For what it's worth, the Boston Globe reported several tidbits about the
FSNE decision and policies today. From what I can recall (sorry, I already
tossed it in the recycle bin, so I can't quote directly), they were
contractually obligated to carry the Celtics game live. When that was over,
they resumed the BU/SLU game where they left off, instead of showing the
Maine/Mich game live, because they didn't have live broadcast rights to the
second game, only replay rights. Given those two factors, what they did was
probably the best they could have done to keep us hockey fans happy.
 
The Celtics game got double the market share that the BU/SLU game got. So
even if they weren't under contract, it was also the correct decision for
them economically. And whoever suggested that they just break the contract -
are you kidding? They would not only lose any chance of getting future
Celtics contracts and probably lose the one they already have, who would
want to do business with them if they just broke contracts whenever it
suited them?
 
Despite the scheduling problems, I was certainly happy to be able to see
almost all of the games from this weekend from both regionals in my living
room. It's quite an improvement over past seasons. Although it was a little
surreal to be watching the fourth OT and knowing that the game was going to
end by 8:00, since FSNE kept scrolling the message at the bottom of the
screen that Maine/Mich would be played on tape at 8PM.
 
George Downing  UNH '92
 
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