Letter to CSTV about ECACHL Tournament Coverage

[Repost because FrenchRage suggested it get its own thread]

I just sent the following comment to College Sports Television, which
is broadcasting the ECAC Hockey League tournament, but tape-delaying
the Cornell-Vermont semifinal.

======================================================================
Dear CSTV:

As a college hockey fan, I've appreciated the nation-wide coverage
CSTV's Friday Night Hockey has given to this great sport. I live in
New Orleans, but am able to watch college hockey live every weekend on
CSTV (which I get, along with numerous regional sports networks, via
DirecTV). As a Cornell alumnus and ECAC Hockey League fan, I'm also
pleased that CSTV will be broadcasting the ECACHL tournament with
play-by-play by former Big Red radio announcer and CSTV hockey analyst
Adam Wodon.

I am disappointed, though, to see that the first semifinal (Vermont vs
Cornell) is not scheduled to be broadcast live on CSTV Friday, March 18.
CSTV's schedule during that game (4:30pm-7:30pm EST) contains no live
sporting events. (It's a half-hour of Full Court Press, 90 minutes of
The 1 College Sports Show, and two episodes of Coach.) I am writing
to express the desire I'm sure is shared by many Cornell, Vermont, and
other ECACHL hockey fans to see the ECACHL semifinal live.

John T. Whelan, Cornell '91
[email address]
======================================================================

I imagine we're fighting a losing battle, since the Friday schedule
contains what look like a bunch of NCAA basketball tournament analysis
shows. The sad truth may be that hype for basketball games broadcast
on another network is a better sell for them than actual live playoff
hockey, but we can only change that equation if we make our voices
heard as hockey fans. I encourage anyone else who cares about this to
make their opinion known via
[url]http://www.collegesports.com/feedback/cs-feedback.html[/url]. I'd
recommend being respectful and stressing how much you appreciate the
live hockey coverage they do provide.

the ugly truth is any fan(s) who are not overtly interested in hockey (college or otherwise) think ALL hockey is/was cancelled b/c there is no NHL this year … this is definitely an uphill battle but it’s always worth a shot

It might also be worthwhile mentioning that more viewers are likely to watch the Cornell vs. Vermont match. These two teams will undoubtedly be the ones to send the most fans to Albany. This is but an indication of the overall interst of Cornell (and Vermont) fans. There will certainly be plenty of those who cannot make the trip to Albany, but would definitely watch.

Who's gonna watch Sucks vs. Toothpaste? Sucks fans don't even come to their home games... You know, the funny thing is that I'm sure that the later game will be watched by mostly Cornell and Vermont fans.

[Q]Pace Wrote:

Sucks fans don't even come to their home games... [/q]

They've been getting better in the past two years or so (at least for the Cornell game), but I agree that they probably won't be watching the games on TV, not to mention making that all-too-difficult three-hour trip to see their team in action.

[Q]ben03 Wrote:

the ugly truth is any fan(s) who are not overtly interested in hockey (college or otherwise) think ALL hockey is/was cancelled b/c there is no NHL this year[/q]

Too true. Last week when I switched over to the Cornell-Clarkson webcast after my Cosmos showing (for the astronomy class) one of the students said "I thought they cancelled hockey this year"

JTW - let us know if you get any response. As stated on another thread, I've contacted them twice and heard nothing back.

Adam W. - do you have some friends at CSTV and any clue as to their programming rationale? Surely anyone interested in basketball will be watching the games on CBS or highlights on ESPN, and not watching CSTV for analysis.

FWIW, I contacted the ECACHL last week and Laura Stange (Asst. Commissioner) wrote back that they were feverishly working on trying to find someone to televise the game.

There needs to be about ten satellite channels available and standing by (like that's gonna happen) for surges of sports activity. Even so, if it magically became available in the next 96 hours, it would probably all go to men's and women's college hoops.

We're spoiled because we can get maybe a half-dozen Cornell games on real TV and the home games on Webcast ... and We Want More!

Other than concerns about bandwidth, Cornell/the ECACHL is probably happy with the XMI broadcast, plus the local TimeWarner stuff. It'd be great to have it on CSTV, but I bet the schools and leagues have accepted the internet broadcast. Afterall, it is actually much more widely available than CSTV.

Write away, but I bet the schools and league have done their part already to get that. U agree that Bball hype on CSTV instead of a live sporting even seems silly, I don't know which will draw more eyeballs, but I'm sure I know which would draw more appreciation, but at least there is a way for everyone to watch the game.

My coworker just emailed me two minutes ago with this question? "Didn't Congress ban hockey this year?" And he wasn't joking.

[Q]DeltaOne81 Wrote:

Other than concerns about bandwidth, Cornell/the ECACHL is probably happy with the XMI broadcast, plus the local TimeWarner stuff. It'd be great to have it on CSTV, but I bet the schools and leagues have accepted the internet broadcast. Afterall, it is actually much more widely available than CSTV.

Write away, but I bet the schools and league have done their part already to get that. U agree that Bball hype on CSTV instead of a live sporting even seems silly, I don't know which will draw more eyeballs, but I'm sure I know which would draw more appreciation, but at least there is a way for everyone to watch the game.[/q]


Got to disagree here about the league being happy. Massachusetts has no cable feeds of the game, unless you are able to catch an albany cable feed way out in western mass. Besides Harvard people not being able to catch the game, I did a quick search once on th corneell electronic directory and found 13,000 COrnell alumni listed in Massachusetts. And plenty of people can't or won't take off a half day to drive from the
boston area out to Friday's semi.

And last but not least, how can the league be happy that the nation's #3 team is not being shown in the country's sixth(if memory serves) biggest media market, Boston?

The league managed to cover upstate New York, but they left us out here in Boston. HE east got it right and is showing live both semi's on NESN.

Well, it's not what we wanted, but we did get their attention. Here's an email I got back from the ECAC, whom I CCed.
[Q]
Happy news! CSTV will now show both semifinals on Friday night. However,
due to scheduling issues, semifinal #2 (Harvard vs. Colgate) will be shown
live (as previously released), followed by Semifinal #1 (Cornell vs.
Vermont) at 10 p.m. Semi #1 will also still be shown tape delayed on
Saturday at 11 a.m. as well.

The folks at CSTV told us that they had received way too many e-mails
regarding game #1 that they HAD to air it on Friday -- GOOD JOB!

Please spread the word.
[/Q]

So, yes it does matter to the ECAC (they initially wrote back in response to the CC I sent to thank me for my efforts). And while the game still isn't live, we have made our presence know to the powers that be at CSTV. Which is probably all we could have hoped for. Thanks to everyone who wrote them.

Now, part two of our attention grab might be crashing XMI's server watching the stream of the live broadcast of the Cornell-UVM semi. (I'd prefer not to make that impression, but we'll see how it turns out.)

Not many made it last year for the semi against Clarkson.

Is it possible the ECAC is doing smoke and mirrors and protecting attendance by imposing a "blackout" of the Cornell-UVM game? It seems they would want the maximum participation of the two largest fans bases remaining in the tournament.

Regardless, I sent in an email.

edit: The game is being shown live on more accessible outlets (XMI) so the theory goes out the window

That's part of the way home - I say we keep protesting ti get the game live. As said on the other thread, watching the harvard game will be a spoiler. SO will watching the UVM-'Cuse bball.

Keep writing.......

I think fans of other ECAC teams will be watching too.

I'll very likely be watching college hoops starting earlier in the day with a 'Nova grad friend and am hopeful that the somewhat inebriated crowd will be "tired" by then and not mind if the bartender switches to some real live (or delayed) hockey.

From USCHO:

CSTV, acknowledging an significant public demand, will now air Friday's first ECACHL semifinal between Cornell and Vermont on the same day, albeit still tape delayed.

Originally, CSTV, the only station available nationally to carry the ECAC semifinals, was only going to televise the first semifinal on tape delay Saturday morning at 11 a.m. But after receiving an influx of letters, CSTV will now also air the game on tape delay immediately following the first semifinal between Colgate and Harvard, which will air live at 7:30 p.m.

CSTV is contractually obligated to carry NCAA basketball studio programming during the afternoon when Game 1 is taking place.

[www.uscho.com]

Trust me when I tell you that the ECAC did everything imaginable to get all the games on live, including trying in Boston, FoxNE, Yes, NESN, Empire (defunct), FoxNY, MSG and everywhere else. No one would take it for a variety of reasons.

That the game is on as many places as it is, should be considered a tremendous testament to the work done at the ECAC office and cooperation of CSTV -- because there was a time that it wasn't going to happen at all. It's just an unfortunate set of circumstances with CSTV and their NCAA hoops contract - and the fact that it's Cornell in that early game, which has by far the most demand.

Adam-

Thanks for the update. I am sure that the league had to work hard. That doesnt mean that we have to be happy about theresult. Had many people not blistered both the network and the league I'm sure we wouldn't even havegotten the tape-delay changed.

But you raise an interesting point. Our beef should be with the NCAA and CSTV. I don't think it will do much good, but what if people hammered the NCAA with contacts? I know all the money is in hoop, but do they really need a 497th place to have tourney talk type shows? (Or is it that they control the actual content on the CSTV shows as opposed to say an ESPN show....)

I'm going to send them a complaint and see what they say at the NCAA...or rather how eloquently they word their blow-off response....

[Q]atb9 Wrote:
CSTV is contractually obligated to carry NCAA basketball studio programming during the afternoon when Game 1 is taking place.[/q]

I think we have to think of this action in the following light: if they realize how much demand there is to have the hockey carried live, they may be less likely in the future to contractually oblige themselves to something so stupid as airing yet another squeakball analysis show when there's live hockey that's not being carried on any other outlet.

[Q]abmarks Wrote:
I know all the money is in hoop, but do they really need a 497th place to have tourney talk type shows? (Or is it that they control the actual content on the CSTV shows as opposed to say an ESPN show....) [/q]

I don't know why it was part of the deal - I just know that it is. Not making any value judgments on whether it was a good idea or not. I believe it was part of the package that included the right to video webcast all the NCAA men's tournament games.

[q]I don't know why it was part of the deal - I just know that it is. Not making any value judgments on whether it was a good idea or not. I believe it was part of the package that included the right to video webcast all the NCAA men's tournament games.[/q]It probably was a fairly reasonable decision from a business perspective. I were running a fledgling network you want to line up programming that you know has solid appeal. NCAA squeakball, even analysis, has that. Maybe once the network is firmly established you can be free to branch out more. Maybe the concerted effort by college hockey fans to ask for coverage demonstrates that there is a sizeable market there. But I can't necessarily say this is a bad decision on CSTV's part, even while I complain about it.

If you want to establish yourself as a place to go for College Sports, and on the first day of the NCAA Basketball tourney, you're not showing/talking about or somehow dealing with that, people are going to write you off. The potential for that is pretty severe, and if I were CSTV I'd definitely want to make sure it doesn't happen.

[Q]CrazyLarry Wrote:

If you want to establish yourself as a place to go for College Sports, and on the first day of the NCAA Basketball tourney, you're not showing/talking about or somehow dealing with that, people are going to write you off. The potential for that is pretty severe, and if I were CSTV I'd definitely want to make sure it doesn't happen.[/q]


Serve both audiences....Talk about hoop:

-in the afternoon
-use most of the in-between period time to talk about hoop and cut down the inane banter and just show quick highlits of the hockey.
-go back to hoop talk for the half hour between the games.

They cut away from hoop halftimes all the time to talk about other games in progress...

OTOH, by making our presence known and voicing our disappointment that the ECAC semi is not live, we increase the chance that the next time around they do both: show the hockey games, but cram every minute before and between games, and in the intermissions, with the squeakball analysis.

When you're starting out, you're probably just glad to fill in your programming hours. Later you start thinking about having - requring - escape clauses in case other more interesting programming comes along.

[Q]CrazyLarry Wrote:

If you want to establish yourself as a place to go for College Sports, and on the first day of the NCAA Basketball tourney, you're not showing/talking about or somehow dealing with that, people are going to write you off. The potential for that is pretty severe, and if I were CSTV I'd definitely want to make sure it doesn't happen.[/q]I wouldn't be so worried. The other networks will be showing games and 800 channels will have analysis. Coverage of live sports wouldn't hurt their credibility.

Still, CSTV probably made the right decision at the time it was made. A Cornell game at the time of the broadcast is more or less the only scenario (highly devoted, geographically dispersed) where the demand would be high enough to give them pause.

Anyone know what ESPNU's agreement for hockey broadcasts consists of?

[Q]adamw Wrote:

Trust me when I tell you that the ECAC did everything imaginable to get all the games on live, including trying in Boston, FoxNE, Yes, NESN, Empire (defunct), FoxNY, MSG and everywhere else. No one would take it for a variety of reasons.

That the game is on as many places as it is, should be considered a tremendous testament to the work done at the ECAC office -- because there was a time that it wasn't going to happen at all. It's just an unfortunate set of circumstances with CSTV and their NCAA hoops contract - and the fact that it's Cornell in that early game, which has by far the most demand.
[/q]

Since I've got time in my hands I made more calls....

I spoke with Chris Farrow, Mgr of broadcasting at the NCAA, who seems to be a big hockey fan himself. CSTV IS NOT showing NCAA contracted programming in that 430-730 slot according to Chris.

So I Called CSTV and talked to Eric Handler, Director, Corporate Communications (212-342-8760 pr@cstv.com). His response? They have exclsusive programing you can't get anywhere else- student campus correspondents and coverage of press conferences! THey think this is going to get big ratings!

Anyway, that's what I was told. Nothing about contractual obligations was mentioned. I don't know which is right but I think a barrage on CSTV still can't hurt, if at the least to get them right for next year.


Arik

[q]So I Called CSTV and talked to Eric Handler, Director, Corporate Communications (212-342-8760 pr@cstv.com). His response? They have exclsusive programing you can't get anywhere else- student campus correspondents and coverage of press conferences! THey think this is going to get big ratings![/q]It might (compared to hockey at least), when you consider that there are probably at least ten times as many college basketball fans as college hockey fans, and I'm being conservative. When you consider how much time we spend babbling about college hockey on this and other boards would it surprise you that squeakball fans obsess about that tournament and want to see endless analysis?

Besides, the guy is Director of Communications. His job is to listen to you and then tell you how great CSTV's coverage is. Even if he agreed with you totally he probably wouldn't say so, because he isnt the guy in charge of programming.

It's time to chill out on the CSTV bombardment. It's starting to get counter-productive. They've heard you.

[Q]abmarks Wrote:

adamw Wrote:

Trust me when I tell you that the ECAC did everything imaginable to get all the games on live, including trying in Boston, FoxNE, Yes, NESN, Empire (defunct), FoxNY, MSG and everywhere else. No one would take it for a variety of reasons.

That the game is on as many places as it is, should be considered a tremendous testament to the work done at the ECAC office -- because there was a time that it wasn't going to happen at all. It's just an unfortunate set of circumstances with CSTV and their NCAA hoops contract - and the fact that it's Cornell in that early game, which has by far the most demand.
[/Q]
Since I've got time in my hands I made more calls....

I spoke with Chris Farrow, Mgr of broadcasting at the NCAA, who seems to be a big hockey fan himself. CSTV IS NOT showing NCAA contracted programming in that 430-730 slot according to Chris.

So I Called CSTV and talked to Eric Handler, Director, Corporate Communications (212-342-8760 pr@cstv.com). His response? They have exclsusive programing you can't get anywhere else- student campus correspondents and coverage of press conferences! THey think this is going to get big ratings!

Anyway, that's what I was told. Nothing about contractual obligations was mentioned. I don't know which is right but I think a barrage on CSTV still can't hurt, if at the least to get them right for next year.


Arik[/q]
One does wonder then with whom CSTV is "contractually obligated" to show their basketball BS late Friday afternoon. The student campus correspondents?

 

___________________________
Al DeFlorio '65