Why is Brighthouse Network the offical TV station?

[Guest]

Look.

Time Warner Cable (which includes Bright House) is part of the Time Warner empire. ESPNU and ESPN360 belong to the Disney empire. They will never get along, as they are direct competitors. If you don't like this, complain to your local Congressional Representative. They're the ones who have allowed the telecommunications industries to merge into such angry behemoths. Seriously, why should Time Warner pay ESPN to carry their channels? For their customers? If you wanted it that badly, you'd have switched to satellite by now. They have zero incentive to make money for their content competitor.

All we can hope for is a speedy area-wide FIOS rollout, as Verizon is considerably more friendly with the content provider world.

First, ESPN 360 is an Internet channel.  It is not offered by ANY television outlet anywhere in the country.  It will never be offered over cable or satellite, so we need to drop that from the discussion.

ESPN is forcing cable providers to carry ESPNU for all subscribers.  The NFL is doing that with NFL Network.  That means everyone would have to pay $2 more for their cable bill, whether they want to watch ESPNU or the NFL Network or not.  Cable stations charge providers a "per subscriber" fee, not a "per viewer" fee, so the cable providers pass those charges to the subscribers.

Bright House wants to provide ESPNU and the NFL Network as part of a "sports package" or at the very least as part of the digital package.  The networks are saying "No, it has to be part of the basic package or not at all."

And if enough Bright House customers complain or threaten to switch to satellite or DirectTV, then they will find a way to offer these stations.  The problem is quite obvious, there aren't enough people in the Tampa Bay area demanding these stations to force Bright House to change their position.

[Knight_Light]

It sucks but I've been explained it's a corporate decision (ESPNU) and not a local decision (advertising).

No Brighthouse or TWC operator carries either station at the moment. Best to call and ask for it,

I asked the local Brighthouse and was told they working on NFL network and ESPNU and ESPN2 HD.  This was over the summer.  I switched to Direct TV.

When Time Warner Cable (now Brighthouse in FLA) told me 5-6 years ago that they would start carrying FoxSportsNet...then they kept delaying it..delaying it because they owned Sunshine Network, a competitor, but they did finally add FoxSportsWorld..which had ZERO USA Sports, I switched to DirecTV 5 years ago..have had the NFL Ticket and ESPN2, ESPN Classic (FYI, has LIVE College Football Games this year!!), ESPNews, NFL Network, ESPNU, 15 plus FoxSportsNet Channels, etc...from Day 1 (or first day station started to broadcast)...

I'm glad Brighthouse is a supporter of UCF's new Football Stadium (that ALONE might be a reason for many USF fans to switch to DirecTV!), but I'm happy and pleased with my DirecTV!

KL

[Joe]

Jim,

ESPN 360 is carried by cable providers via their cable internet service. TWC/Brighthouse has elected not to carry it at this point.

[SplitT]

ESPN is forcing cable providers to carry ESPNU for all subscribers.  The NFL is doing that with NFL Network.  That means everyone would have to pay $2 more for their cable bill, whether they want to watch ESPNU or the NFL Network or not.  Cable stations charge providers a "per subscriber" fee, not a "per viewer" fee, so the cable providers pass those charges to the subscribers.

Bright House wants to provide ESPNU and the NFL Network as part of a "sports package" or at the very least as part of the digital package.  The networks are saying "No, it has to be part of the basic package or not at all."

And if enough Bright House customers complain or threaten to switch to satellite or DirectTV, then they will find a way to offer these stations.  The problem is quite obvious, there aren't enough people in the Tampa Bay area demanding these stations to force Bright House to change their position.

On the other hand, if BH added NFL Network and ESPNU to the basic package and raised the price they could stand to lose more than they would gain.  I for one do not want to pay additional fees for NFL Network and ESPNU.

[BULLfreak]

I say forget TV games just go to every USF game home and away  

[Guest]

ESPN is forcing cable providers to carry ESPNU for all subscribers.  The NFL is doing that with NFL Network.  That means everyone would have to pay $2 more for their cable bill, whether they want to watch ESPNU or the NFL Network or not.  Cable stations charge providers a "per subscriber" fee, not a "per viewer" fee, so the cable providers pass those charges to the subscribers.

Bright House wants to provide ESPNU and the NFL Network as part of a "sports package" or at the very least as part of the digital package.  The networks are saying "No, it has to be part of the basic package or not at all."

And if enough Bright House customers complain or threaten to switch to satellite or DirectTV, then they will find a way to offer these stations.  The problem is quite obvious, there aren't enough people in the Tampa Bay area demanding these stations to force Bright House to change their position.

On the other hand, if BH added NFL Network and ESPNU to the basic package and raised the price they could stand to lose more than they would gain.  I for one do not want to pay additional fees for NFL Network and ESPNU.

That is why Bright House wants to make NFL Network and ESPNU part of an a la carte 'sports package'... I'd pay $5 per month for access to them... which is more than the networks want for their subscriber fee.

[Joe]

The problem is neither network is willing to let it be a part of the sports teir they have...

[Bull Matrix]

Lets back away from things that we cant control like Brighthouse adding the NFL Network or ESPNU. The point is that CATCH 47(Brighthouse) is not playing enough replays of the USF games this season. What happened to that??? They had this promo stating that they would show the replay of the game on the following Wed of each week. What the hell happened to that idea??? I am not asking for much. And you would think that Catch 47 would air old school USF games during the summer when all of us USF fans are bored, but they did not do that either. I would not have mind seeing the first ever game against UL or the win against USM. Hell, I would even settle for watching the wins against Troy St or TCU. Watching games against Georgia Southern would be cool too.

[Bubbles]

On a "BRIGHT" note...Capogna's has ESPNU and will be able to show the UNC game!!!

[Bull Matrix]

And another bright note from BrightHouse is that they are playing the INSIDE THE BIG EAST show on Catch 47. They still need to follow that show up with the replay of the USF game. I guess they are having trouble airing those games because ESPN may have the rights to those games. I guess that is what the problem is all along because I know CATCH 47 wanted to show the replays of the games per their promo advertisments.