Comments on: DirecTV vs. Versus: the soap opera continues with "Worthless" ads

By: Julia

Julia — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 02:17:00 +0000

FJHS3, if you really want to drop DirecTV, I would see if you can use dropping Versus as a breach of contract. I know with cellphone contracts, if the price for taxes changes (which happens quite frequently) you have a 30 day window where you can use that as a loophole to get out of the contract. I would think this would be somewhat similar to that.

By: FJHS3

FJHS3 — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 01:06:53 +0000

Versus has a niche market and I enjoy them for MMA and Bull Riding… DirecTV pissed me off with their attitude but I’m stuck with them for another 12 months because I fell for the “AT&T Bundle” option to save $5. Apparently somewhere in the fine print on the AT&T website, the extended 12 month agreement is in there.
Watch Out.

By: RenegadeX

RenegadeX — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 07:06:04 +0000

Notice how the composition of the main image in the ad is such that a racing car’s wheel (ie: an IRL IndyCar’s wheel) is *on top* of the scrap heap – and also *in the foreground* — suggesting it was the last item to come to a rest.

The image thus tells a story: an IndyCar has been launched up into the cheesegrater (aka ‘fence’) , wiped out the flag stand, gone through the fence and on its way into its rightful home in the junk pile, taken out some innocent hockey and football players, a Tour de France rider, the World Extreme Cagefighting champion, and a cowboy. Probably some hunters, too, but I’m not sure as they’re usually well camouflaged.

This graphic metaphor is actually not all that from the truth.

By: Kaye

Kaye — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 21:37:22 +0000

I already miss versus PBR!!! Anymore PBR fans out there. I am soon switching to dish so I have have versus, thus the PBR and the UT games

By: John Howard

John Howard — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 06:46:00 +0000

Tour de France was good, the Dakar rally was good, but other than that, how did Versus pay for their 10-year deal with IndyCar?? IndyCar *IS* worthless, or at least close to it, drawing <275,000 households nationally per race (5 out of 8 races I've seen numbers for had a 0.25 rating or less). I don't want to pay for Versus' mistake! If they were stupid enough to PAY to sleep with the town slut (IRL IndyCar, which has ruined itself and nearly everything it's touched over the last 14 years) and furthermore not use protection (ie- not have an 'out' clause in the contract), they shouldn't come crying to us for money so they can clear up the nasty 'problem' they've developed as a result!

Versus needs to remember that customers ALREADY PAY to receive the channel and that if advertisers aren't willing to cover the costs, then there's always the 'time buy' option available to the people who want their programming to be seen. IndyCar has copied Champ Car in every other respect, this will just be 1 more! After that, there'll just be 1 final act of emulation left. (Champ Car is no more).

By: Kyle

Kyle — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 01:49:44 +0000

I love Versus programing!!! The hockey games and Indycar are 2 very important things to me!!

By: Chris

Chris — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 02:43:57 +0000

Versus primary audience is males 18-34 and males 18-49, males 25-54.

and the network is set-up for a big year coming up.

By: Andy McFlab

Andy McFlab — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 22:27:11 +0000

Keep the news coming!

By: Alex

Alex — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 20:51:06 +0000

@romo- Profit wise not subscription wise it’s good that they are getting alot of subscribers but their profit margin is down.

By: romo

romo — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 15:23:33 +0000

Directv this year gained almost 700,000 subs which is great.
Dont know where u are gettin your info from.

By: Alex

Alex — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 15:01:19 +0000

Boy it’s a good thing we got rid of Directv and switched to at&t u-verse because versus is a big network or it’s growing and for directv to drop it would be crazy and i think directv should focus more on their HD which i learned sucks once we got at&t but anyways i give directv a jeer for wanting to do this even though i never watched that network, how about directv gets rid of 1-2 of those stupid shopping channels. no wonder directv isn’t doing that hot but comcast is worst.

By: Nightstar

Nightstar — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 03:57:03 +0000

DirecTV calls Versus piggish? Wonder what the DirecTV profit margin is? Hmmm… not a fan of either entity though so it might be amusing to see what these goofballs come up with next in their 3rd grade spat.

When ala carte arrives I’ll consider satellite or cable again. Until then, I’ll watch my shows on network websites or buy season packs of television shows. I don’t much care to spend up to $60 or whatever it is a month to get all tiers so I can watch 9 channels scattered across the spectrum out of 200+. Waste of time and money, especially when up to 1/3 (or more) of the time for an hour-long show is commercials to begin with.

Told DirecTV the same thing when they started calling me to sign up with them (and I finally decided to answer them)… then reminded them of the laws regarding the “Do Not Call” list and what could happen next time they dial my number (Note: I was on the list for 4 years before they started making that particular rash of calls and I did check and was still on it — their bad, not mine). Haven’t heard back from them since.

By: Harold

Harold — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 23:41:28 +0000

Versus only has cycling, hockey, and likely blow-out games like Texas at Wyoming. Basically, Versus is a dumping ground for sports and sporting events that can’t get network or cable airtime elsewhere. What’s their biggest draw? Hockey? An out-of-market Indy race?

Pass.

One day, the much longed-for a la carte channel selection might become a reality, and maybe we could all have the channels that we want instead of the channels that are forced upon us. If you want Versus, you could get Versus, but I doubt enough people would want it for it to exist.

DirectTV subscribers that want Versus do have one credible argument. Their monthly fee isn’t going down because Versus was dropped.

By: Robert Seidman

Robert Seidman — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 23:23:58 +0000

Shem, I haven’t seen the 8/24-8/28 yet, and it looks like we didn’t post the 8/17-21, but you can see those here if you haven’t already:

http://boards.soapoperanetwork.com/topic/31617-latest-ratings-gl-up-in-total-viewers-and-hh/

By: Shem

Shem — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 22:55:28 +0000

What about the real soap opera ratings?

By: MarsPolarLander

MarsPolarLander — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 22:38:04 +0000

Take ALL those dumb sports networks off the air – the add says it all – they are Worthless!!!

By: Chris

Chris — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 22:36:44 +0000

Aside from a few college football games and the occasional IRL race, Versus is dead to me. Screw them.

By: romo

romo — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 22:13:26 +0000

The home shopping channels actually pay to get carried.

By: Jason Clinkscales

Jason Clinkscales — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 22:13:09 +0000

Ouch. I’m actually interested in what else Versus comes up with as the staredown continues.

By: AZTop

AZTop — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 21:34:33 +0000

What a shame. There’s a lot of garbage on DirectTV. There should be a place for Versus. But I’m guessing it’s not worth a 20% bump. I wish they would be as hard on ESPN when those price increases roll around. It’s time for alacart pricing. Let Versus prove its worth – and so should ESPN and all those darn home shopping networks.

By: Robert Seidman

Robert Seidman — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 21:27:51 +0000

it wasn’t a firefox bug…should be fixed.

By: Julia

Julia — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 21:22:01 +0000

Not sure if this is just something buggy with Firefox, but the picture is screwing with the formatting.

But I do like the smack talk, though DirecTV does it better than Comcast.