Is there anyone eles a little confussed about the descion to limit the Friday Night Games in the US to only those with Dish Network? 
:?
I lost most interest in this season when I figured out that the CFL is only interested in allowing Direct TV viewers to only see half of the season. :thdn:
Its too bad those who put the US schedule together thought it would be good to limit viewership of certain games. :thdn: :thdn:
I don't know if it is a question of limiting the games or that is what they could sell
I'm also a DirecTV subscriber, and I think it's absolutely ridiculous!
One of the Friday Night Football games each week is blacked out to everyone in the U.S. except Dish Network subscribers with high-definition equipment and a subscription to the Voom HD sports channel.
That's not very many people.
I can see some logic to giving Dish Network an exclusive on the HD telecasts, but blacking out the standard-definition telecasts of those games is about as fan-unfriendly as it gets.
What's worse, I'm a Blue Bomber fan, which means that NEARLY 40% of my favorite team's 2006 season is blacked out in the U.S.!!!
If the CFL is trying to make inroads in the U.S. market, they're certainly going about it the wrong way.
I have Dishnetwork & am upset about no Friday games also. I must admit its making the high def package more attractive & maybe thats the intent. The least DishNetwork can do is make Friday games available in standard format.
Overcharging for streaming online games & also blacking out Friday nights in the USA doesn’t seem like very sound strategy to popularize the CFL down here!!!
albo60s
there is always webcast.
Glad to see I'm not the only Directv subscriber that is upset by the decision to exclude us from seeing Friday night games. I agree! The CFL should have put better thought into this choice considering that Directv in the states has at least twice as many customers as Dish! :x
I sincerely hope the League Office reads this forum.
I made the trip to Winnipeg for the 1991 and 1998 Grey Cups. But not this year. If Friday night CFL games aren't on my TV this season, they can forget about me being in the stands on November 19.
Every year, I buy CFL merchandise through the CFL Shop or the Bomber Store. But not this season. If the league doesn't care about me as a viewer, I don't care about it as a customer.
Why do you people insist on blaming the league? It is a product they are selling ya know and maybe DTV was not buying!!!!!1
Did you ever think that what ever packages the Dish bought was all they wanted to buy???
Dont complain to the CFL complain to DTV and The dish network!!!!
I totally agree the league would not have problems having all their games on in as many networks in the USA. But it depends if the network buys!
Its sort of like sending the wife for beer and she comes home with wine for the football game. You do not go blame the liqour store do you!
I think it is rotten that the league is blacking out games in the U.S. They have spent many years building up their audience on mostly the same stations,(their U.S. cable guru claims more Americans watch the CFL than Canadians). Now they stab the fans they attracted in the back? You have to buy a HDTV package to watch the CFL??
Perhaps the league can justify this because they finally likely generated some modest income from U.S. cable, but they should also offer Friday Night Football on the traditonal cable channels also.
Invader!!!
Did you read the last 2 posts?????????
I mean really?
I'm probably not the typical US fan, but I'm a DirecTV subscriber from way back and I still added Dishnetwork as soon as I heard the Friday night HD games were going there. It's worth $49.99 per month to see those games. Heck, if I were in Canada, I'd be spending a lot more than that to go to games every week, so why not?
I just see carrying both satellite providers as an investment in my own happiness. I was going to get HD programming anyway, and DishNetwork beats DTV in HD programming by a long way. Plus WorldSport airs great games from past seasons in HD all week long.
I'm definitely glad I added the new dish. My only complaint is that they don't show the TSN studio crew at halftime, only the on-site stuff.
Yes, the league bears responsibility for the Friday night U.S. blackouts.
The CFL has a deal with a company called Trajectory Sports, which markets the U.S. TV rights to the games. This is the same company that distributed the games last season.
Last year, however, all games (including the Friday night ones) were carried by several regional sports networks that are available through both DirecTV and Dish Network.
But this year, Trajectory Sports granted exclusive rights to the TSN HD Friday Night Football games to Dish Network's WorldSport Channel. If they had given WorldSport exclusive rights to only the HD telecasts, there'd be no problem. Then the same regional sports networks (Altitude, Comcast, etc.) that carry the other games could carry the standard-definition telecasts of the Friday Night Football games.
But no. Because Trajectory Sports gave WorldSport exclusive U.S. rights to the Friday Night games, they're now blacked in the U.S. to everyone except the handful of people who have Dish Network, HD equipment, and a subscription to WorldSport.
And no, I'm not going to buy new satellite equipment and switch providers every year, when the CFL gets a different U.S. TV deal.
So you are saying that the CFL or Trajectory Sports went to the providers and said :You will pay us this much money and You will only show certain games to certain people and that is how its gonna be!"? Please!!!!
It more like "Are you interested in buying some games? 30? sold!!!!!"
We had a similar discussion last year during the CBC lockout. The seller sells and the buyer does want he wants with it.
But why switch? Just add the HD service. It’s less than $2.00 a day for a year’s subscription to DishNetwork HD. I spend three times that for coffee every day.
ro1313, while I agree with you about the seller sells and buyer does what he wants with it, you can’t blame people for being upset, they could have said to the Dish that they had to offer the games in regular definition to their subscribers. I mean as much as it is theirs to do with as they please, despite the mony the league made of the deal, they’re upsetting fans, like someone else on here said DirecTV has a lot more subscribers than the dish, and most Football fans down here have DirecTV over the Dish, because if your going to have a satellite, DirecTV has the exclusive rights to the NFLTicket. Again while I agree with you for the most part, you can’t tell people they shouldn’t be upset when, we as DirecTV subscribers have been used to getting games in the past, and the league makes these deals so close to the season starting we don’t have much chance to change subscriptions if we so desired. I personally just subscribed to DirecTV last fall, because I could get the NFLTicket, and because we had it at the restaurant I worked at, and I was pleased with how much CFL coverage they had. I’m a little less upset than others about the Friday night thing than others because my new restaurant just has cable, and I’m there Friday nights so I don’t miss much, except when there is a west coast Friday night game like this week, then I fell their angst
I understand what you are saying!
The CFL had a choice of selling what they could and take the revenue, or get nothing.
Again complain to the service providers and not the league!
Send a letter to Directv and tell them you only got their service because of of CFL coverage and seeing how they don't have it anymore you are thinking of switching to Dish!
After reading through the replies to my inital message and then re-reading my message I can see where some of the error in the blame came from. Direct TV and Dish Network are nothing more than your local cable company when it comes to sending channels to your tv. They have no control over what programs are shown or when they are shown. The blame lies with the CFL Media Relations and Trajectory Sports. They go directly to Attitude, Empire Sports, ect to get interested parties in showing the CFL. It is the CFL or T.S. and their decision to allow Friday Night games only to be shown in HD to Dish Network only;
"But this year, Trajectory Sports granted exclusive rights to the TSN HD Friday Night Football games to Dish Network's WorldSport Channel. If they had given WorldSport exclusive rights to only the HD telecasts, there'd be no problem. Then the same regional sports networks (Altitude, Comcast, etc.) that carry the other games could carry the standard-definition telecasts of the Friday Night Football games."
The final concusion to Friday Night Football on Direct TV lies with Trajectory Sports only offering Friday's Games in HD only. I can not believe that Altitude and Empire and the other carriers of the other CFL games do not want to show any Friday Games during the season.
Good job midwesterner, that sounds exactly right. I don't understand this at all either, especially since they showed Friday Night Football last year in standard defintion. What's with all the high-def exclusivity? FNF is equivalent to the Monday Night Football for NFL...that's like putting MNF exclusively in HD and no standard definition. Why?
HEY GUYS, YOU HAVE WEBCAST AND IT'S WAY BETTER THAN TV (EXPECT FOR THE LAG, BUT THAT'S JUST MY COMPUTER, CAN'T PLAY SUPER PLAY)!!!