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Patriots or Giants?

K

kirjtc2

Guest
Well Fox has a big problem on its hands this weekend. The Patriots host the New Orleans Saints at the same time the Giants host the Philadelphia Eagles. Both games are on Fox. Fox has picked its winner...and it's not the defending champions.

Two New England Fox affiliates, Hartford and Burlington, have been assigned the Giants game. It will also be the game on the FoxNet cable feed that's shown in parts of Maine and New Hampshire. I'm sure the western and far northern reaches of Patriots Nation will not be pleased. WTIC's airing of the Giants game makes even less sense when you figure out that New York's Fox 5 is available in much of southern Connecticut, meanwhile, it is the only Fox station carried in a large part of western Massachusetts.

It can't be due to NFL territorial rules because WTIC has aired the Patriots in this situation before. According to the survey at commoncensus.org, Patriots fans outnumber Giants fans in both Hartford and Burlington by a 3-1 margin.

Yes, I know Giants fans will point out that these markets have aired the Giants for years, but when it's the regional team involved, they should put aside tradition for a week.

Thoughts?
 
> Yes, I know Giants fans will point out that these markets
> have aired the Giants for years, but when it's the regional
> team involved, they should put aside tradition for a week.
>
> Thoughts?

Yeah, Fox can go (BLEEP) themselves. They have no business broadcasting sporting events.

Burlington (where I was born and raised) is in NEW ENGLAND. They should be broadcasting the NEW ENGLAND team. I don't care that the Giants were the team of choice in New England 50 years ago, I don't care that the Giants used to train at St. Mike's, and I don't care that the other side of the lake is in Giants territory. The defending champs should be on local TV.

I've lost count of how many Pats games I missed on local TV living in Burlington, including Bledsoe's comeback against the Vikings in 1994. Luckily, I have tickets for this one, so I don't need to be subjected to Fox's condescending broadcast.
 
CBS has the doubleheader this week. WFSB-TV channel 3 will probably stick us with the Jets @ Denver for 4:15 PM. I always used to remember when the Pats and Jets were on NBC at the same time, WVIT-TV would do the occasional viewer poll (back when the NFL was on NBC). There were also times when the Jets would be on channel 30 and the Pats would be on channel 22 of Springfield, MA.
 
A similar situation arose earlier this summer when the Red Sox and Yankees both had games on Fox Saturday baseball. WTIC Fox 61 chose the Red Sox game.
 
The New York Giants are in first place (6-3) in the NFC East. Although the Philadelphia Eagles are now under .500 (thanks to Dallas' come-from-behind victory over the Eagles on the November 14th "Monday Night Football" broadcast), it may still be a critical game in the NFC East.

Philly needs to win in order to keep alive any hopes of winning the division or getting a playoff berth.

By contrast, although New England is leading the AFC East, the Pats are just 5-4. The New Orleans Saints (perhaps in large part to not having their regular home field, the Superdome, available due to damage from Hurricane Katrina) are just 2-7 and on the bottom of their division.

Thus, Fox is probably restricting the Patriots/New Orleans game to Louisiana and parts of New England (but apparently, not Vermont or Connecticut).

BTW, this week (November 20th) is a "doubelheader" week for CBS, and with the Pats playing a rare home game on Fox, WBZ-4 here in Boston won't be able to carry a 1:05 P.M. (EST) game. WBZ will carry a 4:15 game, but at this writing (November 15th), WBZ is scheduled to carry what will likely be a mismatch, the New York Jets (2-7) hosting Denver (7-2). The Jets/Denver game will also be on WFSB-3 Hartford and maybe most other CBS affiliates in the region.

I would think most other CBS affiliates across the network will carry the Indianapolis(9-0)/Cincinnati (7-2) game at 4:15 P.M. (EST) this Sunday, which is shaping up to be the NFL's "Game Of The Year".

WFSB will probably have to carry the Jets' game, but I hope WBZ (and all other CBS affiliates in New England) would get the Indy/Cincinnati game instead.
 
> FOX 61 show both. Air the New England Pats on FOX 61 and the
> NY Giants game on WTXX WB 20. Then both fans are happy.
>

The NFL would never allow that.
 
> > FOX 61 show both. Air the New England Pats on FOX 61 and
> the
> > NY Giants game on WTXX WB 20. Then both fans are happy.
> >
>
> The NFL would never allow that.
>

True I said the same thing about MLB on FOX with Red Sox and Yankees. But one market can only see one Saturday Baseball Game not two.

Getting back to this problem. Is it FOX picking which game for their stations to air or the local affilate? I would think the local station that being FOX 61 is picking which game not FOX.
 
> Getting back to this problem. Is it FOX picking which game
> for their stations to air or the local affilate?

Nope. FOX picks. The FOX Affiliates get a fax from the network indicating which game they will carry. Then FOX will automatically tune the FOX Network receivers to the FOX feed with the correct game on it...
 
> The New York Giants are in first place (6-3) in the NFC
> East. Although the Philadelphia Eagles are now under .500
> (thanks to Dallas' come-from-behind victory over the Eagles
> on the November 14th "Monday Night Football" broadcast), it
> may still be a critical game in the NFC East.
>
> Philly needs to win in order to keep alive any hopes of
> winning the division or getting a playoff berth.
>
> By contrast, although New England is leading the AFC East,
> the Pats are just 5-4. The New Orleans Saints (perhaps in
> large part to not having their regular home field, the
> Superdome, available due to damage from Hurricane Katrina)
> are just 2-7 and on the bottom of their division.
>
> Thus, Fox is probably restricting the Patriots/New Orleans
> game to Louisiana and parts of New England (but apparently,
> not Vermont or Connecticut).
>
> BTW, this week (November 20th) is a "doubelheader" week for
> CBS, and with the Pats playing a rare home game on Fox,
> WBZ-4 here in Boston won't be able to carry a 1:05 P.M.
> (EST) game. WBZ will carry a 4:15 game, but at this writing
> (November 15th), WBZ is scheduled to carry what will likely
> be a mismatch, the New York Jets (2-7) hosting Denver (7-2).
> The Jets/Denver game will also be on WFSB-3 Hartford and
> maybe most other CBS affiliates in the region.
>
> I would think most other CBS affiliates across the network
> will carry the Indianapolis(9-0)/Cincinnati (7-2) game at
> 4:15 P.M. (EST) this Sunday, which is shaping up to be the
> NFL's "Game Of The Year".
>
> WFSB will probably have to carry the Jets' game, but I hope
> WBZ (and all other CBS affiliates in New England) would get
> the Indy/Cincinnati game instead.
>

There is a solution to the problem in Western Massachusetts, well actually two possible solutions.

1. Ask FOX 61 to create a cable channel for Western Massachusetts that will air the games of the PAtriots and Red Sox. This is a viable solution to do, using WTIC DT (61.2 or 61.3), as WFSB DT 3.2 airs CBSTV 3 Springfield. This one is viable and the one that makes total sense, without having to come up with a secondary FOX station from any market in the east of Springfield.

If this one fails....

2. Carry FOX 25 out of Boston, if FOX 61 do not have exclusitivity clauses for FOX Affilliation in Western Massachusetts. If this one is not possible, go back to option 1 since all TV stations carried on the Must Carry rules must renew or review their carriage deals with the cable operators every six months, and there is where it can be brought up to Tribune's attention. Example, WGGB now wants to be the exclusive ABC station on Western Massachusetts cable systems, and as of December 14, WTNH will no longer carried on Comcast and Charter cable systems.
 
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