The state of Connecticut is unable to support major leagues sports on its own, tucked as it is between major media markets in New York and Boston – it had a hockey team for awhile, but the Whalers sailed off to in search of more profitable waters some time ago. That ups the importance of big college basketball in the state, and Rep. Joe Courtney (R-CT) is disappointed that University of Connecticut Huskies March Madness games will not get regional broadcast coverage this year.
CBS is not providing regional options to its coverage, which is said to be a change from its past practice, and that is forcing UConn’s first game with Buckness onto basic cable’s TNT network – and Courtney says that will deprive 150K residents of the state of access to the games.
Courtney fired off a letter to CBS and NCAA to plead his case, but executives involved said that those without MVPD service can go online to watch the games.
RBR-TVBR observation: We understand that the powers that be are not fretting about lack of access to the games by those without an MVPD subscription. But the argument that they can catch the games online is hollow – the same people who lack MVPD service are quite often also lacking an online connection.
