CFL on TSN HD

[Fuzzy McGillicuddy]

Has anyone else noticed this?

I am a Bell Expressvu customer in Calgary. There have been a couple of times in the past week where I haven't been able to watch CFL games on TSN HD. The first game was Winnipeg at Edmonton, and most recently Calgary at Saskatchewan. The message on the screen was these games were not being broadcast in certain markets, but I could watch the game on regular TSN (crappy standard vision). Instead TSN is showing some b.s. poker tournament.

I can understand these games being blacked out if I lived in either of those markets. But it's a 3 hour drive to Edmonton and a 6 hour drive to Regina. Why is TSN blacking out these games in Calgary?

Anyone else notice this? Is there a strange reason behind this, or does TSN employ lobotomized circus chimps to oversee programming? WTF?

[Vulcan]

The Calgary game wasn't on TSN HD out here in BC either. I'm on Bell and from what I understand they aren't able to black out HD broadcasts selectively. By they, I mean TSN or Sportsnet and this is why Sportsnet can't broadcast any HD NHL games as they don't have national rights. Following this line of thinking the Calgary game wasn't broadcast anywhere in HD so why they list it on TSN HD, I haven't got a clue.

Did anybody get this game in HD?

[greerb]

I'm on Starchoice and couldn't view the game either but I live in Saskatchewan more than likely in the blackout zone. I couldn't recieve the SD version either. I kinda ****es me off I live 4 hours away from both Calgary and Regina and I have seen only 1 Stamps game this year on TV due to blackouts.

[fanforever1986]

Alright here's my beef...the CFL makes the decision to blackout games in the home team's market if the game isn't sold out, and even then, the game has still been blacked out in the past. WHY would they block out a game in the market which would hold the largest viewing audience, then release a statement saying that tv audience numbers were down for the game?? not to mention lost advertising dollars. can you imagine if the blue jays started blocking out home games because they were'nt filling the stadium every night? frick...the CFL talks about 'growing the league' and 'reaching out to new fans'. I can't count too many people that would just go to a game and decide there whether they like the sport. Although i love the stamps, the CFL as a league has got to be the worst micky mouse gong show ever to grace the sporting world. see: ottawa renegades.

As for teh HD side of things...the technology is not in place to do stupid things like block out part of the country from watching it. Well, maybe it is, but Bell, and the other providers have got better things to do then mess around with signals for a few hours just to make a minor change such as that. Hopefully the new comissioner understands 'growing the game' better than the current one, who has in effect done the exact opposite.

NFL anyone?

[ken0042]

Originally Posted by fanforever1986

...the technology is not in place to do stupid things like block out part of the country from watching it.

Yep. and that's the point right there.

The underlying issue is that if Poker is on Bell on the TSN-HD channel, it's on across the country on that channel. Now here's the chain of events leading up to what happened last night.

- Bell is pretty laid back with CFL blackouts. If a Calgary game is on CBC Calgary it is blacked out for CBC Calgary, but nothing prevents me from turning to CBC Winnipeg and watching it.

- TSN was aware that last season games that were supposed to be blacked out- Bell was blacking out the SD feed and not the HD feed.

So, on a game like last night when the HD feed would only be showing the SD feed anyways, TSN throws something else onto the HD feed. Because no matter if we watch it on channel 400 or channel 850- it would be the exact same broadcast.

[cSpooge]

Originally Posted by Fuzzy McGillicuddy

Has anyone else noticed this?

I am a Bell Expressvu customer in Calgary. There have been a couple of times in the past week where I haven't been able to watch CFL games on TSN HD. The first game was Winnipeg at Edmonton, and most recently Calgary at Saskatchewan. The message on the screen was these games were not being broadcast in certain markets, but I could watch the game on regular TSN (crappy standard vision). Instead TSN is showing some b.s. poker tournament.

I can understand these games being blacked out if I lived in either of those markets. But it's a 3 hour drive to Edmonton and a 6 hour drive to Regina. Why is TSN blacking out these games in Calgary?

Anyone else notice this? Is there a strange reason behind this, or does TSN employ lobotomized circus chimps to oversee programming? WTF?

I noticed it and sent them a nice 3 page email bitching at them about it. I mean why the crap am I getting the channel if I can't watch what should be on the channel, instead there is some ****ty repeat of a crappy poker tourny.