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April 10, 2020 10:40 pm

Why You're Still Paying For Sports On Cable When There's No Live Sports

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Cable-TV companies are still charging customers for sports channels even as the coronavirus pandemic forces the suspension of all major sports leagues. The continued charges include Regional Sports Network (RSN) fees, which often add almost $10 to customer bills in exchange for access to local professional and college live-sports broadcasts. But RSN fees are just one piece of the puzzle, as national sports broadcasts on channels like ESPN, NBC, ABC, and Fox account for some percentage of the bundle charges paid by TV customers. Complicating matters is the sheer number of parties involved in live-sports contracts. Individual teams in the NBA, NHL, and MLB sell the rights to their games to regional sports networks, which in turn sell the rights to carry their channels to cable, satellite, and streaming TV providers. In addition to individual teams, the major sports leagues have big contracts with programmers for games that are broadcast nationally instead of just in the regions where the participating teams are located. Another wrinkle is that cable companies often own the broadcasters that air live sports. Comcast owns NBC, including regional sports networks, so other cable-TV companies have to pay Comcast for the right to broadcast many national and local sporting events. AT&T owns Turner Sports and RSNs, while Charter owns or operates several Spectrum-branded sports channels. We've asked these companies about how they're handling the contracts they have with other TV providers but haven't gotten any substantial information. Charter said, "We are in constant touch with the teams and our network distributors on this issue. We will, of course, abide by our contractual obligations." "There probably won't be definitive answers about refunds for TV customers in the U.S. any time soon," the report adds. "Customers might eventually get refunds even if they make no changes to their service plans, but the size of those refunds could end up being disappointing. People who subscribe to cable TV mostly for live sports may want to downgrade or cancel their TV packages until sports leagues come back, but they'll have to be careful in cases where they are subject to cable contracts and early termination fees." If this were Europe, "it's easier to buy sports channels. separately instead of the traditional cable bundle," reports the Inquirer. Europe's Sky Sports, for example, is allowing customers to pause their subscriptions until the action resumes.

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