Monday, October 25, 2010

Oooooo, Noes! Baseball, Where Are You?

Not on cable in NYC, it looks like; or, as the headline on my computer so breathlessly put it, "Series blackout looms in N.Y. -- Some...cable customers may need to buy an antenna to watch the games. Will government step in?"

Class? Deep breath, ready, steady.... NO! Because cable television isn't a frikkin' right! On the other hand, your landlord can't (usually) stand in the way of you puttin' up a TV antenna. (Receiving-type, Mr. Ambition, you just put that big transmitting thing back on the Empire State where you found it, right now). Heck, I don't think they can can even get in the way of a direct broadcast satellite receiving antenna. (They can, however, make some "reasonable accommodation" like stickin' one antenna on your building an' dolin' out RF, so don't getcher hammer out too quickly).

What's up here is a spat between NYC's CATV supplier, Cablevision, and networks and local stations there in The Big City. Cablevision wants Uncle Sam t'step in an' slap 'em around some. Never mind there's a lot of other paths for the programming to take to get to people's homes -- even this here "innernet" thing, which sends baseballs through a series of tubes. Or so I hear tell.

I don't watch the sport, myself.

1 comment:

Stranger said...

Since digital, coverage areas have shrunk and advertisers are not getting the bang for their buck they think they deserve. Particularly big advertisers like Tractor Supply.

So content suppliers want more bux for their product to make up for lower ad revenues. While content distributors want more profit.

Friction!

Stranger