Root Sports Southwest Updates

[Mr. E]

OK, most of us who have been without Rockets and Astros broadcasts over the past couple years were delighted to see the debut of Root Sports Southwest last night. That said, there are still those in the area without carriage deals at this time. Those people are:

Suddenlink
Dish Network
Time Warner Cable (merging with Comcast)

This thread is to keep track of updates like this one from yesterday's Barnacle:

Still unaccounted for are Suddenlink, which by one estimate has nearly 60,000 subscribers in the Houston area, and Dish Network, which has about 300,000. Also apparently unaccounted for, at least for the moment, will be Time Warner Cable, which has systems throughout Texas and is in the process of merging with Comcast.

A Suddenlink spokesman said today, “We have been contacted by the new owners of the network and are scheduling time to talk further with them.” A Dish Network spokesperson said last week, “We’re interested in high-quality content at an appropriate value. If that balance can be struck, we’re willing to consider it.”

I imagine that the pressure will be on with the last providers seeing as how they are now in a significant minority compared to their fellow providers. Hopefully this is all resolved soon!

[Mr. E]

I spoke with someone associated with Dish Network over the weekend. Obviously they couldn't tell me what's being discussed, but they did confirm that they are certainly aware that they are now the odd man out in this market by not carrying the network.

Hopefully the Dish users (and Suddenlink) will continue to voice their concerns to those providers in a constructive manner. I want everyone to have access to our team in the viewing area regardless of provider!

[CoolbeansB]

Right on!

[Mr. E]

I'm thinking about switching providers, so I went ahead and called Dish and one of my first questions was if they had an estimated time frame on a carriage deal with Root. I got the standard "ongoing negotiations, but we hope to have a result soon" answer. Obviously I can't consider them as a viable option until I get something firm.

I'll try later this week from another phone number.

[Mr. E]

http://awfulannouncing.com/2014/dish-ne ... t-rsn.html

The article in that link is not encouraging at all. I am not familiar with that website, so I don't know how accurate the information is contained withing.

They are saying that Dish is bailing on all Comcast Regional Sports Networks and will only carry the three Root networks that existed before RSS.

Again, I don't know this source, so take it with a grain of salt.

[Nebula1]

Time to call Direct and see what kind of deal they'll give you to move over. I imagine they'll hook you up nicely.

[Mr. E]

Well, I got another "we have no time table for the addition of RSS" from a sales rep. They also did not have any information about the reports that Dish planned on not renewing contracts with other regional sports networks.

I'm no longer considering them as a future option; but I think that it's time to stop bleeding the sales people for any information. I have some other ideas to set into motion to try to get some information on this.

ROCKETS FOR ALL 2015!!!

[texasholdem]

Anyone else notice that when RSSW shows the replay of the game after the live post game that they show the result of the game on the ticker at the bottom of the screen? I had to miss watching one of the games live so was watching the replay and was really annoyed they "spoiled" the outcome. I don't remember CSN doing that when they did their midnight rebroadcasts.

[Mr. E]

I haven't noticed that, but that's the kind of feedback that a new network needs. Drop them a line about it here:

http://southwest.rootsports.com/contact-us/

[Nebula1]

Nobody should use Dish now. These guys just had a dispute with CBS too.

[Mr. E]

Aren't they having problems with all of the Turner networks as well?