NFL Sunday Ticket - Superfan / Direct TV

NFL Sunday Ticket - Superfan / Direct TV

September 19, 2005

Dear Mr. Chase Caray, This letter brings my frustration of the NFL Direct Ticket/Superfan package to you sir. History of my situation: I have eight receivers and in the process of installing more, several of which are or to be high definition. I have subscribed to the NFL Sunday Ticker for three years now. Five of the receivers are in one room, with several more pending receivers. This setup is primarily used for Sunday football watching. There are six games going at once. One television is off air reception-the local game. One of the televisions is a HD set with a HD receiver. This weekend, I tuned to 721-727 and found that I couldn’t view the programming. I called Direct TV customer service; the representative stated that I needed to get the Superfan package. Last year HD came with the regular NFL Sunday Ticket. Now some marketing whiz figured we can squeeze some more bucks out of the Direct TV customer. They figured we can offer a nice little package for people who don’t have multiple TV’s, nice touch with the blitz channels. Then the Redzone channel as well, which lags in time behind the regular game time. But hold up, don’t package HD programming with non-HD channels, for which the blitz and Redzone channels are non HD. Plus what about the guy like me who has multiple TV’s and doesn’t want to pay for Direct TV’s new ideas. I ONLY want the HD. Cut me some slack! I had a few friends over on Sunday and they have Direct TV, we are all SERIOUSLY considering canceling the service. There has to be a point to say enough is enough! You have passed it. This Superfan package is a turd with HD trapped in it. First off I have the Sunday Ticket, $200; high definition programming, $12.99/month; then top that with $99 for Superfan which you hi-jack HD content. Don’t you want your subscribers to enjoy and purchase more HD units to encourage more HD content in the future? Give me NFL HD programming now. Don’t force subscribers to buy a crappy package, or hell better yet, a la carte the damn thing! Lastly, there are only 7 games in HD typically, I could see paying $99 if all the games were offered in HD. Please contact me at your earliest time to discuss this. Best Regards, Dion Click this link to e-mail the message author: Email User

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Does anyone know of any class action lawsuits regarding the NFL Sunday Ticket and Superfan packages? I know there are a few regarding early termination fees but I don't think it addresses this problem. I have already filed complaints to the FCC and BBB and will also file with the State Attorney unless there is already a suit.

I just bought DirecTv with HD DRV service and 5 months of the promotional NST. I had all the games in HD until 9/27. Called them and they said that I needed to upgrade to Superfan. They said that the HD service was "just a trial". I went through my contract, my bill, my service agreement, online agreements, everything and there is nothing about a "trial". The rep of course said it was online but she couldn't tell me where because she didn't have internet...crooks.

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Can we start a class-action suit against DirectTV for this? If so, I'm definitely in.

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The Superfan package from DirectTV is a SCAM, and here's why.

For all of the D-TV HD NFL Sunday Ticket (NST) subscribers, Superfan amounts to be redundant charging for HD service. If you buy the NST package as an HD customer, you've already payed for HD games. the access to the out-of-market games you watch on NST just allows you to bypass the NFL's blackout rules for tuning to out-of-market games. once you buy NST, the HD content comes from the local affiliate in the market of the game you're watching. D-TV is already charging you extra to receive HD content on your receiver, which only receives one signal at a time, so it doesn't use any more bandwidth than it would if you were watching your local Fox/CBS HD broadcast. it doesn't matter if you're watching your local Fox affiliates HD feed, or a Fox feed from across the country; it's still the same bandwidth usage. What D-TV has decided to do to NFL fans is unethical.

I emailed D-TV a complaint about this charge being redundant and, sure enough, they called me about ten minutes after I hit the send button. After I listened to the rep exhaust her scripted list of justifications on why D-TV charges $99 extra for the Superfan package, I finally just interrupted her. She was completely bogus, claiming extra bandwidth usage and special packaging was the reason why HD NFL content was only available for Superfan subscribers.

The bottom line is this:

D-TV NST/Superfan is redundant charging for D-TV/HD customers for the following reasons

:

NST HD subscribers inherently have the right to view HD NFL games because the NFL's games are simulcast in standard and HD format on Fox/CBS affiliates.

As I said earlier, when you buy NST, you pay for the right to tune to the Fox/CBS broadcast of an otherwise blacked-out NFL game on an out-of-market (or possibly local, but otherwise blacked-out)

affiliate station. Fox/CBS broadcast every NFL game in HD on regional/local affiliates. All the NST does is allow you to legally tune to whichever Fox/CBS affiliate is carrying your favorite team's broadcast. Since you pay for HD service, you therefore should be allowed to tune into the HD broadcast that Fox/CBS is already broadcasting in HD--FOR FREE!

If you are a D-TV/HD customer, you're already paying extra for HD capacity on your receiver each month for the additional bandwidth, upgraded receiver, etc. For those users with multiple receivers, you 're paying for each receiver's bandwidth/HD content capability separately

D-TV is a nationwide television service provider so it carries all of the national Fox/CBS stations in the channel line-up anyway. It's the only way they can provide local Fox/CBS stations to nationwide D-TV subscribers. Therefore, they aren't carrying extra content to provide Superfan in HD. D-TV is just allowing your D-TV receiver to legally tune the out-of-market affiliates; and for $300/season, that should definitely include the Fox/CBS HD stations for anyone that is already paying extra for HD.

Call D-TV and tell them you've already payed them $300 for the NST package and the HD Fox/CBS station must be included in the NST base package.

Superfan is a real SCAM!

jm

silver spring, md

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I canceled Sunday Ticket due to the HD issue. Thought it was a ripoff, considering I am already paying monthly HD charges along with the package cost of $250. If there had been a small upcharge for the HD games, I could have swallowed it but not $100 for a bunch of unwanted crap. Once my contract is up, Directv has lost a customer for life.

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I agree. The rub on this is the confusion presented to us by our local DirectTV rep. We switch to DirectTV from Mediacom, were told we get NFL Sunday ticket, we pay for HD package and then NFL Sunday ticket gives us a week one teaser and pulls the plug on HD?

Since I got the NFL Sunday ticket bascially for free, this is my opportunity to evaluate the product. I love watching NFL games in HD, but $300 is over the top. That extra money will buy a lot of beer watching all my favorite NFL games at the local pub. Unless they put HD into the $200 product, consider me a one-time Sunday Ticket customer.

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Totally agree with you. We decided not to keep the superfan pkg since we never watched it, and of course I was told nothing about their last minute decision to package HD with it. It's close to $400 just to watch our local team in HD when they play. Since we can't get all of our local channels here (that's another thing altogether grrr) we're being robbed. Another family member has already switched to Dish, we are checking it out.

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I absolutely agree with you. I am so angry that they are trying to nickle and dime the consumer for the other b.s. that they are trying to sell. That's the reason I left comcast and was relatively happy with DTV until now. I thinking I am going to cancel Sunday Ticket because the quality is horrible especially sense my box is setup for 1080i and it chops off a lot of things when you play regular 480 through it.

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Yes. This is HIGHWAY ROBBERY> I'm canceling my Direct TV as soon as I can get out of this contract. Not only this, they don't offer the local channels in my area in HD. Direct TV is a TOTAL JOKE.