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May 22, 2009

ESPN / SEC TV Deal News

In case you missed the official announcement (as I did), ESPNU and Comcast have reached an agreement whereby ESPNU will be carried for free on Comcast's digital level packages. Comcast is also adding NFL Network, and it will finally carry games from ESPN360 via it's internet service.

Additionally, Comcast / Charter Sports Southeast (CSS) and ESPN have reached a deal whereby Comcast will televise what amounts to excess inventory SEC sports. According to TodaysTHV.com:
Comcast / Charter Sports Southeast (CSS), the regional sports channel focusing on college sports in the southeast, announced today it has reached a five-year agreement with ESPN to televise live Southeastern Conference (SEC) content including a minimum of six football games, twenty men's basketball games, and sixteen women's basketball games as well as fifty SEC Olympic sports each year.

No word on whether or not ESPNU HD will be added by Comcast. Given Comcast's pathetic inventory of HD programming, I'm not optimistic.

UPDATE: Georgia will request more noon home games per Adams and Damon's comments to the UGA Athletics Board meeting. We're also expecting more night games on the road. Damn. Just damn.

PWD

29 comments:

PTC DAWG said...

Comcast's latest HD upgrades are being phased in around ATL as they go to mostly all digital. I think John's Creek has seen these updates. I don't see EspnUHD, BUT they don't currently have EspnUSD, so I could see it being added. These channels listed here are in addition to what they already offer in the Atlanta area.

817 - WE HD
818 - Green Planet HD
819 - Biography HD
820 - QVC HD
821 - ESPN News HD
828 - E! HD
829 - Style HD
831 - Fox Business HD
832 - The Weather Channel HD
836 - CNBC HD
837 - Fox News HD
843 - FX HD
855 - Lifetime HD
860 - Travel HD
862 - Cartoon Network HD
863 - Nickelodeon HD
866 - Disney Extreme HD
871 - TVONE HD
872 - Bravo HD
873 - Fuse HD
875 - Speed HD
876 - G4 HD
878 - Spike HD
891 - Travel & Leisure HD
894 - MGM HD
896 - Hallmark HD
897 - Lifetime Movies HD
898 - IFC HD
899 - Encore HD

Anonymous said...

Interesting that Cartoon Network HD is listed there, since they haven't launched an HD feed yet (other than Star Wars: Clone Wars). I guess Comcast will be ready when they do launch.

Unknown said...

PTC - I live extremely close to John's Creek, and I don't have those.

Anonymous said...

One thing very few cable subscribers seem to know is that cable companies regularly degrade, or "compress," their HD signals. Why? Well it saves them bandwidth which in turn saves them money at your expense. Fact is, a given program might be shown in 720p, but in actuality your cable provider only feeds you something that is on par with 600p. This is why, for the life of me, I don't understand why anyone has cable instead of satellite t.v.

If you set up two identical sets, with one showing an HD program fed by cable and the same program fed by satellite, you will be able to tell a difference, if not a big difference. And this doesn't take into account that satellite offers better prices and much better HD programing. Don't get me wrong, satellite isn't perfect either...but its much, much better than anything cable can offer you.

Especially considering again cable companies compress their HD signals and provide horrible customer service.

Anonymous said...

One last thing that I can't fathom in regard to cable customers---when you bring up your channel guide, you are subjected to all sorts of ads that are placed in your guide (at least my parents are with their charter service in Suwanee). It simply would bother me too much to pay a cable company all that money in which they skimp on their HD feed, then they turn around and make more money on me by selling ads on the channel guide.

But hey, thats just me.

Anonymous said...

Ok when did this become a Satellite vs. Cable war? Not all cable companies compress HD. I get full HD through mine (www.accessatc.net) and they have good customer service. It a local company and they have been in business many years so just because you had a bad expierence with a cable company or you "think" you know what they all do......its just not true.

Anonymous said...

thats why satellite is better than cable

Anonymous said...

You people with comcast should seriously consider switching over to AT&T U-verse (if fiber optic is available in your area).

Best decision i ever made!

It is so nice to be comcast free!

godawg said...

I just wish I could get CSS broadscasts on DirectTV. I have no choice but satellite here in Tenersee. That said, I LOVE my DirectTV HD and dual channel DVR w/SS...

Ball-U-Dawg Triangle said...

This is likely splitting hairs, but do noon games give us less of a home field advantage? Just based on my observations, noon games crowds tend to be more subdued than games with later start times-and that applies to home game crowds at other schools too.

I've always thought our 2001 win at UT was aided by the 12:30 start time because the UT crowd didn't seem really into the game until the 4th quarter. Of course, we then beat them 41-14 in 2003 and that game had an evening start time.

Anonymous said...

The Auburn game in 2006 was *definitely* aided by the early start. By the time the Tigers woke up, the game was already out of hand.

Anonymous said...

This is backhanded way of stopping or at least cutting down on tailgating at UGA.

dawgnotdog said...

Yes, Damon needs to know that the noon slot thing is BS.

My verification word is schit, and that is what this is.

Anonymous said...

Will the CSS agreement require CSS to make it available to Direct TV? I get CSS Ohio, and Mid Atlantic, and stuff, but CSS Georgia has not made its programning available to satellite. I understand why (it is a Comcast/Charter joint venture and the cable companies want to keep it exclusive to Georgia cable customers) but I wonder if the agreement requires it to make SEC games available to satellite.

Anonymous said...

We want national exposure, yet we want to play at noon when the west coast isn't even paying attention?! Unbelievable. Later games benefit the city of Athens as well as people stay later and spend more.

WHY CAN'T WE GET RID OF ADAMS?!

skidawg1985 said...

I hope ESPNU gets on the lower tiered DirecTV packages....

Anonymous said...

And by tailgating, we really mean excessive drinking and all the hilarity that goes along with it.

johnmckenzie said...

Nice to see your blogs

Anonymous said...

its time for Adams to kick rocks!!! thank him for all hes done the good & the BAD. but he needs to know this the SEC real teams don't ask for a noon time kick off this isn't the big10 with there "Pam Ward special" at noon. real teams don't kick off til 3:30 or later as for the tailgating it comes hand & hand with football with the drinking. if Adams , Damon, or who ever don't like the late kick offs, tailgating, drinking they need to stay the fu@# out of Athens in the fall

Jason said...

anon @ 10:30 AM

Uh, DirecTV compresses their HDTV signals as well, genius. All Satellite companies do. You've been reading too much DirecTV advertising literature, methinks. In fact, a lot of people have complained about the HD compression rates on DirecTV ever since DirecTV migrated over to a new MPEG-4 scheme, the MPEG-4 AVC codec.

Even FiOS has started compressing their picture quality in order to add more HD channels, and they have a ridiculous amount of bandwidth compared to DirecTV and cable companies. FiOS, unlike DirecTV, however, uses Microsoft's newer VC-1 compression codec. DirecTV still uses MPEG-4. (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VC-1)

I've had both DirecTV, Time Warner Cable, and (now) FiOS at my place. FiOS is far and away the best of the three; however, that many change if FiOS decides to keep adding more HD channels. There's only so much bandwidth to go around.

Finally, one small thing most people don't know: compression also can start at the source - for example, TNT, when distributing their HD broadcast, can actually compress it prior to sending it to any cable or satellite company. If you've ever noticed why certain channels' HD often looks so much worse than others on the same carrier, it's likely because the channel source is compressing the signal even before they send it to the cable or satellite company for distribution. It's actually a way for the station to make their channel more attractive to the satellite and cable companies, because the HD programming 'costs' less bandwidth to send out, since it's already compressed when received.

However, there is one signal that provides crystal clear HD quality picture with no compression: a digital antenna. That's the only place you'll find an uncompressed signal. If I can choose to watch ABC over FiOS or over the antenna, I'll choose watching it over the antenna every single time.

Anonymous said...

we need to take them ESPN css cords and hang Adams and Damon from one of the trees off prince ave

PTC DAWG said...

I simply posted what I've seen on AVS forums in the Atlanta local section.

I'm not here to argue quality, but Comcast usually passes exactly what they get from the networks. All systems can look good when set up right, you would be amazed at the ones that are not set up right. I've had Dish and I've had Cable, frankly, the internet speed I get from cable blows away my nearby neighbors DSL's and my bud's DirectTV goes out when we have thunderstorms.

That said, choose what works best for you.

NCT said...

Yeah, PTC Dawg. I was just about to say that one of the reasons I have cable instead of satellite is that I like to be able to watch television when it rains.

Anonymous said...

I hate noon kickoffs but I realize that some will be necessary. My personal preference would be two early kicks a year (between 12:00 and 1:00), three 3:30 kicks, and two night games a year.

Hassan said...

Anon 3:36....I would 2nd that except for only one night kickoff a year.

- 2 early vs. cupcakes and/or non-ranked

- 4 3:30's

- 1 night

- NO THURSDAYS EVER!!

PTC DAWG said...

I also agree about Noon kickoffs. Now Nooners, that's a different story.

mitch said...

Adams is a complete idiot. He talks about the exposure you get with a late game so why the hell would we not want that exposure at HOME showing off Sanford and Athens. Yea lets have more 12:00 games where half the stadium is just rolling out of bed.

Anonymous said...

Adams: "“You don’t pick up a (Knowshon) Moreno from New Jersey or a tight end from California without some tradeoffs."

You mean the one who never played a significant down of football in his entire career at UGA? The other example should have been a quarterback from Dallas.

Anonymous said...

seriously, when is Adam's contract up?! He completely contradicts himself with the exposure speak, then turns around and says "we" prefer NOON games? Hopefully ESPN does as they please.

 
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