Posted by: Fred M
There is a lot of confusion regarding the Dallas Mavericks appearing in HDTV. Here is the straight “skinny.”
(1.) A call to DirecTV Customer Service (a gal named “Letty”) said that the NBA Mavericks would not be on HD this coming Saturday night on Channel 84. Furthermore, neither the online or video schedules show this game. On the surface, it appeared that she was right. (She was wrong!)
(2.) The local UPN station (KTXA Channel 21) has the video rights to this game so I called one of their engineers, a fellow named Bill Shuly. He said the game is indeed shot in high definition by HDNet, but is down-converted to Standard Definition for over-the-air broadcast by KTXA. Their Programming Director (a lady named “Tammy”) said they would like to air it (and would) in HDTV, if it was made available to them – but it is not. She referred me to an executive at the Dallas Mavericks ....a Dave Evans.
(3.) Dave Evans said that HDNet holds the HD broadcast rights to certain Mavericks games ...but that KTXA holds non-HD rights. He clearly said that certain Mavericks games would be telecast in HDTV by HDNet on DirecTV (Channel 84) plus the Dish Network (Channel 9424) and Charter Cable (Channel 772.) The November games include: Sat. Nov. 15 vs. Memphis Grizzlies 7pm (Central), Thurs. Nov. 20 San Antonio Spurs 6:30p.m. Central and Sat. Nov. 22 Denver Nuggets 7:30p.m. Central. HDNet is not passing the HD video onto the local OTH station (KTXA) ...instread they are down-converting it to them in SD.
(4.) Comcast announced this past week that beginning Saturday, they would be offering HDTV in the Dallas area. According to their Irving (Texas) Service Center, they will be offering ABC/NBC/CBS/PBS/FOX plus ESPN-HD and IN-HD and IN-HD2 “at first” and “shortly” will add HBO/Starz/Cinemax/Showtime. I asked about HDNet (since I wanted to watch the Maverick’s games) and Comcast will NOT be offering that channel. Comcast apparently feels that their IN-HD/IN-HD2 service (in which they have an ownership position) is a duplication of HDNet. They obviously have never seen it.
(5.) If HDNet passed on the high definition signal to KTXA, then it too would be on Comcast (since they carry KXTA.) So it appears that the real reason that OTH KXTA gets the down-converted (SD) signal is because HDNet does not want Comcast to televise the game in high definition without first agreeing to carry HDNet. (I can certainly understand Mark Cuban’s position.)
(6.) The bottom line is (even though denied by DirecTV) they will carry the Mavericks game Saturday in HDTV on Channel 84. (At least that is what the Maverick’s say and the Nov. 1 and 6 games were indeed in HD on Channel 84. Except for the Dallas Maverick's website, it has been more or less kept a secret.)
(7.) Since Comcast said they will not be carrying HDNet, I called DirecTV and arranged for my two TVs that carry Comcast cable to be replaced by DirecTV ...and I have canceled Comcast. (Up until recently, I had both.)
(8.) One additional note. I found the people at Dallas UPN Channel 21 and the Dallas Mavericks to be very friendly and knowledgeable. The DirecTV/Comcast CSR’s that operate out of call centers don’t have a clue as to what is going on ...or even what their services are ...or what they will be carrying! (I called DirecTV twice and Comcast five times in order to get the needed information so I could make a decision regarding which HD service I would be continuing with. Comcast is, by far, the worst.)