Network dead: Fox Sports Net to carry Rockets games

Dish Network per their website has the Top 60 Plus package for $30 a month. Time Warner according to the Houston regional website is $40 a month. Dish Network looks like the cheapest deal for folks wanting to catch the games.

 

Harrisment is totally right....standard cable is what you need to view the channel FSN(channel 37)..and Im sure if you are really desperate you can find a way to budget out 30 odd bucks a month to feed your addiction.

now...my question is...

for those that have been watching the various Fox Sports Networks in Houston.....is channel 37 on TW(FSN) the regional Fox Network for this region? (what used to be FSSW).
I didnt watch it unless the Rockets were playing, so I havent checked it in ages.

 

Yes, youre right..
Thats where most of the Astros games were broadcast..
CH 37 (FSN) is sooo much better than CH2 (ch.51 air). You can actually make out out what is going on without squinting

 

I'm more happy about Fox simply taking over the broadcast production duties...

This means no more Cooper, no more silly intro that still plays the drums (and has a cheesy closing... last year it was "be big"... this year, it says their other slogan), no more promos for "Becker", "The Parkers", "Texas justice" and whatever other show that's on Ch.51 (honestly... why waste the $$$ to have a station that shows nothin but awful, outdated shows), no more awful sound, no more fuzzy picture, no more cheesy halftime segments (which, I confess, didn't watch anyways... so if some of them were good, I apologize).

What we do get is more post-game coverage, more local coverage on the satellite package, and more money (for Les to spend back on the team).

 

go to best buy, circuit city, wal-mart, target, whatever, and buy a cable wire.

plug that cable wire into the cable wall outlet.

plug the other end to a tv that has a cable ready thing in it.

voila.

it gets 37. it's basic cable.

 

FOX has always done the production work on the Rocket Games regardless of what station the actual game airs on (except for TNT & ESPN games). The Quality issues are not from the production aspect, rather the actual uplink/downlink equipment on 51's side. Unfortunately, that equipment runs from several Hundreds of thousands of dollars to the millions. (I work in TV Production and I have done a lot of work for FOX) And the little guys (51, 55 the tube, etc..) will always be there because they understand that the quality of the content outweighs the glamour of the flashy graphics etc. For us DFW guys, we will not get to see any more games. When the ROX-Spurs were on FOX last year, it was blacked out (at least on DirectTV anyways). I was pissed, so I called FOX's engineering in Dallas, Houston, and DirectTV. The said that we lived too close to the arena for them to air the game!!!???? Okay...its 285miles to the Toyota Center from DFW. It sucks overall because only 75% of the television viewers have cable or satellite. That means that 1 in 4 people will not be able to watch the Rockets on TV. Welcome to my world folks. At least the Astros were covered in DFW by channel 52 here. Wish they would've covered the Rockets also, but with FOX taking over, there's no chance of that happening now. Thanks FOX Sucks Net. So with Cooper gone, Fox will probably try to bring in one of their own guys (alright...Rick Renner?javascript:smilie('')) Or almost as good..Kevin Eschenfelder??javascript:smilie('')) Or maybe someone else who doesn't give a rats @ss about Houston and talks crap about the town and folks when their not on the air. Sorry Bullard and others who actually care about the Team and town-but your not a DFW biased FOX croney. Is there any questionas to why Bellaire's own Randy McLvoy left Fox Sports and DFW for Channel 2 in Houston?

 

If I have a cable, I would watch Sports all evening eveyday, which is not good at all. To just follow the Rocket, I have to get a
cable. It just breaks my rule.

 

I dont think you would be able to watch sports all evening everyday with standard cable. Sure there is ESPN and FSN but would you want to watch all of their programming?

Its not like they have good games on all the time

 

Yeah, I'm pi$$ed too. I spent this weekend networking my pc with my widescreen tv, and I don't have the inclination to pay for cable, so I bought the ATI HDTV Wonder antenna plus card. Now I have to rethink my whole system, including deciding whether I need to keep or return each component.

You think that they could at least give us a little more warning?

The season starts in two days and they tell us: "Oh, by the way, I know you're excited about the upcoming season, but you need cable to watch the Rockets."

 

TNT, ESPN, ESPN2, MNBC etc. If you have so many channels, it is difficlt to control yourself. Maybe I should change back into a Spur
fan.

 

You have a widescreen TV, but you don't have cable/sattelite?

Honestly... you'd get far more use out of that pricey piece of equipment with the vast amounts of HD programming over one of those venues, rather than the over-the-air channels (which wouldn't carry the 18-20 Rockets games on national cable tv, nor would the channel 51 signal be carried on the HD medium period).

People... they've only been doin this for 2 years on 51... why does everyone feel "entitled" to this? Throughout the 90's, it was cable for half the games... and since then, as the price of cable/sattelite have decreased, that's more than made up for the reasoning of having most of the games on cable.

Plus... when the Rockets goto the WCF this year... there's only one place you can catch it. CABLE!!! (TNT)

 

my sister and her husband has a widescreen, and the latest dvd player, and all this ****, but without the cable or satalite.

 

That's like buying a $80,000 car.... but deciding to run it on regular unleaded.

Crazy.

 

Hehe, thats funny...I was thinking the same thing.
Why would someone buy top notch equipment just to watch some DVD's once in a while....that only makes sense if you have allot of money to spend and just dont give a crap..
Oh wait, but then if you have money why be so cheap and not get cable or sattelite?

Its just hard to imagine that someone couldnt spare ~ $30/month to pay for standard cable...

Make a little jar and put a dollar into it everyday - at the end of the month you have enough to pay your cable bill.

 

I think it's because they don't have cable capabilities in their neighborhood yet.

I don't know, ill shut up.

 

yeah but think about it another way.

you'll pay 30 bucks (at least and thats if you do dish which would require initial expenses) for just hte rockets.

many people dont care to watch all the other crap on cable. many dont have time for it. so its not the 'omg how can you not afford 30 bucks' its the its completely useless. theres no need for it. EXCEPT the rockets.

 

LETS ALL PROTEST

 

Don't know if this has been answered:

Will this start this season or next season? Does anyone know if it affects LP?

 

this season

 

Man, this really sucks.

After a string of several billing screw-ups(double charges-phantom charges), I told Time Warner where to stick their cable boxes a couple of months ago. I've been waiting for a really good special to come up from one of the big 2 satellite guys. Can't wait any longer now. But with the season 2 days away I'll probably miss 2, or 3 games no matter what.

They should let 51 simulcast the games(along with fox) for the 1st couple of weeks so the die-hard fans that will be purchasing cable/satellite just to see the Rocks won't have to miss any games.(I know-pipe dream)

The timing on this really, really blows.