2014. Still no Pac-12 Network on DirecTV. Am I an idiot to renew?

As I begin to write this post, the Oregon-South Dakota game -- kicking off the 2014 season for the Ducks -- will begin in nine minutes.

I won't be watching it because of two goddamn corporate assholes.

I live in the boonies of rural south Salem, 20 minutes from a sports bar. I have DirecTV, which is still in a three year long pissing match with the Pac 12 Network, with both sides throwing insults at each other (see preceding links).

So I'll be listening to the Ducks game on the radio. Sure, the nailbiter in this mis-matchup will be whether the Ducks win by 70 points or more. 

But contrary to what DirecTV thinks, I freaking WANT to watch every Oregon and Oregon State game, even if they are blowouts.

DirecTV has said that their customers will be able to see games "with the most national or conference title implications" on ESPN and other channels DirecTV carries.

That's a stupid thing to say.

Oregon has a good chance of being one of the top teams in the country this years. It's now ranked #3. EVERY game is important to Oregon's national title chances, including the blowouts.

But here's the possibly idiotic thing: yesterday I took advantage of DirecTV's offer to give me a free Genie HD receiver if I renewed with them for another two years.

I don't feel like a complete idiot, just a maybe one, because we had DISH network before and it ended up irritating me even more than DirecTV does. I like everything about DirecTV except the lack of the Pac-12 Network.

So I stuck with the bastards, figuring that all big media companies are S.O.B.'s; it's just a matter of degree.

Like this guy says, there's little or no chance DirecTV and the Pac-12 Network will work out a deal this year.  Which sucks. 

Just about the only positive take on the situation I could find is this piece, "The Pac-12 Network's schedule is its greatest failure." For DirecTV customers, failure means the only bright spot.

The way DirecTV sees it, the best football games the Pac-12 offers are already available to its customers. That's because the conference lets ESPN and Fox cherry-pick the top games each week, often just six or 12 days before kickoff. [...]

"Even though it is unwilling to invest its best games into its own channel, the conference has still established a high price for Pac-12 Networks and refuses to compromise," DirecTV spokesman Thomas Tyrer said.

Thus the situation could be a lot worse, if the Pac-12 Network kept the best games for itself. I'm thankful it doesn't. But otherwise I'm still pissed at both DirecTV and the Pac-12 Network. 

As I have been since 2012. Here's my previous rants.

DirecTV Pac-12 Network excuses are annoying
Tell DirecTV how you feel about not getting Pac-12 games
2012 Oregon-OSU Civil War game not on DirecTV. Curses!
Trying to be positive as DirecTV lacks Pac-12 Network
DirecTV raises rates 5%. Still no Pac 12 Network

Well, it's now close to the end of the first quarter. 21-3 Oregon.

Could be an 80 point win if the starters stay in. Feels like I'm back in high school, circa 1965, listening to SF Giants baseball games on a transistor radio. Now I'm using an iPhone.

Retro, but irritating, since it is 2014. Get your acts together, DirecTV and Pac-12 Network. 

Comments

[Jim Scheppke]

Brian, you are a complete idiot! ;-) There is a simple solution to your problem. Just point your laptop to this URL:

http://www.stream2watch.me/football

Every college game in American is at your fingertips for free. This is how I watched both the OSU and Oregon games yesterday. I also saw FSU and OK on another tab on my browser (I flipped back and forth between the UO game and this game). I don't want to pay Xfinity or DirecTV or anyone else to watch these games (I have basic Xfinity cable). Is it legal? I don't know and I don't care. You can watch the Trail Blazers this way too.

[Brian Hines]

Jim, with another Ducks game today I can't watch, I checked out the site you mentioned. It looks worrisome to me. First, I got pop-ups asking me to install malware, including this one:

http://malwaretips.com/blogs/this-content-requires-media-player-12-2-update-removal/

Then I read some reviews of stream2watch. Not encouraging.

https://www.mywot.com/en/scorecard/stream2watch.me

Since you have a Mac, hopefully you didn't have any problems with this streaming site. But I'm going to pass on it.