Television
The Sabres Hockey Network airs on MSG Network throughout Upstate New York; the team and network are contracted for 70 games, with the play-by-play and commentary simulcasted over video. The other 12 air only on the radio half of the network, including all games broadcast on the league's national outlets. Games against the New York Rangers, New York Islanders or New Jersey Devils (other hockey teams to which MSG owns TV rights) will carry the Sabres Hockey Network feed on the SAP of MSG or MSG Plus in New York City and the surrounding areas. MSG and the Sabres have an agreement to carry Sabres games through 2016. The Sabres also have the capabilities to broadcast preseason home games on the team's Web site.
On DirecTV, channel 638 (and 638-1 for HD games) is used exclusively for Sabres games. Due to a dispute between MSG and Dish Network, Sabres games are not available on that medium. The games are available on Verizon FiOS, with high-definition feeds only arriving in late 2011 after a protracted legal dispute in which MSG refused to provide Verizon with an HD feed. The network is also available on Time Warner Cable, the predominant cable provider in New York State; the two sides had an approximately 1½-month contract dispute that left games unavailable on cable for most of the state.
In the past, single games were sold to one of the Buffalo broadcast stations (WGRZ-TV, WIVB-TV and WKBW-TV), usually games played on Saturdays. This has happened only once since MSG took over the broadcast contract: WGRZ and WHEC-TV were given rights to simulcast MSG's coverage of the February 11, 2012 game between the Sabres and the Tampa Bay Lightning, as a one-time goodwill gesture in the ongoing dispute between Time Warner Cable and MSG.
Games carried by NBC Sports Network, NBC, and CBC Television are not produced by the Sabres, and these television broadcasts are not considered to be part of the Sabres Hockey Network. The network produces "radio only" broadcasts for its terrestrial affiliates when an NBC game airs.
Read more about this topic: Sabres Hockey Network
Famous quotes containing the word television:
“Television is an excellent system when one has nothing to lose, as is the case with a nomadic and rootless country like the United States, but in Europe the affect of television is that of a bulldozer which reduces culture to the lowest possible denominator.”
—Marc Fumaroli (b. 1932)
“Cultural expectations shade and color the images that parents- to-be form. The baby product ads, showing a woman serenely holding her child, looking blissfully and mysteriously contented, or the television parents, wisely and humorously solving problems, influence parents-to-be.”
—Ellen Galinsky (20th century)
“So why do people keep on watching? The answer, by now, should be perfectly obvious: we love television because television brings us a world in which television does not exist. In fact, deep in their hearts, this is what the spuds crave most: a rich, new, participatory life.”
—Barbara Ehrenreich (b. 1941)