# Notre Dame-Stanford in SD on ESPN2 Alt



## noordam (Apr 13, 2008)

Any reason why Notre Dame- Stanford is in unwatchable SD on ESPN2 Alternate instead of HD on ESPN2? Georgia-Georgia Tech is in HD on ABC in the Southeast and ABC/ESPN have been saying all week we would see both games one on ABC and one on ESPN2, which is which depends on the area of the country.


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## sigma1914 (Sep 5, 2006)

Because ESPN says so:


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## Hoosier205 (Sep 3, 2007)

noordam said:


> Any reason why Notre Dame- Stanford is in unwatchable SD on ESPN2 Alternate instead of HD on ESPN2? Georgia-Georgia Tech is in HD on ABC in the Southeast and ABC/ESPN have been saying all week we would see both games one on ABC and one on ESPN2, which is which depends on the area of the country.


It's on ABC here.


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## JosephB (Nov 14, 2005)

Because it's on ESPN2 Alternate. DirecTV hasn't dedicated the bandwidth for ESPN2 Alternate to be in HD.


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## sigma1914 (Sep 5, 2006)

JosephB said:


> Because it's on ESPN2 Alternate. DirecTV hasn't dedicated the bandwidth for ESPN2 Alternate to be in HD.


It's got nothing to do with Directv's bandwidth. It is in SD where the UGA/Tech game is on ABC because ESPN says so....look at the map I posted.


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## Msguy (May 23, 2003)

I am also watching the Notre Dame @ Stanford Game on ESPN Alternate channel 211 because My local ABC is carrying Georgia and Georgia Tech. Why in the HELL can't ABC-ESPN allow us to see the alternate games in HD? WHY WHY WHY?


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## JoeTheDragon (Jul 21, 2008)

Msguy said:


> I am also watching the Notre Dame @ Stanford Game on ESPN Alternate channel 211 because My local ABC is carrying Georgia and Georgia Tech. Why in the HELL can't ABC-ESPN allow us to see the alternate games in HD? WHY WHY WHY?


ESPN does not have that much HD unlink space.


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## Coca Cola Kid (Jul 19, 2009)

I had both games in HD. ND Stan was on ABC HD and UGA GT was on ESPN HD. Nothing on ESPN alt


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## tivoboy (Aug 16, 2006)

It was on ABC in the west, but my question is. Didn't Notre Dame sign some 10 year national contract with NBC?


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## bamaweather (Jan 18, 2009)

tivoboy said:


> It was on ABC in the west, but my question is. Didn't Notre Dame sign some 10 year national contract with NBC?


It's the home team's TV contract that determines who carries the game. This game was at Stanford.


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## JoeTheDragon (Jul 21, 2008)

bamaweather said:


> It's the home team's TV contract that determines who carries the game. This game was at Stanford.


so why is the system setup like that so you can be foreced to pay up to $40 to see you team on road or not at all as other team can make it in there area only or do they also need to offer it to the area that the road team is from as well?


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## bamaweather (Jan 18, 2009)

JoeTheDragon said:


> so why is the system setup like that so you can be foreced to pay up to $40 to see you team on road or not at all as other team can make it in there area only or do they also need to offer it to the area that the road team is from as well?


Well, usually if it's a non-conference game between two competitive schools, the game will be carried nationally anyhow. You're more likely to get screwed if it's a smaller school in a non-conference game. If it's a conference game, your team pretty much has the same contract as they school they are competing against, so it's more than likely going to be available in your area.

Often times, if a game is locally-produced for the home school, arrangements are made to carry it in the away team's market as well.

The only BCS conference that has big TV problems now (in my mind) is the Big 12. They still have several conference games that aren't carried on TV at all - not even PPV. The SEC was like that as well until this season.

Fortunately for us, most of the channels that have contracts with the various conferences are on DirecTV.

This website has a good explanation of which networks cover college football and which teams they cover.


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## Coca Cola Kid (Jul 19, 2009)

bamaweather said:


> This website has a good explanation of which networks cover college football and which teams they cover.


Here's a pretty simple list.


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## wilbur_the_goose (Aug 16, 2006)

My dad's TWC had both games in HD...


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## kevinwmsn (Aug 19, 2006)

I would be interested to know for sure if it is a ESPN HD uplink limitation?? or D* didn't want to drop a HD PPV channel for the length of a ballgame. It should be very similar to the very few part-time RSN HD offerings that exist currently. Hopefully D* can carry both Alternative Channels next year in HD(game only) along with the ESPN Gameplan in HD.


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## raott (Nov 23, 2005)

kevinwmsn said:


> I would be interested to know for sure if it is a ESPN HD uplink limitation?? or D* didn't want to drop a HD PPV channel for the length of a ballgame. It should be very similar to the very few part-time RSN HD offerings that exist currently. Hopefully D* can carry both Alternative Channels next year in HD(game only) along with the ESPN Gameplan in HD.


When I've complained about the collge fb blackout issue a couple of times a few weeks ago, I kept hearing how it is ESPN that has a limitation regarding what they can uplink, or that the game itself was not being broadcast in HD. Yet, when I walked across the street to my neighbors house and see the game that is blacked out on my D*, being broadcast in glorius HD on cable, I knew neither was the case.

I don't know what the issue is, I do know there are maps that D* appears to be following correctly, (why ESPN would black out the alternate game is beyond my comprehension). What I do know, is those same games D* is blacking out (as the maps show they are suppose to) ARE being broadcast in HD on my local cable provider.


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## JoeTheDragon (Jul 21, 2008)

bamaweather said:


> Well, usually if it's a non-conference game between two competitive schools, the game will be carried nationally anyhow. You're more likely to get screwed if it's a smaller school in a non-conference game. If it's a conference game, your team pretty much has the same contract as they school they are competing against, so it's more than likely going to be available in your area.
> 
> Often times, if a game is locally-produced for the home school, arrangements are made to carry it in the away team's market as well.
> 
> ...


Some Comcast sports net's also shows FSN games in place where they replaced FSN.


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## JoeTheDragon (Jul 21, 2008)

kevinwmsn said:


> I would be interested to know for sure if it is a ESPN HD uplink limitation?? or D* didn't want to drop a HD PPV channel for the length of a ballgame. It should be very similar to the very few part-time RSN HD offerings that exist currently. Hopefully D* can carry both Alternative Channels next year in HD(game only) along with the ESPN Gameplan in HD.


ESPN HD unlink limitation and lack of HD on site likely is why there is no game plan / full court hd. Some ESPN 1 / 2 BB games are in SD.


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## Hoosier205 (Sep 3, 2007)

Not a D* issue...


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## sigma1914 (Sep 5, 2006)

Every week this same topic comes up.  Just because cable does it, doesn't mean it's right! *Directv is following the guidelines set by ESPN/ABC.*


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## wilbur_the_goose (Aug 16, 2006)

Sigma, then why can a 2nd rate cable company offer both games in HD?

To me, it's a simple answer - D* doesn't allow for ESPN Alt HD, even though it'd be up for 4 hours at a time.

I guess they make more money off HD PPV?


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## Gloria_Chavez (Aug 11, 2008)

Stanford Rocks. Next year, look for us to contend for a national championship.


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## jeff125va (Jun 4, 2007)

Just curious what other people thought. My wife was wondering why the picture looked so bad on the ND-Stanford game. I said it was just because it wasn't HD. She thought that it was more than that, that it looked especially bad, even for SD. I said maybe it's because we're not used to seeing SD on bigger screens, although the one we were watching it on was only a 32" widescreen LCD, so maybe she had a point.


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## paragon (Nov 15, 2007)

raott said:


> When I've complained about the collge fb blackout issue a couple of times a few weeks ago, I kept hearing how it is ESPN that has a limitation regarding what they can uplink, or that the game itself was not being broadcast in HD. Yet, when I walked across the street to my neighbors house and see the game that is blacked out on my D*, being broadcast in glorius HD on cable, I knew neither was the case.
> 
> I don't know what the issue is, I do know there are maps that D* appears to be following correctly, (why ESPN would black out the alternate game is beyond my comprehension). What I do know, is those same games D* is blacking out (as the maps show they are suppose to) ARE being broadcast in HD on my local cable provider.


There was no ESPN2HD feed of Stanford/Notre Dame. Either your neighbor was watching stretched or they somehow had access to an ABC HD feed that was showing the game.


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## Hoosier205 (Sep 3, 2007)

wilbur_the_goose said:


> Sigma, then why can a 2nd rate cable company offer both games in HD?
> 
> To me, it's a simple answer - D* doesn't allow for ESPN Alt HD, even though it'd be up for 4 hours at a time.
> 
> I guess they make more money off HD PPV?


Yet again...not a DirecTV issue. Complain to ESPN/ABC.


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## raott (Nov 23, 2005)

paragon said:


> There was no ESPN2HD feed of Stanford/Notre Dame. Either your neighbor was watching stretched or they somehow had access to an ABC HD feed that was showing the game.


I didn't say anything about the Standord/Notre Dame game. I was relaying my experience a few weeks ago when supposively there was no feed of an ESPN2HD game, when I went to the neighbors, there definately was.


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## BruinsHockey08 (Sep 29, 2008)

Why did people living in the South get the shaft here? Anyone know?


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## DC_SnDvl (Aug 17, 2006)

JoeTheDragon said:


> ESPN does not have that much HD unlink space.


They are (were) uplinking both games in HD...How is that an issue?


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## jeff125va (Jun 4, 2007)

BruinsHockey08 said:


> Why did people living in the South get the shaft here? Anyone know?


ABC affiliates can do regional coverage of either one of the two games, so you got one of the two games depending on where you live. The UGA-GA Tech game was primarily on ESPN2, which is just one nation-wide channel, so it was either on, or it was blacked out. If you got ND-Stanford on ABC, then UGA-GA Tech was shown on ESPN2. If you got UGA-GA Tech on ABC (the South), then that game was blacked out on ESPN2, and you got ND-Stanford on ESPN-Alt, which was not in HD.

If you knew that, and you were simply asking why ND-Stanford was not in HD on ESPN-Alt, then I have no answer.


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## Stuart Sweet (Jun 19, 2006)

I'm moving this to the Sports Programming forum since it has to do with other companies besides DIRECTV.


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## tivoboy (Aug 16, 2006)

bamaweather said:


> It's the home team's TV contract that determines who carries the game. This game was at Stanford.


I can understand that, but I don't think Stanford even HAS a contract and none of their games are on tv other than on FSA (fox sports net, NOT fox) or comcast sports, or Versus, none of which are ESPN or ABC affiliates.

AND, I thought that the ND deal was an exclusive, it was quite a big deal and I thought they NBC purchased the exclusive rights to broadcast ND games.


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## sigma1914 (Sep 5, 2006)

tivoboy said:


> I can understand that, but I don't think Stanford even HAS a contract and none of their games are on tv other than on FSA (fox sports net, NOT fox) or comcast sports, or Versus, none of which are ESPN or ABC affiliates.
> 
> AND, I thought that the ND deal was an exclusive, it was quite a big deal and I thought they NBC purchased the exclusive rights to broadcast ND games.


Stanford doesn't have the contract, the Pac 10 does.

ND's contract with NBC is home games only.


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