TBS/TNT Sucks

[MarcB]

I think it was pretty crappy the way TBS cut-off the last 10 minutes of Family Guy last night and switched over to a stupid NBA game that would eventually be switched over to sister network TNT.Family Guy went into commerical break at about 10:45PM/Eastern. At 10:50PM a Sports Announcer for TNT comes on and says (These are my words not his) "We're interrupting Family Guy to bring you some stupid basketball game because the game that's on TNT now is running long. As soon as that game ends we'll switch the game over to TNT and TBS will join regular programming in progress."This was so stupid. They should've either delayed the start of the second NBA Game or joined it in progress on TNT. Delaying the starting times of games has been before as seen in the example below from when I was in radio.Back in 2002 I was a board operator at WNTY radio in Connecticut. The station carried NCAA Playoff Games from Westwood One. WNTY was gonna be carrying 3 games all on different Westwood One Satellite Channels. I was board-oping the second game. According to the schedule we got from the network the 3rd game was gonna start at 6:00PM. By 5:30PM it was obvious the 2nd game wasn't gonna be over until well after 6PM. I asked the GM what we were gonna do. And he said we'd join the 3rd game in progress after game 2 finished. At 5:45PM the announcer for Westwood One said that they would be delaying the start time of Game 3 until after Game 2 finsihed.

 

[ten_four]

The best guess is that Turner is contractually obiligated to carry every game from start to finish. I haven't seen the contract, so I don't officially know. Also, the NBA is a different animal from the NCAA tournament, carried on only one network, and totally controlled by the NCAA. NBA games in this round of playoffs can be seen on several different networks over the series.

 

[Braves2005]

TBS hasn't remotely carried basketball(except for some playoff games) since they carried the Atlanta Hawks basketball games so I was surprised by this as well.

 

[KOHS]

Speaking of TNT...Did anyone else who watched the Suns/Clippers game detect a bit of bias toward the Clippers on the part of the paly-by-play announcers? Here are some sample comments (paraphrased as I recall hearing them) made during the game:"The Clippers are in a great position; only down by five points. They are within striking distance.""The Clippers just need Sam Cassell to get going to get them back in the game.""When you look at the stats from game three, you realize that the Clippers should have won that game.""The Clippers are going to be very disappointed when they review the game film and realize they gave this game to Phoenix." (What? The Suns couldn't win the game if the Clippers didn't give them the game?!?! Give me a break!)"The Clippers need to do x,y,z to get back in the game."Ok, so why not talk about the Suns, too? Like, what they needed to do to maintain their lead and put the Cliipers away? Oh, right! Billy Crystal and Penny Marshall are Clippers fans. I get it! (Did you see the look on Crystal's face when TNT was going to a commercial break toward the end of the game? Priceless!)What was also surprising was all of the highlights reviewed/discussed during (and after) the game. It seemed to be comprised disproportionately of Clippers plays...even when they were losing.I realize that LA is the larger TV market, but the larger market team didn't hold the lead in the game for longer than a few minutes!

 

[Braves2005]

The Clippers have not been in the playoffs in quite a few years so I guess that they have to talk about them more than they would the Suns.ESPN does the favortism bit as well when it comes to the Yankees and the Red Soxs in that they talk about the Yankees a little bit more than they do the Red Soxs.

 

[radiolives]

The Clippers have not been in the playoffs in quite a few years so I guess that they have to talk about them more than they would the Suns.ESPN does the favortism bit as well when it comes to the Yankees and the Red Soxs in that they talk about the Yankees a little bit more than they do the Red Soxs.

I am a Red Sox fan and I don't see ESPN favoring the Yankees. This week it looks like they are favoring the Red Sox as they are on three times this week. They were on yesturday, going to be on Wednesday and then Thursday. Also I think they talk about both clubs just about equal. ESPN loves talking about how great Fenway is and all. If theirs anyone favoring the Yankees its FOX. Right now I see ESPN all over Bond's. Whenever Bonds comes up to the plate its SportsCenter Breaking News and they cut right to FSN Bay Area.

 

[mr_mark_taylor]

TBS hasn't remotely carried basketball(except for some playoff games) since they carried the Atlanta Hawks basketball games so I was surprised by this as well.

looks like turner has taken a page from ESPN's book (when something goes over on ESPN they start game 2 on ESPN2)

 

[JeeperOne]

Hi everyone:

Speaking of TNT...Did anyone else who watched the Suns/Clippers game detect a bit of bias toward the Clippers on the part of the paly-by-play announcers? Here are some sample comments (paraphrased as I recall hearing them) made during the game:

[snip...]That's because the Clippers are from LOS ANGELES For some oddball reason, the networks - all of them - are ALWAYS biased towards teams from cities like Los Angeles, Chicago, Detroit, Miami and New York (Though not so much this year for the latter 'cause they sucked and didn't even have a .500 season!). Nevermind the fact the team from Los Angeles (now) was the Clippers instead of the Lakers. They're still an NBA team from L.A.That's why playoff teams like the Suns (And the Nuggets before them) don't get any respect (even though the Clippers swept the Nuggets in the first round).Speaking of the Nuggets-Clippers series, Game 3 was delayed by some fifteen minutes - from a 10:30 PM ET START because of a Miami-Chicago game which wasn't even close. I remember flipping between TNT and Altitude (the latter being the network that covers all Nuggets games that aren't televised exclusively on a national basis) and you could see Altitude was ad-libbing it's way through (what turned out to be) the late stages of the pre-game show. This was because even though everyone at Pepsi Center was ready to go, TNT - for whatever reason - was not.As a result, the game itself didn't end until somewhere around Midnight LOCAL. And this was a regulation four quarter game. How much do you wanna bet the local nets like Altitude will petition the NBA to change this?Thoughts anyone?Anyhow....Just my opinion Cheers Pat