I hate network sports coverage

[OnWis97]

I live in Connecticut--our ABC affiliate really pissed me off today.

I had a full plate. My school, Wisconsin was playing Ohio State just as my Twins were playing the Yankees. At least I got one win out of it.

Anyway, I watched the two games, flipping back and forth. Late in the Wisconsin/OSU game, ABC flips to Cal/USC. So I'm thinkin' "fine, it's a six point game and since I am not in Big 10 Country I cannot complain if they show the end of this and go back to my game)" which had about five minutes left. Problem is, they never went back. They went through the process of USC taking a knee, the interview with Pete Carrol and the John Saunders/Craig James recap. Still with a few minutes left in the Wisconsin game, the went to local news 7:00 sharp.

So I call our local ABC and ask them why they pulled a game I had watched 55 minutes of. The guy said it was the national ABC's decision.

Personally, I think he either does not know what he is talking about or that he is lying. My guess is that our local affiliate, recognizing that the UW/OSU game was going to go past 7:00, decided to pull the switch so that they could get to their local news at 7:00. Personally, I'd rather our local ABC just show movies and Full House reruns if they are going to be unwilling to run a game to its conclusion. It was like the "Heidi" game (though not as close a game).

I know that in Connecticut at 7:00 (when I suspect the local news was scheduled to air), there are more people interested in the local news than the game I was watching. It's why I prefer when the Badgers get on ESPN and why I hate network sports coverage (particuarly CBS's NCAA Basketball coverage--I have a similarly frustrating story about that too).

Anyway it was very agrevating and I was wondering if anyone thinks that the guy was right and the National ABC did this.

[mjrbaseball]

I work at an ABC affiliate, and I can tell you first-hand that the network rarely, if ever, tells the local station what it is going to do. The network often makes decisions that are stupid, or at least ill-advised. And then those of us working at the local stations have to field the phone calls from irate viewers, when we are just as perplexed as they are.

(I'm told the problem is not nearly as bad with other networks. ABC seems to do stupid things far more frequently. We are keeping track of these occurances, and our station manager plans to bring them up at the next affiliates meeting.)

ABC says there is a policy of switching away from games that are not competitive to games that are. I have no idea what the criteria are, and no one at the network will explain them. They just say there is such a policy.

At your local station, it is not technically possible for them to switch games on their own. (Well, I suppose with a little creative electronic engineering it could be done, but it isn't worth the effort.) Network feeds are sent out over a variety of satellite transponders, but each affiliate has access to only one. The switching is done at the network operations center.

So please don't blame the folks at your local affiliate. We are just playing the hand we are dealt.

[OnWis97]

Wisconsin was up by 11 with about 5 minutes left, so they were likely to win (which they did by the same score), but I would not have called it in the bag or non-competitive.

Oh well. Next time I'll just be less suprised.

[Shmee]

What I hate is watching all the Sunday football games, and invariably, you eventually hear towards the end of a great game, "Due to contractual obligations, we will now be switching over to the beginning of another game."

LAME.

Am I the only person who would rather see the end of a very competitive game that I have already invested two and a half hours in than see the opening three minutes of another game? I doubt it.

Which geniuses at the stations and the NFL worked out the contract that says "Every Sunday at approximate four in the afternoon, we are mutually obligated to send a New York teenager into a fit of rage"!?!? Again, LAME.

[mjrbaseball]

With the NFL, the station in a team's home city must carry that team's games from start to finish. So if you live in an NFL city and your home team is kicking off at 4:05 pm, that station is required to show you the kickoff, even if the early game is tied with :30 seconds left.

Same is true for baseball -- and it happened Saturday night. Fox was carrying the Yankees/Twins game, and it was 5-5 in the 10th inning. The announcer said stations in Los Angeles and St. Louis would be leaving to show the first pitch of the Cardinals/Dodgers game.

It's the way the contracts are written.

[CDunn]

In my mind, there's no real excuse for not showing a game in it's entirety. You finish what you started. I was watching a World Cup of Hockey game(the Czech's last game, so semis) and in OT no less(!) they pull away to show some meaningless MLB game from the very beginning. Being a big Czech fan, I almost died when they came back from commercial to a stupid D-Rays game or something.

What pisses me off more about networks is all the graphics and worthless crap that detracts from the game. FOX is far and away the worst. What the hell is up with field cam, that little cam at dirt level in the batting circle? They cut to it between pitches to show slow replays of the last pitch sometimes, but because you're looking up at the ball you can't tell where the pitch is in relation to the plate or batter. The ball may be knee high but it looks letter high to you because you're looking up and can't tell the difference. It's pointless. The worst thing about FOX is their annoying graphics that make you miss part of the game. In the top of the first of today's Cards game Rolen was up with 2 strikes and 2 outs. So what does FOX do? They go to a tight shot of Rolen's face and overlay a large graphic that covers the entire screen that has some stats nobody cares about. The next thing you know, you see the ball landing in the catcher's mitt and Rolen is out. You missed the entire windup, the pitch, and the swing, basically you missed an entire play in a tense situation because of these nimrods.

I was watching another DS game, forget who, but twice in the two innings I watched I missed 2 pitches because they were looking in the crowd with a large dumb graphic about meaningless stats and history. What if the guy had belted one? What if it was a passed ball and the guy on third had scored? Show me the darn baseball game and lose the graphics and tight shots of the crowd and players. I don't need to see a player picking his nose or a loud fat woman in the stands. I also don't care how this year's Red Sox batting averages compare to the team from some forgettable season. Show me the darn baseball game. Also, the commentators had no chemistry. It was just the play by play guy talking in a monotone voice. I think the color guy said one thing.

In Atlanta, the games are called by Pete van Wieren and Don Sutton(on TBS), the greatest announcing twosome. They have their facts straight, are knowledgeable in ways most aren't, and genuinely just talk to each other during the game. It's like sitting with two guys at a ball game in the stands. They wind up talking about some random things that have nothing to do with baseball, but it's entertaining, often humourous, and creates a great game enviornment. A few games back they spent an inning and a half debating the differences between a tassack and an ottoman, no joke. It was great. Great chemistry. Plus their cool cause their older guys. But FOX sucks.

On a final note to my rant, I hate it when something comes back from commercial and they have those promos for something else in the bottom corner. Usually the promo is so large you can't see anything else. And a lot of times they have sound or the lead character walking into it and you can't hear what's going on in what you're really watching. I was watching something on FOX(yet again) or TNT and coming out of commercial for a show, all of the sudden I hear fire engine sirens and that guy from Rescue Me is in a large flaming fire shield taking up the bottom of the screen. It's about 1/3 of the screen height and maybe 1/4 of the width. So I wind up missing some diolouge of the show I'm watching because all I can hear is fire engines. I'm almost ready to give up on TV and just watch ESPN News, Headline News, FOX Sports World(which is actually amazing), and the History channel and give up on everything else. I'm getting sick of T.V.'s crap. It like that annoying guy that sat next to you in high school who you just wanted to slug in the face but never did and now you've got rage problems.

[rockchalk]

In my home area, we have an almost opposite problem on Sundays. When the Chiefs are playing a divisional road game (i.e. West Coast-late game) on CBS doubleheader days, the first game is always the national #1 game, and invariably it runs long. Usually though, these games are decided by 3 or 3:05 local time, just enough to switch over for the kickoff. Now, thanks to the info from mjr, I know that locals don't have the ability to switch games, but it is still frustrating to have the Colts running out the clock in a 10 point game against the Texans or whoever, with 3 minutes left and have the crawl come up on the bottom of the screen saying Denver has already driven down the field, kicked a FG and forced a punt, all in that time. Granted, this doens't happen often, because NFL games typically are slow-starting, but it is frustrating.

[CDunn]

yeah, it sucks either way. FOX actually handled it right today. The Twins game was into its fourth hour and the Cards game was up and going, which was going to be on FOX. So they moved the Cards game to FX until the Twins had wrapped up. ESPN does this a lot. Unfortunately, FOX never told the viewers about the game being on FX. I just was lucky to stumble onto it.

Damn, I'm posting a lot tonight. My meds give me insomnia so I got nothing to do but sit here and listen to music and have imaginary conversations on the internet. I'm not tired but I have gotta get to bed. And I can't NyQuil it because it has alcohol in it and I can't drink on these meds. Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm...

[mjrbaseball]

The Twins game was into its fourth hour and the Cards game was up and going, which was going to be on FOX. So they moved the Cards game to FX until the Twins had wrapped up. ....

True for most of the country: They moved the Cards/Dodgers to FX so we could see the end of Yankees/Twins.

But in St. Louis and Los Angeles, the end of Yankees/Twins was moved to FX so they could see the start of Cardinals/Dodgers.

[TFoA]

Im still mad that I missed out on the USC-California game... I mean, I know we're in Atlanta, but who really gives a care about GT-Maryland when the #1 and #7 teams in the freakin country are playing?

[Cyclopsis Joe]

It pisses me off up here in the middle of God's Nowhere.

The Rams had just finished up their early game, so I was waiting on the Falcons late game. Well, my wonderful Fox affiliate, WTVW 7, decided to show "Coming to America" instead.

I could not contain my rage. Meanwhile on CBS, the Titans were on.

[OnWis97]

My most frustrating one was CBS coverage of NCAA hoops. I grew up in Minnesota and in 1994 was a freshman at the University of Wisconsin, so not too long out of high school, I still kept an eye on the U of Minn. They were playing about the last game of the second round against Louisville on Sunday. So I'm sitting through this game involving Georgetown and thinking "Why am I watching Georgetown when I am in a Big Ten city and Minnesota is playing." What is worse is that G-Town was kicking someone's butt and Minnestota and Louisville were exchaning the lead back and forth.

So I sit through the agonizing fouling and timeout calls of the G-town game (with the occasional pop-up of the Minnesota score--always less than a 5-point game) and it finally ends. They go to studio and the person (I forget who) says something like "Minnesota and Louisville are tied at 68 with a minute and a half remaining. Unfortunately we can't bring you that because we are gonna get you right off to 60 minutes." I'm in a big ten city and you can't show it? This thread brought me back to that day and I now wonder if they showed the other game because it started earlier and there is a better chance to get to 60 Minuetes on time. More people want to view regular programming than sports and I think the networks do what they can in regional coverage to make sure that it happens on time (except in the market of those teams playing). That's what frustrates me about the networks.

That and--as mentioned above--the rediculous fox gimmicks. The added sound affects bother me. I think they do it on some pitches and then a little flame goes up where the speed is being shown. I think it really panders to the casual fan that cannot really sit through a game. Fox invented the glow puck, right? "Nuff said.