CBS and NFL Screw Up

[smaug07]

Today's NFL shootout Bengals-Browns game was not the early local game in my area; in fact it was only the early game in Ohio. However, when my early locally televised game, the Colts vs. the Titans ended just prior to 4PM EDT, CBS switched my local affiliate to the Bengals-Browns game, which seemed fine at the time. I was expecting to see the Jets-Ravens game at 4:15PM locally. However, when 4:15 came and went, the Bengals-Browns game remained on my local station. So, being a sub of NFL Sunday Ticket, I tuned to channel 715 to watch the Jets-Ravens game, but it was still blacked out. I figured the blackout would be lifted quickly as long as my local affiliate remained with the other game. Not the case. Channel 715 remained blacked out and by the time the Bengals-Browns game was over and CBS switched over to the Jets-Ravens game, pratically the entire first quarter had been played.

This is totally bogus. First, I don't understand why CBS didn't just switch everyone over to their respecive doubleheader game at 4:15PM. I mean the Bengals-Browns game wasn't even the game shown in my area to begin with. I could fully understand if the Colts-Titans game had run over because this was the game shown in my area. Second, even if CBS had decided that the conclusion of the Bengals-Browns offensive explosion was more interesting to the viewer than the start of another game, why wasn't clearance given from the NFL to DirecTV to lift the blackout on channel 715? (I'm sure there were similar blackouts in other markets involving other games)

All of us who pay the ever increasing price of NFL ST deserve to watch every second of every game (except for local blackouts of non-sold out games). I was very cautious when the NFL started blacking out locally televised games within the ST package a few years ago, fearing that these type of incidents would occur. For the most part, up until now, blackouts have been lifted when a similar circumstance to today occurred. I'm hoping this was just a fluke and will not happen again, but I wouldn't count on it.

 

[TNGTony]

Your local station has the exclusive (as in to exclude all others) rights to that game whether they show it or not.

See ya
Tony

 

[Buzzdar]

Thats what happens when you pay for an over priced sunday Ticket. Can Never watch what you want.

 

[stanswx]

Same thing happened here in Champaign, IL. I don't have Sunday Ticket, but I was planning on watching the Bears/Chiefs on my local CBS channel. After the Colts game concluded, they went to the Bengals/Browns game even though we were scheduled to see the Bears game at 3:00pm central. Our local affiliate put a crawler up that stated 'CBS air control' would not switch to the Bears game until the Bengals/Browns game had concluded. So I missed the first 12 minutes of the 1st quarter, though neither team scored during that time. To top it off, I'm not sure if it's CBS's issue or our local affiliate but we lost our HD feed of the game. The local affiliate had to switch to a backup SD feed. Not a good way for me to test out my new OnAir USB HD tuner box. I'll be looking forward to the Bears games when they're back on Fox.

EDIT: 2nd half is now back in HD on my OTA feed. Whew!

 

[charper1]

If in HD and you have any issues are almost ALWAYS because of the affiliate for the most part but the network can be held to some degree since the still allow the BS to happen.

 

[TNGTony]

The Bengals/Browns game was not in HD. No lost feed.

See ya
Tony

 

[Brewer4]

It actually was best game of day filled with good ones.

 

[charper1]

Unless you like a cleanly played game with some D

 

[Brewer4]

Yep. Yawn.....

 

[smaug07]

Your local station has the exclusive (as in to exclude all others) rights to that game whether they show it or not.

See ya
Tony

However, if an early game runs late past 4:15PM on the local affiliate, the NFL will, and almost always does, lift the blackout on the Sunday Ticket channel carrying the game that is to be broadcasted on the local affiliate (until halftime) so that the ST subs do not miss any action. That did not happen today, and that is my beef.

 

[TNGTony]

I am thinking that this is no longer the case.

 

[Lord Darth Vader]

The nice thing is that there are NO blackouts on the HD Sunday Ticket channels. My SD channel of the Bears was, of course, blacked out, but the corresponding HD channel was not.

 

[meStevo]

This happens to some extent nearly every week, and the lifting of any blackout has nothing to do with ST subs.

If I recall correctly, the CBS feed showing the bears on channel 717 ended up cutting to the game right before/after kickoff. Don't think the Browns game was over yet.

In short, don't worry about it, if it bothers you that much don't pay for ST if it no longer provides the value you originally perceived, that's really your only option. Then again, this is the internet, and it encourages such futile discussion.

 

[DetFan]

Thats what happens when you pay for an over priced sunday Ticket. Can Never watch what you want.

Really? Interesting take, because I live in the Detroit Area, and if I did not have ST, I would have had absolutely 0 games at 1:00. Our great local market decided to show paid programing at that time on CBS amd Fox.

This is the only reason I get the ST, because they do this crap all the time, or they show you games, that you have no interest in watching.

 

[paulman182]

In two years of HD Sunday Ticket and Superfan I have never encountered a blackout.

 

[CPanther95]

The first part of the complaint is standard practice. If they transfer you to a close game at the end of your scheduled game - they'll keep you with that game until it ends. Close endings are better for keeping butts in the seats than the first few minutes of a new game.

 

[dcwebman]

The nice thing is that there are NO blackouts on the HD Sunday Ticket channels. My SD channel of the Bears was, of course, blacked out, but the corresponding HD channel was not.

Out of curiosity, I was hoping to confirm this yesterday but my local team of Houston was not being shown on an HD channel. Maybe I'll be able to check it out in the future.

 

[djzack67]

Same thing happened here in Champaign, IL. I don't have Sunday Ticket, but I was planning on watching the Bears/Chiefs on my local CBS channel. After the Colts game concluded, they went to the Bengals/Browns game even though we were scheduled to see the Bears game at 3:00pm central. Our local affiliate put a crawler up that stated 'CBS air control' would not switch to the Bears game until the Bengals/Browns game had concluded. So I missed the first 12 minutes of the 1st quarter, though neither team scored during that time. To top it off, I'm not sure if it's CBS's issue or our local affiliate but we lost our HD feed of the game. The local affiliate had to switch to a backup SD feed. Not a good way for me to test out my new OnAir USB HD tuner box. I'll be looking forward to the Bears games when they're back on Fox.

EDIT: 2nd half is now back in HD on my OTA feed. Whew!

what sucks is that same thing here in Chicago 1st 12 min cut. Okay who was asleep at the controls yesterday?

 

[bjkaledas]

The nice thing is that there are NO blackouts on the HD Sunday Ticket channels. My SD channel of the Bears was, of course, blacked out, but the corresponding HD channel was not.

This is a true statement.

 

[cb35]

This is a true statement.

yes no blackouts on the HD channels either - I don't want that to change so I don't want to advertise that fact to directv, nfl or whoever else is monitoring these boards.

The red zone hd channel is my favorite channel of all time - keeps you up to date with all the games at once somehow - using split screen on occassion if necessary. very enjoyable