All Three "Root" Stations Are Now Gone

[gcotton]

Just flipped over to catch the Pirates score and saw that there is no longer an agreement to show any of the Root stations.  Anyone heard about any other stations being turned off last night??  Hope this is just temporary.  Anyone have any idea?

[csiewert]

Noticed this too last night... saw it on the notification of expiring contracts from a while back, but would like some confirmation if they are coming back or not... after all, the only reason I got the HD premier pack was for ROOT Sports NW.

[dwinth]

As of today, U-Verse no longer carries Root Sports Channel Northwest, Pittsburgh, and Rocky Mountain. Negotiations between AT&T and Root Sports failed to come to a carriage agreement between the two entitiies.

No one knows if this will be permanent or just temporary until an agreement can be reached.

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Owning a computer and not having the internet is like buying a refrigerator and not stocking it with food.

[gcotton]

God, I hope it's just temporary.

[DAMOSPORT]

I was very disappointed when i wanted to catch the Rockies pre-game show before todays game and was unable to view it. I wish U-Verse would give us some notice when they do this. I just subscribed to the HD Premium package recently and the the ability to watch the Rockies pre and post-game shows was one of the major reasons why.

[texasguy37 ACE - Champion]

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DAMOSPORT wrote:

I was very disappointed when i wanted to catch the Rockies pre-game show before todays game and was unable to view it. I wish U-Verse would give us some notice when they do this. I just subscribed to the HD Premium package recently and the the ability to watch the Rockies pre and post-game shows was one of the major reasons why.

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The fact that carriage agreement with Root Sports was expiring and that the channels could be removed if no new agreement was reached has been reported on the website below since April.  The fact that the channels have been removed indicates that no agreement was reached before the deadline.  The original deadline was May 31st; however, it was extended to June 30th.

http://www.att.com/Common/iptv/files/programming/index.html

[cbussteeler]

This is very disappointing - Root Sports Pittsburgh provides Pittsburgh Pirates baseball games to Columbus and Central Ohio. Time Warner and WOW have never carried this station - it was a major plus that U-verse had the channel. If this is a long term problem, I guess that leaves DirecTV or Dish Network as the only other option for Pirates games in the Columbus and Central Ohio area.

[LoveHD]

I think DirecTV owns Root Sports regional channels. They were previously under the Fox Sports label.

[NWSportsfan]

I  switched to Uverse in May. I went toROOT NW channel yesterday to watch a Mariner's game and discovered it was gone.   I told Jerry that when I signed up I specifically asked if I would receive Root NW.  Seems that AT&T won't be carrying it, so I will be swithcing back to Direct TV.

This is the transcript from my online chat with Uverse.-

I am sorry to inform you that the contract with Root Sports expired Sunday, 12:01 a.m. local time on July 1, 2012,

Jerry

We are not renewing our agreement for Root Sports Network due to low customer demand. The majority of the regions and teams served by Root Sports Network are outside our U-verse footprint.

Jerry

We regularly review our content offerings to make sure we are delivering the channels customer's want, while keeping costs down.

Jerry

There was not enough customer demand to continue carrying Root Sports Network, so we have decided not to renew our agreement.

Jerry

This was done to protect ourselves and our customers from increasing content costs, and the low demand for Root Sports Network simply didn't justify the associated costs.

{personal content removed for safety}

[texasguy37 ACE - Champion]

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NWSportsfan wrote:

I  switched to Uverse in May. I went toROOT NW channel yesterday to watch a Mariner's game and discovered it was gone.   I told Jerry that when I signed up I specifically asked if I would receive Root NW.  Seems that AT&T won't be carrying it, so I will be swithcing back to Direct TV.

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Where are you located?  I did not realized that any of the markets where U-verse is located are within the Mariner's territory.

[texasguy37 ACE - Champion]

This is the 2nd hit this year for Root Sports.  GCI,and Alaskan cable company, dropped Root Sports Northwest in January in order to keep costs flat.

[texasguy37 ACE - Champion]

Well, I guess the 3 Root Sports channels will not be back.  They have all been been removed from the Guide.

[dhascall ACE - Professor]

I will say that of all of the providers that I've had, AT&T is the leader in the percentage of those instances of channels lost due to contract negotiations.  I haven't had Dish, however, lol.

[texasguy37 ACE - Champion]

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dhascall wrote:

I will say that of all of the providers that I've had, AT&T is the leader in the percentage of those instances of channels lost due to contract negotiations.  I haven't had Dish, however, lol.

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It really has not been as bad as what you may be thinking.  In the 3 plus years that I have had U-verse, these are the national channels that are still in existence that have been removed from the lineup:

1.  Hallmark Channel

2. Hallmark Movie Channel

3. Soundtrack Channel

4. ESPN 3D

5. NHL Network

6. Root Sports - Pittsburgh

7. Root Sports - Rocky Mountain

8. Root Sports - Northwest

My guess is that if you had not seen information posted on this forum, the only ones that you may have even noticed missing are the Hallmark Channel and the Hallmark Movie Channel.  Except for the Soundtrack Channel, the other channels are specialized sports channels.

[panthers76]

This wouldn't be bad if these didn't include the main reasons I moved to Uverse which was for Hallmark (my wife's favorate channel), NHL (and promise of Center Ice which never materialized) and Root Sports Pittsburgh to watch Pirates and other Pittsburgh related sports including hockey pre and post game and delayed broadcasts.  I can the other "stuff" on any other cable provider, these channels distinguished Uverse from Insight and WOW (my only other Columbus options).  And I don't have line of sight for Satellite so I cancelled Uverse and now am watching as much sports as I can over the internet.  I will rejoice in a few years when all programming is over the internet or 4G network and we can deal directly with service providers instead of cable companies.   Columbus cable companeis are missing a great opportunity to market to Pirate fans right now to move their service if just one of them would offer Root Sports Pittsburgh.

[texasguy37 ACE - Champion]

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panthers76 wrote:

This wouldn't be bad if these didn't include the main reasons I moved to Uverse which was for Hallmark (my wife's favorate channel), NHL (and promise of Center Ice which never materialized) and Root Sports Pittsburgh to watch Pirates and other Pittsburgh related sports including hockey pre and post game and delayed broadcasts.  I can the other "stuff" on any other cable provider, these channels distinguished Uverse from Insight and WOW (my only other Columbus options).  And I don't have line of sight for Satellite so I cancelled Uverse and now am watching as much sports as I can over the internet.  I will rejoice in a few years when all programming is over the internet or 4G network and we can deal directly with service providers instead of cable companies.   Columbus cable companeis are missing a great opportunity to market to Pirate fans right now to move their service if just one of them would offer Root Sports Pittsburgh.

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Good.  Since you canceled several months ago, the recent removal of the Root Sports channels had no effect on you.