Comcast & DirecTV Battle at Fair
Sometimes I think controversy follows me around. As I mentioned in my Monday Edition of The Satellite Dish that I was appearing at The Big E multi state fair which is now taking place in Springfield, Massachusetts. I am helping out a friend of mine run his satellite booth at the fair as his daughter is getting married this weekend.
Yesterday afternoon I got a call from my friend all upset because the fair organizers made him take down some of his displays in his booth after they received complaints from Comcast who is one of the fairs sponsors this year is Comcast.
The fair has been open now for two weeks and now in the final few days of the fair was he asked to take down displays he had up which were poking fun at Comcast. One of the things they had him take down was a box furnished to him by DirecTV that was marked “Comcast Complaint Department.” With this box fair-goers could enter to win a new HDTV from DirecTV.
In addition booth employees were ordered to change their shirts they were wearing, the shirts had a “Comcast Complaint Department” Logo on the front and read, “Don’t settle for cable” on the back.
The shirts and the box seemed to not violate any of the rules of the fair but my friend took the box down and had the employees change their shirts anyways.
I contacted the Big E press department seeking comment on the matter and asked them what fair rules these items violated, however Big E officials did not reply to my requests for comments.
BTW I am still here and will be here from now until Sunday night, from 10am until 9pm each day, please come by and say hello, just don’t look for me in a Comcast Complaint Department T Shirt.
DirecTV Does Good
The battle continues between DirecTV and Comcast owned Versus Network. The NHL season is about to kick of tonight and DirecTV customers will be unable to see tonight’s opening faceoff match on Versus which was removed by DirecTV a few weeks ago over a contract dispute.
While NHL fans are mad at DirecTV for not having Versus, DirecTV is making good with unhappy fans. In fact I believe that DirecTV is going above and beyond as they have been offering some hockey fans the NHL Center Ice premium package for free for the entire season.
As many issues as I have reported here in “The Satellite Dish” with DirecTV in the recent weeks, I feel that the folks at DirecTV are going above and beyond keeping NHL hockey fans happy. This is the kind of customer service that I talked about before which made DirecTV the gold standard of multichannel providers.
Farm Aid This Weekend on DirecTV
Once again this year DirecTV is the exclusive television home of Farm Aid. Farm Aim is a benefit concert to raise money to help the American Farmers.
I caught last years DirecTV Presentation and was blown away with the quality of this concert event, it wasn’t just a televised concert, instead it was a well produced televised event.
If you get a chance to tune in it will be airing Sunday starting at 5PM Eastern Time and will feature Willie Nelson, John Melloncamp, Dave Matthews and more on DirecTV channel 101.
If the production is as good as it was last time you are in for a true treat!
Sirius XM will also be airing the full show on Willies place, which is Sirius Channel 64 and XM channel 13
It’s a great concert for a great cause.
RES commented:
I had enough with Direct, and left them a year ago. I was surprised at how much Comcast had improved since I had last been with them years ago.
Direct dropped Tivo for a home-made dvr, had no trial period for the box, and then demanded a 2-yr contract - all of that for a poorly-rated box. I was fed up with their customer service and outrageous $400 NFL pkg. When I was leaving, they decided they could throw in the pkg - too late
Now, with my Tivos, I'm getting local channels, plus Comcast, plus movies off the net - the best of all worlds.
Glace commented:
I can't really see the issue, it doesn't seem like comcast requested that direct tv not be advertised only that they not bash Comcast to do it. I'm sure it's not that hard to come up with something that focuses on what your doing right instead of bashing others. especially at a charity event.
webdog commented:
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That's pretty funny. Great idea. It makes Comcast look like a bunch of cry babies because they couldn't think of any of their own promotions and had to make your friend take down his ideas.
DodgerKing commented:
BTW, I did the same thing this year on the first day of the NFL season. I called DirecTV and complained that they took away the MLB Mix channel on Sunday to make room for the ST Mix channel. They ended up giving me a $69 credit.
DCB commented:
I am no fan of Comcast by any means but I don’t like the idea of anybody useing a benefit concert (Farm Aid) as a ploy to get customers. Isn’t the concert all about raising money for the farmers not for DirectTV. If it wasn’t exclusive then they might raise more awareness and money for the Farm Aid.
Note from Scott - Did Comcast go to Farm Aid and tell them they wanted to broadcast the concert? I am sure if they did something would have been worked out. Last year DirecTV matched the pledges made by DirecTV customers, lets see Comcast do that.
Exafsp commented:
I just got center ice for free. See my first post, follow the link, and you can too!!! Way to go Directv!!!
I got it commented:
I can tell you that I just got CI for the year as well. Since I had already paid for it via my early bird, they credited my account for the $160 I had paid. I checked and it's already in my account. Go Directv!!!
Sabs commented:
Games broadcasted on Versus will not be carried on the NHL Center Ice Package.
Swede commented:
This fan is getting Center Ice for free! Just talked to DirecTV, no questions asked, and bickety bam, Bruins game tonight!
It might have something to do with the fact I'm a long time customer (over 15 years) and did talk to the "cancellation department". I think I love DirecTV as much as the Bruins now!
jamie commented:
I just called Directv and just ask if there was any new news with VS and Directv. He told me that Comcast was trying to charge more to Directv and that they hope a new agreement will be made soon. He asked me what type of programming on VS I watched. I told him Hockey and IRL. He said that there were only 54 games on VS that would not be on Directv. He said since I was a loyal customer that I could get NHL CI free this year.
byff commented:
"While NHL fans are mad at DirecTV for not having Versus, DirecTV is making good with unhappy fans. In fact I believe that DirecTV is going above and beyond as they have been offering some hockey fans the NHL Center Ice premium package for free for the entire season."
This doesn't sound right. If true, hopefully DirecTV is paying the NHL and not just pulling a "Dish Network" whereas they giving customer's a freebie, but never reimbursing the programmer.
Reaper commented:
If you threaten to leave, DirecTV WILL give you these kinds of deals. I had made the decision to leave DirecTV a month or so ago - until they gave me NFL ST with Superfan for FREE. But it's not like you can call them up and say, "I'd like NHL CI for free please." That's not going to work. But they will make these kinds of deals to keep customers.
Jess commented:
Dude I got 10 bucks a month off my bill from Direct.
Don't spread rumors unless you have proof yourself that it is happening.
All you are doing here is getting people's hopes up for nothing.
Exafsp commented:
And what fans are getting center ice for free? I have called and complained, and they told me I could get center ice for half off; and they gave me $5 off my sports pack.
Note from Scott: Not everyone is gettiing NHL Center Ice for free, however many are, check out the other comments here or http://www.satelliteguys.us/directv-forum/189344-free-center-ice-due-versus-contract-dispute.html for more proof. Not everyone is getting it for free though so YMMV.
