[BBobley]

On December 3, Multichannel News posted an article entitled:

Deployment Issues Keep HDTV Fuzzy


(note: subscription required to read entire article).


There was a small bit in the article about ESPN-HD:


"Content is on the way. ESPN executive VP of affiliate sales and marketing Sean Bratches said the sports network is about 118 days away from an HD offering with major-league sports, which should drive HDTV. “We’re very optimistic about it and we’re charging forward,†he added."



Brett

 

[mknoebel]

Nice! Thanks for the info!!


Anyone have time to figure out what date is 118 days from now?

 

[wstanko]

Quote:

Originally posted by mknoebel Nice! Thanks for the info!! Anyone have time to figure out what date is 118 days from now?

About April 6th or so. My life is very uneventful and this counting provided me with fulfillment and joy.

 

[MurrayW]

April 6th, major league sports...pretty close to the opening of major league baseball season! Doesn't ESPN broadcast Sunday night baseball -- this would probably be the first Sunday night game of the season.

 

[Fran O'Hern]

Also close to the beginning of the NBA and NHL playoofs.

 

[alczervik]

anyone have a 118 day time machine?


-nate

 

[MurrayW]

Quote:

Also close to the beginning of the NBA and NHL playoofs.

Close, but ESPN does not cover the NBA playoffs, and 118 days from now is Sunday April 6th which I just checked WILL be the first Sunday night baseball game for the 2003 season. My money would be on baseball!

 

[hpierce]

ESPN usually has a large plate of Opening Day MLB coverage, maybe this day will be the grand premier.

 

[sangs]

Quote:

Originally posted by MurrayW Close, but ESPN does not cover the NBA playoffs, and 118 days from now is Sunday April 6th which I just checked WILL be the first Sunday night baseball game for the 2003 season. My money would be on baseball!

Whaddya mean ESPN doesn't cover the NBA playoffs? You mean to tell me that Disney/ABC/ESPN shelled out millions for NBA rights only to have ESPN not televise any playoff games? That doesn't make a whole world of sense. I'm not saying it isn't true since I don't know the particulars of the contract, but that would seem very odd if it were the case.

 

[MurrayW]

Well I could be wrong about the NBA playoffs. It's always been NBC in the past and that was what I was basing my "facts" on. If Disney/ABC/ESPN now have the contract, then I would bet that some games, especially the early rounds, would be on ESPN. Since the NBA playoffs don't start until a few days after Apr 16th (last game in the regular season), I would still bet the 118 days refers to MLB. But that doesn't mean that they couldn't also broadcast some NBA playoff games in HD also...just that the first event would be a Sunday night baseball game.


These are just my opinions, so I may be totally off base...

 

[Charles O]

ESPN and TNT share coverage of the first 2 rounds of the NBA Playoffs. ESPN has exclusive coverage of the NBA Conference Finals. ABC will air the NBA Finals.

 

[JMartinko]

ESPN still has an NHL contract and could also cover some NHL playoff games in the early rounds (fingers and eyes crossed). That would especially be great since HDNet can't telecast playoff games. ABC still has the finals, and as I recall from other threads, they already announced they were doing next years NHL and NBA finals in HD. I didn't look it up though, so if I remembered it wrong feel free to post a correction. It would seem to make sense though if they are producing the finals in HD that doing some early round games on ESPN for practice might make some sense. It certainly couldn't hurt the appeal for a brand new HD channel either, at least not in my house.

 

[Ken Ross]

Somebodys got to carry this for us too see it. I've seen no committment from any provider to carry ESPN HD yet.

 

[jeffden]

Ken,


That was my thought also.


Jeff

 

[gpflepsen]

Quote:

Originally posted by Ken Ross Somebodys got to carry this for us too see it. I've seen no committment from any provider to carry ESPN HD yet.

The way I see it, Dishnetwork positions themself and claims to be the leader in HDTV content. If they fail to carry ESPN-HD they will collectively piss off myself and (can I say tens of thousands) other DishNetwork subscribers. I hope push doesn't come to shove getting me off their sub. list.

 

[aviators99]

Why are you guys figuring out 118 days from today, when the article was posted on December 3rd? March 31st is the date.

 

[MrGonk]

ESPN-HD will be a pretty hot commodity for the Dish companies, and anyone doing HD over cable as well. It'll be interesting to see who gets it and when. I seriously doubt ESPN will launch without a carrier, that would be a failure by all parties.


I have to wonder what it's going to look like. I'm sure they've got what relatively little studio stuff they do ready to go with HD cameras and editing, but I have to wonder how many of these sporting events will actually be shot in HD. Think about it, the networks can't seem to muster up the ability to cover more than one sporting event a week, and now ESPN, which covers many events, some out of the country, and more than one per day, will suddenly be shooting everything in HD? I don't think so. I think we'll be seeing a lot of upconverted material, though probably the bulk of primetime and high-profile events will be shot in HD. And think about how much of their content comes from other sources. I certainly wouldn't be holding my breath for all, or even any, of the clips on SportsCenter to be real HD. I'm excited, but I have to wonder exactly how much of a gain it will be.

 

[MurrayW]

Quote:

aviators99 Why are you guys figuring out 118 days from today, when the article was posted on December 3rd? March 31st is the date.

I didn't suscribe so I didn't actually read the link that was supplied. March 31st just happens to be the opening day for MLB...

 

[Ken H]

The original press release said '100 live telecasts in the first year', which would roughly be a live HDTV sports event every 3-4 days. With that kind of commitment, who cares what it initially looks like or how much upconversion is done? Not me. Get on the air, do as much as you can, as best you can and we'll support it. It will only get better as time goes on. The press release also said 'most studio shows, including SportsCenter, will be added in 2004'.


I don't think too many viewers will have a problem getting ESPN HD, from cable or DBS. Anybody left at the gate on this one will soon be second guessing themselves.

 

[JediMastr]

...as long as there's no extra charge like Discovery.