NBC in Tampa Continues to Think Helping Sick Kids More Important Than Stanley Cup Finals
May 29, 2009 5 Comments
This from Tom Jones (isn’t that unusual?) of the 2 Cents blog on TampaBay.com:
As of right now, local hockey fans will not be able to watch Game 1 of the Stanley Cup final Saturday night.
The game between the Detroit Red Wings and Pittsburgh Penguins is being shown nationally at 8 p.m. on NBC, but Ch. 8, the local NBC affiliate, will not carry the game because of its 26th annual All Children’s Hospital Telethon, which runs from 8:30 Saturday night until 6:30 p.m. Sunday.
The only hope left is the NHL farms out the rights to NBC’s broadcast to another local station, but as of now, no deals have been struck and it’s not known if the NHL is negotiating with another station.
This happened last season, too, when Game 3 of the Cup final was pre-empted because of the telethon. Bright House Networks showed the game on what was then called Catch 47 (now Bright House Sports Network), but non-Bright House subscribers did not see the game.
Where do these people get off with their idea that these children are more important than a hockey game? It’s ridiculous really. But, on a serious note, you just have to hope that in Tampa they find another station to put the game on.
Puck The Media 
I’m nowhere near Tampa Bay, so I’m not an expert, but maybe they could make a deal with the Lightning and/or Sun Sports Channel?
You are a genious. Sun Sports is going to pick up game 1 in the Tampa area!
You know perhaps this year they thought they’d be ok since the Finals weren’t going to be held until the 5th. But I know when our local channels do telathons up here in Minnesota if its an important game they stop the telathon for a few hours show the game and then continue. I think Game 1 of the Cup Finals would be important. But it sounds like this is for a good cause just hope for the people in Tampa they find another network to have the game on.
Here in Albany, NY, the local FOX affiliate will be airing a similar local telethon on Sunday. The FOX network is carrying a NASCAR race then, so what they’re doing is moving the race to a digital subchannel (which is deep in digital cable-land) and also letting the cable company air it on an open analog channel. Satellite subscribers without an antenna are SOL.
We viewers are losing the “battle of the subchannel”. FOX actually did the right thing, allowing their renegade affiliate to put network programming on the digital subchannel.
NBC had the arrogance to demand that their programming be on the main channel, or be blocked (as it’s been for the last 26 years).
Since we viewers pay for the airwaves, it’s worth complaining to the FCC. And the FCC makes that easy – just go to their web-form at
http://esupport.fcc.gov/complaints.htm?sid=d1e640&id=d1e735
and let them know that NBC blocking programming is against public interest.
My view – I don’t care if programming is on “.1” or “.2” just don’t block it…..
As much as I disagreed with my NBC affiliate showing a telethon instead of network programming for the last 26 years, I admire their efforts to put network programming on their digital subchannel for the last two years. Last year they “got away with it”, this year the NBC gremlins shut it down.