Direct TV vs Time Warner Cable

One of the great things about modern cable and satellite TV is the explosion of sports programming now available to customers across the country. Many years ago you would only see a couple of college football games on Saturday and two or three on Sunday today you can pick from dozens of games every weekend with specialized sports packages. Even the NCAA Men’s tournament has additional coverage with the Mega March Madness on Direct TV.

Content is king today, and as the saying goes the sports networks want to bring as much content as possible to the customer so they can make more money on advertising. Quite a few new all-sports networks have sprung up over the last few years. Some of these include Altitude Sports, which carries NBA Nuggets and the NHL’s Colorado Avalanche games, as well as the Big Ten Network and the mtn, the broadcast home of the Mountain West conference.

Sure these channels are great for people in certain parts of the nation, but disagreements between the providers of sports programming and those who deliver the content have resulted in trouble at times to the customer. For example, the Big Ten Network began broadcasting in 2007, but they were unable to strike a deal with big cable provider Time Warner. Customers of Time Warner in Wisconsin were not able to see some of the local teams play due to this dispute. Fortunately, the companies involved came to an agreement before the 2008 season, so subscribers could stay with Time Warner rather than having to switch over to one of the satellite television companies such as DISH Network or DirecTV. An important thing to do when considering providers is to consider all factors, comparing Direct TV vs Time Warner cable.

Specialized sports packages are another issue to deal with for the customer. The DirecTV Sunday Ticket package is exclusive to the satellite TV provider, so if you want this package you have to switch. This has upset some pay television customers, who do not understand why a package like this isn’t available to every provider, especially a big company like Time Warner. Other packages though are more fan friendly, such as the National Hockey League Center Ice and the NBA League Pass, which are available on almost every cable TV and satellite provider. DIRECTV seems to have all of the sports programming like the Sunday Ticket.