Why Blacking Out March Madness Online Doesn't Make Sense
from the bracket dept
It's no secret that this time of year, many people are splitting their attention between whatever they're doing and the NCAA college basketball tournament. The internet has obviously had a big impact on how people monitor and manage their brackets, while CBS, which televises the games, has generally received kudos for streaming many of the games over the web. But there remain problems with the service. Michael Mace recounts his frustration after CBS' site denied him from watching a game on his laptop because it was currently being shown by the local CBS affiliate. The thinking behind the internet blackout is that the local affiliate doesn't want to lose viewers to people watching it over the web, but it's hard to imagine that this is a real threat. After all, would anyone choose to watch a game streamed to their computer if they were at a TV? The majority of people who would choose to watch a game over the computer in a market where it's being shown on TV, are those who, for whatever reason, can't get to the TV. After being denied the video and finding that CBS' "glog" (game blog) was malfunctioning, Mace said he was forced to simply watch a scoreboard that was being refreshed every 15 seconds. With all of the money and effort that CBS has put behind its website, it's depressing that that's the best thing that was available.Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
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I heard...
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Sometimes
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WARNING RANT
The sheepoeple in this country need to learn not to pay so much attention, time and money to sports. You have people getting paid millions to play a game, while we can't even pay our public school teachers a decent living wage.
If you can read this thank a teacher...
It's in English so thank a soldier...
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Re: WARNING RANT
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Re: WARNING RANT
What's wrong with French or Latin or Mandarin anyway? Why are so many people in the country absolutely obsessed with English?
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Re: Re: WARNING RANT - BLACKINFIDEL
True - if we didn't spend all that money on soldiers then we would have money to pay the teachers' salaries, but what kind of schools would we have if we didn't spend all that money on soldiers? What would have happened in WWI or WWII, would we have been run over by another nation and currently speaking their language?
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Re: Re: Re: WARNING RANT - BLACKINFIDEL
back on topic, this is increadibly stupid of CBS. The main point of being able to watch online is that you dont have access to a TV or a station that's currently playing the game. Just yet another case of the old media companies trying desperately to control how people view their content, just like other outdated media they view the internet as a threat to their buisness instead of a tool to further it.
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Re: WARNING RANT
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Back on topic
If there's even 0.5% of the tv population watching over the net over the tv that's a loss no matter how many people watch over the net becuase they don't have access to tv.
Blame the metrics.
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The bigger blame
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Commercials
They don't care that you're watching the game via CBS' web site; they aren't in it for the game itself.
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works great for me
Overall, CBS has made BIG improvements over last year. The games stream flawlessly at less than ideal bandwidths here. The commercials, for some odd reason, don't play well. They cause the video to slow down and sometimes stop.
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R-E-V-E-N-U-E
As far as the cute remarks by the Black In-fant-del, let's see..... we are in the USA. Back in the day there was no "obsession", as you so succinctly put it, with English due to the fact that the "legal" immigrants who came here assimilated into OUR society. Now, some feel we must bend and cater to the new wave of illegals by, in a sense, telling them that it's not necessary to learn english. Is it wrong to have standards and expectations that have to be met before citizenship is granted? In a nutshell..... NO!!
Lastly, as a retired Marine, I along with most everyone else involved in the defense of this country will go to the grave defending your absolute right to make a total jackass out of yourself with your ignorant observations.
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couldn't agree more
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Be glad that I'm not the president of a university. I would tell all of the sports teams to hang it up and go to class and earn a degree with a 4.0 (5.0 for the schools that go that way) and then allow them to be eledgable for the NCAA. I can care less about alumni, or boosters. they drag the school down with their requests for favors and palm greasing.
I had a booster come to me during an intermission of a class and asked me to play a sport. He offered me all kinds of great stuff... I had him put in jail and had the school's NCAA sanction removed for it.
Come to my business and waste my $$ on your diversions and I will fire you. I don't joke about this stuff. Last year I fired 20 people because they wasted company time on sports. I have fired numerous people for shopping, checking bank accounts, etc. Funy thing is... I typically don't care, but if I ask for someething, I better get it yesterday. and if I do not, I will crawl into your life and find out what you were doing instead of getting me what I asked for. Then I fire your ass in front of everyone and make an example of you.
Piss Off
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You're setting one heck of an example, AC
"Sorry, but maybe I missed this in college while I was in class earning a PHD......allow them to be eledgable for the NCAA."
You have a doctorate in something? It sure wasn't English.
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You are correct... I have a doctorate in Mechanical and Electrical Engineering. Sports still have no place im my building, nor does anything else other than the work at hand. I have even fired staff for having a birthday parties. Once was for me... Sorry... not a workplace event. Take it outside the company walls.
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English soldiers
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