Un-Definition

by John Fontana on Apr 12, 2007 3:17 PM EDT in Media

If high definition hockey enhances the game, you wouldn't know it if you were a Lightning hockey fan.

Sun Sports (the Tampa Bay Lightning's official broadcast partner) will be offering game #3 and game #6 (if necessary) of the Lightning/Devils games in High Definition.

The Lightning's most marketable time of year and Sun Sports is only offering potentially 2 High Definition broadcasts in the first round? High Definition enhances hockey on TV and while Fox Sports Net Florida (Sun Sports sister station) offered 30 Florida Panther games in High Definition during the 2006-07 season (and 39 Devil Ray games on top of it), Sun Sports offered all of 10 games in High Definition for the Lightning during the regular season.

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There were no HD trucks available in NJ or for any of the other games in Tampa. 2 out of the 3 games able to be produced locally in HD by Fox operated regional sports networks in the first round across the country, due to HD production truck and facilities limitations, are Lightning games. There are a limited number of HD trucks available to begin with and during the spring when MLB, NBA and NHL are all in action, locating and reserving them on short notice is a challenge for every team. As the playoffs continue, Sun Sports will look to produce as many HD games as possible, contingent on securing HD trucks and transmission facilities.

Regular season HD schedules are based on numerous factors including bandwidth capacity, HD truck availability, HD transmission facilities availability, agreements and more. No one is purposely trying to benefit one team over the other in terms of producing HD games. The goal is to ramp up production of HD games at the local level as it becomes feasible.

by askus on Apr 18, 2007 5:27 PM EDT reply actions