CSTV Covers College Hockey Without Attending It

Wednesday, November 28, 2007


The last time we brought up this issue it was when John Saunders and Bill Walton were covering the FIBA Basketball Championships from Bristol. While I didn't agree with the practice it sort of made sense because the Championships were ALL THE WAY in Las Vegas.

Well CSTV decided to cover the sold out Cornell-Boston U. hockey game at Madison Square Garden in similar fashion. The only problem, their studio is less than a mile down the road....

In particular, the game Saturday was televised, but was done so using the in-house MSG video feed. The regular broadcasters, Matt McConnell and Dave Starman, were not at the event, but rather called the game off video monitors from CSTV's studios about a half-mile away from the Garden.

Clearly, budgetary concerns are at play. Advertising revenue has not been there for CSTV. And when CBS bought the network almost two years ago, it was unwilling to continue absorbing those losses. As a result, hockey has gone from the network's signature sport, to a somewhat lesser role.
This is obviously not a new practice, but what struck me is the amount of money the network saved. CSTV pocketed tens of thousands of dollars by not making the trek down to the Garden. This obviously stinks for Hockey fans and the teams involved, but in the end it makes sense for a struggling Network under the CBS umbrella.

CSTV Slashing Hockey Coverage (College Hockey News)
CSTV covers big hockey game without attending it (Watchdog)

Posted by Awful Announcing- at 11:18 AM

3 Comments:

This is one of those "if a tree falls in the woods" questions.

But the CSTV question brings up another issue: why won't my cable provider give me CSTV or Versus, but I get nine ESPN's?

Anonymous said...
Nov 28, 2007, 11:36:00 AM  

I know this is completely off topic. But go look at deadspined today. they go after the sportsjoke and espn comments, which are stupid. but then read the so called best commentators,as they like to call themselves, deadspined commentators comments and it is garbage. how many jokes can you make a bout aan spn memo and a bke rack. i guess anyone can now comment on deadspined.

every comment is espn memo,deadspined hof, with leather (is that still funny?), and thepond at espn.

I got three questions for you
1. are deadspined comments the best
2. is deadspined still as good as in the beginning
3.is deadspined still you first choice in the morning

Anonymous said...
Nov 28, 2007, 12:31:00 PM  

i think anonymous handled my last dell tech support call

i actually watched this game and had no idea. but ill take college hockey with espn style soccer announcing over no college hockey at all.

BackBergtt said...
Nov 28, 2007, 12:53:00 PM  

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