Off Wing Opinion

Jeffrey Z. writes:

The Canucks/Ducks game is being broadcast tonight locally in Southern California on FSN West. But they are carrying the Angels game, which is scheduled to end at 8pm. The Ducks/Canucks start at 7:30.

I spoke to Jennifer Johnson, director of communications at FSNW. She said they would be "Double boxing" the game, which I understood as going back and forth between the games whenever something exciting was happening. I hope that the balance will be to show the hockey, and flip back to baseball when there's a score or men on base, but I'm not optimistic.

The game is also on Versus, but is being blacked out. She told me that the blackout is entirely up to the league.

It seems to me that the obvious solution is to lift the blackout until the Angels game ends. Can you think of anyone at the NHL or with the Ducks that I or you could talk to?

Talk about having a bevy of bad options. I know the league reads Off Wing from time to time, so let's hope they pay attention to instances like this one where an actual hockey fan residing in Orange County -- yes, they do exist -- is getting shut out from seeing a playoff game.

I know a lot of people like to point fingers at Versus, but in this case, I don't think that they're to blame. Instead, look to FSNW.

In other markets when I've seen a conflict like this one, the local cable carrier will make arrangements to clear space on another channel in order to provide coverage. It happens in New York all the time, and it happens here in Washington with the Caps and the Wizards.

My guess is that FSNW is trying to get off cheap and hoping that the Angels game ends early so they wouldn't have to pay to clear an extra channel. If you want to complain, they're the folks you should be complaining to.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 1st, 2007 at 5:35 pm by Eric McErlain and is filed under Hockey. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.