I had a very rare night last night when I could spend most of the evening giving my NBA League Pass a heavy workout. And I just thought I’d mention that every game I watched was in high definition.

I don’t know about you, but once I got the HD television, my viewing habits changed. I suddenly was willing to watch a show I’d never normally watch, simply because it was in high def. Now, when I’m working my way through my options on League Pass, I’ll watch a non-HD game only if it’s a very special game. I’ve watched lousy teams play in high definition rather than good teams play on non-HD.

The quality of the HD picture spoils you. Man, I never knew how poor the picture quality was with regular TV until I saw HD. After that, anything not in high definition felt like I was watching it through a glass of water.

For the most part, baseball teams are way ahead of basketball teams in the HD world. The Mariners, for example, did EVERY game last season in high def. And all I’m saying is, if you are running a sports franchise and you aren’t putting the games on in HD, your ratings are going to start suffering. Rather than watching your games, people are going to be turning to the Discovery Channel.

I feel the same way about local news, by the way. The local HD stuff is going to have a huge edge. Man, once you get the HD television — and it isn’t going to take long before most people have them, in spite of the slumping economy — it’s very hard to settle for less than a high-definition program, be it news, sports or sitcoms.

Tweet This Post

Tonight is another one of those Trail Blazer games unavailable to me on my home television because it’s shown on Comcast Sports Net. Now let’s make this clear right away: I would love to have CSN. I’m going to be doing a very fun post, post-game show after some Blazer games this season on that network. Plus, I hear they carry Roller Derby — the old stuff with the Bay Area Bombers, Charlie O’Connell, Joanie Weston and hey, I grew up watching that stuff.

But I don’t have Comcast Sports Net available to me. At all. Where I live, I don’t have cable available to me. Period. And like some of those people in Seattle Ryan White wrote about today, I don’t have any options.

The entire area where I live is made up of satellite customers — either Directv or Dish. It’s our only option. And like those fans in Seattle who are blacked out on Portland games simply because they are now considered the Blazers’ “territory,” I think it’s unfair we are prohibited from watching Portland games.

It’s one thing if you’re just stubbornly refusing to get cable. I mean, come on — what’s the point of having television if you don’t have at least some of the many programming options out there? But in this case — and in the situation so many people around the state of Oregon are in — there is no cable option of being able to watch Blazer games.

See, what really pecks me off is that I pay for the NBA League Pass service, too. I’ve purchased it every season since its inception. Yet, Blazer games are STILL blacked out, because the games are being “telecast” locally. And this is where the frustrating part comes in — Nobody seems to understand that even though the games are shown in Portland, a great many of us have NO CHANCE to see them. But when you pay the extra dough for the League Pass, they should be. And as near as I can tell, that’s not Comcast’s fault. It’s not the Blazers’ fault. It’s the fault of a league blackout policy that’s outdated.

That’s why I believe that the league needs to revamp that blackout policy. What harm would it do to tweak it a little so that people who can prove they are not serviced by a cable company that carries CSN, can receive the games by NBA League Pass? All they would have to do is provide proof from a cable company in the manner of a form letter saying, “We don’t provide service in that area.” The league is getting a significant amount of money from me each season for the package of games, yet the games I want to see the most aren’t available.

Isn’t it the goal of the league and its teams to allow as many people as possible to receive the games? Isn’t that what their advertisers want? And in this specific instance, by allowing fans to see these games, it doesn’t hurt the cable companies or the satellite companies.

Please, NBA — could someone take the time to look at this situation? If you cannot receive the games any other way but League Pass, and pay for League Pass, what’s the harm in allowing you to receive the games?

Tweet This Post