DirecTV’s chief content officer says the value of Comcast SportsNet Houston to cable and satellite companies continues to plummet as time passes and the channel remains mired in bankruptcy without widespread carriage agreements.

Dan York, who is in charge of strategy, acquisitions and development for the satellite company, said last week a “substantial gap” remains between CSN Houston’s asking price and what DirecTV believes to be fair market value for the channel’s Astros and Rockets programming.

In his first comments on CSN Houston since the network entered Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in February, York said DirecTV has had “intermittent conversation” with the teams and network on carriage talks since last year but that price remains a sticking point.

“Bankruptcy has complicated the process for the teams and Comcast, but DirecTV remains willing and open to constructive conversation,” York said. “I certainly would like to bring the Rockets and Astros back to DirecTV, but it has to be at a price that is fair for all of our customers, whether they are fans of the teams or not.”

CSN Houston is available to no more than 40 percent of customers in the Houston designated market area, which includes 2.2 million TV households in 20 counties.

The research and analytics firm SNL Kagan has estimated the channel’s monthly subscriber fee at an average of $3.03 per month. That fee, however, varies widely across CSN Houston’s five-state area (Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, Oklahoma and New Mexico).

Similar channels have fees of more than $4 per month in their primary markets and charge less than a dollar in outlying areas. Details of CSN Houston’s rate structure are sealed from public view under orders of the bankruptcy court, as requested by the network partners.

York would not say how much he believes CSN Houston is overpriced in the central market, where the channel can show the Astros and Rockets, or in outlying areas where only the Astros are available.

“I will say this,” he added. “The value of content that is not carried falls sharply as time passes.

“What we’ve seen in Houston is unfortunately what happens when content is overpriced to the market. Someone loses, and in this case it includes the teams.”

DirecTV also has refused thus far to pick up the Los Angeles Dodgers channel operated by Time Warner Cable, citing similar price concerns. The company’s CEO, Mike White, said last week that subscriber losses in Los Angeles over the company’s refusal to pick up the Dodgers channel have been “immaterial.” Similarly, DirecTV is not believed to have suffered major subscriber losses in Houston with its decision not to carry CSN Houston.

In both cases, York said, the issue is complicated by Major League Baseball’s TV policies. For example, Rangers and Astros games can be shown without restrictions across the five-state area. That was not an issue when both teams appeared on Fox Sports Southwest, which showed primarily Rangers games across the northern part of its territory and Astros games in the southern portion, but it became a problem when the Astros and Rockets left for Comcast.

“One of the issues that hasn’t gotten the attention it deserves that creates pressure around sports costs is the large and to some extent gerrymandered and overlapping footprints of various teams, and it particularly disadvantages satellite providers … and customers who are paying twice for teams in markets that are far away,” York said.

“(CSN Houston) has been and remains significantly overpriced compared to what customers were paying for the same games previously and the pricing demands for such a large footprint, including demanding payment for customers who will never watch a Rockets or Astros game a thousand miles from the stadium.”

York exaggerates somewhat on the range of the Astros/Rockets market; El Paso, for example, is about 674 miles from Houston, and Amarillo is about 532 miles from Houston. Still, he said, distance matters, and so does the fact the Astros and Rangers now play in the same division.

“Even if you have teams in different leagues, you still have somebody in San Antonio or Austin or someplace between Houston and Dallas being charged twice (for Astros games on CSN Houston and Rangers games on FS Southwest),” York said. “It was exacerbated when they went into the same league and division.”

While DirecTV and other carriers have not felt pressure from subscribers to pick up CSN Houston, the landscape could change next year with the pending Comcast-Time Warner Cable merger. Comcast’s acquisition of Time Warner will give it ownership of cable systems in Dallas-Fort Worth, Waco, Austin, San Antonio, Corpus Christi, Beaumont-Port Arthur, the Rio Grande Valley and other cities, increasing the potential market for CSN Houston.

York said he would not comment on the Comcast-Time Warner merger, which is the subject of congressional investigations and must receive approval from federal regulators.

Carriers generally have said they are willing to add CSN Houston if they can do so at a fair price and can carry the network on a limited sports tier. Such an arrangement, however, would be unprecedented for a regional sports network showing NBA or Major League Baseball games, all of which are available (including Fox Sports Souithwest) through digital basic service packages.

At AT&T, meanwhile, a spokesman said in a statement, “We have continued to engage in discussions, but in order to add CSN Houston, the value has to be right for our customers. So far, it has not been.” A spokesman with Dish Network did not return telephone calls and messages seeking comment on CSN Houston.

A spokesman for Suddenlink, which owns several cable franchises in the Houston area and across Texas, said in an email: “(CSN Houston is) facing an uncertain future due to bankruptcy proceedings, and they have not communicated with us since those proceedings began. After they work through those issues, we remain open to a conversation about ways to make the network available to our customers who want it.”

The CSN Houston case is now before two federal judges. Bankruptcy Judge Marvin Isgur is overseeing the day-to-day activities of the network as it continues operating under bankruptcy protection, and District Judge Lynn Hughes is hearing the Astros’ appeal of Isgur’s order in February that placed the network under Chapter 11.

Four Comcast affiliates filed an involuntary Chapter 11 petition last September in an effort to prevent the Astros from reclaiming their broadcast rights. Because of limited subscriber fees and advertising revenue, CSN Houston was unable to make its monthly rights fee payments to the Astros, who were prepared under their contract with the network to reclaim their TV rights. Bankruptcy, however, forestalled that effort.

The Astros, which own 46.5 percent of the Houston Regional Sports Network partnership, are scheduled to receive about $56 million in annual rights fees but say they received net payments of only about $18 million last year and nothing so far this year.

The Rockets, who own about 31 percent of the partnership, receive about $45 million in rights fees. The team was paid its rights fees for the 2012-13 season but not for 2013-14. Comcast owns the remaining 22.5 percent of the partnership.

Hughes, who earlier this spring held three mediation sessions in an effort to solve the Astros-Rockets-Comcast governance problems that have complicated efforts to reach carriage agreements, has not said when he will rule on the Astros’ appeal seeking to dismiss the Chapter 11 case.

Also at issue in the CSN Houston case is a lawsuit filed by Astros owner Jim Crane and his Houston Baseball Partners ownership group against Comcast and former Astros owner Drayton McLane.

The lawsuit, in which Comcast and McLane are accused of withholding details about CSN Houston’s potential subscriber problems from Crane while he was negotiating to buy the team and McLane’s network share, was filed in state court but moved by Comcast to federal court. The Astros have appealed, asking that the case be moved back to state court.