Arghh, matey!  Thar be pirates on ye doorsteps at this time of year!

Sports television customers who abandoned overpriced cable television systems in favor of internet-based YouTube TV have been on edge for the past week.

FOX and Google-owned YouTube TV became the latest parties to threaten to punish sports customers with the loss of college and professional football programming right before this first weekend of football.

The two parties established a Wednesday, August 27 deadline. 

FOX and YouTube TV were attempting to reach a new contract agreement to compensate FOX for its programming content being shown on YouTube TV.

These two television pirates had drawn a line onto the floor – only days before the first weekend of college football was coming.

The angst of millions of YouTube TV customers looking forward to Week #1 in college football was palpable.

Thankfully, the parties reached a temporary short-term extension late Wednesday afternoon.  YouTube TV customers may breathe a collective sigh of relief as this weekend’s FOX college football games will air as scheduled – at least for this week.

The current cease fire between these two bands of media pirates may or may not hold for long.  Don’t let your guard down!

The loss of FOX would have included the traditional over-the-air FOX television network stations but also cable/internet sports affiliates such as FS1, FS2, and the Big Ten Network.

This Saturday’s top rated college football game with #1 Texas at #3 Ohio State at 11AM CDT on FOX would have been in jeopardy – at least for YouTube TV customers.

FOX has invested billions of dollars to beef up its coverage of college football and NFL games.  They are now making the rounds to demand additional compensation to recover the dollars which the company (over)paid for those investments.

Guess who will pay for it?  You and I will, that’s who!

The customers always foot the bill – until we refuse to watch it anymore.

Does this latest game of “Make your customers walk the plank!” sound familiar?

It should.

Football season has brought very (un)timely major contract disputes between sports television content providers and the parties who deliver those games into your home television set.

Almost exactly one year ago, a 2024 battle royale occurred between Disney (owner of ABC and ESPN) and DirecTV (a satellite and internet service system with 11 million customers).

The two parties eventually reached an agreement on additional compensation for Disney after about two weeks of sports blackouts angered millions of DirecTV customers.

The same time period in 2023 had Disney squaring off with Charter Communications and its 32 million cable TV customers in 41 states.  Their contract impasse lasted from August 31 through September 11, 2023.  Both companies angered plenty of customers in the process.

There have been other recent examples.  There will be PLENTY more in the years to come as home viewers will be forced to ante-up to pay for the cost of more football on television.

This game isn’t just played during football season

January 1, 2025 came with howls of complaints originating from the New York City metropolitan area.

That’s when cable and internet provider Optimum discontinued customers’ access to the MSG Network.  Madison Square Garden Network provides regional coverage of New York City’s two NBA franchises and its three area NHL hockey teams.

Optimum wanted to pass along a whopping $45 per month price increase from $95 to $140 per month to customers on January 1 of this year in order to retain the MSG Sports Network in their package.

The two parties couldn’t reach an agreement so Optimum removed MSG Network from its programming line-up on January 1.  It took 45 days to reach an agreement in mid-February as New York’s basketball and hockey fans were on the verge of customer mutiny.

Arghh!

Optimum customers seeking to watch their favorite sports teams will now pay (dearly) as they are required to purchase a new premium service tier in order to receive MSG Network sports programs.

Oh, no!  Congress is (eventually) coming to your rescue!

Disrupting sports programming in the New York City area will cause much more media outrage than when the same thing happens in a Southern city like Shreveport, Louisiana.

The irate New York City area sports fans motivated two politicians to get involved.

A “Stop Sports Blackout Act” bill was introduced into the US House and Senate earlier this year.  New York House of Representative member Pat Ryan and New Jersey Senator Chris Murphy are the co-sponsors.

Senator Murphy stated, “Our bill is simple. If cable companies can’t provide the service you’re paying for, they owe you a refund!”

Yeah…You tell ’em, Senator!

Representative Pat Ryan bloviated his righteous indignation, too.  He added, “It’s outrageous that millions of folks can’t watch the Knicks, Judy Justice, or dozens of programs for weeks because of blackouts!”

Translated – “I’m mad as heck, and I’m not going to take it anymore!”

Thanks, Congressmen, but I may have a better suggestion

Both companies should be required to maintain all current services at the previous rates until the two parties conclude negotiations – regardless of how long that takes.  Congress should not permit the customers to be charged one dime (retroactive or prorated future price adjustments) during the period of extended negotiations.  The interim incremental costs should be shared equally by the greedy corporate entities.

That would force both parties’ to wrap-up negotiations long before any deadline passes.

Who pays for these standoffs?  You do, of course!

Nearly every game being played over this first full weekend of college football will appear on television on a growing smorgasbord of networks.

ABC, ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, ESPN+, SEC Network, ACC Network, CBS, CBS Sports Net, NBC, Peacock, FOX, FS1, Big Ten Network, CW Network, TNT, SWAC TV, and two companies called MidCoSports+ and FloFootball will each televise one or more football games this weekend.

I counted 25 college football games (both large and small division schools) being televised on Thursday, August 28.  There will be 14 more on Friday, 87 games on Saturday, two on Sunday, and one final game on Labor Day Monday.

That makes 129 televised college football games this weekend.

Each game needs a production crew of camera operators, audio and lighting technicians, graphics, instant replay, and a number of other trained staffers.

Don’t forget the two (or three) booth announcers.  Most games will also feature a female sideline reporter to let us know that Bubba just hurt his knee on that last series and is out for the game.

It costs a small fortune to televise those 129 games this weekend.  Guess who’ll foot the bill?

Yes, you will (ultimately) pay for this!

You might think that sitting through nearly one full hour of commercials for each of these 3 ½ hour college football games should be plenty to offset the costs.

Au contraire!

Cable television and internet TV providers must find another way to pass the costs to those of you who watched Thursday night’s Central Arkansas at Missouri game (won by Mizzou 61-6) on the SEC Network.  The costs of individual game production and the allocated portion of the massive payments made to secure the broadcast rights has been (or will be) rolled into your monthly cable or internet TV service bill.

Wouldn’t it be nice if Congressman Ryan and Senator Murphy’s new bill would require every cable television and internet television service provider to list the cost for every single channel which is included in your monthly TV package?

There are no financial incentives for any of the parties involved in this insidious game of pass-through to lower their prices, either.

College and NFL teams continue to raise more money increased operating costs (players, coaches, staff, etc.) in the form of higher prices for tickets, concessions, parking, and merchandise.  Most are making plenty of money.

University presidents and NFL franchise owners will continue to press for higher and higher television rights fees from the expanding number of traditional, cable, and internet-based television networks competing for football games.  That’s because millions of mostly male viewers in the prime buying demographic age group (25-49) are very attractive for advertisers.

That “winning” network immediately turns to the parties carrying their higher-priced product offering and demands more money to cover their added costs.

Finally, the cable television or internet TV service delivering the product to your household will raise its monthly price to you and blame it on all of those evil parties up the supply chain.  Of course, your home TV provider isn’t willing to you their actual costs by channel as it would reveal how much mark-up they are adding to your home bill.

None of the parties are losing money today, or there would be a lot fewer competitors.

A look into the mirror reveals who is to blame for the higher costs of sports

Lower demand for televised football is the only thing which will bring lower prices at home.

Perhaps it might be a good time to start watching less football on Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday beginning this fall.

Buy a $30 digital TV antenna.  Cut your cable TV cord if you live close to a reasonably sized city with several over-the-air stations.  You could buy a new set of golf clubs with the money you save over just a one-year period.

If you ditch your cable TV, don’t go purchase a “cheaper” internet-based sports substitute such as ESPN+ or any other online product offering.  Once you’re hooked on the new product, the price will be rising soon enough.

This is a very difficult addiction to kick, but we can do this together!

Much like Alcoholics Anonymous and its effective 12-step program, we must first admit to our increasing sports addiction.  Sports fans must approach this as a “one-day-at-a-time” journey back to a life of sports normalcy.

It’s time to rediscover playing golf, fishing, bowling, working in the yard, or some of our other former hobbies during the fall.  I (generally) limit myself to watching just one football game per day.

Once enough sports fans actually start reducing our weekly televised sports intake in greater numbers, the sports pricing pendulum may finally swing back in the customers’ favor.

Avast!  Those sports pirates are coming, and they want all yer loot, matey!

The post Return of the Sports TV Pirates! appeared first on SwampSwamiSports.com.