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Not enough
By adamg on Fri, 12/28/2007 - 7:01pm
What do you mean we can only see the Pats game on four stations tomorrow? What's wrong with the other stations?
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Comments
WCVB
I don't normally watch TV, and to be honest, I'm rather indifferent to sports in general. (I'm more of the swimming, hiking and camping type - and the idea of watching other people exercise just doesn't hold any appeal)
I spent some time with family this past week, and they tend to keep WCVB on every night. After the first day there I was absolutely sick and tired of hearing about the decision to air the game on four networks. All of their whining and complaining grew real old, real quick. As if I have any desire to be overly sympathetic and feel for them on some deep, personal level because they got screwed at the last minute.
There is still real, and important news out there that merits more screen time than the emo-trip whining of newscasters assigned to come off as if they are disgruntled teenagers complaining about some equally-trivial matter.
It came off as "Benazir Bhutto was assassinated, but more on how we aren't going to make as much as money we were planning to. NO ONE CAN UNDERSTAND OUR PAIN."
Hint hint: No one wants to.
Cable's only worse
Wolf Blitzer actually took time out on "Situation Room" last night to update us about The Killer Tiger Attack. I believe his exact words were "We go now to [Barbie/Ken] with the latest developments ..."
It is all about the money.....
Arborway,
This brouhaha is not about newscasters whining as if their toy was taken from them. It is about the money they stand to lose now that they do not have the exclusive right to broadcast the game. As reported in the Herald, WCVB was selling 30-second commercial spots for $80K. After the NFL decided to allow their competitors to also broadcast the game, the rate was $30K (for the same 30-second spots on their competitors' airwaves). That's a $50K difference in income per 30-second commercial. Not sure how many spots they sold, but that's a lot of money we're talking about. If you assume 10 spots (probably closer to 20) an hour, a 3 hour broadcast, that's $1.5 Million. While WCVB may not being giving a rebate for ads they already sold, I am confident that the advertisers will want some sort of adjustment since there will be fewer viewers to see the spot. WCVB paid the NFL for the exclusive rights to the game in the Boston area, and the right to make money in selling the associated commercials. Then the NFL gave the broadcast away to their competitors. WCVB should be upset and should complain loudly to the NFL.
Let them be upset
They have every right to be miffed, but whining to their viewers over and over and over again isn't going to change things or elicit much sympathy.
A multibillion dollar operation screwing over a multimillion dollar operation is newsworthy, but it shouldn't be allowed to become an on-air obsession.
arborway, you sound like a
arborway, you sound like a lot of fun to hang out with.
Zzzzz
Yup… I like watching paint dry. Maybe it wasn't intended, but whenever anyone says or writes something like "I don't normally watch TV, and to be honest, I'm rather indifferent to sports in general," it just reeks of elitist judgement. Maybe it wasn't intended that way, but you know what arborway? About a million-billion people do watch TV, and a large percentage of us also like to watch sports on TV. Many of us also like to read and hike and do all the things you like to do, and we're also well aware of the drama in the world. If your nose wasn't pointed to the sky, I apologize.
The truth
Sports bore me. Simple as that. I don't make any value judgements about them, but I just don't find them particularly interesting. Sorry. Football for example, has terrible pacing. Three seconds of action followed by five minutes of pacing around, followed by another seven seconds of action. (This is hyperbole, so relax)
As for the TV thing, I have some doubts about my apartment's power supply, and adding a TV and cable box to the mix might not be the best idea. I also find cable to be a total ripoff and being an adult student means my financial situation isn't too great. (This is not hyperbole).
I watch a ton of films, listen to a lot of music, spend time taking/editing photos, making/editing short films and doing other random crap that I can't think of right now.
TV just isn't a big part of my life anymore. However, if I still had easy access to the Travel and History channels, not to mention HBO and the like, I'd probably find myself watching it a lot more.
It's a complicated mess of reasons, but elitism isn't one of them.
American Football Is a Stupid Game
I can't comment on the details of the game played Saturday night, but from the final score, there were probably only a handful of touchdowns, while a guy who really isn't a football player (even though he uses his foot) got up from the bench and played a completely different game unrelated to what his fellow warriors played. American football may be the only game with a consolation prize (the field goal) that can render the efforts of all the other players irrelevant. I can't count the number of times I've tuned in to watch "60 Minutes" only to see squads of players trying to maneuver themselves so one guy can put the ball between the uprights! And this is usually about three hours after the game started, and the two teams between them scored just a hadful of TD's. What a waste of time!
Touchdowns and field goals
For the record, the Giants had five touchdowns, while the Patriots had four touchdowns and three field goals. But surely you're not going to claim that a game of non-American football (soccer) typically has higher scoring?