Thanks for confirming that. Unfortunately for the company that control's my guide (Tribune I believe) NBC's scheduling changes, even 1 week in advance, seem to be considered "late decisions". I really really wish Tribune wasn't so slow in picking up NBC's relatively late decisions. But they're not. So if NBC would set their schedule just a little bit more in advance, it would certainly help... me & others. But I understand why in some cases they want to wait as long as they can, to make sure they place the most in-demand or newsworthy match on the biggest of their channels. But the decision to put Breakaway NBCSN doesn't quite fit into that model. It could've should've been decided earlier. Oh well, luckily I paid attention to the lovely Rebecca Lowe yesterday and recalled her saying something about Breakaway. Which I now hope to enjoy for the first time tomorrow... even if my Tivo still thinks I'll be watching Watford-Spurs.
NBC comes out with their schedule like clockwork every Tuesday - 4 days prior to Saturday matches. This has been the case since their first season. I honestly do not know who is sending information to the schedulers of Tivo and others but it has been fairly accurate in past seasons with perhaps only half a dozen changes needed once the schedules were officially released on Tuesday. I believe there are 2 factors at play now that are making the difference: One, the addition of a match on USA Network is making "predicting" a little harder and, Two, the addition of Leicester City, West Ham, etc. to the top tier. When you had Chelsea, Man United, Man City and Liverpool, for example moved to early and late kickoffs (as well as Sunday) and only Arsenal left as a big team playing in the 10am ET window, it was pretty easy to predict which match will be on NBCSN. Bottom line: don't believe your on screen guide until Tuesday evening (if they take the time to change it). SA www.soccertvblog.com
Apparently it's not just Tribune and TiVo that are having a hard time keeping up with NBC's schedule changes. Today's New York Times sports section lists the Watford game on NBCSN rather than Breakaway.
It shows that unfortunately the only way to be 100 percent sure what game a channel is showing is to watch the channel. Both my TV and a website I use still think Watford-Tottenham is on TV after Breakaway has started.
Sadly you're right. Because my DVR isn't yet smart enough to distinguish between Watford's and Arsenal's kit. But it would he help a lot if NBC would make their programming decisions a tad earlier. FOX used to do that and I had much fewer erroneous recordings back then. p.s. To all you Fox haters out there, don't worry I'm not saying they were better than NBC across the board. But in making schedule decisions early and sticking with them, they were good.
The standings this year have made things rather difficult to predict. What is a better fit for NBCSN? Leicester City v West Brom orrrr... Chelsea v West Ham? Normally, one would say the second game, but this year, the first one might have as much draw as the second.
The NYT probably gets their info from one of the same sources as the on-screen guides. The guides (at least mine) update overnight. It appears that it also does a few small updates throughout the day, but I have yet to notice once. I'm guessing that the NYT, Evan's TV and website all haven't been updated since Friday or Saturday. To have a regular Saturday-type schedule on a Monday probably is doing nobody any favors either.
Happy New Year from all of us here at NBC Sports! pic.twitter.com/0yIoYJ2uIR— NBC Sports Soccer (@NBCSportsSoccer) January 1, 2016
Please let's hope not! I like Robles better than Howard these days, not to mention that he's 5 years younger. Howard gave us pride when he was with Metros, and then got signed directly to ManU. But there isn't much value in his coming back to the club.
NBCSN/USA/NBC Schedule for the next two weeks 1/12 - Newcastle vs ManU - 2:45 PM, NBCSN 1/13 - Liverpool vs Arsenal - 2:45 PM, NBCSN 1/16 - Tottenham vs Sunderland - 7:45 AM, NBCSN 1/16 - Man City vs Palace - 10:00 AM, NBCSN 1/16 - Chelsea v Everton - 10:00 AM, USA 1/16 - Aston Villa vs Leicester - 12:30 PM, NBC 1/17 - Liverpool vs Man United - 9:05 AM, NBCSN 1/17 - Stoke City v Arsenal, 11:15 AM, NBCSN 1/18 - Swansea vs Watford, 3 PM, NBCSN Two comments - Interesting that NBC went with Man City vs Palace over Chelsea vs Everton on NBCSN. Chelsea and Everton combined likely have more US fans than City vs Palace. - I'm sure NBC didn't envison showing Villa vs Leicester on broadcast TV a few years ago when they signed this deal. I will be watching the game to see if Leicester gets back on track but it may be the lowest rated NBC televised game since NBC got the rights
For those of you who hate listening to Arlo White, I stumbled on something yesterday that might help... Beats headphones... huh? Yeah. So when I plugged my daughter's Beats headphones into my TV while watching NBCSN, I noticed that the announcers were so faint I couldn't really hear them. All I could hear was the background game audio, just like I was sitting in the stands. I then plugged in a different set of headphones and the announcers came back loud & clear. So it's definitely something different about Beats. The connector? I have no idea. Any of you who have Beats wanna try this to see if you too can achieve this muted announcer nirvana?
They've stopped showing You'll Never Walk Alone and show the tunnel scene instead. Pretty disappointed about that, tbh.
Let's play "Guess the NBCSN and USA" games for this week. As of 9:00 AM today, the schedules don't appear to have been loaded These matches are available at 10:00 AM ManU vs Southampton Leicester City v Stoke Watford v Newcastle Palace v Tottenham Sunderland v Bournemouth West Brom v Villa ManU vs Southampton will be on NBCSN USA has to chose between Palace v Tottenham and Leicester v Stoke. I think they go with the London Derby.
It's more entertaining watching the snow falling than watching a Man utd game. Hope NBC execs know that.
They don't. Man United v Southampton officially on NBCSN. Crystal Palace v Tottenham on USA Network. Co-leaders Leicester again on "Extra".... SA www.soccertvblog.com
NBC seems to show Palace a lot, plus they are showing a second documentary on them now. Pretty amazing for a club that wasn't even in the Premier League a couple of seasons ago. It will be interesting to see if teams like Leicester, Stoke, West Ham, and Palace can gain some fans over the next couple of years
Yeah, Leicester fans in the USA have a legit gripe that they lead the league for such a long time and yet are still considered a nothingburger team from a TV point of view. I guess the key phrase there was "Leicester fans in the USA". How many of those can there be??!
I believe that sports fans in general like the "underdog story". I have no ties to Leicester but been watching their matches this season for the simple reason that I would love to see a small club "steal" the title from one of the bigger clubs that are spending 10x the money Leicester are. So while I understand why NBC will continue showing matches from clubs that have an established following in the US, I think NBC could tap into wider audience by showcasing Leicester as a true underdog. Just my opinion... SA www.soccertvblog.com