The Jazz in HD: You have been heard
There have been more than a few e-mails asking about the availability of HD broadcasts of Jazz games. I talked with Jazz president Randy Rigby this afternoon about some of the issues they're facing and wanted to pass along what he had to say.
The biggest issue for the Jazz in being able to broadcast every game in HD, Rigby said, is the availability of HD production trucks. Especially in the fall, with college football and the NFL going strong, there are more games than trucks to go around.
Things are supposed to improve after Jan. 1, Rigby said. The Jazz have announced their HD broadcasting schedule only through January, with 25 of 48 games set for HD. That percentage should increase in the second half of the season.
The Jazz also have run into issues with finding alternate transponders for the games on FSN Utah, which is an FSN Rocky Mountain spin-off.
Since they can't show Jazz games in Denver because of the Nuggets' territorial rights, FSN has to find both an alternate transponder and alternate HD transponder for games. There are no such issues for the games broadcast out of Salt Lake City on KJZZ.
"It's a supply and demand issue for the availability of HD trucks and also transponders," Rigby said.
As for why the Jazz have more games on FSN Utah than KJZZ when it's easier to broadcast in HD on one channel instead of the other, Rigby said it was due to the existing television contract.
"That was decided a number of years ago when we signed the contract with FSN," Rigby said. "It's been an ongoing issue. We have to in sports be able to more and more capitalize on both advertising revenues and subscriber revenues."
There are obviously subscriber fees paid for FSN Utah, but not for KJZZ as a broadcast channel, though Rigby said "that's in the process of changing," with Dish Network being the first to pay for the channel.
A couple of NBA teams such as the 76ers (with Comcast) and the Knicks (with Cablevision) have been able to televise every game in HD for a couple of seasons. They were able to make a joint investment in both the technology and their teams, Rigby said.
The Jazz are aware of the demand to have every game broadcast in HD and definitely heard from fans about why none of the games on the recent five-game trip were televised in HD. Hope this helps explain some things.
--Ross Siler
The biggest issue for the Jazz in being able to broadcast every game in HD, Rigby said, is the availability of HD production trucks. Especially in the fall, with college football and the NFL going strong, there are more games than trucks to go around.
Things are supposed to improve after Jan. 1, Rigby said. The Jazz have announced their HD broadcasting schedule only through January, with 25 of 48 games set for HD. That percentage should increase in the second half of the season.
The Jazz also have run into issues with finding alternate transponders for the games on FSN Utah, which is an FSN Rocky Mountain spin-off.
Since they can't show Jazz games in Denver because of the Nuggets' territorial rights, FSN has to find both an alternate transponder and alternate HD transponder for games. There are no such issues for the games broadcast out of Salt Lake City on KJZZ.
"It's a supply and demand issue for the availability of HD trucks and also transponders," Rigby said.
As for why the Jazz have more games on FSN Utah than KJZZ when it's easier to broadcast in HD on one channel instead of the other, Rigby said it was due to the existing television contract.
"That was decided a number of years ago when we signed the contract with FSN," Rigby said. "It's been an ongoing issue. We have to in sports be able to more and more capitalize on both advertising revenues and subscriber revenues."
There are obviously subscriber fees paid for FSN Utah, but not for KJZZ as a broadcast channel, though Rigby said "that's in the process of changing," with Dish Network being the first to pay for the channel.
A couple of NBA teams such as the 76ers (with Comcast) and the Knicks (with Cablevision) have been able to televise every game in HD for a couple of seasons. They were able to make a joint investment in both the technology and their teams, Rigby said.
The Jazz are aware of the demand to have every game broadcast in HD and definitely heard from fans about why none of the games on the recent five-game trip were televised in HD. Hope this helps explain some things.
--Ross Siler
5:21 PM
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1 Comments:
Honestly, it seems like a weak excuse. I guess Im glad I dont live in SLC.
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