Monday, October 20, 2008

P.S., you're missing one who falls between P and S in the alphabet

TSN/TSN2 put out a press release today trumpeting that it is in 3.2 million homes less than two months out from its Aug. 29 launch.

To pick up a thread Duane started Oct. 16, guess which cable provider, one that is fairly omnipresent in the GTA and rhymes with "Jeff Odgers," is not on the list. There is the small matter that the Toronto Raptors still have no broadcast schedule posted eight days ahead of their regular-season opener (which will be on The Score). The estimable Doug Smith has reported ("Of TV and Roko and all kinds of fun stuff," Oct. 16) that about half of TSN's games will be on be on the spin-off network. TSN also a basketball writers' roundtable on their mainpage right now — which is awesome to see and shows they really want to push the basketball, but makes it even more odd why this has not been settled. Far be it wonder who is at fault when you're offering an outsiders' perspective. However, TSN and Shaw Cable got a deal worked out last month when it looked like one Edmonton Eskimos game that was put on TSN2 due to a conflict with the Ryder Cup might not be available in that team's home market.

For the record, TSN2 is on 20 cable systems across this country (in this age of media concentration, who knew there were even 20?
Access Communications, Aliant TV, Amtelecom, Bell TV, Bluewater TV Cable, City West Cable & Telephone Corp, Coast Cable, Cogeco Cable (Ontario), Cogeco Cable (Quebec), Delta Cable, EastLink, Ex-Cen Cablevision, Nexicom Communications, Novus Entertainment, Persona (Ontario), Shaw Cable, Star Choice, SaskTel, Telus TV, Westman Communications Group
That suggests it is really inexcusable to not have something worked out with the biggest provider in the GTA and by extension much of Ontario, which has the heaviest concentration of Raptors fans per capita. TSN can act quickly when it's CFL fans in Alberta, but it's hard cheese for Toronto-area basketball fans? (Then again, which one is the have-not province, thanks again Mr. McGuinty?)

It also concerns Ottawa Senators fans. The Sennies are the only Canadian NHL team which will have first-run games shown on TSN2 — Dec. 10 at Chicago and Mar. 25 vs. Carolina at home, and Rogers has most of the Ottawa market too.

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