CBS58 and NCAA

[agrundman]

My previous message was unfortunately not entirely accurate as I learned directly from Channel 58 (see below e-mail response):

"This week we are using the HDTV spectrum to multicast all four games at the same time.  Time Warner has not made the channel space available for this.  If you were watching HDTV over the air, you would have been able to choose to watch what ever game you wanted (as long as we were not in war coverage).  Next week, when there are not as many games going on at the same time, we will be using our digital signal to show games in HDTV.
I hope this answers your question.
Sincerely,
Dale Palecek
Program DIrector, CBS 58 and TV 41"


Needless to say, I was very disappointed to learn this given the upcoming weekend schedule of games.  Hopefully, the other HD providers will carry the multicast for those fortunate enough to have those services.

[Joseph S]

the are experimenting with the new technology and breaking some new ground.

They are merely exceeding the technical capacity available in an effort to not pay for 1)electricity and 2) a fiber optic line to TWC for Univision and 46 at the expense of everyone wanting to watch any of the above stations.


The other channels are unwatchable especially during the multicasts, yet they continue to waste bandwidth on unwatchable channels because either they or TWC refuses to solve the 41 and 63 situation.


As a result we currently have ZERO CBS local or national broadcasts throughout the day, terrible quality on all other sub stations when/if there is no war coverage, and yesterday we had nothing but a PPT slide telling us to watch the war on CBS which of course wasn't even available on 1.1.

Both PBS and CBS are doing this for $$ and not to "break" new ground. There is zero reason for showing Dragontales, Barney, and all the other kids stuff at 9PM-5AM yet they continue to do it. By pawning the subchannels on us CBS gets to avoid paying for full power on any of its stations and uses the already low power transmission to meet the FCC requirements for its other stations.

[rpine]

They are merely exceeding the technical capacity available in an effort to not pay for 1)electricity and 2) a fiber optic line to TWC for Univision and 46 at the expense of everyone wanting to watch any of the above stations.

True, but . . .

I usually do not side with "big busininess" but in this case, I do. Yes, I certainly wish that each of the stations had their own digital signal up and running so that Digital 58 was for their use only.  But, I am also aware of the expense new equipment, fiber lines, and yes, electricity, to fund the new technology.  Considering that CBS-58 still gets the same ad-rate for a 60-second spot that is on both analog and digital stations means that they have to fund both operations with the same dollar (alright, the same thousands of dollars).

Regarding the fiber line, they will need to get some equipment to multiplex all 3 signals onto the fiber line -- only one fiber line needed.  But again, more $$$. (This is assuming that broadcast control for all 3 stations are at the same location)

I think that this will be the turning year in HDTV broadcast. As long as the FCC stops make allowances for stations who do not comply, consumers are buying the HD equipment and broadcasters will start to treat it as a real business, not as the "technical experiment" that I alluded to in my previous post.  
I have enjoyed this forum for the past few months seeing many of the local pioneers in HDTV - both consumers and broadcasters freely interact - lets keep it going.

[johnmark]

With all due respect to Jim at Channel 58, this is a message to his bosses.

I think the old saying goes something like, "The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different outcome".

How many times does 58 have to send us a useless signal before they install the fiber line to TW.  Last night Jackie Chan was OK, but the game was unwatchable.  Ealier we had four channels of something that looked like basketball, but it was hard to tell with all the freezing etc.

Jim, do your bosses actually watch the signal going out?  Do they have digital TV's?  Are they sports fans?  

Thats my rant for the day.

John

[Kevin Arnold]

By way of TelevisionNews I found this story which elaborates on the CBS multicast fiasco:

CBS Affils Feel Burned by NCAA Game Deal With ESPN: A number of CBS affiliates are angry that when CBS Sports worked out a deal to shift NCAA mens' basketball games to ESPN should coverage of the war in Iraq pre-empt the games they lost the option to showcase a multicast of CBS News' war coverage and NCAA action and let their viewers choose which to watch. CBS offered the affiliates the option earlier this month.

ESPN's insistence that anything on cable be exclusive pulled the digital rug out of from under the affiliates, many of which had sunk a lot of time, effort, promotion and money, which they do not expect to recoup, and had arranged channel space with local cable operators-some of which don't want to dedicate multiple channels to accommodate analog and digital signals on a normal basis.

A CBS Sports spokesperson issued this statement, "We were unable to reach a national cable deal without exclusivity."

The deal struck Wednesday afternoon by CBS Sports largely will shift NCAA mens' basketball games to Disney-owned ESPN or ESPN2 if and when the games are pre-empted by CBS News war coverage through Thursday, Friday and over the weekend.

The first afternoon of games went to ESPN Thursday, when Dan Rather began anchoring a special report at noon (ET). Once a block of games has moved to ESPN it cannot return to CBS until the next cluster of games begins.

A number of key station groups indicated to CBS that they understood why the deal ultimately had to be made under unique circumstances.

But Bob Lee, the general manager of Schurz-owned WDBJ-TV in Roanoke, Va., who is chairman of the CBS affiliates advisory board, said he was swamped by "lots of angry calls" Wednesday night and his e-mail in-box was full of similar sentiments Thursday morning.

"There has been a lot of anger and deep disappointment that the deal we thought we had with the network until late Wednesday afternoon went away," said Mr. Lee, who stressed that everyone understands the unique circumstances CBS found itself in because of the war but still were disappointed that it would come down to a deal in which affiliates-especially those who were being good digital citizens without a shot at making any money off the extra platform-were effectively forgotten.

"Once again the rollout of digital has stumbled over cable," said Mr. Lee. "I think everybody involved needs every opportunit[y] for the migration to digital television to have showcase opportunities."

Jim Hefner, the general manager of Capital Broadcasting-owned WRAL-TV in Raleigh, N.C., has multicast all the NCAA championship games for two years with the full cooperation and support of the network and was planning to do so again this month.

"It has nothing to do with money. We weren't going to make any money," said Mr. Hefner, who said his market has a lot of interest in college sports because of the proximity to such universities as Duke and North Carolina State.

The affiliate-body executive suggested that ESPN would have been confronted with the possibility of only low-profile duplication in about 18 percent of the country, while 18.7 percent of the country will not even have the option of seeing NCAA games placed on ESPN at all because the sports channel is available in only 81.3 percent of the country's TV homes.

A spokesperson for ESPN was not immediately available for comment.

[cgardnl]

Given all the above, it's interesting that WISC Madison broadcast NCAA on 3.1 in HD all weekend, while CBS58 had just a few games in multicast that were mostly unwatchable.

Does anyone know if this week's games will be HD on CBS58?