[Ken H]

From TV Week

NBCU Offers Digital Sports Net to Stations

By Sergio Ibarra

NBC Universal is offering its owned-and-operated stations and affiliates pickup of Universal Sports, a 24/7 digital sports network, in the wake of terminating its Weather Plus operation.

NBCU affiliate stations have been extended a first refusal offer until Dec. 1. Rollout has already begun on all O&O multicast signals and some affiliates, reaching 30 million homes.

Universal Sports offers some 2,400 hours of live programming per year, in addition to 5,000 hours of archival footage. The channel also has exclusive local coverage of many Olympic sports events, including track and field, skiing, swimming and gymnastics.

Local affiliates will also be given five minutes of local ad time per hour, 10 hours of infomercials or local sports programming per week, seven hours per week of local sports-related programming, highlight clips for local news shows and online content for local Web sites.

Universal Sports will begin airing the World Cup Ski Season from October through March, as well as the 2008 Beijing Paralympics beginning in November. The network will also air Olympic trials, highlights and encores throughout the year.

 

[thenewdc]

Lets hope that WGRZ picks this one up.

 

[d2e8b8]

Blue Jays or MLB Available OTA?

The main objection to OTA (that I think I may have difficulty with) is Blue Jays games. If I can pick up more of Mets/ Yankees it might work - I'm not sure I want to go MLB.com route.

 

[tenstu]

The Jays were my main issue as well.

So, I did the exact same thing - MLB.Com. However, all Canadian IP Addresses are blocked as all of Canada is considered "in market" - even when the Jays are on the road!!! (Boo Rogers!)

So, I bought a VERY inexpensive VPN service with a US based server and then log in to MLB.com to watch the Jays that way.

 

[d2e8b8]

tenstu, I'm initially not too keen on going MLB.com route. Will check the Buffalo stations to see if they carry any baseball. Ideally, we'd like to follow the Jays but as long as there's some baseball I think we're good.

The major objection comes from Mom who will not allow me to 'deprive' our son (rep player) of his baseball games - she probably also feels that it's better he watch sports during his TV time than something else.

 

[Jase88]

Unfortunately, there is little baseball (especially the Jays) available OTA. CBC has carried some games in years past, but not this season. Sportsnet and TSN/TSN2 are carrying the bulk of the games.

 

[x4mer]

RTN, when on 7.2 last season, carried Mets, Yankees, & Indians games on the weekends. RTN is returning to Buffalo on CH 2, so maybe those games will be back.

 

[RustyHD]

FOX usually has a game in HD Saturday afternoon, and usually carries the payoff and World Series games.

 

[dsspredator]

However, all Canadian IP Addresses are blocked.

Try downloading and running Ultrasurf 9.4. It is free a gives you a US IP.

 

[stampeder]

Mariners, Tigers, Pirates, Indians, Yankees, Mets OTA?

Depending where you are in Canada:

• Seattle Mariners games on TV are licensed to FSN Northwest, which is a cable sports network so I'm not sure that there will be any OTA games. Anyone know for sure?
• Are Michigan stations broadcasting Detroit Tigers games OTA?
• Are Erie, PA stations broadcasting Pittsburgh Pirates games OTA?
• Are Cleveland stations broadcasting Indians games OTA?
• Are any stations in New York State broadcasting Yankees or Mets games OTA?

The idea of no OTA broadcasts of the Toronto Blue Jays (love 'em or hate 'em but they're our only remaining Canadian MLB team) is as lousy to me as no CFL games OTA either!

 

[El Gran Chico]

RTN, when on 7.2 last season, carried Mets, Yankees, & Indians games on the weekends. RTN is returning to Buffalo on CH 2, so maybe those games will be back.

I was wondering the same thing. Apparently the deal was with WNGS (not RTN) and as part of the bancrupcy, the rights were sold to, you guessed it, a cable-only sports station in Western New York.

... no OTA broadcasts of the Toronto Blue Jays ...

You don't suppose the team owners have something to do with this?

 

[rileyparrish]

Seattle Mariners games on TV are licensed to FSN Northwest, which is a cable sports network so I'm not sure that there will be any OTA games. Anyone know for sure

All Mariners games are broadcast on either FSN Northwest or FOX. You will only be able to get Saturday games that are broadcast on FOX if they do OTA that reaches southern BC. (FOX Seattle: KCPQ Digital Channel 18(UHF) or FOX Spokane: KAYU Digital Channel 28(UHF).

Are Michigan stations broadcasting Detroit Tigers games OTA?

All Tigers' games are broadcast on FS Detroit, a cable sports network.

Are Erie, PA stations broadcasting Pittsburgh Pirates games OTA?

All Pirates games are broadcast on FSN Pittsburgh, a cable sports network.

Are Cleveland stations broadcasting Indians games OTA?

Most Indians games are broadcast on STO (SportsTime Ohio), a cable sports network. There are also 20 games each season that are broadcast on WKYC-TV, an NBC affiliate which is a local station in Cleveland and has an OTA transmitter in Parma Ohio. Digital: 2 (VHF) moving to 17 (UHF) in 2009.

Are any stations in New York State broadcasting Yankees or Mets games OTA?

In New York, Yankees games are broadcast on either YES(Yankees Entertainment & Sports Network) which is a cable sports network or MY9 which only operates in New York City & New Jersey. (Probably OTA in those areas)

Mets games are either on SNY (Sportsnet New York) which is a cable sports network, or WPIX (formerly the WB11, now CW11) which is a local channel and covers the tri-state New York metropolitan area.

WNGS 67(which used to air a lot of RTN-Retro Television Network Programming), out of Buffalo was simulcasting games of the Indians, Mets & Yankees by piggybacking off WKYC,WWOR and WPIX respectively. Wikipedia doesn't comfirm if the station is still activeley airing MLB games but it is in the process of rebranding itself.

Of course there are a lot of Mets/Yankees games on ESPN as well but no OTA there either.

Not sure how anyone is recieving any of these OTA in southern ontario.

Some markets brand Fox Sportsnet as "FS" now, like Detroit but many affiliates still use the "FSN" in front of the regional name. Most of the stations use the "FSteamnamehere" style for broadcasting though and all use the new box-style scoreboard.

 

[tenstu]

Try downloading and running Ultrasurf 9.4. It is free a gives you a US IP.

Um, it appears to be Windows Only.

 

[goforit]

Years ago, WUTV use to carry Yankee games, and WSEE carried Pirate games; the only OTA MLB, as metioned, is the FOX weekend game/playoffs, when the real baseball starts- see CBC Stanley CUP in HD. So I guess about 30-35 MLB games? Also, atleast 2 games a week of NFL via OTA, and don't foget,...the grandaddy of OTA broadcasts- the SUPERBOWL in glorious HD from the original US feed.

When you want the best TV sport experience, gotta go OTA, see also The Masters, Kentucky Derby, Olympics, etc. (sorry for the rant, can't help it, I'm cable/sat free and love it $$$).

 

[d2e8b8]

Stampeder, thanks for starting this thread. I was quite surprised to see 'my' thread here. And everyone - thanks for the replies.

It's been a busy weekend.

It looks like MLB OTA options may be limited. I'm really keen on dropping my monthly bill and will continue to persuade the family. At some point I may just install the antenna and hook up one tv - maybe that way I'll be able to convince them that it's got enough that paying a monthly bill for all the other channels that we don't watch is not worth it.

 

[goforit]

Free Sports Channel

Just got another FREE channel today- WGRZ 2.2 - The Universal Sports Network. Somewhat refreshing- not the same old sports you see on other sports channels, and as mentioned- FREEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!

 

[d2e8b8]

What kind of sports are they showing.

 

[Cyclism]

The discussion re: Universal Sports on WGRZ 2.2 can be found here:

http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/showthread.php?t=46264&page=99

Let's stick to the topic of this thread, please.

 

[JamesC00]

TV Sports via OTA in GTA area?

ok this may sound like a dumb question but what the hell. is it possible with an ota hd antenna to pick up sports channels like TSN? there must be tons of sports guys who get free HD tv i'm just wondering what you guys do about it or do you just use the internet for your sports streams?

 

[stampeder]

JamesC00, no chance of TSN since it is a cable network that satellites also deliver.