Tuesday, January 10, 2006

BREAKING NEWS: Cavaliers The Next HDTV Sports Team in Cleveland?

OMW spotted this one in the column of Pittsburgh Post-Gazette sports media columnist Bob Smizik, put online late tonight for Tuesday's paper.

Smizik reports that FOX Sports Net Pittsburgh will carry a schedule of Cleveland Cavaliers games the rest of this season, with the feed coming from Cavaliers TV outlet FOX Sports Net Ohio. (Scroll down to the end of the article for the relevant news.) Smizik says that FSN Pittsburgh will pick up 12 Cavs games from its Ohio sister network starting on January 27th, and "six of the games will be carried in high definition".

Here's what we're wondering - how? Unless we're missing it somewhere, FSN Ohio has never aired a Cavaliers' game (or any event) in HDTV. There's certainly no place for an HD version of FSN Ohio on our Adelphia cable lineup, though theoretically they could use an occasional channel... many such events take over a feed of InHD1 or InHD2 in other local markets.

But we haven't seen an announcement of such an move locally, not even in the inimitable Roger Brown's sports media column in the Plain Dealer. One would presume if Smizik's report is correct, games produced for a Cleveland sports team in HDTV would air in that format in, umm, Cleveland.

As reported here and elsewhere, the Cleveland Indians plan to air a 20 game schedule of games in HDTV on new over-air partner WKYC/3 this spring and summer. And it's widely believed that CBS will broadcast all NFL games in HDTV next season, including Cleveland Browns games...which didn't get the HD treatment much of this past season, mainly due to the team's anemic performance keeping it out of the list the most widely telecast games.

OMW knows we have readers in the local sports media...can one of you check this out for us next time you're at "The Q"? We tried to check FSN Ohio's website this early morning, but for some reason, it resolves to a company called McClaren Partners...a firm that builds websites, perhaps? And we don't see any reference to HDTV games on the Cavaliers' news page...

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Read Smizik's piece, too. Not sure about the HDTV angle, but it does appear to be an upgrade for the Cavs in this market. Previously, a low-power, WBGN, carried most games (it pays for places on area cables), with some games on PCNC. I think one game last year also aired on PCNC's over-the-air sibling WPXI-11.

Anonymous said...

Amending my earlier remarks, after getting some comment from the Cavs, this actually doubles the NBA team's exposure in the Pittsburgh market. WBGN is still carrying games fed by WUAB.