An open letter to FOX Sports Net

by Kevan Lee on Sep 17, 2008 9:15 AM PDT in Boise State football Comment 10 comments

Dear FOX Sports Net,

We fancy you a savvy sports network, what with your incessant Mariners coverage and your Tom Arnold-ness, which is why we have such a hard time believing that you decided to pass up airing Saturday's Oregon - Boise State game in favor of other, less appealing choices. Seriously, Arizona - UCLA? Poorly played, FOX Sports Net. Poorly played.

We're talking Oregon and Boise State, two of the most exciting teams in college football. Fans want to see touchdowns and big hits and Kellen Moore slow-mo replays, and the only way to get all of those things is to put this game on your network, probably between a Mariners replay and a Beyond the Game feature on Marques Tuiasasopo. Where it belongs, FSN.

Oregon vs. BSU is a battle of unbeatens, and instead of getting the regionally dominant coverage it deserves, the game has been plopped into the laps of the Oregon Sports Network and KTVB. That's no way to treat one of the best games of the season. That's a way to treat pretty much every Washington State game.

What are East Coast Bronco fans supposed to do? Shill for BroncoVision at $9.95 per month? You've left them no choice. The only way for out-of-town Bronco fans to catch Saturday's Game of the Year is to pay for it on the Bronco website and strain at their computer for four hours, hoping that the feed doesn't need to be buffered during a red zone possession.

We implore you to reconsider, FSN. Clear the FOX Sports schedule of whatever Pac-10 dregs you had planned on airing and put the Broncos and Ducks in the spot they deserve. Put aside the politics and the L.A. bias, and you will be rewarded with a well-played, hard-fought game between two schools who have earned the right to be featured.

You've forced our hand, FSN. We are fully prepared to inflict an onslaught of Internet thuggery to right this wrong. You have no idea what you have gotten yourself into.

Taste the pain of our Facebook group: "FOX Sports Net hates me and hates good college football." Taste it!

Enjoy the flood of email that we are encouraging our readers to send your way. NUGers, copy and paste the following into the FOX Sports contact form:

"FOX Sports Net, you make the earth cry with your poor decision-making and disregard for viewer satisfaction. No Boise State - Oregon game? Shame on you. Reconsider or I will never TIVO Mariners All-Access ever again. You disappoint me.

Do the right thing, FOX Sports Net. Don't make us break out Brian Murphy's Twitter feed.

Sincerely,
OBNUG

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Comments

Watching the Broncos play on KTVB is like playing xbox 360 on an old analog black-and-white TV, it makes even the most exciting games seem lethargic and diluted.

I was watching last week’s game and flipping between that and the Ohio St.-USC game. Geez, what a difference a national broadcast setup makes: better cameras, better announcers, beter color, better everything…

by BroncoFeverForever on Sep 17, 2008 9:59 AM PDT reply actions 0 recs

I watched the BSU-ISU game on BroncoVision, because I live in Southern Utah. It was horrible. First, it took almost 30 mins to log in and get the feed going. Then, there was no Paul J. The camera work was worse than any broadcast I have seen on KTVB. Finally, you get all the stupid advertisements they put on the BroncoVision screen at the stadium. It’s a gawddamn ripoff at $10 a month.

However, I watched the BSU-BGU game at Bronco Stadium last week. I shelled out $140 for four nose-bleed tickets and only got $70 worth of a game out of it. Sigh…

Guess I’ll be watching the BroncoVision again this week.

by cexeko on Sep 17, 2008 10:44 AM PDT reply actions 0 recs

Bronco fans:
This is not a FOX Sports issue. This is a Pac-10 / Oregon issue. The WAC may actually have a better television deal than the Pac-10. The bottom line is that ABC went with the best game (at least at the time) in ASU vs. UGA. FOX then elected to pick up the Arizona / UCLA game as a national broadcast. This one is a coin flip for me. It is a conference game while the UO / BSU game is more of a regional draw. Regardless, I believe VS. Network then had the option to pick up the game and declined.

Oregon has an agreement with Comcast Sports Net Northwest to broadcast the games. The issue is that CSN is only distributed on Comcast. No satellite company has picked up the network yet. As an Oregon fan, I won’t even be able to watch the game in Portland. If you do have the tools, CSN is broadcast in HD.

FSN has even gone so far as to embargo Oregon from appearing on the ESPN Game Plan this year after we signed on with Comcast. The whole situation is a mess and fans are getting upset.

CSN is a bad word around Portland. They hold the rights to the Blazers also and with the team turning around, nobody in town can watch the games. You can’t even go to a bar to watch as most bars have DirecTV, not cable. Please direct your frustration to Tom Hansen, Pac-10 Commissioner (lame duck, finally!)

by mj on Sep 17, 2008 11:43 AM PDT reply actions 0 recs

If you really want to get technical, this is ESPN’s fault, too. If no PAC-10 network picks up the game, as in this case, ESPN has every right to broadcast the game. ESPN is also dropping the ball on this one.

by cexeko on Sep 17, 2008 11:54 AM PDT reply actions 0 recs

I should take some blame as well. I had the option of videotaping the game off of KTVB and streaming the footage on a five-minute delay through the OBNUG website, but I declined due to the fact that I don’t own a video camera and I don’t know how legal that would be. I am as culpable as anyone.

Thanks MJ and cexeko for the knowledge. Looks like we have a lot of email petitions to send around.

by kevanlee on Sep 17, 2008 12:22 PM PDT reply actions 0 recs

Kevan,

I’ll gladly send you $10 a month if you ever get that stream feed figured out. LOL!

by cexeko on Sep 17, 2008 1:24 PM PDT reply actions 0 recs

I watched the last two games on gameplan. This one should definitely be a nationally televised game. OCT. 1 aginast La Tech is on ESPN but not this one? CRAZY.

by mikrino on Sep 17, 2008 1:36 PM PDT reply actions 0 recs

I got excited when I heard the game was covered on Comcast Sports Net but then when I went to the website to try and request the network, I got this message:

Unfortunately, Comcast SportsNet Northwest is not available through Comcast!

Tell Comcast you want Comcast SportsNet Northwest – request it now

How does that happen?

by Nick on Sep 17, 2008 2:11 PM PDT reply actions 0 recs

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by James on Sep 17, 2008 9:58 PM PDT reply actions 0 recs