>> lucrative local advertising) for a sporting event which, in all honesty, >> is not enormously popular in the U.S. is a pretty big deal, at least from an >> affiliate standpoint. > > Fair points. But in which case, why is CBS even covering the event? If > it's not popular enough then perhaps it should be left to another > network, or ESPN. And it's not as though over-running until Monday is > unheard of given the failure of the USTA to put a roof over Flushing > Meadows.
It works well enough for CBS that they're willing to forego late NFL games for the Men's Final. I'm not surprised that it doesn't work as well for them on Monday, especially considering Ben's point about affiliates giving up time. > CBS and the USTA should have started the game much earlier in the > afternoon - 1pm for example. There wouldn't have been a rain delay and > most people would have been happy. I note that baseball games seem to > regularly start much earlier - I can watch the Nationals play the > Braves live tomorrow in the UK at 5pm local time here (so midday in > Atlanta) on ESPN America - one of the UK ESPN channels. There's the West Coast audience to consider; the 1pm Eastern start is 10 am Pacific. That's not a consideration for weekday afternoon baseball until the postseason. > To my mind, you either cover something properly, or you leave it to > someone who will cover it properly. You don't do half-hearted jobs. I agree. Having said that, I can understand how a delay in the postponed match, which isn't THAT likely, could cause problems for the network. And now, with the ability to hand off to cable, it's not quite as bad as the Heidi game was. > I wonder what the USTA's reaction will be? While NFL's much more > popular, can you imagine their reaction if CBS or Fox didn't push back > their Sunday programming as I believe they regularly have to do when > games run long? Networks usually stick with games that run long. There was an NHL playoff game that went into overtime a couple years ago where NBC gave the game to Versus on cable so they could show their entire pre-race package for the Belmont Stakes, but that's a rare exception. On the rare occasions (like hurricanes) that weather causes a postponement of an NFL game, the broadcast has often ended up on minor UHF stations in participating teams' markets so as not to affect major network programming. This is less of a problem in the cable era, of course. > I just find it unfathomable from this side of the Atlantic. It's suboptimal here, too, but I can fathom it. -- TV or Not TV .... The Smartest (TV) People! You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TV or Not TV" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/tvornottv?hl=en
