A spat between the nation’s largest cable company and Major League Baseball’s most storied franchise is getting ugly, with the New York Yankees’ YES Network launching a campaign urging fans to “Drop Comcast.”
While most of the New York City metro area is served by either Time Warner Cable or Cablevision, Comcast covers sizable chunks of New Jersey, meaning potentially hundreds of thousands of Yankee fans will not be able to watch YES when the new season begins in early April.
After months of pushing the message of “Keep YES Network,” the channel has decided to come at it from a different angle. In an attempt to leverage angry fans, YES has begun an ad campaign urging them to “Drop Comcast Today And Find Another TV Provider.”
Unfortunately, for many Americans, they have few alternative choices when it comes to the service provided by their cable company. Satellite service is generally available everywhere, but you’d still likely need Comcast for your Internet connection. Additionally, Dish Network does not carry YES, meaning DirecTV is the only satellite option.
In the Yankees’ market, YES is available through the PlayStation VUE streaming service. While that may be a decent substitution for some TV viewers, it is not without its limitations. If you’re in a house with multiple family members watching TV on sets around the house, VUE likely won’t fit your needs. And again, you’ll still probably need Comcast’s broadband connection.
Verizon FiOS offers both YES access and an Internet connection, but the telecom giant has allegedly failed to live up to its previous obligations to deploy FiOS statewide in New Jersey and elsewhere in the region.
Speaking to the Philadelphia Inquirer, YES CEO Tracy Dolgin pish-poshes Comcast’s claim of low ratings for the network, noting that whenever the Yankees played last year, YES was the highest-rated cable station in New York City.
“On its face, it’s one of the most absurd things anybody has heard,” says Dolgin, who also points out that Comcast raised its regional sports network fee after the provider dropped YES from its lineup: “They are making their customers pay more for less.”
by Chris Morran via Consumerist
No comments:
Post a Comment