Watching NBA Playoffs.

[DarthAnnihl8or]

How are people watching the NBA playoffs. My Pay TV provider Austar has gone from about 5 games per week to 1 on Sundays on ESPN. 'm very frustrated about this so can anyone help me about how they're watching the games. If you don't want to say on the forums then you can PM me.

Do other Pay TV providers have more games on?

 

[*Oz]

Foxtel has been averaging around 1.4 a week at the moment, crunched that number off the top of my head

Last game was yesterday (BOS/ATL) and looks like the next scheduled TBA vs TBA game is next saturday. Only on ESPN as Fox Sports doesn't seem to have any playoff games in their contract.

You can check out the complete ESPN Australia schedule right here;

International Viewer Site | intltv.espn.com | Home Page

The thing that's annoying me most, aside from the poor coverage is that the Eastern Conference Finals will be shown in it's entirety while not one Western Conference Finals game will be shown. I'd be just as mad if it were vice versa, the Conference Finals is usually where the magic happens and I can't understand why we're not getting both East and West as we did for so many seasons.

 

[jordan23]

Well ESPN(US coverage) are showing all the playoff games live each and every day. For example they showed the Detriot vs Magic and Hornets vs SA today.

 

[gemini0928]

I got Foxtel.

They showed 2 games last last weekend and 1 game yesterday... They will show 2 games this coming weekend which looks like both Western conference semifinal games. Other than that I dont know where other people watch it...

 

[jordan23]

The thing that's annoying me most, aside from the poor coverage is that the Eastern Conference Finals will be shown in it's entirety while not one Western Conference Finals game will be shown.

People are more excited about Cricket and Rugby league. But you can always watch highlights on Sport-center.

 

[christuffa]

edited: sorry

 

[jordan23]

Hey Chris, better edit your post. No p2p allowed here as stated in forum rules.

 

[*Oz]

People are more excited about Cricket and Rugby league. But you can always watch highlights on Sport-center.

As much as I love my sportscenter and their never ending feed of humorous adverts, it's still not good enough. There's three fox sports channels for cricket and rugby league.

I can remember say 4 or 5 seasons ago where ESPN Australia alone were airing at the very least 3 games a week no matter what time they were on. I watched the first round game (NBA Playoff opener) between the Pacers and Celtics live at something like 2:30am and then another live game later that morning. I can remember watching every first round game a season or two before that (from memory) between Orlando and Charlotte even earlier, not to mention the teams that were more in demand/popular. This is when Diddy hit that game winner that was waved off, this was before the backboard light and video replay, anyone remember that banked tre?

What happened to the double headers? The complete conference finals coverage? I don't have my connection for Jerry Springer and Americas Next Top model...

Just seems to be getting worse each season

 

[blackwind]

I totally agree. I canceled my subscription with Foxtel a few months back, I just couldn't stand the lack of bball and also the poor picture quality of ESPN. I just hope that there might be improvements with their schedule when the HD feeds come out this year. We can only hope we get the US ESPN in HD...now that would be sweet! and it would get me back as a customer.

 

[jordan23]

I totally agree. I canceled my subscription with Foxtel a few months back, I just couldn't stand the lack of bball and also the poor picture quality of ESPN. I just hope that there might be improvements with their schedule when the HD feeds come out this year. We can only hope we get the US ESPN in HD...now that would be sweet! and it would get me back as a customer.

How much did you pay for the package, mind me asking??

 

[A_Iverson_I]

How are people watching the NBA playoffs. My Pay TV provider Austar has gone from about 5 games per week to 1 on Sundays on ESPN. 'm very frustrated about this so can anyone help me about how they're watching the games. If you don't want to say on the forums then you can PM me.

Do other Pay TV providers have more games on?

Sending you a PM

 

[blackwind]

How much did you pay for the package, mind me asking??

I think it was around $55 or so. It was just the base package plus sports. I couldn't justify it, with never getting Hawks games and poor visual quality for the other games on ESPN. I miss not seeing the NRL and the NBL, but for that price I couldnt justify it. However, if they come out with US ESPN in HD, then I'll be happy to start throwing money at them.

 

[*Oz]

I totally agree. I canceled my subscription with Foxtel a few months back, I just couldn't stand the lack of bball and also the poor picture quality of ESPN. I just hope that there might be improvements with their schedule when the HD feeds come out this year. We can only hope we get the US ESPN in HD...now that would be sweet! and it would get me back as a customer.

I'm definitely looking forward to the HD upgrades, if we can get the US ESPN I will be amazed though, but not writing the possibility off. For now, I'm too much of a sucker, I'll winge about it but still pay my x amount of dollers a month for the 8 or so games they're showing. Combined with the Fox sports coverage the season itself wasn't so bad but the playoff coverage has gone down hill and then some.

 

[blackwind]

I'm definitely looking forward to the HD upgrades, if we can get the US ESPN I will be amazed though, but not writing the possibility off.

Yeah, I think it is wishful thinking on my part for US ESPN HD, but thats the way they can get me back as a customer....or FSN South HD so I can see every Hawks game Now thats wishful thinking!

 

[jordan23]

Yeah, I think it is wishful thinking on my part for US ESPN HD, but thats the way they can get me back as a customer....or FSN South HD so I can see every Hawks game Now thats wishful thinking!

Quality on Espn us is breath-taking. Nearly every game i get is fairer quality than those OZ one's.

 

[*Oz]

Yeah, I think it is wishful thinking on my part for US ESPN HD, but thats the way they can get me back as a customer....or FSN South HD so I can see every Hawks game Now thats wishful thinking!

FSN South??? That's like trying to get blood out of, err, Ayers Rock!

If they hook us up with FSN South, they better be going all the way and giving me FSN West

 

[Dr. Curlytek]

Playoff coverage over in the states was comprehensive, shared across ESPN, TNT and abc, not sure if that translates at all to Foxtel channels here...

 

[blackwind]

Quality on Espn us is breath-taking. Nearly every game i get is fairer quality than those OZ one's.

No doubt, ESPN US broadcasts in HD, where ESPN Oz is broadcast in less than SD, it is heavily compressed to take less bandwidth on the satellite, hence the bad picture quality.

 

[christuffa]

Quality on Espn us is breath-taking. Nearly every game i get is fairer quality than those OZ one's.

How do you get it? Foxtel?

Does anyone know of an online subscription to ESPN (US)? Where you can stream games live?

Thanks
Chris

 

[whereiswally78]

We've had numerous threads like this on the board over the past couple of seasons. Interestingly, someone actually emailled Foxtel about the crap coverage, and they suggested that the games/coverage is purchased by an overseas organisation representing out-of-the-US networks, and they have no direct input into which games or how many games are shown.

At the end of the day, I suspect the rights to NBA games (particuarly the playoffs) are too expensive (blame David Stern) for the networks to justify based on ratings (ie. NBA fans outside of N. America).

Sad, but I suspect true!

I'm looking to cancel my Foxtel after these playoffs have finished as the coverage is insufficient.