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Fans just happy to see games

I get the MTN. on Cox cable in San Diego, my wife who doesn't care for sports made the comment it looks like a home video. If you push guide and mimimize your screen its actually fairly clear then again I didn't by a large HDTV to minimize it. Next I'll just chuck my remote and use my toe a la 1978.

So the BYU N. Iowa game did a 4.0 rating with an 11 share in the SLC DMA. I think if you'll look back to the last time BYU football was on KJZZ TV in the 05 season, the games averaged a 10 rating with a 23 share. Perhaps BYU isn't as good now as in 05? Or perhaps we're seeing that the Dave Checketts/Craig Thompson MWC TV package not only has no exposure for the teams nationally, but no one is watching locally either. Is it that the teams have been off TV for so long that they're out of sight out of mind? Is it the poor production quality of the mountain? What ever the reason, those that suffer are the fans.

I find it interesting how we are temporarily pacified by mediocre television production just to be able to view the Mountain West athletic events on television. Contractually I�ll bet �the Mtn� has an obligation to deliver a �state of art� product and knows from past experience the institutions in the Mountain West Conference can�t �squeeze blood out of a turnip.�

We�ll just have to learn to enjoy mediocrity in exchange for the privilege of watching the events. I suppose we should all be gracious and thank our spineless, yet crafty, conference commissioner, Craig Thompson.

I'm pretty sure that for about twenty minutes of the broadcast, all the announcers could talk about was how Utah had beaten Michigan in the "Big House". Apparently, the color commentator went to Ohio State. So, this is the kind of dilemma a Cougar fan is in... watch the game and listen to THE worst announcers in the business or listen to one of the best in the business on KSL radio but miss out on seeing the game.

I guess you could always just mute the TV and turn up the radio... but then who would tell me all about Utah and the "Big House" during a BYU game?

Who was BYU's opponent on the KJZZ 2005 game? No offense to Northern Iowa, but I know a lot of people that didn't tune in because they thought the game was over before kickoff.

I love being able to see both the football and basketball games now up here in Boise. But there is no denying the quality is poor. Announcers are fine - its the picture and graphics that are poor. I honestly thought I had a bad connection until I realized the other channels were clear. And I read the WAC just got a new deal with ESPN.

Why subscribe to a premium sports package just to see these poorly filmed and poorly announced games when you can listen to KSL Radio for free on the internet. It ASTOUNDS me that the Universities' Presidents were so short-sighted to sign this deal. I live in Utah and am a BYU fan and DirecTV subscriber, so I get the mtn. as part of my regular package; the quality of broadcast was so low that I turned it off after 10 minutes. It's disgusting that just because it's viewable by more than just Comcast local customers now it's deemed that the mtn. is a success. It's far from it and will continue to languish. It's a vicious circle. Poor quality leads to poor ratings. Poor ratings leads to lower advertising dollars. Fewer dollars removes ability to increase quality. DirecTV aren't dummies, they understand this, and it's the reason the mtn. will be one of the last channels to move to HD. the mtn. disgusts me. Not to mention that I'm bombarded with short ads by representatives of conference schools telling me how awesome it is, like I'm some kind of idiot who can't think for himself.

I'm back to KSL radio!

I am at the Univ. of Florida and do not have Direct TV to watch the games but Versus will broadcast the UCLA game in just over a week. I watched the local broadcast of UF v. Hawaii this last week and must say that UF's broadcast is not really much better than mtn's. I don't know what CBS and ABC/ESPN do to make it so much crisper on air but it may be that all the small media guys still have a lot to learn about making an award winning broadcast.

Back in the day of local KSL = BYU and KUTV = Utah you KNEW the quality you would get. It wasn't a problem that Paul James was very pro BYU and that Marcroft was very pro Utah. Fans of BYU watched KSL broadcasts and enjoyed the pro BYU talk, just as fans of Utah watched KUTV broadcasts and enjoyed them too. Now we're stuck with guys who once in time had a presence in the conference but now are washed up and unable to secure any better broadcasting gig than on the mtn. Somehow our wise university presidents were snookered into this deal, expecting top-notch output and now we're stuck with this garbage. I would hope that there was a quality guarantee with an out clause in the contract, but if that were the case and we're still in this mess then it would seem that our presidents are still being snookered.

This is awful, handslapping will not do here. We need heads to roll and we need out of this deal. Better yet, come up with an all-star group from each school's Communications departments and let them run the mtn. We'd get_a_cheaper_version_of_the same thing!

Coming from a TV production background and having worked on BYU games in the past for KBYU and ESPN, I can tell you that it looks like the Mtn has taken 10 steps back in production value while everyone else moves up to HD.

The last game seriously looked like it was being hosted by YouTube. There were three levels of production value on games I saw on Saturday: HD, Standard TV and then The Mtn.

It all comes back to them buying old, used equipment and relying on crews that do not have the experience needed to run all the complexities of a football broadcast.

In other news, the Big Ten Network looked crisp and clear.

What channel is Fox Sports Net on Direct TV?

This year I have access to less games than last (neighbor with Dish couldn't make the switch to Direct. Me? Riiiight... no money at all). I don't consider that success at all.

Who would listen to the KSL radio broadcast. All the announcer does is tell you how much time is left "in this one" every two minutes. It's like listening to Grant and Amanda read the clock every 90 seconds. Annoying!

Crockett, even most amateur videos on YouTube look better than the Mtn. I did drop DISH for Comcast. I recorded the Utah and BYU games, and there was no comparison in quality. The poor production and video quality of the BYU game actually caused me to stop watching and delete it. I'm a hardcore football fan and watch most BYU and Utah games, but the Mtn. is making it quite painful on the eyes and ears, that video equipment has got to be from the 70s or 80s.

To the Mtn., for the love of humanity please at least get some 90s video equipment, but of course HD is preferred!

The mtn is the single worst thing that ever happened to our conference. It has taken us out of the national spotlight and put us on some channel that is no better than one I could run out of my basement. The announcers are aweful, the camera guys don't even know how to follow the plays, and no body- really NO BODY- cares to watch the games on that channel. People are willing to concede so that they can see their football games, or their men's basketball games, but other than that no one is willing to watch. And I know plenty of people who would rather listen to it on the radio than watch the mtn. I am a big Utah fan and I go to all the home games, but refuse to watch the games on that aweful channel. Think of it this way, our teams get no exposure. Though I don't care much for BYU, they would have been ranked last year at least a few weeks earlier had people been able to watch their games. That makes a huge difference in a season. That is why I say DOWN WITH THE mtn.

It was fun to see the game--at least the fuzz on the TV that was a game. I've had to wait years to have access to the MTN here in Tulsa only to be disappointed by the horrible picture. Sure, I'd love HD, but I would just settle for a decent standard definition picture. When you can't see the numbers on the players very well, you know you have a problem.

Perception is everything and when you are striving to better your current reputation as a Non-BCS conference (i.e. second-class citizen), you don't do yourself any favors by broadcasting a community college quality telecast. There were so many hideous shots that were embarrassing, including the full-body shot of the Conference Commissioner in a tuxedo. I almost wonder now if part of the distribution problem had something to do with the quality of the product. If I'm a cable or satellite company, why would I waste my limited distribution bandwidth on a garbage product with limited demand. For now, I'll squint it out trying to watch the game but the quality must be priority, and a high one at that!

I'm in SEC land in Mississippi, and I have Directv and and glad to finally have the MTN. However, I agree with those who also have HDTV...I'd love to have that on MTN too! It's sorely lacking in comparison to ESPN, ABC, CBS (who should choose to telecast the BYU/Utah game in November), all the FSNs etc. Still, living here, I'd love to have the MTN on Comcast but I don't believe they offer the MTN outside of the MTN states do they? The MTN needs to move quickly to take advantage of the current national footprint being provided by Utah, BYU, and soon TCU.

I tried to switch to Direct TV here in Seattle to get the mtn. I was told that channel will not be available at all on any package in this area until Feb 2009. I guess it's not really available "coast-to-coast" after all.

I'm trying not to complain too much since at least we get to see the games this year. The picture was really fuzzy in the beginning of the game, but seemed to get clearer as the game went on and the sun wasn't as bright. At first I thought the lack of picture clarity was just because the mtn is using used or old cameras. When the picture got so much better as the game went on, it made me think that maybe the camera operator had the settings wrong on the camera at the beginning of the game. Maybe it was a combination of both.

But a fuzzy picture is better than what we've had to work with the past few years.

I live just outside of Seattle and I have the MTN on DTV. You just have to pay for the sports package. If someone told you that, they are wrong.