Re: The latest on NBAtv.com from InDemand

["Dan Forant" <dforant1@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Correcto, I called my provider yesterday and they said no televised events
for the 21st. TNT etc., will pick up the games. Just luckily while surfing
8:30 the Celts are being shown on NBA tv. So anyway I got to watch a game
that really irritated me. Initially I thought the Celts were inferior to the
Pacers. This team can be had. Will we have them? Who knows.

DanF

----- Original Message -----
From: "Snoopy the Celtics Beagle" <snoopy@celticsbeagle.net>
To: <celtics@igtc.com>
Cc: <Celticsstuffgroup@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Tuesday, April 22, 2003 11:22 AM
Subject: The latest on NBAtv.com from InDemand


> 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