During last night’s Senators – Ducks tilt, broadcast locally in Ottawa on Sportsnet, the feed was suddenly switched with less than 5 minutes to go in the third period (at precisely 12:30) to some kind of poker tournament. If viewers did not have digital cable and were unable to figure out that they could watch the rest of the game on the time sharing channels in the 400’s, then they were out of luck.
I’m not sure what happened or if the cretins they hired to press buttons in Toronto like a pack of Pavlov’s dogs were drunk or blasted on Mandrax, but this just adds another check on Sportsnets list of inadequacies.
It’s stunning to see how utterly awful Sportsnet has remained. Compared to TSN, Rogers Sportsnet is miles behind in every facet of hockey coverage. Their one ace in the hole is their regional television deal with the league but there is nothing beyond this that merits praise.
The “hockey panel” is a miserable collection of B-grade commentators like Bill Waters, although Nick Kypreos has actually improved considerably from his earlier days. The fact that Kypreos is the best thing about the hockey crew is nothing for Sportsnet to boast about.
Sportsnet might be responsible for the worst day in Canadian television history when they polluted the airwaves last year with their 2007 Trade Deadline Day show. They treated it like a “party” which included balloons, streamers, Kypreos and Watters sitting on couches stuffing greasy pizza slices into their mouths while wearing jeans and relying on Eklund – The Anonymous Hockey Blogger to break trades for them. The only thing missing was Watters cutting a gigantic fart and Kypreos belching.
Their morning highlight show is pathetic with its forced “hip” attitude with announcers calling home runs as “slobberknockers”.
Memo to Management: The word “slobberknocker” is not cool. It’s moronic and retch inducing. It insults the intelligence of sports fans. We have long since passed the baby talk stage. It’s okay to call a home run a “home run”. We won’t change the channel because you’re not being hip enough.
Now the channel is heavily promoting “mixed martial arts” fights, which is basically on the level of snuff films for white trash, Dorito crushing losers. I’m not sure how you can describe roid-raged sociopaths trying to gouge each other’s eyes out in the “octagon” as a sport. What’s next? Dog fighting? Rooster fights?
Maybe they should just throw in the towel and televise those hot-dog eating contests 24 hours a day because if someone at the controls accidentally switches the feed to another program with 5 minutes left, no one will care anyways.
2 comments:
Don't forget, they also choose to broadcast Poker in HD instead of the game.
That's bush league. NBC does it, I'm sort of not surprised. Sportsnet doing it is just unacceptable.
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