Content is king today, and as the saying goes the networks of course want to bring as much sports content as possible to the customer so they can sell more advertising. Quite a few new all-sports networks have popped up in the past few years. Included among these are Altitude Sports, which carries Nuggets from Denver and Colorado Avalanche matches, as well as the Big Ten Network and the Mountian, the broadcast home of the Mountain West conference.

Sure these channels are good for folks in certain regions of the country, but disagreements between the providers of content and those who deliver the content have resulted in difficulties to the customer. Consider what happened last fall, the Big Ten Network started airing in 2007, but the network was unable to strike a deal with big cable provider Time Warner. Subscribers of Time Warner in Michigan were unable to see some of the local teams play because of the carraige dispute. Fortunately, the parties came to terms before the 2008 season, so subscribers could remain with with Time Warner rather than having to switch to one of the satellite TV companies like DISH Network or DirecTV. An important thing to do when considering providers is to consider all factors, comparing Time Warner vs Direct TV.

Specialized sports programming packages are another option hard core sports fans should consider. Many Comcast customers have switched to DirecTV because the NFL Sunday ticket is exlusively on satellite. This has left a bad taste in the mouth of some consumers, who don’t understand why a high demand package like this isn’t available to every provider, especially a big company like Comcast. Other sports packages though are more fan friendly, like the NHL Center Ice and the NBA League Pass, which are available on almost every cable TV and satellite provider. Direct TV seems to have all of the premium sports packages like the NFL Sunday Ticket.