One of the best things about modern cable and satellite television is the explosion of sports programming now available to customers across the country. Many years ago you would only see a couple of college football games on Saturday and two or three on Sunday today you can pick from dozens of games every weekend with specialized sports packages. Even the NCAA tournament has additional coverage with the Mega March Madness on Direct TV.
The motto today is “Content is King” and as the saying goes the sports networks of course want to deliver as much content as possible to the end user so they can make more money on ads. Quite a few brand new all-sports networks have sprung up in the last few years. Some of these include Altitude Sports, which carries Denver Nuggets and the NHL’s Colorado Avalanche games, and also the Big 10 network and the Mtn, the network of the Mountain West conference.
Sure these networks are great for people in certain parts of the nation, but disputes between the providers of sports programming and cable networks that deliver the content have resulted in trouble at times to the customer. For example, the Big Ten Network began broadcasting in 2007, but they were in a carraige dispute with big cable provider Time Warner. Subscribers of Time Warner in the midwest were unable to watch some of the home town teams play because of the carraige dispute. Finally however, the parties came to an agreement before the 2008 season, so subscribers could stay with Time Warner instead of having to switch to one of the satellite television providers like DISH Network or Direct TV. An important thing to do when considering providers is to consider all factors, comparing Time Warner or DirecTV.
Specialized sports programming packages are another option hard core sports fans should consider. 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. Other packages though are more fan friendly, such as 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 premium sports packages like the NFL Sunday Ticket package.