Stay away from Direct TV!

Last night about 9:00pm when I put the TV on I switched to my local providence  NBC affliate.  On the screen was a one page slate that read, not verbatem, “This channel is temporary unavailable and we are aware of this.  There is no need to call us”  Again!!!  This is beginning to be a weekly disclaimer from Direct TV.  I trhen switched to both the CBS and ABC affiliates.  Smae message.  Basically don’t call Direct TV to complain.  I then switched over to some higher channels and wooolaaa therre coming in.  Seems the only channels not coming in were the local channels.  OK, I can deal with this for now.  Come 10:oo when I put on channel 64, the Providence FOX affiliate there’s the slate again, only this time it ahs changed its wording, “To view your local channels: for abc go to channel 380 OR 382 (they don’t even tell us exactly which one!)  for CBS go to channels 384 OR 386,, etc,,, this went on for all 4 affiliates.  OK, so now that I know I can now watch the Providence news it didn’t really matter what channel it was one.  This was progress.  So I tune to channel 380 whatever and what do the great minds at Direct TV give me?  The New York FOX affiliate!!  Not Providence but the news from a city400 miles away!

I now switch to the 3 major networks which are still showing their 10-11PM prime time schedule.  The kick here is that Direct TV’s slate tells you to switch to channel 380 whatever but they don’t put that slate on all the channels that are not coming in!  Channel 10 NBC had the slate , Channels 6 and 12 did not.  Luckily I had tuned in to channel 64 earlier and knew where to find these lost channels.

11:00pm rolls around and now I want to watch the Providence news that I missed at 10:oopm.  So I eventually find channel 384 I believe which was CBS or ABC and whats on?  New York news!!   All 3 networks at 11:00pm were showing New York news!!  I’m hoping the Providence advertisers know that no one with Direct TV saw there ads last night.  Instead we got to see many New York City advertisers.

CBS Back and Forth

Congrats to CBS today for their quick switching from game to game.  Two excellent match-ups with 2 potential upsets going on at the same time.  What’s CBS to do?  They did the right thing.  Butler was battling Tennessee while Davidson was trying to upset #2 Georgetown.  Both games were tight and exciting.  As it turned out CBS would broadcast the game nearest the finish and during timeouts they would switch to the other game.  This went on for the final 2-3 minutes of both games.  The Butler game went into overtime which added to the viewers excitement and the CBS exec’s stress.  I don’t think we missed 1 point by this piloting by the eye network.  Well done.

Duke-Belmont-WPRI TV

I was heated when I turned on CBS’s coverage of the tournament Thursday night and found that my local affiliate (WPRI-Providence) was going to show the Duke-Belmont game.  A #2 seed vs. a # 15 seed.  My only hope was that this would be a blow-out and they would switch to the marquee match-up: Kansas State vs. USC.  I say marquee  not because of the teams playing but the 2 top players on display, OJ Mayo for USC and Michael Beasley for K-State.  Beasley is sure to be the top pick in the NBA draft if he declares, (if, hahaha! another year in Kansas eating roma noodles and pizza every day or living it up in South Beach with Dwayne Wade).  Mayo also should be a top 5-6 player if he comes out.

So here I am swearing at CBS and having regrets that I didn’t order Direct TV’s tournamnet package which would let me watch ALL the games.  Of course I’m rooting for Belmont,,,I don’t even know where Belmont is but any team playing Duke gets my rooting interest.  The game started out close, stayed close and looked like it would remain that way.  These kids from Belmont could play.  Plus they were a deep team, playing upwards of 10 players.  I love the tournament for small schools like Belmont.  These kids will never make the NBA yet they play very smart and to their abilities.   They practice the lost art of the jump shot and can hit free throws better than NBA players themselves.  One player for Belmont was going to dental school upon graduation and another was entering medical school.  What a great story this would be if they could upset Duke!  The second half was very dramatic and Belmont held the lead with a chance to go up by 3 in the final minute.  They would not score again and the lucky Blue Devils squeeked out a 1 point win.  During that entire 2nd half I don’t think I ever even thought about the USC-K-State game.  Whomever made the decision to broadcast the Duke-Belmont game hats off to ya-it was a classic.  

I understand Duke is an east coast team ,  I still don’t know where Belmont is but showing regional games instead of the best game on paper makes me cringe.  This time cringing was exciting.

NCAA Tournament

Download the NCAA Basketball Tournament Bracket now.  Courtesy: ESPN.COM

http://sports-ak.espn.go.com/ncb/tournament/bracket