In the midst of what is going on in Glendale, an interesting piece of news passed along this week regarding the NHL and a caught cash-grab.
The National Hockey League settled an antitrust lawsuit with the fans that argued that the League, teams, Madison Square Garden Co., DirecTV, and Comcast Corp. conspired together to illegally limit the broadcasts of games that were played outside the local market of the specific team, using blackouts.
This, in turn, caused what the fans claimed as being forced to buy what they were bundled game packages that proved very pricey rather than getting the games they want by purchasing them “a la carte” at far lower dollar figures to watch their favorite teams every night.
Let’s say a Rangers fan wanted to watch the team play outside Madison Square Garden every night, without any limitations. Well, with this blackout limit, the ability to do that was weakened and cost the Ranger fan more money to pay for a bigger package just to get the games he/she wants that were blacked out.
According to papers filed Thursday in Manhattan federal court, the NHL agreed to a five-year term, letting fans buy the coveted single-team packages for at least 20% below the cost of bundled packages. The early birds to subscribe would get discounts to that amount.
Court approval for a preliminary settlement is still needed, but it looks as though the fans have won the games they feel they should not have lost.
(Information courtesy of Reuters)
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