Big Ten Network embarrasses itself tonight (UPDATED with response from BTN)

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MinnesotaBoiler99

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BTN did not send a play by play crew to West Lafayette to call the game live - instead had Eric Collins and some no name schmoe call the game from the BTN studios in Chicago - but tried to make people think they were actually in the arena. They lost video feed shortly after the game started and never really recovered. Instead they put on a Bo Schembechler Big Ten icon re-run. Instead of at least continuing the audio play by play with a "experiencing technical difficulties" message on the screen, they pretty much cut the broadcast all together because nobody was there to call the game live.

I know there have been a lot of complaints about the BTN regarding coverage of Gophers games this year (and rightfully so) so I figured many of you would find this interesting.
 

Wasn't the Boilermaker All-Access crew there?
 

MinnesotaBoiler99 said:
BTN did not send a play by play crew to West Lafayette to call the game live - instead had Eric Collins and some no name schmoe call the game from the BTN studios in Chicago - but tried to make people think they were actually in the arena.
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Just so you know, Eric Collins and Tim Doyle were in Chicago doing the same thing for the Gophers-Appalachian State game last night. They were not in Minneapolis. Luckily they never lost the feed from Williams Arena.
 

tjgopher said:
Just so you know, Eric Collins and Tim Doyle were in Chicago doing the same thing for the Gophers-Appalachian State game last night. They were not in Minneapolis. Luckily they never lost the feed from Williams Arena.
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Amazing. I can't imagine trying to do that job and not actually being there.
 

fsn did this for a gohper hockey game, but that was in alaska.

not the five or six hours it takes to drive from chicago to west lafayette.
 


bassy123 said:
fsn did this for a gohper hockey game, but that was in alaska.

not the five or six hours it takes to drive from chicago to west lafayette.
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Try 2 1/2 to 3 hours to Mackey, not 5 or 6. Also this is the first time this has happen, the BTN did the same thing earlier this year. It's really really embarrassing for the BTN. If it means each school get 1/2 million less every year, so be it, but come on BTN spend the money and do it right.
 

The BTN doesn't have enough money to send broadcasters to every game. Gas is pretty expensive, you guys. And a three hour drive? They might not get home until after midnight, and that's just asking too much of someone after putting in a long and laborious 2.5-hour work shift.
 

Pretty cheesy. I know when FSN did that for the Gophers Hockey game in Alaska, they let everyone know they were doing it. I sure hope BTN did not leave the impression that their announcers were actually at the game. That would be really bad. Reminds of the baseball movies when some guy would read a ticker tape into a mic as if he were at the game. Travel expenses from Chicago to West Lafayette for two guys could not be more than $1,000. Absurd.

BTW, I lost BTN on HD last night on Charter with no explanation. Bad form all the way around.
 

Purdue was down 9 at halftime last night and it was actually pretty close game until the end. It would have been a good finish to see.
 



Hard to put a positive spin on this...arguments can be made, but in the end, send them to the game or use local talent...play by play should be called from the game...no excuses.
 

Par for the course - BTN is such a low level affair. It's good comedy during their promos where the announcers feel they have to growl when talking about upcoming games .... Cheesy.
 

tjgopher said:
Just so you know, Eric Collins and Tim Doyle were in Chicago doing the same thing for the Gophers-Appalachian State game last night. They were not in Minneapolis. Luckily they never lost the feed from Williams Arena.
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Thought something was 'up' when Tim Doyle said: "Welcome to electric Williams Arena."
 




Am a big fan of the BTN and most of their on-air talent, but no question this is embarrassing.
 

tjgopher said:
Just so you know, Eric Collins and Tim Doyle were in Chicago doing the same thing for the Gophers-Appalachian State game last night. They were not in Minneapolis. Luckily they never lost the feed from Williams Arena.
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Haha, I didn't even notice it. I also missed the beginning though, when they were just in front of the BTN backdrop. That's a dead giveaway. You do wonder why they seem to shortcut some stuff. Like I said before, why can't they show every BT team's game on the alternate stations? Even if it's just the "Student U" crap.
 

alternate stations

Monty519 said:
Haha, I didn't even notice it. I also missed the beginning though, when they were just in front of the BTN backdrop. That's a dead giveaway. You do wonder why they seem to shortcut some stuff. Like I said before, why can't they show every BT team's game on the alternate stations? Even if it's just the "Student U" crap.
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I can understand and live with the fact they don't broadcast extra non-conf games on multiple stations. The satellite costs and availabiltiy (mid-week) make it unfeasible.

However, for the games they do show not sending the announces on-site is a complete joke. Did they break the bank to sign on Gus Johnson?
 

Ope3 said:
I can understand and live with the fact they don't broadcast extra non-conf games on multiple stations. The satellite costs and availabiltiy (mid-week) make it unfeasible.

However, for the games they do show not sending the announces on-site is a complete joke. Did they break the bank to sign on Gus Johnson?
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Good point, I didn't consider that. I just see the channels sitting there available but unused wasn't sure if it was high costs to actually feed anything through.
 

Here's what I don't get. They had to send technical crews there to run the cameras, sound, etc. What is the fractional difference between x (number of technical crew) and x+2? Is it anything at all? Presumably whatever truck they send such crews in would have room for 2 more, which means there would literally be no difference in cost. They're not paying them any more (presumably) to broadcast from the game itself than they are for paying them to actually be at the game. And they wouldn't even have to pay for meals, hotel, etc. I just plain don't get it.
 

Ope3 said:
I can understand and live with the fact they don't broadcast extra non-conf games on multiple stations. The satellite costs and availabiltiy (mid-week) make it unfeasible.

However, for the games they do show not sending the announces on-site is a complete joke. Did they break the bank to sign on Gus Johnson?
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BTN owns the rights but 'can't afford' to put them on the air live.

How about this; farm them to a local station. MSC managed to carry these games years back. I don't think they were doing them for free, so there is money to be made.

Somebody is running the cameras etc. already. 'Give' them to a local station. Local station could use radio feed if need be. Does anyone really watch the reruns.
 

station19 said:
BTN owns the rights but 'can't afford' to put them on the air live.

How about this; farm them to a local station. MSC managed to carry these games years back. I don't think they were doing them for free, so there is money to be made.

Somebody is running the cameras etc. already. 'Give' them to a local station. Local station could use radio feed if need be. Does anyone really watch the reruns.
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The difference there was ESPN Regional was selling the whole package. MSC/FSN either had to buy the whole thing or nothing. Had they been allowed to pay 'per game' they may have skipped several of the non-conference cupcakes. BTN can look at it on a per game basis and decide X are not worth the cost. The reality is that channel 45/FSN are not going to pay much for individual games or a small package of crappy non-conference games if there are no B1G games to be had.
 

The BTN has provided this formal response and asked that it be posted in reply:

"We sincerely apologize, especially to Purdue fans, for our technical difficulties in the Purdue-Western Carolina game last night. We experienced a transmission failure that prevented us from being able to televise the game. We are doing everything necessary to prevent this from ever happening again.

Over the past two years, we have developed a way using new technology to produce many Olympic sports events from our control room in Chicago. It has proved to be a fantastic way to cost-efficiently increase the number of televised games and reduce the number of potential streaming games that would likely otherwise only be available via BTN.com. In light of this success, we have used this method to produce a limited number of non-conference basketball games against lesser opponents and increase our overall number of televised men’s basketball games in 2011-12.

We have reinvested that cost savings elsewhere to provide greater resources for more high-profile events such as conference basketball games and to hire talent such as Keith Jackson for Big Ten Icons and Gus Johnson for basketball games.

From a production quality standpoint, we have been very pleased with these control room events. These events are professionally shot, announced, produced and directed and have nearly all of the same capabilities as a standard event and the overall quality is approximately the same.

As with any new technology, there are potential unexpected issues. Last night, we experienced a major on-air technical difficulty for the first time after having produced many events in this fashion. It couldn’t have come at a more unfortunate time. Again, we sincerely apologize and are committed to getting it right for every future production."
 

GopherHole Staff said:
The BTN has provided this formal response and asked that it be posted in reply:

"We sincerely apologize, especially to Purdue fans, for our technical difficulties in the Purdue-Western Carolina game last night. We experienced a transmission failure that prevented us from being able to televise the game. We are doing everything necessary to prevent this from ever happening again.

Over the past two years, we have developed a way using new technology to produce many Olympic sports events from our control room in Chicago. It has proved to be a fantastic way to cost-efficiently increase the number of televised games and reduce the number of potential streaming games that would likely otherwise only be available via BTN.com. In light of this success, we have used this method to produce a limited number of non-conference basketball games against lesser opponents and increase our overall number of televised men’s basketball games in 2011-12.

We have reinvested that cost savings elsewhere to provide greater resources for more high-profile events such as conference basketball games and to hire talent such as Keith Jackson for Big Ten Icons and Gus Johnson for basketball games.

From a production quality standpoint, we have been very pleased with these control room events. These events are professionally shot, announced, produced and directed and have nearly all of the same capabilities as a standard event and the overall quality is approximately the same.

As with any new technology, there are potential unexpected issues. Last night, we experienced a major on-air technical difficulty for the first time after having produced many events in this fashion. It couldn’t have come at a more unfortunate time. Again, we sincerely apologize and are committed to getting it right for every future production."
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1. Lesser Opponent? Did E. Gordon Gee compose that statement? That lesser opponent almost beat a Big Ten team.

2. Would ESPN ever do such a thing for a Men's D1 College Basketball game? I've never heard of it before.

3. One of the great things about having announcers onsite is they get to add things that viewers CAN'T SEE!!!!!!!!!!! They're seeing what the viewer is seeing, and that's it. I found it funny that for the Gopher game 2 nights ago, they didn't know why the refs went to the monitor because they must have missed it on the screen in front of them. Clearly it was because an App Player had Eliason's arm hit him in the face accidently. They said it might be because of a lane violation. REALLY???? A crew onsite would have corrected that immediately. Not that crew. They didn't come to that possibility until 30 seconds later. Announcers can feed off the crowd, hear ref chatter, hear coach's chatter, and just plain give insight I can't get from sitting at home watching the game myself. Cheap, cheap, cheap. This makes the BTN look amateurish.

4. Blaming the cost savings partly on the inclusion of Keith Jackson on the Big Ten Icons show? Ugh. That's just an awful excuse.
 

Pewterschmidt said:
1. Lesser Opponent? Did E. Gordon Gee compose that statement? That lesser opponent almost beat a Big Ten team.

2. Would ESPN ever do such a thing for a Men's D1 College Basketball game? I've never heard of it before.

3. One of the great things about having announcers onsite is they get to add things that viewers CAN'T SEE!!!!!!!!!!! They're seeing what the viewer is seeing, and that's it. I found it funny that for the Gopher game 2 nights ago, they didn't know why the refs went to the monitor because they must have missed it on the screen in front of them. Clearly it was because an App Player had Eliason's arm hit him in the face accidently. They said it might be because of a lane violation. REALLY???? A crew onsite would have corrected that immediately. Not that crew. They didn't come to that possibility until 30 seconds later. Announcers can feed off the crowd, hear ref chatter, hear coach's chatter, and just plain give insight I can't get from sitting at home watching the game myself. Cheap, cheap, cheap. This makes the BTN look amateurish.

4. Blaming the cost savings partly on the inclusion of Keith Jackson on the Big Ten Icons show? Ugh. That's just an awful excuse.
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Agree on all points.

PLEASE forward this to the BTN, as this is the kind of feedback they'll never get from the "groupthinkers" that make decisions in Chicago.
 

Rest assured, the mother ship ESPN -- the network that way back when had direct knowledge of the sexual abuse allegations vs. Bernie Fine and did nothing at that time -- will get wind of this and huff and puff about their superiority.

Agree about the "lesser opponent" statement. Certainly an arrogant take by the Big Ten. Disappointed they stooped to that level. Not a classy move. That "lesser opponent" (Western Carolina) came as close as any #16 seed in the history of the NCAA Tournament to beating a #1 seed back in 1996 in Albuquerque. The team that squeaked by Western Carolina, 73-71? Purdue.
 

Gus

GopherHole Staff said:
The BTN has provided this formal response and asked that it be posted in reply:

"We sincerely apologize, especially to Purdue fans, for our technical difficulties in the Purdue-Western Carolina game last night. We experienced a transmission failure that prevented us from being able to televise the game. We are doing everything necessary to prevent this from ever happening again.

Over the past two years, we have developed a way using new technology to produce many Olympic sports events from our control room in Chicago. It has proved to be a fantastic way to cost-efficiently increase the number of televised games and reduce the number of potential streaming games that would likely otherwise only be available via BTN.com. In light of this success, we have used this method to produce a limited number of non-conference basketball games against lesser opponents and increase our overall number of televised men’s basketball games in 2011-12.

We have reinvested that cost savings elsewhere to provide greater resources for more high-profile events such as conference basketball games and to hire talent such as Keith Jackson for Big Ten Icons and Gus Johnson for basketball games.

From a production quality standpoint, we have been very pleased with these control room events. These events are professionally shot, announced, produced and directed and have nearly all of the same capabilities as a standard event and the overall quality is approximately the same.

As with any new technology, there are potential unexpected issues. Last night, we experienced a major on-air technical difficulty for the first time after having produced many events in this fashion. It couldn’t have come at a more unfortunate time. Again, we sincerely apologize and are committed to getting it right for every future production."
Click to expand...

I was being sarcastic when I questioned if they broke the bank to sign Gus, turns out they admit it's a factor.
 

bassy123 said:
fsn did this for a gohper hockey game, but that was in alaska.

not the five or six hours it takes to drive from chicago to west lafayette.
Click to expand...

They also did this for a weekend series in Colorado Springs. both games were from the FS North studios.
 

While I admit I didn't realize they did this for the Gopher game the other night (but did notice a few odd moments like the FT violation mentioned) this really is cheap. It's not like Tim Doyle is some superstar. If you don't want to pay for his travel costs, hire the #3 week-end sports guy from the local Fox affiliate to do the game. I'd rather have someone at that level actually be there then this experiment.
 

dpodoll68 said:
Here's what I don't get. They had to send technical crews there to run the cameras, sound, etc. What is the fractional difference between x (number of technical crew) and x+2? Is it anything at all? Presumably whatever truck they send such crews in would have room for 2 more, which means there would literally be no difference in cost. They're not paying them any more (presumably) to broadcast from the game itself than they are for paying them to actually be at the game. And they wouldn't even have to pay for meals, hotel, etc. I just plain don't get it.
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I assume the technical crew was all hired locally and not sent from Chicago. That said it's no excuse.
 


howeda7 said:
While I admit I didn't realize they did this for the Gopher game the other night (but did notice a few odd moments like the FT violation mentioned) this really is cheap. It's not like Tim Doyle is some superstar. If you don't want to pay for his travel costs, hire the #3 week-end sports guy from the local Fox affiliate to do the game. I'd rather have someone at that level actually be there then this experiment.
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And....the #3 week-end sports guy would do a hell of a lot better job! Hate Doyle. Bad. Very bad.
 

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