Maybe CBS should give up March Madness
It seems that March Madness has passed CBS by. Its contract runs out in 2013, and it’s time for another network to get a crack at the event.
While the coverage of the actual games has been up to par, the network’s indecision and lethargy in terms of switching from game to game has been very prominent this year. It has happened throughout the tournament, but the most recent dereliction in duty centered around the Duke/Cal game. Living in Southern California, I knew we were going to get most of the Cal game — and as a Duke fan, I had no problem with it — but the Blue Devils were up double digits for most of the second half and CBS stuck with the game for far too long.
Pitt/Xavier and Purdue/A&M were both tighter contests and were coming down to the wire. Finally, with under a minute to play, the network switched to the Pitt/Xavier game, but then inexplicably switched back once Xavier went up by six — with 0:25 on the clock — so we missed Gilbert Brown’s three that cut the lead in half. Duke was up 17 points at the time, and I’d wager that even the most die-hard Cal fan had already seen enough. We would have missed most of the Purdue/A&M finish as well, but luckily that game went into overtime so we were able to see an extra five minutes of the great knock-down, drag-out brawl that it was.
This wouldn’t matter as much if CBS’ online programming — March Madness On Demand — worked as advertised. I have a pretty up to date computer, and the MMOD feeds hang with regularity. When I restart the window, I end up getting video that’s 15 or 20 minutes old. At one point, I just gave up and watched whatever the network decided to broadcast — which is how I ended up in the middle of that Duke/Cal debacle. And it’s not like the technology doesn’t exist. NBA League Pass Broadband isn’t perfect, but I can watch three games at once without anything hanging, plus the picture is better, so its engine would be a vast improvement over whatever system CBS is using.
Then there’s CBS’ sister network, CBS-College Sports, which was inexplicably covering women’s college bowling at one point when there were other March Madness games to broadcast. Instead, CBS-CS should be used to show four games at once (via split-screen, like DirecTV’s NFL Game Mix Channel), so that those of us with bigger televisions could enjoy all the tournament action at once. Instead, we have three or four guys whom I’ve never seen before, sitting around what looks like sports desk at a small college A/V department previewing upcoming games, or worse, discussing ongoing games that can’t be watched, or even worse, women’s college bowling.
Wouldn’t March Madness be a perfect fit for ABC/ESPN? The Worldwide Leader already has an established foothold in college basketball, and they do far more to cover the sport throughout the week than CBS can do on the weekends (once football season is over, of course). The marquee game (i.e. national feed) could be broadcast on ABC, with ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPNU (which are all available in my market in HD) could broadcast the other 2-3 games that are being played at the same time. Local markets could still get their local game, though it may mean that one of the other games would be unavailable on the ESPN channels. (I don’t think ESPN has the ability to broadcast different games in different parts of the country.) Anyway, who cares? Viewers would have their choice of watching 3-4 games, presumably in HD. ESPN could even use ESPNews to broadcast the aforementioned Game Mix Channel. Everyone wins.
Like most of the programming on CBS, the network is simply skewing older. The days when viewers would quietly swallow whatever the networks decided to broadcast are long gone. Younger audiences want it all — better quality picture and more choice — and CBS isn’t keeping up with the times.
It’s time to pass the ball.
Photo from fOTOGLIF
Shame you don’t live in NC. Local cable company carries four CBS channels at tournament time, all in HD. 1051-1054 if I remember correctly. If a game sucks, I switch to another one. If a game goes to commercial, I switch to another one.
Really can’t beat the first weekend of the tournament as a television viewing experience.
That sounds nice — is it PPV? I hear that it’s available in some areas around the country. There doesn’t seem to be a March Madness package available with TW in SoCal.
Who cares about history, tradition, and loyalty. Let’s just wrestle the tournament from the network that it’s popularity was built on because you have issues with your router, browser, or ISP. I watched the online feed for most of the weekend and didn’t have a single issue, and the online feed was actually a few seconds ahead of my Directv feed. I’ll agree that their choices for game to game switch have been suspect, but that’s what comes with the first couple of rounds, especially when there are popular teams that draw ratings, involved in blowouts.
I’m all for change when there is a good reason, but in my opinion, excluding “older” viewers preferences to cater to a younger audience that can’t pay attention more than a 45 second span, isn’t one of them. And sometimes, you just don’t need to screw with something that has been outstanding for nearly 30 years.
That’s why I love DirecTV’s Mega March Madness. I get all the games … in HD … at the same time. I get the Game Mix Channel and the ability to flip to the game that seems as if it the best.
No issues with my router, browser or ISP, T-Bone. I’m glad you had a better experience, but others have reported similar issues as mine. Maybe the CBS servers for your area weren’t as busy as mine.
ESPN has a built-in infrastructure that would allow the network to broadcast all of the games in HD for free…no PPV…no packages, just good, complete coverage.
You may call CBS’ coverage outstanding, but these issues have been growing for some time. I remember the network dropping the ball on late-game situations last year as well.
Instead of looking for the best possible way to broadcast these games, let’s keep our heads buried in the sand and do things the same way because, hell, that’s the way we’ve always done it.
And DirecTV is not an option, unfortunately. No view of the southern horizon for me or millions of other viewers who live in condos or apartments.
Not a PPV thing. As far as I can tell it’s part of my basic HD package. The channels show up in March for the tournament, and go away shortly thereafter. I’ve never been charged extra for it.
I’ve had issues with Time Warner’s other decisions on what channels to carry, but I love this little feature they have.
TW gave me a free preview of CBS-CS, but after seeing what kind of programming they were broadcasting during March Madness, I don’t really want it. They did show those 2 PM PT games on Thursday and Friday, so that was nice.
Don’t know that I’ve ever seen CBS-CS. As far as I can tell these are just different feeds of standard CBS split onto different channels. They all go back to the same studio show, have the same commercials, etc. If there aren’t multiple games going on at the moment then the extra channels just have a static screen with the tournament theme playing and text saying when the next game is going to start.
Really a pretty easy way to handle it when you think about it. CBS is a national network, they have crews at every site and what game you’re getting is dependent on the market you live in. So just give access to the CBS feed that another market is seeing, most of the sold ad time for these things is going to be national anyway.
CBS favors Dook just like ESPN does (and obviously the selection committee judging by the bracket they’re in) but I would agree that if a team is up big they should switch to the closer match-up. My gripe is, I’m an Mich St fan and was glad to watch MSU beating up on Maryland. At one point we were up 15 and seem to be running away with the game. I was content with them switching to a closer game during the 2nd half. My problem is CBS switched to the WV/Missouri game. While they did that MSU started blowing their lead and the WV game had almost a full 2min of more gametime left. CBS finally switched back to the MSU game with under a min left. I got to see my Spartans pull of that buzzer beater but again….that game was closer and had less time in it but CBS figures that everyone wants to see the higher seeds play. Sorry but a #4/#5 matchup is better than a #2/#10 matchup.
Well, an exciting game is an exciting game, no matter the seeds. In your situation, if you’re in a Michigan State market, they should have gotten you back to the MSU game when the lead was cut to six or so. That’s when a team is in real danger.
The other option is a split screen. I don’t know why CBS doesn’t utilize this more often and call the games from the studio like DirecTV does at times with the Red Zone Channel.
This year I’ll enjoy my March Madness with DISH Network and I know I’ll get it in the best HD possible. As a subscriber I got my self hooked up with their HD free for life programming, and as an employee I know they’re still offering it. Get it in HD before 2011 Madness begins!