Hockey in HD

6pm Thursdays is when NHL Hour is live via XM and via the NHL website. I think we need to start calling in about the lack of Canadian HD feeds in the NHL CI package and we can also state our displeasure about the lack of the dual CBC HNIC games (7pm and 10pm). I don't care about NHL On The Fly. If I want scores, I can look on the internet, ESPN, or even the score crawl on the bottom of the screen on NHL Network.

 

When they originally went from both games to just one, lots of callers into Bettman complained. His answer was that their studies showed more people wanted to watch NHL Live than the second game (which was available on a CI channel).

 

If you want to call in to the NHL Hour, here is the # 877-645-6696 and the [link] with more info.

 

No it doesn't make sense. I've looked through the NHL schedule and found numerous examples that disprove that theory (games scheduled at 7:00PM alongside a Versus game with local TV coverage, including games on Wednesdays). Further, if 7:00PM was the magic start time, it would be very easy for teams o move the start time a half hour later and get around it (many games in the eastern time zone start at 7:30PM). Finally, note that Versus' game tonight is at 7:30PM. Why would Versus have exclusivity at a time when they aren't carrying a game?

This is the only game all year that Altitude isn't televising (apart from those scheduled on Versus). I'm sure there's a reason, but the one you gave doesn't hold up.

 

Regarding the "Exclusive" games:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NHL_on_Versus#The_.22Game_of_the_Week.22

 

I know about that. In years past, the exclusive window affected games that started within 2 hours of the Versus game's start time. Tonight's game on Versus is at 7:30PM, and there's another game at 7:30PM with local TV coverage (Canucks at Flyers on CSN Philly). Thus, the Versus exclusive window is not in effect tonight, at least not in the same way it was in past seasons.

I looked through the full schedule now, and it looks as though what was posted earlier (games affected only when they start at 7:00PM) might be true. I was able to find two other games scheduled on a Wednesday at 7:00PM that lacked TV (Phoenix @ Carolina and Florida @ Carolina). In each case the game was the only one at 7:00PM that night. That being said, I found several other Wednesdays in which this did not apply - games scheduled at 7:00PM with local TV. So, I guess the Versus thing only applies on certain Wednesdays and not others. (There were also a number of Wednesdays without any games at 7:00PM.)

I still think it's silly. Why in the world would Versus have an exclusive window that only affected games at 7:00, especially when their own game is at 7:30?

 

Well pardon me for trying.

 

I'll give you one worse. First game of the season, Isles v. Panthers, and the MSG+ feed is "blacked out" in Nevada for unknown reason (Dolans suck, cough, cough), so gamesearch found the Panthers boradcast. Unfortunately, the Panthers broadcast has closed captioning embedded across the bottom 1/3 of the screen. Its in the broadcast, so no way to turn it off. And to top it off, the captioning is about 30 seconds delayed from the action. I guess the median age for a Panthers fan is around 90, so they need the CC to know what's going on, but come on!

 

You'd think in 2011 with ESPNEWS, smartphones, and iPads that the demand for tickers would decrease but it seems to have gone in the opposite directions. Are people really so ADD now that they have to see every score to every game at all times? Those tickers really are distracting and make broadcasts look cheap.

The NFL on Fox's new 10% of the screen always-on bright colors ticker is the worst offender of all. :nono2:

 

Well it's on 771-1.

Oh my GOD.

Complete abortion of a broadcast. SD stretch vision that appears to be a simulcast of the luxury box feed.

Shoot me now.

 

My studies showed that NHL leadership has no frickin idea what fans want.

 

And that was/is my thought. However when we discussed this here two years ago, there were a number of members here who stated they'd rather watch NHL Live to keep up on all the games on a Saturday night. Personally, Fri & Sat are the only two nights I can watch the west-coast games, so I'd much rather have live games than a show I'll be able to watch multiple times on Sunday before noon.

 

I remember that as well. I have no doubt that the the majority of NHL fans are in the central and eastern time zones, but for us out West the second game is 7:00PM Prime Time on Saturday. While there could be an argument for folks preferring On The Fly highlights at 10:00 in the East, for us, losing the second game was especially tough.

 

I tried watching some of the Columbus game last night and the picture was stretched. Not true HD

 

OK, this is really getting screwy. Looking at the CI listings, I see...TWO Canadian HD feeds tonight? Flames/Habs AND Jets/Hawks? And what happened to the Canucks/Red Wings game? It was listed last night, but it isn't there now. And I don't see an HD feed for the Jackets/Stars game Saturday, even though FS Ohio has it in HD. And why is the second half of the HNIC doubleheader on Saturday shown to be in HD, but not the first half? I don't know how much of this can be trusted. You'd think someone there knows what they're doing by now.

 

Jets/Hawks likely is CSN Chicago

 

Calgary/Toronto is listed in HD.

 

Toronto is the only Canadian HD we get from Rogers. The equipment is already in place to get the Blue Jays games for Extra Innings.