| Big Cubs fan and get your cable TV from Mediacom? Allow me to be the first to extend my sympathies. Comcast SportsNet, the brand-new 24-hour sports network in Chicago, purchased the broadcast rights to all the Cubs, White Sox, Bulls and Blackhawks (where applicable) games that were on Fox SportsNet Chicago, basically stranding FSN Chicago without any major sporting events to broadcast. Sports networks kinda need those. This forced cable and satellite providers to switch as well. DirecTV made the jump sometime late last year. Dish Network, last I knew, won't be offering CSN until April 1. For Des Moines residents, that really only leaves the cable company, Mediacom. KCCI reported last night that they have decided that they will not be carrying Comcast SportsNet. To add insult to injury, Mediacom will do the exact opposite by apparently picking up Fox SportsNet Midwest, which will be carrying 112 St. Louis Cardinal games. Let's recap. As a Cubs fan in Des Moines you can: - Continue with Mediacom, get crappy quality picture and sound, plus miss out on as many as 72 games that will be aired on Comcast SportsNet and be subjected to the horror that is Cardinals baseball (see 2004 World Series); or
- Switch to DirecTV as I did nearly a year ago, get 100% digital picture and sound, Comcast SportsNet, WGN, and all of your local channels for basically the same price.
That's a tough one, isn't it?I'm sure Mediacom has nothing to worry about. It's not like Cubs fans are loyal to their team or anything. In case you were wondering, the stock price for The DirecTV Group, Inc. (DTV) closed Tuesday at 15.36 (down .04 from Monday) while Mediacom Communications Corp. (MCCC) closed at 6.29, down .11 from Monday. |
