2006-7 All-Access

[Al DeFlorio]

Announced today, 9/14: http://cornellbigred.cstv.com/genrel/091406aaa.html

[jtwcornell91]

FWIW, here's the email I sent to customersupport@cstv.com with a carbon copy to Anita Brenner (I was not in a mood to mince words when I wrote it):

[Q]

Dear CSTV,

I'm an avid fan of Cornell hockey who doesn't live very close to
Ithaca, so I use on-line broadcasts to follow the Big Red.  I was an
All-Access subscriber last season, and was able to view and listen to
the broadcasts in my primary operating system of GNU/Linux.

This season it seems you have declared that you will only "support"
the platform of Windows and Internet Explorer, and go so far as to
generate a page declaring your inaccessibility if anyone tries to
access a broadcast from another web browser or operating system.  You
also have the gall to respond to the concerns of MacOS users (I
suppose Linux users do not exist at all) by telling them they can
install Windows on their hardware.

This is completely unacceptable behavior on your part.  You need to
stop trying to control what platform people use and go back to
providing the content that we pay you for in an accessible,
platform-neutral format.

                        Sincerely,
                                        Dr. John T. Whelan
                                        Cornell '91
                                        UC Santa Barbara Ph.D. '96

[/Q]

[Liz '05]

Emails like this SHOULD get you attention from their Customer Service Department.  Unfortunately, it probably won't (though your cc'ing Cornell was something I didn't do).

My email:
[q]Question 1:
Can I now watch both home and away games that my school takes part in,
assuming the home team for the away games is also a CSTV partner?  If not,
whyever not?

Question 2:
What other improvements have you made?

Honestly, the service last year was barely acceptable.  There were frequent
outages in the feed, not to mention the usually choppy, always
low-resolution video.  Video and sound might or might not have been
matched.  Customer service was between unhelpful and incompetent.  The
feed rarely included any pre-game or post-game footage and often missed the
beginnings of games.  When your customers have betting pools based on how
many minutes (or goals) late the feed will start, you're not providing a
good service.  If these problems haven't been addressed - most importantly,
the presence of the feed from the pre-game show through the post-game show -
I can't justify spending twice what I spent last year for what doesn't seem
to be an improved product.

Sincerely,

Elizabeth Burnham[/q]

Their response, complete with screwy formatting and no signature:
[q]Thank you for your inquiry,

CSTV All-Access XXL provides more in-depth coverage of your favorite teams and sports than anywhere else!
? More than 90 schools and 12 major conferences
? More than 7,000 live games streamed to your PC- audio and select video
? 2,000 live video events?pep rallies, press conferences, coaches? shows, features and moe.
? More women?s sports than anywhere else online.
? More classic games in video and audio online for the vaults of Notre Dame and others.
? More than 20 men?s and women?s sports and more than 300 teams in conference and intersectional match-ups.
? More CSTV All-Access XXL video streaming exclusives!

All-Access allows college sports fan to experience the passion, tradition and excitement of our teams with comprehensive, easy-to access multimedia coverage.

CSTV.com will honor any refund request for an unused seasonal subscription made within 10 days of the purchase and any refund request for an unused monthly subscription made within 5 days of the purchase or within 5 days of the last billing.

Thanks,[/q]

Perhaps I should forward the conversation to Cornell so they can see the mess and put institutional pressure on CSTV to provide a decent service.

[Al DeFlorio]

[quote Liz '05]Emails like this SHOULD get you attention from their Customer Service Department.  Unfortunately, it probably won't (though your cc'ing Cornell was something I didn't do).

My email:
[q]Question 1:
Can I now watch both home and away games that my school takes part in,
assuming the home team for the away games is also a CSTV partner?  If not,
whyever not?

Sincerely,

Elizabeth Burnham[/q]
[/q]
[/quote]
For what it's worth at this point in the season, the list of football games to be videocast includes the away games at Penn and Brown.  So perhaps we will be able to watch away games with teams that are also CSTV "partners."

[Edit:  Oops, despite what the all-knowing All-Access site says, the Penn game will be played in Ithaca this year.  So the only away game to be videocast is the one at Brown.]

[Scersk '97]

"Cornell sports fans who utilize this best-in-class, easy-to-use platform will allow them to navigate the channel by sport, news, audio, video and countless other criteria."

#1:  "Best-in-class?"  F--k off.

#2:  Ummm... editor?

It's all just so insulting.   ::yark::

[DeltaOne81]

All Access update:

Between some efforts from JTW, and a kinda username and password that I've been allowed to use for testing purposes, I still can't get access to anything.

In fact, it even seems to imply that I won't even be able to view GameTracker, which is accessed through the same interface (btw, I've figured much of this out using my gf's Dell).

The interface is basically an ultra fancy Flash interface, and it seems that Adobe (who bought Macromedia) has joined the group of companies supporting fancier features on Windows than on other platforms.

I can confirm this because by setting my browser to say its IE 6 on XP, and visiting several sites that use flash content (including the Adobe Flash Player webpage), and they have more Flash features that do not load, asking me to upgrade my player. But when I set it back to admitting that its Firefox on a Mac, it doesn't even try to load those extra features (MSNBC is one example).


The audio streams are embedded in the Flash player. I can't find anyway to access the URL of the streams. As best as we can tell, there's no WMP or Real player running (at least for the free audio stream we tested, haven't gotten access to any video yet), it just seems to be embedded within the Flash player.

The GameTracker is also the flash player, and when getting the URL (I managed to extract that), it still doesn't load in my browser... assumingly because it relies on the same Flash features.


So I see two ways to go about this. Once, it remains utterly ridiculous that they require Windows-only Flash features to go about accessing audio and video streams for which there is probably no reason that they can't run on Macs and Linux. I don't care if they have to give other platforms just a stupid text webpage with links to the streams. Fine, just do it. Cornell and CSTV need to hear this repeatedly.

Second, as best i can tell, the primary cause if the difference between the Flash player abilities, so bugging Adobe might be worth it to see if they have any plans to make them equal.


Edit: I take back the Gametracker thing. If I get a direct link to a GameTracker feed, and *don't* have my browser pretend its Windows, then it loads fine. Small consolation of course, but at least its 'proof-of-concept'

[bP]

I was wavering whether to sign up for Cornell All-Access, but tonight's equipment failure at the football game finalized my decision to not purchase it this year.  Still not sure why CSTV and Cornell Athletics can't get this to work when the webcasts of other schools have been up and running for years.

Here's a link to the PR statement about tonight's broadcast snafu,  
http://cornellbigred.cstv.com/sports/m-footbl/spec-rel/091606aaa.html

[jtwcornell91]

[quote bP]Here's a link to the PR statement about tonight's broadcast snafu,  
http://cornellbigred.cstv.com/sports/m-footbl/spec-rel/091606aaa.html[/quote]

At least they acknowledged it.  I guess that's progress.  ::nut::

[David Harding]

[quote jtwcornell91][quote bP]Here's a link to the PR statement about tonight's broadcast snafu,  
http://cornellbigred.cstv.com/sports/m-footbl/spec-rel/091606aaa.html[/quote]

At least they acknowledged it.  I guess that's progress.  ::nut::[/quote]But not even an apology for the inconvenience.

[jtwcornell91]

So does anyone have a sense of the technical issues going on behind the scenes here?  Are the features CSTV is trying to use part of Flash 8, which Adobe hasn't seen fit to release for Mac and Linux?

Here we see a weakness of the theory that the marketplace automatically leads to superior products.  If last year's webcast could compete with this flash crap, it would win.  But Cornell and CSTV only provide one option, so the choice is watching Cornell hockey via this interface, if it's even possible, or not watching at all.

And actually I'm facing this decision; since I have dual boot on my laptop, I could probably access the webcast in the platform they're trying to force us into, but it would mean 1) crippling my ability to do anything else with my laptop at the same time and 2) sacrificing my principles to enable their bullshit programming practices.  I guess it's stightly easier to stand up to them since the games start at 1am my time.  (Although if it were just this personal sacrifice, I would make it.  Further sacrificing my principles is another question.)

BTW, there's some indication that there will someday be a Flash 9 release for Linux (and possibly for OSX); who knows, maybe these will be able to play the "All"-Access webcasts:

http://weblogs.macromedia.com/emmy/archives/flash_player/index.cfm

I suppose the most sensible option is to cancel my account now, and subscribe later if a Linux solution becomes available.

[Dpperk29]

[quote jtwcornell91]
1) crippling my ability to do anything else with my laptop at the same time [/quote]

you mean you do other things besides breathing and cheering while watching cornell hockey?

[ugarte]

[quote jtwcornell91]Here we see a weakness of the theory that the marketplace automatically leads to superior products.[/quote]
Actually what we see is confirmation of the theory that monopolies distort markets and stifle development. There are no actual market forces at work in the "Cornell sports broadcasting" market because Cornell has the right to exclusively deal with CSTV.

[jtwcornell91]

[quote ugarte][quote jtwcornell91]Here we see a weakness of the theory that the marketplace automatically leads to superior products.[/quote]
Actually what we see is confirmation of the theory that monopolies distort markets and stifle development. There are no actual market forces at work in the "Cornell sports broadcasting" market because Cornell has the right to exclusively deal with CSTV.[/quote]

Right, but in a free marketplace monopolies clearly develop.  Look at how every university has an exclusive deal with Coke or Pepsi to provide beverages on their campus because the kickback they get benefits them more than letting students make their own choices would.

[KeithK]

[quote ugarte][quote jtwcornell91]Here we see a weakness of the theory that the marketplace automatically leads to superior products.[/quote]
Actually what we see is confirmation of the theory that monopolies distort markets and stifle development. There are no actual market forces at work in the "Cornell sports broadcasting" market because Cornell has the right to exclusively deal with CSTV.[/quote]I was about to argue with you since it's not Cornell's monopoly that is making CSTV go with a poor platform.  That decision is based on a different market problem - the limited number of software options for streaming audio/video and the excessive strength of Microsoft that encourages (dfirectly or indirectly) software companies to only provide Windows support.  But then I realize the real problem here is the Cornell monopoly.  When faced with poor CSTV service we have very little ability to provide market feedback to them and Cornell because there is no substitute product.  Cornell fans aren't going to suddenly watch or listen to the Clarkson game because we can't get Cornell.  (Well, there is the option to use the opponent's feed, which I generally do.)

On a tangential note, I will never understand pro sports blackout rules.  If I have a satellite dish I can't watch the Yankees game on YES when there's a local Giants or A's game on.  This assumes that I simply want to watch baseball and will watch the local team when I can't watch the game I want, which is just not true most of the time.  Yes, there is the premium service market that blackouts help prop up (e.g. MLB Extra Innings) but the blackout rules predate these services.[/rant]

[ugarte]

[quote KeithK]On a tangential note, I will never understand pro sports blackout rules.  If I have a satellite dish I can't watch the Yankees game on YES when there's a local Giants or A's game on.  This assumes that I simply want to watch baseball and will watch the local team when I can't watch the game I want, which is just not true most of the time.  Yes, there is the premium service market that blackouts help prop up (e.g. MLB Extra Innings) but the blackout rules predate these services.[/rant][/quote]The old blackout rules are in force to help sell local advertising and to protect weak markets from nationally popular teams like, say, the Yankees. The local fan base and expected viewership are factored into local ad rates. Part of those negotiated rates is the expectation that there will be no simultaneous baseball options. Not surprisingly, this is done to protect the revenues of teams and networks at the expense of fans.

It really shouldn't be surprising because this is the same industry that took decades to realize that broadcasting their games (on the radio! and then the debate revived again over television!) wasn't competition to ticket sales, but rather advertising for home games.