Orlando Magic fans are up in arms at the start of the NBA season this year. Why? Due to a string of actions, they can’t watch 35 Magic games on the local cable provider – Bright House Networks. Local fans with Dish Network & DirecTV subscriptions aren’t affected, so they’re gloating – at least on game days when it doesn’t rain.
Here’s how it all unfolded. The Orlando Magic sold the rights to televise their games. Unfortunately for fans, those rights did not include any stipulation that the games would get aired locally. FSN Florida bought the rights to the Magic games. About a week or so ago, FSN made a deal with Dish and DirectTV to broadcast Orlando Magic games.
Bright House already carries Sun Sports, which has rights to broadcast 40 Magic games that will air on the cable provider’s networks. Bright House would like to add FSN for its Sports Tier, which would add to the cost for subscribers. FSN doesn’t want to be part of a tier, it wants to be in the overall channel line-up available to all Bright House subscribers. Bright House claims, correctly, that doing so would raise the cost of service.
So it comes down to whether a few Magic fans are willing to pay more to watch those games at home on a Sports Tier, or whether Bright House will raise the subscriber cost to ALL of its customers in order to carry the Orlando Magic games. After all, you know Bright House isn’t going to take the hit on that expense without passing it along one way or another.
Personally, I don’t care one bit about watching sports. Maybe it’d be different if I attended a college and had some vested interest in the game. Otherwise, what’s the point? It’s entertainment, nothing more. There’s no way I’d want to pay a higher cable cost so Oprah fans could watch additional content, and I think the same thing about the Magic fans. If you want it, pay for it. Here’s another idea. Buy a ticket and go watch the game in person. I’m not totally convinced that concept didn’t enter the minds of the Orlando Magic administration when they sold the rights without a guarantee to have games air locally, but that’s just my own speculation.
Now the town is full of sports fans whining that they can’t watch their games at home on TV. Some will abandon Bright House and buy a satellite service. Others will end up going out to Hooters or Ale House to drown their complaints in pitchers of beer while yelling at the TV set. That’s all fine with me. Just don’t raise my cost in order to provide for these folks.
Pretty soon, they’re going to be glad to get out of the house and have a beer, anyway. The writers strike is about to end the soap opera shows, so there are going to be some cranky housewives pretty soon.
