wallybarthman Posted September 23, 2011 Report Posted September 23, 2011 So I posted this last fall and people found it helpful so I decided to update it and re-post it. General Questions What’s a Versus exclusive window? As part of it’s deal with the NHL, Versus gets to declare a certain number of nights as “Versus exclusive” windows. This means that no other game may be broadcast in the United States except the game being broadcast by Versus. This is a NHL/Versus deal – there is nothing the Sabres or MSG can do about it. What is NBC’s flex schedule? In the spring, NBC gets to pick which game they want to air on a Sunday as the date gets closer. The idea is that NBC will pick the most compelling match up. Regardless, if NBC doesn’t chose to air the Sabres game it will be broadcast on MSG. In-market questions (relating to those living in the Sabres home broadcast area – typically Western and Central New York). Can I watch Sabres’ broadcasts in HD? Maybe – it depends both on where you live and what provider you have. Here are some simple cases: If you have DirecTV and live in the Sabres territory then you can watch every game that is available in HD in HD on channel 638-1. If you have Time Warner Cable and are in the Buffalo, Rochester, or Syracuse you can watch the Sabres in HD on the Time Warner Cable HD channel (Ch. 700 in Buffalo, Ch. 1092 in Rochester, Channel 1050 in Syracuse). If you have Time Warner Cable in other parts of New York (Albany area) you will not receive the Sabres broadcast in HD If you have Dish Network or Verizon FiOS the answer is no – regardless of where you live. Why can't I watch the Sabres on Dish Network? As of October 1st, 2010 the carriage agreement between MSG and Dish Network expired. At this point it does not look like MSG will return to Dish Network anytime soon. Do I need to have Time Warner Digital Cable to watch the Sabres in HD? The general answer is yes. But in the past (at least in Buffalo) the Sabres broadcasts have been broadcast "in the clear" on QAM. If you have a HDTV with a QAM tuner you can try plugging your coax cable from the wall directly into your TV and then scanning your digital channels. You'll need to try this during a game. Why can’t I watch the Sabres in HD on FiOS? MSG has not allowed FiOS to carry MSG HD. You can call and yell at FiOS as much as you want but the general feeling is that this is MSG’s decision and not Verizon's. There is currently a federal law known as the “terrestrial loophole” that allows broadcasts that are transmitted in a certain way to be withheld from other providers. In this case, MSG distributes MSG HD via Fibre Optic cable and they are therefore not required to make MSG HD available to all providers. They have, for whatever reason, given DirecTV access to MSG HD but have not done so for FiOS. There is some hope however. Last Spring the FCC’s board voted to close this loophole. However.... it's been held up in the courts. Is there hope of Verizon getting MSG HD anytime soon? Yes! The FCC has ordered MSG to provide MSG HD to Verizon within the next 30 days (as of September 22nd). However, MSG will certainly appeal this ruling in the courts and drag on the dispute. Why aren't the Sabres on the regular MSG HD channel like they are in SD? Great question. I believe it has to do with how the Sabres games are telecast and distributed. As noted above, MSG HD is distributed by Fibre Optic while MSG SD is distributed via Satellite. The Sabres telecasts originate from HSBC arena rather than MSG's broadcast headquarters so the feed comes in separate from the regular MSG HD feed. At one time in the Rochester market MSG HD did carry the Sabres in HD on the MSG HD channel, but that ended around the middle of last season. Why can’t I watch some Sabres games when they’re on the NHL Network? When the Sabres are broadcast on the NHL Network (preseason excluded) they’re also available on MSG. In this case, all local viewers will be blacked out of the NHL Network’s telecast so to protect the local broadcast. Why can't I watch Sabres pre-seasons games that are on the NHL Network? The local broadcast rights to all Sabres games, pre-season included, are owned by MSG Network. Whether or not MSG actually broadcasts a game locally, that doesn't change the fact that the NHL Network does not have the rights to broadcast these games in the local area. Why can't I use NHL Game Center to watch the Sabres? GameCenter is an out-of-market solution similar to NHL Center Ice. Because the game is available locally it will be blacked out on NHL Game Center if you're within the Sabres home territory. Out of Market Questions What does it mean that I’m in a secondary market? Some areas of the country are shared territory for two teams. For example in northern PA (near Erie) if you have DirecTV you’ll receive both Sabres and Penguins games on DirecTV without subscribing to NHL Center Ice. However, when the Sabres and the Penguins play, you’ll be blacked out of the Sabres broadcast because your primary team is the Penguins. What do I need to purchase to watch the Sabres if I’m outside of the local viewing area? Your only (legal) option is to purchase NHL Center Ice through your Cable, Telco, or Satellite provider. What if I want to watch every Sabres game in HD? If you want to watch the Sabres in HD your only option is to get DirecTV plus NHL Center Ice. If you get NHL Center Ice through your Cable or Telco provider you may receive some games in HD but you will not get them all. NHL Center Ice on cable/telco have (in the past) only broadcast one or at most two games in HD at the same time. The rest have all been in SD. It is very unlikely that this will change dramatically this year. There’s a Sabres game on tonight, but I can’t watch it on MSG/It’s not listed as part of NHL Center Ice. Why? There’s a couple reasons. The first and most likely is that the Sabres are playing whatever team is your home market team, so you have to watch your home telecast. In my case, being near Pittsburgh, when the Sabres play the Penguins I have to watch the RootSports Pittsburgh broadcast – no way around it. The other reason is that the game may be available on Versus or NHL Network as a national broadcast, which means you have to watch the national telecast. This will happen when the Sabres are on Hockey Night in Canada which is simulcast on the NHL Network or if Versus picks up some non-exclusive games in the spring (like they did last year). I have NHL Center Ice on Dish Network. Will the dispute between MSG and Dish Network effect me? No it won't. The Sabres games will be available on Dish Network for out-of-market subscribers. I really don’t want to spend the money for NHL Center Ice/I don’t have Cable/Telco/Satellite, what are my other options? The NHL does have NHL Game Center, an online version of NHL Center Ice that you can purchase and watch games via the Internet. Another legal option is to find a friend who gets the Sabres games and give them a slingbox. This handy little device will then stream the game from your friend’s house to your house via the Internet. Be warned though, the quality will depend a great deal on your friend’s upstream internet connection. Slingbox over a 512k or even 1 Mbps connection is pretty grainy at best. If your friend has something faster, like FiOS (which is 5 Mbps) you can expect a pretty good looking pictures. How's the picture quality on NHL Game Center? All in all, the quality is somewhere between SD quality and HD quality. It's not as good as the HD picture you'd get from Center Ice but it's better than an SD picture for sure. You'll need an internet connection that can support 3 Mbps downloads at the very least (I'd suggest a 5 Mbps connection at minimum) There are other online options, but the legality of these is debatable.
repster Posted September 23, 2011 Report Posted September 23, 2011 Here's a link to the Sabres MSG TV schedule and which channel it will be on depending on where you are in Western NY. Sabres haven't released this yet, but MSG has: http://www.msg.com/our-teams/sabres/2011-12-sabres-schedule-1.70468
TheMatrix31 Posted September 24, 2011 Report Posted September 24, 2011 Some of these are so....draconian. Versus exclusive nights? Does that mean that they're not broadcast even in the local market? That's pretty absurd to say the least. As for me, well, no money to get CI. I'll have to find alternate means yet again.
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