CSN, Huge Mistake?

Discussion in 'New England Revolution' started by neophilus, Apr 18, 2010.

  1. neophilus

    neophilus Member

    Nov 19, 2007
    Methuen, MA
    Club:
    New England Revolution
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    When I heard the Rev's broadcasts were going to move to CSN in HD I was very excited. Finally a professional level sports broadcast in HD for my favorite team. Maybe more exposure and more credibility.

    Last night has completely changed my mind on this and now I think it was a huge mistake. First of all its clear CSN doesn't give a flying f**k about this team. It's not just that the alternate channel broadcast was bumped not just for an out of market baseball game, but also the post game show. Then the technical snafu where we missed the entire first half watching a static test pattern. You're telling me that for over 40 minutes nobody in the Rev's FO could get in touch with CSN to fix the problem? There is either no direct line of communication or CSN just didn't care enough to respond to the problem in a timely manner.

    Then this morning I go to watch the 11:30 tape delay of the game. No Game. Instead I get another 40 minutes of Celtics post game show. I understand the Celtics take priority, but give me a break. The game had been over for almost an hour already. They had promised to broadcast this game at that time and reneged on that promise.

    I'm done with CSN and I regret that the Revs ever left TV 38, I'll take a shitty high school A/V broadcast of a game that I can actually watch over one that is supposed to be on but isn't.
     
  2. Coach_Barry

    Coach_Barry Member

    Aug 18, 2001
    Taunton, MA
    Club:
    New England Revolution
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
  3. JMMUSA8

    JMMUSA8 New Member

    Nov 3, 2001
    Webster
    Club:
    New England Revolution
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
  4. Chowda

    Chowda Member

    Sep 13, 2004
    Rhode Island
    Club:
    New England Revolution
    Hey, just because you are a loyal fan of a niche team, doesn't mean they have to let you watch the game.
     
  5. neophilus

    neophilus Member

    Nov 19, 2007
    Methuen, MA
    Club:
    New England Revolution
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
  6. Soccer Doc

    Soccer Doc Member+

    Nov 30, 2001
    Keene, NH
    Club:
    New England Revolution
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    I'm not sure this picture is a fair comment on his complaints Steve.

    Up to this year the Revs have always insured almost 100% TV service in the major catchment areas. The past two weeks have been a disaster. I doubt the situations we ran into the past two weeks will change since we will always be of lower priority than most of the other sports shown on those channels. I find it hard to understand that Rev Central did not anticipate that these scheduling conflicts would be a problem.

    Rev Central has recently earned points for improving it's marketing. This TV contract IMO is losing them any points they have earned and then some.

    BAD MOVE BRIAN, BAD MOVE
     
  7. RevsLiverpool

    RevsLiverpool Member+

    Nov 12, 2005
    Boston
    Club:
    Liverpool FC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Agreed Doc. It's a fair and justifiable complaint that the team is not being televised when we've come to expect all games on tv for the last 14 seasons. Broadcasting games is the one thing even the NNNs acknowledge the Krafts have done right from Day One. While the technical issue with the cable companies last night may not have been directly on the Revs' end, it's embarrassing and unprofessional when a professional sports organization does not anticipate these issues by ensuring both CSN and the cable companies are on the same page ahead of their tv schedule. Make a few phone calls on Friday ahead of Saturday's game to ensure everything's good to go. Going into this switch from TV38 people brought up the likelihood Celtics coverage would bump the Revs and the importance of having contingency plans to ensure games are live when they are supposed to be. Not sure who's in charge of that inside the Revs' organization but someone dropped the ball two matches already this year. What's worse is the game was on late so it really shouldn't have interfered with any other programming.

    With stuff like this, you're never going to grow the fanbase and you'll simply frustrate and drive away more would-be fans and perpetuate the minor league moniker if these issues continue to crop up.
     
  8. Revs in 2010

    Revs in 2010 Member+

    Feb 29, 2000
    Roanoke, VA
    Club:
    New England Revolution
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    As one who was affected as much as anyone (stuck at home sick last week, and a Verizon Fios customer), I'm pissed about it, but the better picture quality and production pretty much make up for it in my mind. It's nice to be able to tell which player has the ball, rather than a blue or white ball of fuzz with an undeciperable number.

    Also, this week gets a bit of a break because of the last-minute nature of it, but last week was a known conflict well in advance, so earlier warning and set up of options should have happened.
     
  9. Mick7184

    Mick7184 New Member

    Jan 21, 2007
    Franklin, Mass
    Club:
    New England Revolution
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    What good is any TV deal if the games dont end up on TV? They could be in black and white on cable access and it would be better than this. To that end, they could have a deal with ESPN to broadcast all their games in HD and it wouldnt matter if the game gets bumped every week. To me, an article or two on the CSN website does not make up for the games not being on TV. What happens in the fall when CSN is showing Pac-10 football(or whatever college games they show?) The Revs are probably going to get bumped so people can see UCLA- Arizona St. At least 38 had no programming other than Frasier re-runs and this never was an issue.
     
  10. dcochran

    dcochran Member+

    Feb 17, 1999
    Vero Beach, FL
    Club:
    New England Revolution
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    The jury's still out for me. Not having a live broadcast was a major PITA. I went to bed when I saw the "not in service" screen before the game came on figuring I'd watch the tape delay this AM. Delaying the delayed HD broadcast start so that my DVR cut out after 50 minutes did not warm my heart. I've learned a lesson and will add a lot of time when I tape in the future.

    OTOH, I love watching the games in HD and I like the fact that CSN seems to be doing multiple rebroadcasts after gameday. If they can clean up their backup plan for live broadcasts, I'll be happy with HD and replays.
     
  11. Bradman

    Bradman Member

    Sep 25, 2009
    Club:
    New England Revolution
    Jury is out for me...same garbage we suffered on ESPN2 over the years...waiting for the Celts' (brief) playoff run to end. But so far, pretty poor.
     
  12. patfan1

    patfan1 Moderator
    Staff Member

    Aug 19, 1999
    Nashua, NH
    Club:
    New England Revolution
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    No no ... no one's allowed to complain. :rolleyes:

    I was excited by the move to CSN, and still am... but last night was a black mark. And it feels worse when you're at a bar that's trying to work with you, and you can't tell them why the game's not on ("No really, the game's supposed to be on 81")... the bar owner was calling Comcast for us. If you don't think that makes the Revs look unprofessional ... I don't know what to say.
     
  13. Mick7184

    Mick7184 New Member

    Jan 21, 2007
    Franklin, Mass
    Club:
    New England Revolution
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Sometimes it's like they go out of their way to look like an amateur operation on purpose. The one thing Kraft has always gotten right with this team is the TV coverage, now we dont even have that. Like I said in an earlier post, I see this problem coming right back at the end of August when college football starts. We could have huge Revs games towards the end of the season, maybe even playoff games, blacked out because of a TCU- SMU football game.
     
  14. patfan1

    patfan1 Moderator
    Staff Member

    Aug 19, 1999
    Nashua, NH
    Club:
    New England Revolution
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    I think my frustration (and we talked about this at the bar) is that it seems like they were surprised that this could have happened. Let's see, you're on the same station as the Celtics (who rightly get priority), we've known for a damn long time (I think since the preseason) that the Cs would be in the playoffs ... and they really had no contingency plans ahead of time. Then they tried to rush around to fix this. :(
     
  15. Mick7184

    Mick7184 New Member

    Jan 21, 2007
    Franklin, Mass
    Club:
    New England Revolution
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    It's just more proof of how incompetent(or maybe ambivalent) the FO of this club is.
     
  16. Argyle

    Argyle Member

    Jan 31, 2002
    Plymouth, MA
    Club:
    New England Revolution
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Not that I want to let the Revs off the hook here, but I'm not sure they're the ones to blame here. They didn't know what day the Celtics would be playing and they did find alternative stations. The fact that we saw a test pattern accompanied by the sound of White Zombie strikes me as more the fault of Comcast.
     
  17. FoxBoro 143

    FoxBoro 143 Member+

    Jan 18, 2004
    MA
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    This was a very unfortunate situation, but like the previous poster said, tough to blame the Revs for last night's nonsense. It was CSN/Comcast's fault 100% as they owned the rights to the game and did what they did. Hopefully this situation does not happen again, the Celtic's season is close to over even if they advance in the playoff's, I believe the national networks get exclusive rights and CSN will be done after this series (not sure though) so we can wait for college football conflicts!

    Despite to availability issues, CSN is far superior in broadcast quality. TV38 was unwatchable and pretty embarrassing to see on TV. It made the Revs look terrible. Even though the FIOS people don't currently get CSN (I believe), I am sure CSN is in far more homes and is far more visible than TV38 so overall it is much better for the Revs from a business standpoint.

    Hopefully soon CSN will work with Fios and the Celtic's don't interfere with us anymore!
     
  18. patfan1

    patfan1 Moderator
    Staff Member

    Aug 19, 1999
    Nashua, NH
    Club:
    New England Revolution
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    I'm not saying I blame the Revs in full ... just that they do get some portion of the blame. To me, when we all knew once the contract was signed that there might be issues with the Celtics and Revs playing on the same nights, it seemed (to me) that they were shocked about this and had no idea it could happen.
     
  19. NHFootyFan

    NHFootyFan Member

    May 28, 2007
    Outside Concord NH
    Club:
    New England Revolution
    Bull.

    They knew that they would have to work around the Celtics playoffs. They should have known that going in and had someone on the phone everyday with Comcast working the issue, and posting updates to their blog.
     
  20. Mick7184

    Mick7184 New Member

    Jan 21, 2007
    Franklin, Mass
    Club:
    New England Revolution
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Fios people get CSN, we just dont get an alternate channel when it's needed every week.
     
  21. bwidell

    bwidell Member+

    Apr 19, 2005
    Manchester, NH
    Club:
    New England Revolution
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    And that's something you should bring up with Fios. If CSN can get AT&T, Charter (Central MA, Western MA, CT, VT), Comcast, Cox RI, Cox CT, DirecTV, Dish, and RCN to provide alternate channels, obviously something must be up with Fios.
     
  22. revsrock

    revsrock Member+

    Jul 24, 1999
    Boston Ma
    Club:
    New England Revolution
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Well this was the last road game you have to worry about be taped delayed to at least November. The reason I say this is the Celtics do not play next Saturday and the following Saturday is 5/1 and Revs are hosting Dallas and Celtics are in game 7. If the Celtics win the Heat series they will be playing Lebron James and the Cavs and everyone of those games will be on national tv(with no local coverage allowed on weekend games).
     
  23. FoxBoro 143

    FoxBoro 143 Member+

    Jan 18, 2004
    MA
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Doesn't Fios have like extreme bandwidth capabilities as well, so it's not like they can't fit in an extra 2 hour broadcast.
     
  24. revsrock

    revsrock Member+

    Jul 24, 1999
    Boston Ma
    Club:
    New England Revolution
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Actually Comcast is the problem. Talking to my verizon representative he told me they have contacted Comcast about it and they will not allow them to have a alternate broadcast. I have emailed and gotten the same response. FIOS has plenty of alternate channels to provide service.
     
  25. revsrock

    revsrock Member+

    Jul 24, 1999
    Boston Ma
    Club:
    New England Revolution
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Comcast will not give them a chance to do it! Not FIOS fault.
     

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