DirecTV to Drop Versus, WEC?

by Luke Thomas on Aug 21, 2009 11:12 AM EDT in News Comment 26 comments

This story has flown under the radar (except on hockey blogs), but yes, Versus and DirecTV are having a spat. The existing deal between DirecTV and Versus expires after August 31st and the parties are presently unable to reach an agreement on financial terms to continue the partnership:

Versus, formerly Outdoor Life Network, was rebranded in 2006 and is the home of the National Hockey League as well as collegiate sports from the Pac-10, Big 12, Mountain West and Ivy League conferences, the Tour de France bicycle race, Davis Cup Tennis, the Professional Bull Riders (PBR), World Extreme Cage fighting (WEC), the Indy Racing League and Professional Boxing.

The network is available in about 75 million homes and is wholly-owned by Comcast. It is unclear how many subscribers the network has on DirecTV, which has about 24.2 million subscribers overall.

In a statement, DirecTV said that the dispute centers on carriage fees. According to SNL Kagan, Versus was getting about 18 cents per subscriber per month in carriage fees from cable operators in 2009.

"In our contract discussions, Comcast has demanded a deal for Versus that is not comparable to other providers and is pushing for a significant rate hike that does not reflect current market terms or the value of its programming," DirecTV said in a prepared statement. "We will continue to try and negotiate a fair deal, but we intend to hold the line on our programming costs and protect our customers against these unfair demands that are both discriminatory and wholly unrealistic given current market rates. If we do not reach an agreement, the network will come down on Sept. 1 following the expiration of our contract with Versus."

DirecTV has a different take:

A brief question and answer on DirecTV's website puts the blame for this issue on Versus.
Versus is asking for terms which do not reflect the market and which they are not asking of all other distributors. DIRECTV wants to keep your monthly fees low, so it's doing everything it can to avoid paying exorbitant programming fees.
Obviously, the NHL is affected, as they are the main anchor of Versus' programming.

The crux of the issue is that Versus believes it's beefed up sponsor-friendly sports programming (both traditional sports in hockey, college football as well as combat sports in the form of the WEC, boxing, Contender and Contender: Asia, etc.) as well as adding enough households to warrant a higher fee for their product. Clearly, DirecTV believes Versus is asking for a price outside of the existing market value, hence the impasse.

I'm hesitant to openly suggest this situation is yet more evidence for the argument that the WEC should be folded into the UFC. Admittedly, the more Zuffa's major operations each have unique arrangements with different business partners affecting outcomes, the more getting matters correct and delivering your product becomes a balancing act. Obviously folding the WEC into the UFC creates an entirely new set of problems to contend with, but being stripped from dozens of millions of homes in the fledgling stages of the WEC's growth is not one of them.

But realistically, can Spike offer enough room for a bloated UFC with eight weight classes? Likely not. The WEC's current arrangement with Versus is, on balance, a profitable and logical one. The present situation is unfortunate and potentially disastrous, but the obvious fix is so not so clear. I also do not hold WEC brass responsible. This appears to be merely a dispute within the cable industry that's holding up MMA, racing, biking, hunting and hockey as potential collateral damage.

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Might as well bring the WEC over to Spike. All they ever show other than Manswers and UFC are CSI reruns.

Keep firing Assholes!

Romans, be it your duty to rule the nations with imperial sway … to impose the rule of peace, to spare the humbled and crush the proud.

by Ubernoober on Aug 21, 2009 11:11 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

They still have to honor their contract with Versus, which is until 2011 IIRC.

by Zack Gobie on Aug 21, 2009 11:45 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

I wouldn’t be shocked to see a deal happen still. Seems like every 3 to 6 months the cable and content providers are battling over something.

If the WEC does merge into the UFC, they will need a weekly TV show to handle all the fighters. And maybe a network TV deal as well because they will end up having 8 title belts.

by AlwaysRelaxing on Aug 21, 2009 11:13 AM EDT reply actions 1 recs

Yea, this stuff always ends up getting worked out (unless the NFL network is involved).

Vs. doesn’t have the pull that Viacom has, but all those channels were very close to getting pulled from Time Warner at the beginning of the year. Stuff like this tends to get worked out.

This is just DirectTV airing their side out in public.

by Phildo on Aug 21, 2009 11:29 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

And really, Versus is a usless station. The NHL’s popularity is at an all-time low. The WEC, while popular with fans like us, has no appeal to the general population.

I know this is beyond this discussion, but I would be for a condensing of stations at this point. Half the stuff on TV is junk anyways….

by AlwaysRelaxing on Aug 21, 2009 11:32 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

It doesn’t always get worked out. Ask all the Time Warner customers how they enjoyed getting HDNet ripped off their channel lineup.

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by Day Man on Aug 21, 2009 1:25 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

HDnet is a much smaller network than Vs.

If push comes to shove on this one and it gets close to the deadline, the NHL will jump in, or someone wil give because of the NHL. It’s not as popular as it once was, but they probably still have some pull.

by Phildo on Aug 21, 2009 1:32 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

This sucks

fightlockdown.com

by The Legend on Aug 21, 2009 11:14 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

But realistically, can Spike offer enough room for a bloated UFC with eight weight classes? Likely not.

It seems to me that the UFC has been signing a lot of fighters lately, trying to bulk up its roster. The only conclusion I can think of is that the UFC is trying to put on more shows. Who knows if they’ll be on Spike or not.

Also I’m not sure we can see the full implications of a UFC/WEC merger yet. It seems that WEC is doing fine as it is, but the UFC’s most powerful asset is its brand name so it doesn’t seem smart to splinter that by having two brands. WEC fighters would definitely gain more popularity under the UFC banner and that would better(and more quickly) build up the lower weight divisions.

by dumbwhiteguy on Aug 21, 2009 11:19 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

a network TV deal could fix things i think..

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by Anton Tabuena on Aug 21, 2009 1:19 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

true

or since espn is postponing or most likely cancelling Bellator, the could pick up the WEC on the duece. they’ve aleady shown intertest in a mma, might as go with a proven product, and as much as they dishing out to the bellator fighters, money shoudn’t be an issue. never say never. ;)

by bdw on Aug 21, 2009 3:31 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

this really really sucks, now i wont be able to watch wec

by rlr on Aug 21, 2009 11:19 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Cross your fingers, count to 10, then they’ll get on Spike.

Keep firing Assholes!

Romans, be it your duty to rule the nations with imperial sway … to impose the rule of peace, to spare the humbled and crush the proud.

by Ubernoober on Aug 21, 2009 11:20 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

would it be possible to just rename WEC into something linking it to UFC, something such as UFC Lite?

by TyTy on Aug 21, 2009 11:50 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Crystal UFC

by Tonley on Aug 21, 2009 11:52 AM EDT up reply actions 1 recs

Fedor’s reply to that is “I’m going to drink a strikeforce lite because ufc lite won’t pay me!”

by phreakonature on Aug 21, 2009 4:06 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

COMCAST SUCKS IT!

Feel free to interpret “IT”, however you like.

I just moved and switched from Dish to Comcast, and I am severely disappointed. Dish offers about 3 times as many HD channels and is extremely user friendly. Comcast is a pain, has few HD channels, but does offer On Demand, which is nice. Direct seems to be somewhere in the middle. I blame everything on Comcast!!!!!!!!

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Check it out!!

by BJJDenver on Aug 21, 2009 11:56 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

I’m lucky. Comcast bought my cable company, Insight Communications, and as part of the deal… we retained a whole lot of the perks that Insight gave us. HDNet is free along with the entire HD lineup.

Follow me on Twitter @lelandroling
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by Leland Roling on Aug 21, 2009 12:13 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Dish offers about 3 times as many HD channels and is extremely user friendly.

Couldn’t agree more. After having cable for my entire life, I recently got Dish Network, and I LOVE it. Packages are stellar with TONS of HD channels for CHEAP and the customer service has been FANTASTIC thus far.

If you can't laugh at yourself... Who can you laugh at?
The Packers, that’s who.
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by TheViking83 on Aug 21, 2009 2:02 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Worst. Timing. Ever.

I’m switching from Comcast to DirecTV this WEEKEND because I don’t want to miss any MMA. I’m doing it primarily for HDnet, plus Comcast sucks and I hate their interface. If DirecTV drops Versus I’m going to be really pissed off. If that’s the case there’s not a SINGLE company you can go through to see all the MMA that’s being broadcast on cable/premium channels. Maybe with exception to Dish? Fucking sucks.

by robotplague on Aug 21, 2009 12:00 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Glad I have TWC…even if they did drop HDNet.

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by Kelvin Hunt on Aug 21, 2009 12:04 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

I want to see WEC on Spike. I’m sick of screwing around for 10 minutes trying to find the Versus channel on DirecTV.

Visit MMAEruption.com!

by MMAEruption on Aug 21, 2009 12:16 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

In other news, Michael Bisping vs Denis Kang to headline UFC 105.. Must be Free on Spike

by SouthAlaBamaRampage on Aug 21, 2009 12:46 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

They better fix this quick. =(

Mike Goldberg: "You know Joe, When Matt and his brother Mark Hughes were growing up, they would pound each other behind the barn."

by xFenixKnightx on Aug 21, 2009 1:09 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

I believe the WEC's deal with Versus is for a fixed number of events, not a time period

I know that the UFC has a deal with Spike through 2011, but I don’t believe Zuffa’s deal with Versus is set to last that long. I’m having trouble finding the article I read about this like 6 months ago but I believe their deal with Versus runs through around WEC 50 or maybe a little after that. With the WEC’s plan to increase the number of events they run, that wouldn’t put them past the end of 2010.

A few months ago I made a fanpost asking whether Versus was the best choice for the WEC among the top 50 or so cable networks, and the conclusion I came to was that while it was actually in the top 3 realistic possibilities, Spike would be the best place for it among realistic options. Admittedly I based ratings data from a single week, but the great bulk of cable networks are specialized (including and Versus and Spike), and aren’t really good fits in the first place for MMA, so I stand by that.

But realistically, can Spike offer enough room for a bloated UFC with eight weight classes? Likely not.

I really don’t see why not. Whether as UFC’s sister fed, which it can be marketed as, or whether the WEC is folded into the UFC outright, either way I would think the sort of ratings the WEC would get on Spike with enough strong crossover exposure would be enough to justify a place there. Spike already has aired upwards of 20 hours in a single week of UFC programs including UFC Unleashed re-runs (not that they do this most of the time), so Spike apparently doesn’t mind making themselves “the UFC network” as it is. If it makes financial sense, and by that I just mean if the ratings justify it since the WEC is bound to be a demographic bullseye, I think they would certainly entertain the idea.

Furthermore Spike could stagger its contracts with the WEC and the UFC so they don’t run out at the same time. This would allow it to not have to scramble to replace both simultaneously should their relationship with Zuffa sour, or should the UFC get big enough to jump completely to ESPN or something.

by Chromium on Aug 21, 2009 1:50 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

I used to work in a call center for dishnetwork and a few years ago they had a similar disagreement with OLN (now versus). It was taken down for about 6 months. Got quite a few calls from angry hockey and bull riding fans. I wouldnt be surprised if versus gets taken down for a while. The best thing I can recommend directv subs is to call and voice your opinion, enough people saying they will switch to a competitor if a channel is taken down usually helps these “disagreements” get worked out.

by brooksto on Aug 22, 2009 12:21 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs