Why do I have to pay this fee if I don't watch sports?!!!!? Verizon offers a {word filter avoidance} low tier package without
the channels I do watch... so there really is no choice but to payup!
I just received my first bill after renewing my verizon contract, and discovered a charge that the rep didn't mention. $2.98 Regional Sports Network Fee. This was not on my previous bill (under the old contract.) Why am I paying for something I don't use?? Just came from SanFrancisco. Restaurants are tacking on a 1-4% "Employee Benefits Surcharge" to the bill, besides the 8.5% sales tax. I used to be that businesses paid their own operating expenses out of regular income. They worked harder to may a bigger profit. Gotta keep those profits up!
Verizon has no choice but to carry regional sports networks on Prime or above. Without that, the channels refuse to make a carriage deal. There is enough demand for local/regional sports that they must carry the channels. The "RSN fee" is Verizon's only way to call them out and expose how much the channels generally cost. We could see this morph into a 6 or 7 dollar RSN fee for the NY area, and maybe 10 or 12 for the LA area after the Dodgers launch their new channel next year. Maybe we'll all even see a $5 "ESPN fee". You're right though, there really is no other choice but to pay up for now.
What I don't understand is why they force people who don't watch sports to subsidize those that do. Why can't they require people that want Sports to pay for the channels like they do for HBO & Showtime? I find it really hard to believe that the majority of households want all these specialize sports channels.
Because without everyone paying 2 or 3 dollars a month, the channels would cost ten times that much. Mostly though, they want their channels to be available to the widest audience possible, and they apparently have the leverage to make that happen. Look back to the posts last fall when Lakers fans were losing their minds before Time Warner Cable Sportsnet was picked up by Verizon. TWCSN got their way with broad carriage and about $4 per subscriber. This is how valuable regional sports rights are. Of course, I'm only speaking of regional sports nets, not specialty sports channels like MLB, NHL, Fox Soccer, beIN, etc. Those are all on higher packages.
I understand what you saying, but according to that logic then why not charge everyone an extra $3 a month and then I can have HBO & Showtime for $3 a month instead of $30. People who want to watch Bill Mauher and the Sorprano's have to pay a premium fee, so why not make Sports a premium channel(s)? It seems like there is more going on then just FIOS or Cable wanting to diversify their line-up. If making Sports a premium channel can't generate the revenue to make itself profitable, then I guess the demand isn't there... and if that's the case, forcing a take it or leave it surcharge (that is not a tax or an unexpected expense that the business cannot avoid) really amounts to extortion of the majority.
@TomDx wrote: Why do I have to pay this fee if I don't watch sports?!!!!? Verizon offers a {word filter avoidance} low tier package withoutthe channels I do watch... so there really is no choice but to payup!
You are correct and I agree it does stink. But it is inescapable, ALL Cable/Satellite companies are now charging this not just Verizon. I believe DIRECTV's is $5 a month. It's because Sport channel costs have become ridiculous.
I have gotten my bill down to about $144 a month fromover $200. I purchased a RoKu box and I can get most of what I want through it. Cable is slowlly finding out they are finally going to have to cater to the public. More and more affordable content by way of Amazon, Netflix and the 100's of free stations made available through media boxes like this make it apparent to them.
Look at Netflix. They found, with a relatively small audiences intrest, they can afford to produce a QUALITY show like House of Cards with actors starring in it like Kevin Spacey, and do it on the cheap. More and more content is conig available like this. There is a pilot available on Amazon with John Goodman. Jerry Sinefeld is making free content. Give it time my friend, and the networks are eventuall going to realize the ride on easy street is OVER for therm!
For those who say that there certainly is no alternative to paying the Regional Sports Network Fee I say this: go to your local electronics store and get a receiver for local channels and then find another provider for your phone/internet. I pay $4 a day for 400 channels (as well as internet) when I have internet on my phone (that's another $3.23 a day) and I watch maybe 4 channels a month for about an hour a day, or 30 hours per month. In other words, I am paying $4 a day for 396 channels that I have no time to watch because I am too busy working to make money to then turn over to my phone provider and Verizon. What is wrong with this picture? The bottom line is that this fee is a conspiratorial attempt to deprive consumers of choice. The freedom of choice is a basic tenet in the American system of jurisprudence and our culture. Forcing Americans to pay for something they do not consume (or watch) is criminal. When I called Verizon to complain about this fee I was told "Call Congress" and I plan to do so, but in the meantime, I am shopping around for other services. No American would pay for food they didn’t eat, or allow a payroll tax to be collected and turned over to alcoholics to provide them free alcohol, and there's no excuse for us to tolerate this. CALL YOUR ELECTED OFFICIALS TODAY - then cancel your service! That's the alternative to "paying up."
@techguypgh wrote:
Forcing Americans to pay for something they do not consume (or watch) is criminal.
Nobody is being forced to do anything. TV is a luxury, not a necessity. You are not legally obligated to purchase a subscription to any television, internet or cellular service. When lawmakers start telling us that it's illegal to not have these things and that we'll be subjected to fines or imprisonment for not doing so, then you can start marching on Washington. So ease up on the rhetoric and let's stop making this out to be something it's not, OK?
@sangs wrote: ... When lawmakers start telling us that it's illegal to not have these things and that we'll be subjected to fines or imprisonment for not doing so, then you can start marching on Washington ...
... When lawmakers start telling us that it's illegal to not have these things and that we'll be subjected to fines or imprisonment for not doing so, then you can start marching on Washington ...
Stranger things have happened. As I'm sure you're aware, there are municipalities in the US where firearm ownership is mandatory (and I'm not making this up).
@techguypgh wrote: For those who say that there certainly is no alternative to paying the Regional Sports Network Fee I say this: go to your local electronics store and get a receiver for local channels and then find another provider for your phone/internet. I pay $4 a day for 400 channels (as well as internet) when I have internet on my phone (that's another $3.23 a day) and I watch maybe 4 channels a month for about an hour a day, or 30 hours per month. In other words, I am paying $4 a day for 396 channels that I have no time to watch because I am too busy working to make money to then turn over to my phone provider and Verizon. What is wrong with this picture? The bottom line is that this fee is a conspiratorial attempt to deprive consumers of choice. The freedom of choice is a basic tenet in the American system of jurisprudence and our culture. Forcing Americans to pay for something they do not consume (or watch) is criminal. When I called Verizon to complain about this fee I was told "Call Congress" and I plan to do so, but in the meantime, I am shopping around for other services. No American would pay for food they didn’t eat, or allow a payroll tax to be collected and turned over to alcoholics to provide them free alcohol, and there's no excuse for us to tolerate this. CALL YOUR ELECTED OFFICIALS TODAY - then cancel your service! That's the alternative to "paying up."
Sorry, but like I said I agree that regional sports charge is the absolute pits, but your rhetoric is completely off base. Nobody is forcing you to do anything and Cable TV is a luxury, not a staple required to survive (comparing Cable tv to food is silly as is the rest of that argument you made). You have freedom of choice, the choice not to pay it (i.e. not to watch/subscribe Cable/satellite tv).
This sports network fee is new since April 2013, and is broken out from the main TV fee to keep its price at least looking like it is competitive. Who knows when a "cooking channel" fee, or a "DIY network" fee, or any other specialty fee will be imposed? This fee, unlike the PEG, regulatory recovery, and video franchise fee, is totally from Verizon to counter their cost of rising sports channel fees, and not from any external entity imposing a fee on Verizon. Anyone objecting to this might want to contact Verizon and let them know how you feel.
I do not agree with Bobbo527 that it is inescapable. You can also contact the "retention department" by calling the 800 verizon number and pressing #4, then #2 (according to a Verizon agent).
A Verizon agent let me know that if I had the "select HD" package, it wouldn't include this fee,and it doesn't look half bad. It is at http://www.verizon.com/home/select-hd/ but doesn't include the History Channel that I like.
I'm just seeing this charge of $4.68 for the first time on my bill. The iornic part is that I just dropped my premium sports channel 😞
This kind of sounds like what they are doing with healthcare. They are forcing us to buy it or pay a fine. I guess its time to march on Washington! Lets go all 1776 on their **bleep**!
Verizon is optional, income tax is not. So Verizon aren't the crooks here, our gov't is for setting the standard of blanket-taxing the public and redistributing their wealth!But I'm still really annoyed by this sports fee. And I agree that we should not be required to pay this fee if we don't want these channels anyway!
I agree that if these sports channels have become too expensive to be "free", they should be reated like HBO/Cinemax/Starz/etc. and consumers should pay for them, instead of charging all of us to have channels we don't even want to begin with!
Verizon is one of the last providers to implement the RSN fee. Directv, Dish, etc... were already charging the fee.
It is very irritating that we are FORCED to pay that RSN Fee. So I looked into changing to the Select Plan to reduce my monthly costs. The Select Plan offers less channels at a lower cost, GREAT! But what a plan, it appears to me to have a POLITICAL AGENDA! If you like to get news from different sources as I do... YOU ARE OUT OF LUCK. With the Select plan you get all these LIBERAL News channels: CNN & MSNBC in both standard broadcast & HD, plus you get HLN & the BBC. BUT FOX NEWS, IS NOT AN OPTION. IS VERIZON POLITICAL & ANTI CONSERVATIVE? YOU BE THE JUDGE.
Every month I look at my bill to see what the new "fee of the month" will be. Now I find I've got a feel to pay for sports channels that I NEVER WATCH!!!! This is getting ridiculous. Looks like I'll have to start looking elsewhere for service. You've gone too far.
@DePro wrote: Every month I look at my bill to see what the new "fee of the month" will be. Now I find I've got a feel to pay for sports channels that I NEVER WATCH!!!! This is getting ridiculous. Looks like I'll have to start looking elsewhere for service. You've gone too far.
I hate to tell you this, but 99% of providers are charging the sports network fees unless you dont get sports channels at all.
It is high time that the cable companies offer what most people really want: ala carte cable. Not individual channels but at least catagories of programming. We prefer movies. NEVER watch sports. We like the Discovery and Travel and History programming. But if we go down to the Select package, there go all the movies. Would I be completely incorrect to say that most sports lovers are not big movie buffs, and vice-versa? Why do we have to take one if we want the other? It is time to write to our cable providers, and our utility commission, and our lawmakers if necessary to give people a choice.
BTW, losing the SPEED channel was not Verizon, it was programming-hog Fox who bought Speed and turned it into yet another Fox Sports channel, which Lord knows we really needed?
Write letters, people! Our country is one of supply and demand. If enough of us demand separate sports packages, then perhaps eventually the providers will supply it.
Other than trying to mislead the consumer, I don't get why the RSN fee is rolled into the base price of the service. It's not like it's an optional charge--so the real cost of TV part of your service is an additional $2.50 (in suburban Boston), but somehow that doesn't make price they can advertise look nearly as attractive.
@MeMeMe wrote: I just received my first bill after renewing my verizon contract, and discovered a charge that the rep didn't mention. $2.98 Regional Sports Network Fee. This was not on my previous bill (under the old contract.) Why am I paying for something I don't use?? Just came from SanFrancisco. Restaurants are tacking on a 1-4% "Employee Benefits Surcharge" to the bill, besides the 8.5% sales tax. I used to be that businesses paid their own operating expenses out of regular income. They worked harder to may a bigger profit. Gotta keep those profits up!
Is there a reason why you are replying to a 4 year old thread?
If you read the many posts in this thread you'll see why you have to pay a RSN fee now.
It's because sports networks increased their fees that cable providers have to pay them per subscriber. They are passing part of this increase onto the consumer to help keep costs down elsewhere. Thank the sports networks.
Regardless on if you watch the channels or not if you have sports channels on your package then you have to pay this fee. If you don't want to pay the fee, change to the very basic channel package which has no sports channels or don't have service at all.
Almost all providers are charging a rsn fee now...if they arent they will.
Just renewed a 2 year contract, now the Regional sports network fee is $4.99!!
I'm sick of paying a fee for sports that I do not watch. If Verizon wants to pass this fee on to non-sports consuming customers, then Verizon should also offer contact information for customers to fight the fee!
Please advise company contact and elected official contact information because I'm fed up with an ever-increasing fee for sports organizations who do NOT need the money; they're filthy rich as it is.
You now have the option of selecting the Custom package and not selecting sports packages.
if you have a contract you do not have a choice to rid onself of sports channel. I was told that was only for new customers. I hope I am wrong. I would like to select my own.
@SharN wrote: if you have a contract you do not have a choice to rid onself of sports channel. I was told that was only for new customers. I hope I am wrong. I would like to select my own.
Not true at all. Even if you are in a contract you can change the channel packages (including the custom hd with no sports) anytime you want and retain the current agreement. All you need to do is sign into your account online and go to the add/change services section.
TO: SinCara.....
anyone can post to older threads.
They are still open.
afsdas
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