WBNS-DT10 March Madness Plans

[fwillson]

Hello all,

Many have asked what our March Madness Plans for 2009 are and whether or not we would multicast games... so I thought I would start here.

Let me first tell you the decision and then tell you why. We will not be multicasting the 2009 NCAA Tournament.

This is not a decision we came to lightly so let me explain what all went into it.

First, for 2009, CBS changed the rules only allowing stations to show no more than two games at once. This dramatically cuts back the "return on investment" for equipment rental and manpower.

Secondly, we got bombarded with e-mails last year from upset viewers that wanted to see the games in HD.

Third, we got numerous complaints that the same game was on multiple channels. This is beyond our control but the viewers got upset with WBNS-10TV over this.

Lastly, despite the economic climate, HD penetration has never been higher. We believe the majority of the viewers would prefer the highest quality broadcast we can offer.

As always I'm open to discussing in a public forum or you can e-mail me directly at frank.willson@10tv.com.

[TvPat]

That's a bummer, even though I get DirecTV and the multicast has been a cable exclusive for the last 2 years. I have had to pay the $69 for the last two years. Looks like I will again this year.

I imagine the DirecTV Mega March Madness package has something to do with CBS only allowing affiliates to show two games. It would be nice to have that second game on a multicast channel, though. It doesn't really affect the main HD channel much.

[festivus]

"CBS changed the rules only allowing stations to show no more than two games at once."

Networks and/or leagues never cease to amaze me. I'm betting that TvPat is correct. DirecTV profits and the fans suffer. So what else is new? I'm about ready to give up on sports with all of this freakin' greed.

Wait a couple of years and we'll have a "March Madness Network" like we have a BTN and an NFLN.

[Maurice Clarett]

When I saw Direct Tv's stupid commercials last year about showing all the games, and I just new that they were not happy about regular cable customers and OTA users were getting it for free which was cutting into their profits. Sure enough, it seems they were able to pull a few strings and get what they want. I dont really like the way ESPN has a monopoly on the sporting market, but what Direct Tv does is much worse.

I took all those days off because I wanted to watch the games, but now thanks to certain rules(thanks DTV), ill have to sit and watch every single duke, UNC, uconn, and mephis blow out games in the first round. When I would much rather watch a 4v12 upset or something similar which is almost always a better game.

[Robbiee19]

So we have gone from the days of seeing only a few games(60's, 70's and 80's) to getting lots of games free back to showing a few games. That's progress?

[spudohio]

So we have gone from the days of seeing only a few games(60's, 70's and 80's) to getting lots of games free back to showing a few games. That's progress?

I'm sure the people watching their bottom line increase would call it progress. As for the rest of us......

[aaronod]

I'm sure they will cut into games when they get interesting but this is still very disappointing to say the least. I'm sure this won't create more traffic/business to p2p sites. :doh:

[festivus]

Yeah, just like the NFL's agreement with DirecTV and DirecTV's insanely expensive NFL Ticket didn't create more traffic to P2P sites... Wouldn't it be easier to just let locals multicast? Or if they really need to be so greedy, offer PPV for out of market games?

Of course DirecTV had a lot to do with the BTN as well. Same parent company (at least a percentage), first to air the BTN, hardly a coincidence.

Out of principle I would most likely never switch to DirecTV because of all of this.

[Robbiee19]

It's just not DirecTV. ESPN has alot to do with too.

[aaronod]

Out of principle I would most likely never switch to DirecTV because of all of this.
I kind of feel this way too. Plus, I know a guy at work that jut switched to Uverse and he says he likes it better than DirecTV due to never having any reception issues. If I ever drop Insight I'll go straight to Uverse since they have more HD streams now.

[Mac]

Well that's Ok...I will be able to find all the games streamed somewhere, Channelsurfing, Justin TV, someone will have access to all the games that go on in the first round. Doesn't matter to me that 10 won't multicast them....

[Maurice Clarett]

Can someone explain this to me


Why can direct tv show more then 2 games to people in the same market, when their local CBS is only allowed to show up to 2? Its differnt with the NFL as they have a contract with them. Shouldnt 2 of those games be blacked out on direct tv since the local market doesnt not have them? Also, to whoever said this has a lot to do with ESPN, no, ESPN has nothing to do with the NCAA tournament, and they never will, they will never show a single tournament game other then maybe the play in game.


also, since direct tv is for som reason allowed to show more then 2 games to people in the same market what would prevent TW from doing the same?

[festivus]

also, since direct tv is for som reason allowed to show more then 2 games to people in the same market what would prevent TW from doing the same?


DirecTV is getting preferential treatment which they probably paid for. DirecTV's gain is the consumer's loss.

On Uverse, I don't believe that I can get it in my area yet. Can't get WoW either, if I wanted it. It's either TWC, DirecTV or Dish for me.

[Maurice Clarett]

So would it be possible for TWC Mid Ohio to pick up the constant feeds just like direct tv? Even if they have they charge for it would for sure, well to a limit.

[Timcredible]

looks like i'm in the minority on this board again, because i'm glad for this decision - i don't want to see any of the games in crappy multicast quality, it's unwatchable on a large tv, imo. so, kudos to wbns for this decision!

[Thombil]

I"m with you Time!:D

[Scott]

looks like i'm in the minority on this board again, because i'm glad for this decision - i don't want to see any of the games in crappy multicast quality, it's unwatchable on a large tv, imo. so, kudos to wbns for this decision!

:agree:

[festivus]

I'm indifferent about multicast vs one HD game. I just wish that WBNS were given the choice.

"The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield and for DirecTV to gain ground." - Thomas Jefferson (if he were living today)

[mey]

One thing to remember "Follow The Money". Hard to believe WBNS could not show at least 2 games in HD.

[TvPat]

WKRC channel 12 in Cincinnati is still taking advantage of the fact that they can show multiple games. Channel 12.1 is the Cincinnati CBS affiliate, and 12.2 is the CW affiliate. Here is what they are showing the next 2 days.

Thursday

Channel 12.1 HD
12:20 p.m.: Butler-LSU
2:30 p.m. Northern Iowa-Purdue
7:10 p.m.: Michigan-Clemson
9:45 p.m.: Western KY-Illinois.

Channel 12.2 SD
12:30 p.m.: Texas A&M-BYU
2:45 p.m.: Maryland-California

Friday

Channel 12.1 HD
12:30: Utah State-Marquette
2:50 p.m.: Dayton-West Virginia
7 p.m. pregame coverage
7:25 p.m.: Xavier-Portland State
9:30 p.m.: Ohio State-Siena

Channel 12.2 SD
12:25 p.m.: Tennessee-Oklahoma
2:35 p.m. Temple-Arizona State
7:10 p.m. Louisville-Morehead State

[Maurice Clarett]

thats still only 2 games at a time. For thursday thats only 6 games out of a possible 16.

[TvPat]

There are still other stations that are showing multiple games. Here are some that I found. Most are showing 1 HD and 1 SD game, but WRAL in Raleigh is providing ALL games in HD on cable.

WLKY Lousville
http://www.wlky.com/news/18951727/detail.html

WRAL Raleigh
http://www.wralsportsfan.com/rs/page/3938592/?view=league

WDJT Milwaukee
http://www.cbs58.com/index.php?aid=6792&

KPHO Phoenix
http://www.kpho.com/grid/11124633/detail.html

WGCL Atlanta
http://www.cbsatlanta.com/download/2009/0317/18948499.pdf


WRAL in Raleigh is providing every game in SD and HD to Time Warner Cable. I don't know why they get a special exception. To see the schedule, go to this site and enter zip code 27601:
http://www.timewarnercable.com/Carolinas/learn/programming/sports/ncaa.html

[JTravers]

All games are streamed live for free @ http://mmod.ncaa.com. They even have "HQ" streams this year, so the quality may even be better than what we're used to seeing on the 4 SD sub-channels that WBNS gave us in the past for the NCAA tournament (there was usually quite a bit of pixelization).

[MeHDTV]

There are still other stations that are showing multiple games. Here are some that I found. Most are showing 1 HD and 1 SD game, but WRAL in Raleigh is providing ALL games in HD on cable.

WRAL in Raleigh is providing every game in SD and HD to Time Warner Cable. I don't know why they get a special exception. To see the schedule, go to this site and enter zip code 27601:
http://www.timewarnercable.com/Carolinas/learn/programming/sports/ncaa.html

Exactly why I haven't watched the tournament since WBNS stopped multi-casting.

Thank God for NHL Center Ice, I don't miss march madness at all.

Between this and the Networks cancelling the few good shows that make it to the air in a year or less our percentage of TV time watching broadcast has dropped to somewhat less than 25% of the time.

[festivus]

Frank,

Since other stations are doing one game in HD and another in SD, why did WBNS make the decision to do one HD game without a second SD game on 10.2? Was it a financial decision that doing a 10.2 didn't justify the increased cost without being able to do a 10.3 and a 10.4? Did other stations deem that it did make sense? Just curious.

And just a general comment, not directed to Frank, I watched some of the hoops last night and must say that I was a little bit disappointed. One game (Mich/Clemson) would go to commercial then come back. Then we would get switched to another game (Villanova/American) which would then go to commercial. Maybe it was by coincidence, maybe not. It seemed that near the end of these games we were watching 80% commercials and 20% basketball.

If this keeps up I'll just stick to highlights on espn.

[Maurice Clarett]

Ohio State with the ball and the score tied at 68...
.
.
.
Wisconsin for the wi.....
.
.
.
We will take a quick commercial break here in dayton with it all tied up at 70


Yep, thats pretty much how I expected the broadcast to go. Im not saying its WBNS's fault as it is out of there control. This is just what I have come to expect from the main CBS channel when not watching the multicast channels. You cant follow a game, you follow the CBS producers. For the people who actually like not having all the games and instead just 1 hd feed please for the sake of basketball dont consider yourself a fan of the game and just watch the highlights on ESPN.


and no, MMOD is not a viable alternative

[Thombil]

I sat there with the OSU game on TV and on my laptop as well. I didn't miss a play.

This morning I wish I just would have went to bed early.:mad:

[Robbiee19]

I sat there with the OSU game on TV and on my laptop as well. I didn't miss a play.

This morning I wish I just would have went to bed early.:mad:I'm with you. I wish I had gone to bed too! They had the game won and didn't need to go to oveertime!:doh:

[DublinDoodah]

Since other stations are doing one game in HD and another in SD, why did WBNS make the decision to do one HD game without a second SD game on 10.2? I kinda think that was answered in the original post.

[DublinDoodah]

My wife and I went to Mizzou so we were disappointed that the Missouri game wasn't shown today. Plugged a HDMI cable into my laptop, went to CBS Sports, and fired up the live feed. Problem solved.:)

[JTravers]

My wife and I went to Mizzou so we were disappointed that the Missouri game wasn't shown today. Plugged a HDMI cable into my laptop, went to CBS Sports, and fired up the live feed. Problem solved.:)

Awesome!

MMOD has exceeded my expectations this year -- no cutting away to other games and good video quality. It's actually a better experience than watching on CBS (as long as you have a way of connecting your computer to your TV via VGA or HDMI/DVI). And if you open up a few browser windows you can have multiple games on your screen at the same time.

This will come in handy again on Thursday and Friday nights when they will be showing 2 games at once.

[Maurice Clarett]

Awesome!

MMOD has exceeded my expectations this year -- no cutting away to other games and good video quality. It's actually a better experience than watching on CBS (as long as you have a way of connecting your computer to your TV via VGA or HDMI/DVI). And if you open up a few browser windows you can have multiple games on your screen at the same time.

This will come in handy again on Thursday and Friday nights when they will be showing 2 games at once.

If you look in the source code for the pop-up window that has the games you can find the link to the streaming .asf file that silverlight uses. You just save it to the desktop and you can open it up with VLC(or WMP) and watch the games in full screen without all the other junk on the screen, and it acts just like any other video file you watch your computer. I'll post a screen shot later of tonights games. I wish I would have figured this out earlier as when I had to hook my PC up to my coputer I couldnt fill the screen, and had to watch comercials if I didnt switch the game fast enough. This way I could have just opened up the file from the desktop and went straight to the games.

edi:

I attached an screen capture from the ohio state vs. siena replay using the same method. You can do the exact same thing for the live games. One thing to note, is the live games are of better quality. The resolution of this video is only 640x360, im pretty sure the live games have a slightly better resolution.

edit2: I have attached a screen capture from a live game tonight(Gonzaga vs. UNC), along with the codec information that VLC is showing. It appears for live games the resolution is 784x432, but it seems to have a much higher bitrate.

[sdpitchford]

maurice thanks for posting, we did a weekend game watch with the cable on the plasma, MMOD on a 720P projector beside it and switched to off games, when the fixed and selective TW feeds were not what we wanted. blown out to full screen it worked well for the Kentucky game as they switched off when if got ugly for Wake, we had sound from the stream and never missed a beat, the SD stream was .5 seconds behind the realtime and the HQ was about 4 seconds, BUT--I kept getting buffer problems with the HQ and switched back to the SD feed, using the CBS player, XP, laptop with gig memory, 256 video memory and a duo core amd 1.6ghz processor on a TW high speed cable modem, your screen captures show W7 and VLC what are your other hardware, software, DSL particulars as to getting the better image, do the VLC codecs improve over the new silverlight player>>