The TBS fiasco on Saturday night

[Kevin Vahey]

If a winner take all game where a team in that market can go to the
World Series can't beat a regular season NFL game then baseball is in
trouble in that market.

Part of the problem is Bright House Cable which is the major provider
in the Tampa market says nearly 25 percent don't purchase the tier TBS
is on and the football game was on channel 8 WFLA-TV.

It just shows that not having a local over the air station for playoff
games is folly. The NFL would never allow that.

As far as the sabotage possibility I was told by a TBS manager it
appears that might have been the case as the system failed 3 ways. He
admitted that when Channel 17 was converted to Peachtree TV some
staffers took a sizable cut in pay.

NESN for example does have a backup system in place where the truck
has a backup commercial reel available if Watertown goes down and the
feed from the venue can be patched directly to the uplink. TBS had
that in place last night just in case.



On 10/20/08, Garrett Wollman <wollman@bimajority.org> wrote:
> <<On Mon, 20 Oct 2008 13:26:47 -0500, "Kevin Vahey" <kvahey@comcast.net>
> said:
>
>> MLB most likely will opt out of their contract with TBS as the cable
>> outlet did not reach the benchmark audience promised. The final insult
>> came when the Tampa Bay football team got a higher rating on NBC last
>> night than baseball in ther Tampa market.
>
> You sure that's not just a reflection of the relative popularity of
> the two sports in that market?
>
> -GAWollman
>
>