34 How Can I Know Which NBA And NHL Games Are On The Birds?
Description
This article is from the Satellite TV FAQ, by Gary Bourgois flash@lopez.marquette.mi.us with numerous contributions by others.
34 How Can I Know Which NBA And NHL Games Are On The Birds?
There is a schedule, put out by
Sports Scheduling
P.O. Box 5756
Fargo, ND 58105
When a local station or sports network has a game there is usually a
"Backhaul" (direct feed from the event back to the studio, if the game is
out of town from the originating station. (Otherwise they don't need a
bird). Now some of these satellite channels are known in advance, for
example the games broadcast on the superstations like WTBS or the various
SportsChannels. This is *not* the case, however, for the "feeds" from the
arenas back to the local broadcast station. These feeds are paid for by
the hour, and (usually) the cheapest or most convenient satellite and
transponder are utilized, so it's not generally possible to predict in
advance exactly what satellite "channel" will be used for a given game.
Mike Northam regularly posts the games that he sees in Oregon, AFTER the
fact. Some wonder what value there is in this.
Mike says:
>My listings, taken over time, however, do show patterns. For example, I
>know from experience that if I want to see a Blazer game, the *most
>likely* location for a feed is on G6. So far this season, all the Blazer
>Cable games have been on G6-14, so that's going to be the first place I
>look for a game. Most of the Utah Jazz games have been on G6 or T1. The
>Bulls tend to be on G2, etc. When Portland plays at Utah, I'll look on
>G6, since a lot of Bonneville (Salt Lake uplink) transmissions are found
>there. Most NBA cities similarly have "preferred" locations, either due
>to limitations/preferences of the transmitting uplink or the downlink
>(for example, KSTU in Salt Lake City may have only one fixed dish
>available for such purposes).
NOTE: In 1994, the NFL scrambled. Backhauls are not available and Feeds
for FOX and NBC are LEITCH Encryped and not available to the home dish
owner. That is the BAD news. For those who are football fans, the GOOD
news is that ALL the games ARE available via SEASON TICKET, and all on
the T-303 satellite. The not so good news is that the costs is $139.00,
which may or may not be a good value depending on how much you like football.
Also if you live in a blackout area, your team games WILL be blacked out.
The transponders being used are the same ones TVN uses for pay per view
movies and events. Many football fans are happy because they did not like
"Hunting" for their games.
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