SI

If You’re a Sports Fan With DirecTV (Or Without), You’re in Trouble

Carriage dispute between DirecTV and Disney will have huge impact on sports fans.

Jimmy Traina

ESPN currently isn’t airing on DirecTV.
ESPN currently isn’t airing on DirecTV. / Andrew Weber-Imagn Images

1. Here’s what I wrote in Tuesday’s Traina Thoughts:

"Quick prediction for those of you who have DirecTV: The carriage dispute between DirectTV and the Disney-owned channels, including ESPN, will be settled on Monday right before the Jets-Niners Week 1 Monday Night Football game."

Shortly after we published, DirecTV CFO Ray Carpenter held a conference call regarding the carriage dispute with Disney, which is keeping Disney-owned channels, including ESPN, dark.

Now I’m not so sure sports fans who subscribe to DirecTV will be able to watch Jets-Niners in Week 1.

Variety’s Brian Steinberg tweeted throughout the call and a settlement between DirecTV and Disney does not seem likely. At all.

While the prospect of NFL fans missing the first Monday night game of the season and college fans missing an entire Saturday of football are the most important aspects of this dispute for our purposes, what DirecTV is trying to accomplish with the concept of bundles is significant.

Those of us who still have cable and satellite pay a ton of money every month for a slew of channels we never watch. But that’s what the bundle does. It forces customers to pay an exorbitant amount for a few hundred channels when most people watch, at most, a quarter of those channels.

In this day and age of streaming and cord-cutting, DirecTV wants to change the model.

Look at those quotes. No matter how you feel about DirecTV, cable, streaming, whatever, it’s hard to argue with anything that Carpenter said there. Cable and satellite customers have been saying for a few years now that it makes no sense to pay those companies for bundles while still having to pay for Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime and on and on and on.

But executives for those companies have rarely come out and publicly sided with consumers on this the way Carpenter did on Tuesday. Maybe he’s bluffing. Maybe DirecTV will cave at about 8 p.m. ET on Monday when Jets-Niners kicks off.

But I don’t think so now. This carriage dispute feels different. And it will have a huge impact on sports fans.

If you aren’t a DirecTV subscriber and think this won’t affect you, just remember one thing: When it comes to restaurants and bars, they all rely on DirecTV.

2. With the Ravens-Chiefs just two days away, I want to provide you with some recent episodes of SI Media With Jimmy Traina that would make for good listening to get you ready for the NFL season.

All episodes of SI Media With Jimmy Traina are available on Apple, Spotify and YouTube.

TOM BRADY:

GREG OLSEN:

KIRK HERBSTREIT:

JASON McCOURTY:

A new episode of SI Media With Jimmy Traina will drop early Thursday morning with the host of ESPN’s Monday Night Countdown, Scott Van Pelt.

3. Let me be very clear about something: NFL refs are incompetent. MLB umps are completely and totally unlikeable.

Look at this pathetic performance from home plate umpire Doug Eddings, who got all bent out of shape because Pirates rookie pitcher Paul Skenes had the nerve to walk off the mound after he thought he struck a batter out.

This reaction by Eddings is abnormal and insane.

4. The first episode of ESPN’s revamped The Sports Reporters, which is now a YouTube show, has dropped.

The good: It features Al Michaels, Joe Buck, Mike Tirico and Kevin Harlan and listening to the four of them is highly enjoyable.

The bad: This doesn’t seem anything like the classic Sports Reporters show that we remember. This just seems like an interview show and the company decided to call it The Sports Reporters for some cache.

5. CBS has done a nice job with these videos the past couple of weeks. We saw Kevin Harlan try to identify some of his memorable calls. We saw Ian Eagle reveal his pen addiction. And here’s Jim Nantz with Tony Romo trying to identify some of his memorable calls.

For the record, THIS will always be Nantz’s most memorable call.

6. I think Tom Brady will be prepared to call games for Fox this season.

7. RANDOM VIDEO OF THE DAY: We’re posting memorable and significant NFL videos all week to celebrate the start of the season. Today, I bring you Bengals coach Sam Wyche scolding the Cincinnati crowd for throwing snow balls, while insulting Cleveland in the process.

Be sure to catch up on past editions of Traina Thoughts and check out the Sports Illustrated Media Podcast hosted by Jimmy Traina on Apple, Spotify or Google. You can also follow Jimmy on Twitter and Instagram.

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Jimmy Traina
JIMMY TRAINA

Jimmy Traina is a staff writer and podcast host for Sports Illustrated. A 20-year veteran in the industry, he’s been covering the sports media landscape for seven years and writes a daily column, Traina Thoughts. Traina has hosted the Sports Illustrated Media Podcast since 2018, a show known for interviews with some of the most important and powerful people in sports media. He also was the creator and writer of SI’s Hot Clicks feature from 2007 to '13.

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