XM vs Sirius NFL vs MLB

[EasyDoesIT]

As a huge patriots fan and red sox fan living in cali, i was interested in
the pro sports offering on satellite.

First, NFL is 17 regular season games that if you are not local, you can't
hear on the radio. They are almost all on Sunday and as a football fan, I
have Sunday ticket and WATCH all the games on TV.
Rarely am I in a car on sunday mornings.

Second, MLB is 160 games, MANY of which are on during afternoon drive on the
mid and west coast.

As an XM owner for 3 years (it was a gift) I am thrilled about the MLB
package being free(I was paying extra for the tv package)

The walkman unit is just another reason why XM is ahead of Sirius.

I hope Sirius has trouble and XM can acquire it and beam the best of both
services to everyone with a receiver.

[Just Lou]

On Thu, 11 Nov 2004 12:34:48 -0800, "EasyDoesIT"
<bigeZ@theholefun.com> wrote:

>As a huge patriots fan and red sox fan living in cali, i was interested in
>the pro sports offering on satellite.
>
>First, NFL is 17 regular season games that if you are not local, you can't
>hear on the radio. They are almost all on Sunday and as a football fan, I
>have Sunday ticket and WATCH all the games on TV.
>Rarely am I in a car on sunday mornings.
>
>Second, MLB is 160 games, MANY of which are on during afternoon drive on the
>mid and west coast.
>
>As an XM owner for 3 years (it was a gift) I am thrilled about the MLB
>package being free(I was paying extra for the tv package)
>
>The walkman unit is just another reason why XM is ahead of Sirius.
>
>I hope Sirius has trouble and XM can acquire it and beam the best of both
>services to everyone with a receiver.
>

There are many people that think XM having NASCAR is better than
Sirius having the NFL. To be honest, I do wish that XM had the NFL and
NHL package, and could care less about NASCAR.

[D Ray]

>
> First, NFL is 17 regular season games that if you are not local, you can't
> hear on the radio. They are almost all on Sunday and as a football fan, I
> have Sunday ticket and WATCH all the games on TV.
> Rarely am I in a car on sunday mornings.
>
> Second, MLB is 160 games, MANY of which are on during afternoon drive on the
> mid and west coast.
>
> As an XM owner for 3 years (it was a gift) I am thrilled about the MLB
> package being free(I was paying extra for the tv package)
>

I totally agree with you. MLB is a coup for XM while NFL is going to
be a drag on Sirius.

a) MLB is inherently a more "listenable" sport. The pace is slower
and you can listen to the game while you do other things and really
not miss much.

b) NFL happens on Sunday afternoon when everyone is at home anyway;
MLB happens when people are at home, at work, in the car, whereever.

c) There are 256 NFL games/year. There are 2,430 MLB games/year.

d) Lots of NFL radio listeners like to do so while watching the game
on TV. Can't do it. Unless you like to hear instant replays on every
play 20 seconds after the fact.

e) Out-of-market fans are a huge target market for both sports. I
believe that out-of-market NFL fans (Lived in DC but moved to Dallas
or Oakland) are more likely to commit the dollars to *TV* coverage
(Sunday Ticket) than to *RADIO* coverage. I do NOT believe this is
the case with MLB.

When the dust settles, XM will have made a much better deal than
Sirius.

[Mark S.]

> d) Lots of NFL radio listeners like to do so while watching the game
> on TV. Can't do it. Unless you like to hear instant replays on every
> play 20 seconds after the fact.

You can with a Tivo.

[EasyDoesIT]

I tried listening to the "radio feed" on ESPN radio while watching the game
on TV. Nope, the radio feed is NOT in sync with the broadcast and it was too
annoying trying to sync it up with tivo.
I think that the future of TV sports will be the chance to choose from
different audio feeds
1. National broadcast team
2. Local tv team A
3 Local tv team b
4 Local radio team A
5 Local radio team b
6 Natural Sound.

About 3 weeks ago i was watching the HD feed of an NFL game on sunday ticket
and they apprently lost the broadcast feed. All i got was natural audio from
the stadium and sidelines. WOW awesome. It was like BEING THERE with
different camera angles, no jabbering, no promos, no nuthing but the sound
of a live game. I thought it was a DirectTV special feed, but it was just a
mistake as the audio came back 5 minutes later.
If they put stats and injury updates in the crawl i'd vote NO BROADCASTERS.

"Mark S." <vo1one@gee-mail.com> wrote in message
news:cn2rs7$2o1$1@nntp-stjh-01-01.rogers.nf.net...
>> d) Lots of NFL radio listeners like to do so while watching the game
>> on TV. Can't do it. Unless you like to hear instant replays on every
>> play 20 seconds after the fact.
>
> You can with a Tivo.
>
>

[Truth]

> > d) Lots of NFL radio listeners like to do so while watching the game
> > on TV. Can't do it. Unless you like to hear instant replays on every
> > play 20 seconds after the fact.
>
> You can with a Tivo.

Tivo requires a connection to the phone line, which allows them to access
your unit, see what you are watching and what not.

If they ever make a Tivo type unit that doesn't require a phone line
connection, then I might be interested. VCRs never required them, so I
don't understand why Tivo does. Just give me the control to set start and
end times and channel numbers and let me program my own unit.

[Truth]

> I tried listening to the "radio feed" on ESPN radio while watching the game
> on TV. Nope, the radio feed is NOT in sync with the broadcast and it was too
> annoying trying to sync it up with tivo.

Same with CNN. The one thing I love about CNN on XM, is instead of having to
listen to the boring commercials CNN plays, they cut in with XM promos, and
interesting "mini programs" a minute in length that tell you about "this day in
history" or some consumer tips or reports instead of the commercials. So I
figured I would listen to the XM CNN audio while watching the video on TV, but
there is about a 15 second difference, so you can't do it.

[EasyDoesIT]

You need the program guide data. Otherwise you can't see the program
listings just channels and times and that blows.
"Truth" <yenc@sucks.com> wrote in message
news:4195645D.17C7B804@sucks.com...
>> > d) Lots of NFL radio listeners like to do so while watching the game
>> > on TV. Can't do it. Unless you like to hear instant replays on every
>> > play 20 seconds after the fact.
>>
>> You can with a Tivo.
>
> Tivo requires a connection to the phone line, which allows them to access
> your unit, see what you are watching and what not.
>
> If they ever make a Tivo type unit that doesn't require a phone line
> connection, then I might be interested. VCRs never required them, so I
> don't understand why Tivo does. Just give me the control to set start
> and
> end times and channel numbers and let me program my own unit.
>
>
>

[John A. Weeks III]

In article <10pj458tdlevq6b@news.supernews.com>, EasyDoesIT
<bigeZ@theholefun.com> wrote:

> You need the program guide data. Otherwise you can't see the program
> listings just channels and times and that blows.
> "Truth" <yenc@sucks.com> wrote in message
> news:4195645D.17C7B804@sucks.com...
> >> > d) Lots of NFL radio listeners like to do so while watching the game
> >> > on TV. Can't do it. Unless you like to hear instant replays on every
> >> > play 20 seconds after the fact.
> >>
> >> You can with a Tivo.
> >
> > Tivo requires a connection to the phone line, which allows them to access
> > your unit, see what you are watching and what not.
> >
> > If they ever make a Tivo type unit that doesn't require a phone line
> > connection, then I might be interested.

The digital video recorder for Dish Network does not need a phone
line. It is TIVO-like, but not TIVO branded. The data feed comes
from the satellite, not the phone line. I am pretty sure that the
DirectTIVO from Direct TV is the same way.

-john-

--
====================================================================
John A. Weeks III 952-432-2708 john@johnweeks.com
Newave Communications http://www.johnweeks.com
====================================================================

[Mark S.]

"John A. Weeks III" <john@johnweeks.com> wrote in message
news:161120040156376835%john@johnweeks.com...
> In article <10pj458tdlevq6b@news.supernews.com>, EasyDoesIT
> <bigeZ@theholefun.com> wrote:
>
> > You need the program guide data. Otherwise you can't see the program
> > listings just channels and times and that blows.
> > "Truth" <yenc@sucks.com> wrote in message
> > news:4195645D.17C7B804@sucks.com...
> > >> > d) Lots of NFL radio listeners like to do so while watching the
game
> > >> > on TV. Can't do it. Unless you like to hear instant replays on
every
> > >> > play 20 seconds after the fact.
> > >>
> > >> You can with a Tivo.
> > >
> > > Tivo requires a connection to the phone line, which allows them to
access
> > > your unit, see what you are watching and what not.
> > >
> > > If they ever make a Tivo type unit that doesn't require a phone line
> > > connection, then I might be interested.
>
> The digital video recorder for Dish Network does not need a phone
> line. It is TIVO-like, but not TIVO branded. The data feed comes
> from the satellite, not the phone line. I am pretty sure that the
> DirectTIVO from Direct TV is the same way.

I did a quick Google search and it seems that the phone line connection for
Tivo is only needed for the initial activation.