The latest on NBAtv.com from InDemand

[Snoopy the Celtics Beagle <snoopy@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Here's the world-famous detective Beagle, searching for the infamous 
NBAtv.com broadcasts...

I talked to someone AT InDemand today, and here's the deal, both the 
history, the present, and the future:

The NBA, last January, cranked out a deal with the satellite people to 
establish NBAtv.com as a regular channel.  They did NOT, however, mention 
this to any of the cable providers.  It was presented to them as a done 
deal.  They replied, basically, "oh, yeah?"  Thus, the cable subscribers 
lost NBAtv.

Just this week, an agreement was reached with two major cable 
providers--Comcast, and (I THINK, he said) Time Warner--to provide NBAtv on 
a regular basis.

In addition, starting YESTERDAY (April 21), ALL Cable providers who had the 
League Pass from inDemand, SHOULD have broadcast the NBAtv.com games FOR 
THE NEXT TWO WEEKS as a freebie deal.  This, in response to overwhelming 
negative response from fans over the hijacking of playoff games for an 
audience of five people.

These broadcasts should be on your local equivalent of "NBA channel 5" on 
your League Pass system, and the on-screen schedule should reflect 
that.  According to the man I spoke with, he said you would probably only 
get the actual games, and that the channel would be blocked otherwise.  I 
repeat, that's NBA 5--NOT the NBAtv.com channel itself, and likely ONLY for 
the games themselves.

Yes, they're being really cheap.

The InDemand people are stuck.  The negotiations are between the NBA and 
the various cable providers directly.  The man who called me (which was 
nice of him) took the number of my local cable provider (Cox Cable) and 
said that in addition to calling his normal contact in Marketing at Cox, he 
would call the local office, explain the situation, and have them call em 
back to confirm that the service was set up.

So, those of you who, like me, are on the outside looking in, give your 
provider a call.  This all came down yesterday, so the customer reps may 
not yet have any info on it.  You might have to push to talk to a 
supervisor, preferable in marketing/programming.  Also, if you contact the 
InDemand people, by phone or on their website, they will do what they can 
to help.

Negotiations are still ongoing with the other cable providers, he had no 
recent info on that.  But with more people now carrying the channel, it's a 
matter of time.

By the way, he wasn't impressed with the trick camera angles, either, but 
he can't stop that, he recommended calling NBAtv.com directly to make fun 
of their camera tricks directly.  :>))

OK, I paraphrased that last part, but the advice is still sound.

Snoopy the Celtics Beagle
Please visit the <http://www.celticsbeagle.net/>Celtics Beagle Website