Update: It’s August 2020 and there is no solution in sight. I guess if you really cared you would switch to Direct TV who recently made a deal and now shows Altitude. This, however, is Comcast’s point. They really are not worried about losing a significant number of subscribers. This is putting your money where your mouth is. Altitude insists that subscribers care enough to pay/switch, Comcast says they don’t. I guess we’ll find out. If Comcast loses enough subscribers it will deal. If they don’t, Altitude will have to admit that it was never that big of deal for most customers.
So, you’ve probably started to see the ads, the tweets, and the emails about the Altitude channel and its contract expiration with three of the big cable and satellite providers. Of course, each of the companies portrays themselves as the hero looking out for the poor customers, but that isn’t really the truth. As always, this comes down to money, and to a lesser extent value.
What Is Altitude?
This is one of the big problems. Unless you are a Colorado Avalanche fan, or a Denver Nuggets fan, you probably don’t have the slightest idea what the Altitude network is, or why you should care. This is the point that the carriers are making in the contract negotiations with Altitude.
On the other hand if you are a big fan of either the Colorado Avalanche, or the Denver Nuggets, you know that the Altitude Channel is the only place for you to see the fast majority of Avs and Nuggets games that don’t end up being broadcast on one of the bigger sports channels. This is the point that Altitude is making.
Check out my Acorns app review.
What Is Altitude Worth?
Once upon a time, broadcasting your network (and shows) was basically free. Your channel, and your shows, had to make enough money from advertising and other means to stay on the air. That was a semi-fair way to set distribution. Either you can make it or you can’t.
Along came cable, and satellite. Obviously, it wouldn’t be right for another company to take your shows and charge people for them, so cable companies negotiated the rights (paid for) other channels and then charged consumers for a package of those channels. It got muddy when they started letting the “free” channels charge the cable companies to retransmit those same channels, but we’ll leave that alone for now.
The catch is that the Altitude Network is a dead in the water, money losing channel if it has to depend upon its own ad revenue for survival.
No matter how important you think Avs and Nuggets games are, the fact of the matter is that those games add up to just a handful of hours each day, including pre – and post-game shows. That means that 20+ hours of most days is nothing but worthless ad slots for the network. It obviously cannot survive on that. It makes up the difference in charging Comcast, Dish and DirecTV carriage fees.
Altitude wants more money than they got before. Basically, they want a raise for providing the exact same function they did in years past. Out in the working world, you would call this a cost of living increase. Some reports, however put the desired increase at 8% to 10%, which is a bit higher than a typical cost of living increase.
Wondering is Rakuten / Ebates is a good deal?
In 2014, the sides reached a five-year extension, which saw eight percent annual rate increases throughout the duration for all three carriers, according to Martin. Altitude’s new proposal includes five percent rate increases, including a flat first year.
https://www.denverpost.com/2019/08/28/altitude-sports-contracts-nuggets-avalanche/
Package Pricing
Where the rubber meets the road has much less to do with the rate, and much more to do with where in the distribution package Altitude is. Right now, Altitude gets the enviable position where everyone who subscribes to anything but the most basic Comcast packages, for example, gets (and pays for) Altitude Sports. If you get stuff like HGTV, you get Altitude. You have to pay more to get something like Disney Junior, and I have to pay more to get Rocky Mountain Sports Network to watch CU Buffs football games.
That means that no matter what the rate, Altitude gets it for LOTS of Comcast customers. But, one of the biggest complaints cable companies get is charging customers for channels they don’t want via bundling. If you aren’t a sports person, you feel cheated paying for ESPN. You can about imagine how uninterested the same person is in paying for Altitude. And, Altitude wants even more money from each of those people.
These carriage fights are always the same. The channel claims the cable company is being unreasonable, and the cable company company claims the channel is being unreasonable. In the end, it always comes down to money.
With customers already furious about high-cable bills and cutting the cord in order to do something about it, neither is in a good position. Live sports are one of the main reasons people don’t cut the cord. On the other hand, how many cord cutters will fans of the 3rd and 4th franchises in one sports town actually generate?
Look for all four companies to come to an agreement at the same time, but not until a few broadcasts have been missed. After all, getting the network back on the air is how you get to claim to be the hero… for both sides.