Letter From the President

Dear VERSUS Viewers: 

If you are a DirecTV customer, you are most likely aware that VERSUS’ contract with the satellite provider expired on August 31.  Throughout our discussions, VERSUS made fair and reasonable offers to DirecTV – simply asking them to carry the network at a comparable level of distribution as they had for several years, at the same market price that other operators are currently paying.  Yet, despite our good-faith negotiations, DirecTV chose to remove VERSUS from its programming lineup and deny millions of passionate sports fans access to our comprehensive coverage of the sports they love.  

DirecTV has also been trying to cloud the real issue in its comments to the press about this situation. What DirecTV has conveniently neglected to mention is that they demanded a deal that would place VERSUS on a tier, removing the channel from more than six million subscribers who were getting it at no additional cost.  DirecTV would then force those subscribers to pay an additional fee to get access to VERSUS.  We hope to resolve this soon, but DirecTV’s current offer of taking VERSUS away from sports fans only to charge them more is simply unacceptable and we refuse to submit to such an unreasonable demand.

DirecTV has openly insulted our passionate sports fans and viewers by calling VERSUS “an infomercial network.”  It is absolutely shocking that the self-proclaimed “leader in sports” would call the Stanley Cup Playoffs, Lance Armstrong’s remarkable comeback in this year’s Tour de France, top-ranked college football, IndyCar Series racing, World Extreme Cagefighting and PBR events “paid programming.”  Furthermore, they have belittled hunters and anglers, our vast and loyal field sports fans, by dismissing your programming entirely.  

We started hearing from a large number of sports fans the second VERSUS was taken off the air, demanding that DirecTV return the network to its lineup. This overwhelming support that VERSUS continues to receive from our passionate fans is why VERSUS is one of the fastest growing sports cable networks in the country. 

Thankfully, you do have options and can sign up for another video provider, one that cares about sports fans.  We want to make sure you don’t miss out on any of our upcoming programming, including college football featuring nationally ranked teams such as Texas, BYU, TCU and Kansas just to name a few plus the start of the NHL season, the conclusion of the IndyCar Series season, several live WEC and PBR events and much, much more.

We thank you for your tremendous support over the past few days and want nothing more than to resolve this issue quickly and amicably. 

Sincerely, 

Jamie Davis
President of VERSUS