US Open Men's Final not broadcast locally?

[jal41]

The main issue in all of this was the fact that if they aired the match, they would have had to preempt local 6 PM newscasts to do so. That would have led viewers to go to the competition...and in some instances never to come back. Syndicated programming does not sound like an issue (I believe affiliates can reschedule it unlike network programming)...just the news.

It is unusual for a network to preempt during 6 PM newstime on a weekday outside of a holiday (Noontime and 5 PM newscasts often get the boot for weekday events, but never the 6 PM news).

Speaking of which...what did these stations do to fill in the 6:30 PM half-hour that Katie Couric would have been on?

In the case of WRAL...they have a 24/7 HD newschannel they could direct viewers too for 6 PM news (I don't know what they did). Most other stations do not. This may make a better argument for affiliates to add a second subchannel to guarantee network clearances.

[ynot2k]

The main issue in all of this was the fact that if they aired the match, they would have had to preempt local 6 PM newscasts to do so. That would have led viewers to go to the competition...and in some instances never to come back. Syndicated programming does not sound like an issue (I believe affiliates can reschedule it unlike network programming)...just the news.

I'm going to slightly disagree with you... I started this thread by citing an article from the St. Pete Times http://blogs.tampabay.com/media/2008/09/angry-area-tenn.html#comments, and the CBS affiliate down here pretty much admitted that their decision was Dr. Phil-related, not news-based.

"It was a damned if you do, damned if you don't situation," said WTSP spokesman Pete Nikiel, noting that fans can watch the tennis match right now on USOpen.org or on their digital weather channel.

Nikiel said CBS would not allow the station to re-air the match, insisting it be presented live.

"The tennis people are angry (but) if we hadn't done this, the Dr. Phil people would have been angry," added Nikiel, who couldn't say how many angry phone calls they had gotten. "Turns out, tennis fans are quite vocal."

[jal41]

I'm going to slightly disagree with you... I started this thread by citing an article from the St. Pete Times http://blogs.tampabay.com/media/2008/09/angry-area-tenn.html#comments, and the CBS affiliate down here pretty much admitted that their decision was Dr. Phil-related, not news-based.

WTSP's sister station here in Atlanta, WXIA, has had no problem with preempting Dr. Baldhead for NBC when needed, they have just simply aired the show at 3 PM the next day. (At least WXIA now has a sister, WATL, to pawn programming onto). It is a bad situation either way.

In the case of when WGCL preempts (Ellen in this case), they air the show at 2:35 AM (WGCL has a 4 PM newscast). Preemption-king WSB-TV (which is preempting for one hour of primetime for two nights this week) and no-preemption WAGA have done 7 PM newscasts when the network needs the time.

95% of the preemptions were done on the basis of the 6 PM news. WTSP management might say otherwise (a "soundbite" for the newspaper). But Dr. Baldhead might be a popular draw in Tampa (enough to cause concern for WTSP - no one knew that Katie Couric was #1 in nearby Ft. Myers until recently).

[Troy Goodwin]

Apparently, KHOU [11] sent The US Open Men's final match over to KTBU [55] in Houston. Channel 11 was committed to show "The Doctors" & "Oprah" , and its was also carried on Channel 11.2 [A High-Def Channel] and also on Comcast as well.

[Julius May]

KYW-TV in Philadelphia did air the Men's final that caused the season premiere of Dr. Phil from 5-6 PM, news from 6-7 PM, ET/Insider from 7-8 PM  not to air.   

[kyscott]

WLKY in Louisville aired the tennis game on the HD channel with local news on the NTSC channel.  Get ready to see more of this, and with the federal gub'ment giving away HD converter boxes, there's no reason to be bitching about it.  Either upgrade to HD or get left behind.

[Studio20]

WTSP in Tampa caters almost exclusively to females 25-54. I'm surprised they still cover male sports, period.

[charlestondxman]

Well, KYW aired it because it is an owned and operated station by CBS, and all CBS O and O's are required to air almost everything the network carries.

The stations in Charleston are preemption-friendly, as they do move shows to open timeslots later in the week.

My channel 2 only preempts for the Carolina Children's Charity telethon (eight hours on a Sunday in March), a very important local event that has been in existence for over 20 years.

WCSC preempts primetime shows (mostly repeats) for Billy Graham, but they have done it for most of their history. They also preempted the Labor Day airing of the U.S. Open for the Jerry Lewis telethon, moving it to one of their local cable channels. They used to do much more, preempting primetime for College of Charleston basketball games (back when they were getting popular), the Midnight Basketball League, and stuff like mayoral debates.

WCIV is the worst at it now, with a preemption at least twice a month, for local specials hosted by the main news anchors, hurricane specials (like most in this part of the nation), St. Jude's Hospital, and even infomercials for a local spine institute, basically 30 minutes of PR.

[MarcB]

Marc? Did their "CBS 3" service for Springfield, MA (WFSB-DT 3-2) air the tennis? I was at work and never put the TVs on anything with an antenna since the weather wasn't an issue here (greater Hartford) on Monday.

Not sure. I don't have an HDTV so I wouldn't be able to tell you.

[mrschimpf]

I think it was all just a case of bad timing with the beginning of the syndication season. You go past the Eastern Time Zone and into Central and Mountain and move into 4pm in those time zones, you run into CBS stations carrying Oprah's premiere with not only the Olympic medalists, but in HD, along with "Dr. Phil", "ET" and "The Insider" in that format, and the premieres of "The Doctors", "Bonnie Hunt" and "Deal or No Deal". You pre-empt that first episode of the season/ever, you lose all your momentum to get the viewer stuck at 5pm on your news, and then you get the whining from the viewers via the phone that Oprah was pre-empted, along with the stink eye from the syndicator because you forever cursed "The Doctors" to low ratings.

It was short-sighted if a station had to push tennis off, definitely, but it's one of those situations were either way, you're angering someone. I think CBS should've just pre-empted their primetime and aired the match then like with the women's final (although CBS airs the men's final on Sunday afternoon specifically because they claim the women's final always outdraws the men's), or push it to USA as a last hurrah for that network (although then you would have got WWE pre-emption grief involved if they went into lengthy tiebreakers past 9pm).