ESPN’S CONTRACT PREVENTS RAVENS-TEXANS ON DIRECTV
Posted by Mike Florio on September 12, 2008, 9:42 a.m.
We’ve confirmed via communications with NFL spokesman Greg Aiello and
ESPN spokesman William Hofheimer that fans of the Ravens and Texans who don’t live in Baltimore or Houston and who have purchased Sunday Ticket specifically so that they can watch the Ravens or Texans play won’t be able to do so this week because of ESPN’s exclusive prime-time rights on Monday night.
This Monday, ESPN will be airing the Eagles-Cowboys game. And so the Ravens-Texans game can’t be televised, except in the teams’ home markets.
So, on behalf of those fans, we urge ESPN to waive exclusivity, and to allow the game to be shown on DirecTV.
What does it really hurt? The game already will be televised on CBS affiliates in the Houston, Baltimore, and D.C. markets; surely, as many if not more folks will watch the game via free TV in those cities than they will by dialing the dish to the appropriate
700-level channel on which the game would be shown via DirecTV.
Then there’s the concept of goodwill. Any Ravens fans who don’t live in Baltimore and Texans fans who don’t live in Houston who feel strongly enough about these teams to plunk down the cash for the Sunday Ticket package likely are sports fans generally, and they likely watch from time to time ESPN, ESPN2, ESPN Classic, and ESPNU, and they also likely visit ESPN.com and the other ESPN Internet properties.
Why not declare throughout the various ESPN and ABC media outlets that ESPN will waive its exclusivity on Monday night, so that Ravens and Texans fans from Maine to Maui will be able to get full value for what they have purchased?
It might not be as warm and fuzzy as Tony Romo helping strangers put air in a flat tire, but it’s the kind of little thing that would make the folks who want to really see the game be forever grateful to those who made it possible.
Moreover, at a time when more and more people are noticing ESPN’s endless “multiplatform corporate synergy that often feels so relentless and all-encompassing that ESPN’s heaviest viewers go berserk from time to time,” this would be a nice way for ESPN to show that they still care about the people who helped ESPN grow into the sports conglomerate it now is.
That quote, by the way, didn’t come from some random critic. Those words were written
by ESPN’s ombudsman.
So how ’bout it, ESPN? Do us this one little favor. In return, we promise not to make fun of
Emmitt Smith. For a week.
UPDATE: If ESPN won’t listen to us, maybe they’ll listen to you. A reader passed along
this link, through which you can directly ask them to allow the Ravens-Texans game to be shown on DirecTV.
09-12-2008, 12:12 PM
