Murdoch gets Direct tv

[GrantDawg]

Going to be interesting to see what he does with it. I'm hoping it means we'll get Skynews channel.

[moriarty]

I haven't been following this ... is this good news for us Direct TV viewers, or does this mean we're going to be paying more??

[Franklinnoble]

This is an interesting development... I wonder if I'll get a better deal on NFL Sunday Ticket or not?

[CHEMICAL SOLDIER]

The Deal is yet another sign of the cpming apocalypse .

[Draft Dodger]

Dodger games on DirecTV. I like it.

[Ksyrup]

He's selling the Dodgers. The only issue is, no one will buy them without the network attached. Maybe this is his way of replacing one with another.

[mrskippy]

One thing is for certain for DirecTV customers ...

Fox News Channel moves to 202
CNN moves to 360

Which is all fine with me. I'm a big Fox fan now after years of watching CNN.

I hope we get Skynews and some of the other Euro channels. The combination should help that.

The Dodgers sell was supposed to help finance the DirecTV deal. So perhaps something is around the corner.

The only thing the new owner of the Dodgers might get is one of the Fox Sports LA units and that's about it.

Media ownership of sports teams is pretty much over. The synergies they bragged about just aren't there.

[Tekneek]

He may not have to sell the Dodgers, at least not to finance this deal. He got a great markdown from the bid they rejected last year. The market has gone soft and it is a buyer's market today, even moreso than last year. All the potential competition walked away.

In the minds of many, including me, this is a great deal for DirecTV customers. I hope it stays that way. Murdoch runs similar operations in many other countries, and his service is top notch there, so I have no reason to expect less here.

[Ksyrup]

But from what I've read, he wanted to keep the Fox Sports LA station so that he could broadcast the games for the team he just sold.

That's ridiculous, though - I mean, where would the new owner hide profits from the baseball team without the station?

[mrskippy]

Plus Rupert is conservative. :D Fox News all the way!!!

I think what you may see, if Rupert keeps Fox Sports LA but sells the Dodgers, is the new owner waiting for that deal to expire and starting their own network.

No matter what, the Dodgers will be sold.

[Tekneek]

The Fox RSNs will be more powerful than ever before with DirecTV behind them. "New networks" will have problems, as new ones launched these days do. If they aren't launched by a cable provider, or hook up with DirecTV first, they don't make it - no matter what exclusive content they have. The YES Network, the only place to see the Nets and Yankees in the NY area, is still not on Cablevision up there. However, it is on DirecTV so they are able to make a go of it.

[henry296]

Originally posted by Tekneek
The YES Network, the only place to see the Nets and Yankees in the NY area, is still not on Cablevision up there. However, it is on DirecTV so they are able to make a go of it.

Last week, YES reached an agreement with Cablevision. It is now available to Cablevision customers, but wasn't last year.

Todd

[Tekneek]

Ah. I know an agreement had been on and off for a while. I do know they were using being carried by DirecTV as leverage in the deal.