Don't point finger at CSTV, Versus

By Scott D. Pierce
Deseret Morning News
Published: Thursday, Oct. 5, 2006 8:22 p.m. MDT
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With all the uproar over the distribution problems with The mtn., I guess it's not surprising that new channels CSTV and Versus are getting blamed for stuff that's not their fault.

I've heard from a number of readers who are unhappy with the quality of the picture on one or all of those channels. Several say they experienced both poor quality and frequent glitches when "the picture seems to break up every few minutes" during last week's BYU-TCU and Utah-Boise State games.

But ... I watched the games on DirecTV and the Versus picture was crystal-clear and glitch-free. (Well, it did freeze for a moment once during the BYU game. And, ahem, I fell asleep for a few minutes during the Utah game.)

The problem obviously wasn't with Versus; it was with the e-mailer's cable company. And those who responded to my inquiry told me they subscribe to Comcast.

"The supervisor said that they were receiving many complaints about the broadcast service but that they (Comcast) only pass the feed along and are not responsible for this type of problem," wrote one e-mailer.

It may indeed be a problem with the equipment used to upload the signal. And it may be a localized problem — other Comcast subscribers told me they had no problems.

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But keep in mind that Comcast owns Versus and owns half of The mtn. And, flipping back and forth between Versus on DirecTV and The mtn. on Comcast (I have both at my house), I noticed that The mtn. telecast of the Air Force-New Mexico game and, more noticeably, the studio show was experiencing exactly the kind of poor picture quality and glitches the e-mailers described.

KEEP IN MIND that airing games on Versus (formerly OLN) is as close as the MWC gets to a national telecast for home games this season. Versus is available in about 70 million homes (out of 111.4 million U.S. homes equipped with TVs). CSTV is seen in about 50 million homes; no data is available for The mtn.

ESPN is available in 92.2 million homes; ESPN2 in 91.7 million.

UTAH WILL BE ALL OVER ESPN2 next week and spill over onto ABC. And it has absolutely nothing to do with football.

"Primal Quest Utah" — which features 90 four-person, co-ed teams on a 10-day, 450-mile race through southern Utah — airs Monday-Thursday from 5:30-6:30 p.m. on ESPN2. The final hour will air Saturday, Oct. 14, at noon on ABC/Ch. 4.

Taped in June and July, contestants had to "trek, mountaineer, canyoneer, horseback ride, mountain bike, swim and paddle rapids and navigate day and night." And, of course, it features lots of spectacular Utah scenery.

DUH! Last week's split-national on ABC's Saturday-night college football was USC-Arizona/Boston College-N.C. State. Notre Dame-Michigan State was on ESPN2.

Which doesn't change the fact that ABC's Saturday-night football is a great idea. It just means I'm dumb.

E-mail: pierce@desnews.com

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