKBLUE DSP Gigolo

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    I was doing a college news show when this deal went down. Even I said this is the tipping point for outrageous RSN deals.

    I think all of us, including myself, banked on the fact that we are the Dodgers and it couldn't happen to us. We assumed we would be the last mega deal under this model of TV rights before everyone got fed up. But the other providers drew the line early. This deal isn't going to get done.
     
  15. TuborgP

    TuborgP DSP Legend

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    Don't include me in all of us. I have been chastised in this forum for contrary thinking and we are in the next phase as the Dodgers are accusing TW of being greedy. The Dodgers had wanted TW to point the finger at Directv and they refused thus now the Dodgers accusing TW of being greedy because they won't lower the price and write of what over time could be a 2 billion dollar loss. Lots of side conversations in financial talk neither about the Dodgers nor positive for the Dodgers.
    Tick Tock. July isn't that far away and remember TW has shareholders and a board the Dodgers don't.
     
  16. back2back x 2 + 1

    back2back x 2 + 1 DSP Legend Damned

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    Tuborg, you were chastised for questioning ownership's " deep pockets " and you yourself said that the signing of " big money Cubans " this off-season would help put your questions to rest.
     
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  17. TuborgP

    TuborgP DSP Legend

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    Deep pockets are a result of what? A TV contract with serious issues? Tick Tock get these trees out of the way I am trying to find the forest. July is coming. There could be some negative vibes about the deal next week when Time Warner reports first quarter profit. They didn't have negative impact from the Dodger contract until July when they reported second quarter results. Hopefully the merger deal won't have a negative impact next week but it could be part of the TW financial discussion. I just found out today that TW has a number of structural issues that they needed money for moving forward so only time will tell as they were counting on the merger to help.
     
    Last edited: Apr 24, 2015
  18. TuborgP

    TuborgP DSP Legend

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    We all need to hope we don't hear Elizabeth Warren and the Dodgers in the same sentence.
     
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  19. TuborgP

    TuborgP DSP Legend

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    For those of you who follow such the following is part of the discussion
    http://www.forbes.com/sites/antoine...llapse-of-comcasts-bid-for-time-warner-cable/
    Those in fear of a cable monopoly or oligopoly will claim victory now that Comcast’s formally abandoned its Time Warner Cable bid in the face of un-winnable regulatory hurdles. But, they’ll then have to hope service and pricing improves at a time when the finances of the cable industry are becoming far more stretched.

    That’s not a sure bet, especially in an era of cord cutting and spiraling content costs, particularly in sports programming.

    The following was from a month ago but provides some perspective and thought for anyone interested. Now change it to not if the merger is approved or not to not happening. Again it is one writers and their research efforts and reporting:
    http://nypost.com/2015/03/24/time-warner-cable-expected-to-take-1b-loss-for-bad-dodger-deal/
    Sources told The Post that the market rate for the channel is more likely $3 per subscriber per month, meaning the charge will be almost $1 billion when adjusted over the life of the contract or in the region of $700 million in present-day terms.

    “Comcast will be made whole,” said the source, suggesting this mess had to be cleaned up as a condition of Comcast’s proposed deal to acquire Time Warner Cable.

    “Unless the deal closes, there will not be another [Dodgers] season shown outside of Time Warner Cable. I don’t believe they’ll get carriage,” a source told The Post.
     
    Last edited: Apr 24, 2015
  20. back2back x 2 + 1

    back2back x 2 + 1 DSP Legend Damned

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    You're not even a Dodgers fan, though.
     
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