Watchdog

So there I was, minding my own business on a Friday, wrapping up a lighthearted look at NBC's over-the-top, 3,600 hours of Olympic coverage for our Sunday viewer guide, when I learn of this small bombshell:

It turns out NBC is charging a premium for its much-touted 2,200 hours of live broadband Internet video - plus special overflow TV channels for soccer and basketball - and it turns out Cablevision has not signed up for said coverage.

So as it stands, the vast majority of Long Islanders will not be watching endless hours of badminton and team handball after all.

Here is a statement from Cablevision (which bought Newsday this week):

"Cablevision is offering customers NBC's comprehensive coverage of the Olympics, from the opening to closing ceremonies, carried across their suite of networks including NBC, CNBC, MSNBC, Oxygen, USA and Telemundo, plus additional programming on NBC HD and Universal HD."

Here is a statement from NBC:

"A substantial majority of the industry, about 90% of multiplatform subscribers, will have access to NBCOlympics.com broadband content. Nearly every distributor, including all majors (Comcast, DIRECTV, Time Warner, DISH, Cox, Mediacom, Verizon, AT&T) are making Olympic broadband content available to their customers. To date, Cablevision has not elected to offer its customers the enhanced Olympics package."

Here is a statement from me:

I'm done for the week. Good luck, Manny. We'll miss you.

(Here is my Saturday newspaper article about the NBC/Cablevision situation.)

Thanks for reading in July.

It's been an interesting month in the local sports media world. But not as interesting as August will be.

Did I mention I work for a different company than when the month began? I'm giving it the benefit of the doubt for now and hoping for the best.

What choice do I have?

Cablevision's purchase of Newsday became official this afternoon!

I assume Stephon Marbury, Al Trautwig and that guy from the iO commercials will be coming by with a welcome basket any time now.

Anyway, I promise you, dear readers, that I will remain objective on matters that involve my new company.

The fact "MSG, NY," "MSG Vault" and "Pants-Off Dance-Off" are my three favorite shows is purely coincidental.

I can't believe I'm diving into this muck voluntarily - especially with Cablevision buying Newsday any minute now - but duty calls:

Verizon FiOS' TV service will begin to become available in parts of New York City starting today, putting the company in competition mostly with Time Warner, the dominant cable carrier in Big Town.

So what are the implications for sports fans?

The basics: Verizon offers the NFL Network, which Time Warner (and Cablevision) do not. (It also has Setanta Sports, which is big for fans of soccer and rugby and such.)

But unlike Time Warner, Verizon does not have the premium, out-of-market services for the three major sports other than football - Extra Innings, League Pass and Center Ice. (No one other than DirecTV has the NFL's Sunday Ticket.)

Verizon offers a bunch of stuff in HD, but not Cablevision's MSG or MSG Plus. Verizon has complained about not having access to those channels in HD.

(Cablevision also keeps adding HD channels, and does not charge for an HD box!)

That's all. If I got anything wrong here, Cablevision or Time Warner p.r. will let me know, I'm sure.

Bob Wolff, a walking, talking, still working trove of sports broadcasting history, has re-upped for two more years at News 12 Long Island, the station will announce later today.

By the end of the deal, my soon-to-be Cablevision teammate will have been in broadcasting for 71 years, 64 of them on television. Yikes! That's even longer than Evan Roberts has been in the business.

Bob was at the mike for the first NBA game I remember watching - the Knicks' classic come-from-behind victory over the Royals in 1969.

That game was one of those remembered by readers in Wednesday's post that invited people to recall infamous sports collapses.

Thanks to all for contributing. Many worthy contenders.

I kind of like JBM's reminder of the Jets' double-OT playoff loss to the Browns after the 1986 season. That one hurt.

Our long regional nightmare is over, to steal a phrase from our favorite SportsCenter anchor, Stan Verrett, who said it recently about the Tigers ending a losing streak.

CBS College Sports (formerly known as CSTV) announced this Wednesday that it has struck a deal to be included in Cablevision's iO Sports Pak, effective the week of June 23.

It costs extra, but the Sports Pak gradually is becoming worthwhile. It also includes the NHL Network!

(I assume I don't have to include a disclaimer about me working for Cablevision until the deal to buy Newsday actually closes, correct?)

Here is another story on the topic of the potential minefield Newsday will walk as it covers Cablevision and its various properties moving forward.

This one is by us.

I didn't have Cablevision as a kid. At the time I didn't know or care how the cable business worked, of course. All I knew was that when I turned on my TV the Rangers and Knicks were on it and the Islanders and Nets were not.

Which is how I became a Rangers fan despite living in East Northport.

Turns out there has been some trouble of late in the parallel universe that is HDTV, in which I remain an alien.

Verizon's FiOS TV had a shortage of HD set-tops and DVRs for a chunk of winter, causing a backlog of orders. Now that the NCAA Tournament and baseball season are upon us . . . how is that going?

"We started to get new inventories of HD boxes earlier this month and we’ve been fulfilling orders for new customers,'' a Verizon spokeswoman wrote. "As our inventories continue to build, we will fill any back orders that we’ve placed for some customers during the temporary shortage. Motorola has been a great partner to us in expediting the delivery of HD boxes."

Why not just get rid of the backlog in order rather than giving new orders a priority? A spokeswoman wrote, "Getting boxes to new customers will disrupt the least number of people" and promised again back orders will be filled as quickly as possible.

Cablevision, meanwhile, sent out a news release Tuesday reminding one and all its HD boxes are ready for March Madness, and that it charges no extra fee for them.

I do not have an official position on cable vs. phone companies vs. satellite for general TV service. I have Cablevision mostly for professional reasons, as it is the company used by the largest portion of my readers.

My LI-based print readers, anyway. You're still out there, right?

I do have a strong official position on DVRs, though. I have TiVo on one TV and a Cablevision DVR on the other. The former is superior, but Cablevision's version does make it easier to tape one show and watch another.

No more e-mails, please, hockey fans!

Cablevision announced an agreement Friday to offer the NHL's "Center Ice'' package to its digital customers who want to watch out-of-market games.

The package features up to 40 games a week and is available now for $149 for the season. (The price rises to $169 Oct. 16).

Also Friday, Cablevision added the NHL Network to its sports tier, which costs an additional $4.95 per month and includes the NBA's league-run network. The NHL's channel should be available on the iO Sports Pak by the end of the month.

MIke Francesa asserted on WFAN this afternoon that only DirecTV - not cable providers - will be offering TBS in HD for the playoffs.

Then 15 minutes later he said Cablevision and Time Warner had announced they would, in fact, offer TBS in HD, as if the information was hot off the presses.

I'm crushed. Mike, weren't you reading the blog when I was following all this in excruciating detail last week? A reader actually caught Mike reading WatchDog on the air recently, so I know he's a closet member of WatchDog nation.

To make a newspaper guy feel even worse, Chris Russo credited Kevin Burkhardt with the information on Hanley Ramirez that Burkhardt himself credited to Newsday's Anthony Rieber on SNY Sunday. (See item on that below.)

Sigh.