Can TSN survive the Grey Cup?
It might be overkill to call this the worst week in TSN's history, but it certainly has been seven days of nightmarish events for the sports channel.
Last Sunday, a technical glitch with a satellite uplink in Regina caused TSN to miss the first five minutes of the West final. Now, these kind of things happen but they seldom happen to TSN, especially in one of its biggest broadcasts of the year. Or so we thought.
On Saturday, disaster struck again as TSN viewers missed chunks of the Vanier Cup. The channel called ot a ``last-minute technical malfunction with transmission equipment at the stadium."
``It was a supplier issue beyond our control," said TSN spokesman Greg McIsaac. Hmm, TSN is victimized two weeks in a row by events beyond their control.
But here's one that was under TSN's control. During Sunday morning's TSN The Reporters with Dave Hodge, a graphic popped up promoting the rest of the channel's lineup for the day. Included was the following: ``2009 Grey Cup, Blue Jays vs. Tigers."
What's going on at Canada's biggest sports channel and how many bottles of Tums were being gobbled before Sunday's Grey Cup game? That would be the one between the Alouettes and Roughriders, not the Jays and Tigers.
I saw that SRC (Radio-Canada) also had problems with the Vanier Cup so it certainly wasn't TSN's fault. I also saw the error on The Reporters. Wow. Someone screwed up but Dave Hodge's reaction was funny.
Posted by: Chris | 11/29/2009 at 02:21 PM
Well the Jays and the Tigers are chock full of good athletes, there is probably no reason why they couldn't strap on the pads and chuck the pigskin around. I would imagine many of them were two sports stars in high school and college. Than again it would be entertaining to see athletes play in venues they are not accustomed, send a few Roughriders and Alouettes over to play baseball, maybe it will inspire all the athlete's to perform maximally knowing they could be doing something other than what they are currently getting paid very well to do. Good luck to TSN, we have our set of problems here as well.
Posted by: JR Jake | 11/29/2009 at 02:55 PM
I give them credit for the effort they've put into this weekend, Truly the respect and attention that the Earl Grey's Mug deserves on it's 100th birthday as well as any other year.
But the tech issues are a pain in the neck.... I hope that they don't drop the ball once game time comes around.
Posted by: Boristerzic.blogspot.com | 11/29/2009 at 03:21 PM
"What's going on at Canada's biggest sports channel and how many bottles of Tums were being gobbled before Sunday's Grey Cup game? That would be the one between the Alouettes and Roughriders, not the Jays and Tigers."
Perhaps you could ask Dave Hodge that question, seeing as how he looked and sounded like he was going to be sick on live television this morning.
Posted by: chris | 11/29/2009 at 04:00 PM
I saw that Blue Jay Tigers promo which startled Dave Hodge as well. Erlier in the show I saw a FAN590 billboard.
Posted by: Elayne | 11/29/2009 at 04:14 PM
I saw that Blue Jay Tigers promo which startled Dave Hodge as well. Erlier in the show I saw a FAN590 billboard.
Posted by: Elayne | 11/29/2009 at 04:14 PM
'The channel called ot a ``last-minute technical malfunction with transmission equipment at the stadium."'
Kinda ironic to make a spelling error in a piece about other people making errors, isn't it?
Posted by: Icemo | 11/29/2009 at 04:31 PM
Actually Elayne, that sign in the background was for the FAN 960 in Calgary.
Posted by: chris | 11/29/2009 at 10:15 PM