Looks Like I Won’t Be Live Blogging the Oscars Tonight

Posted By: Peter DavidPosted On:

Because I’m one of the lucky 3.1 million Cablevision customers who is caught in a high stakes pìššìņg match between Cablevision and ABC. The alphabet network decided they wanted Cablevision to cough up an additional $40 million in order to keep carrying their programming; Cablevision said no, if for no other reason, I’d think, then they figure that every other network will come knocking next. And ABC naturally had to wait until they had some high profile TV program to air that isn’t easily watchable on line the next day. They chose today. Which means I’m going to miss seeing the Oscars for the first time in my adult life. We tried to compensate by getting a digital antenna, but it’s useless: The only thing it picked up was two Spanish channels and an infomercial.

So for those of you who had become accustomed to watching along with this blog, well…unless something big changes in the next six hours, corporate warfare is going to be kneecapping the Oscar’s NY ratings tonight.

If anyone knows a legal way to watch them on line, I’m all ears.

PAD

43 comments on “Looks Like I Won’t Be Live Blogging the Oscars Tonight”

  1. No legal ways. But since ABC and Cablevision have left you with no options whatsoever, I’d feel no qualms about turning to a less than legal online stream.

    1. Yeah, that’s just what we all need around here, Craig. “Hi, can someone steer me to an illegal streaming site?” And you can then clock with an egg timer how long it takes trolls and others to pour onto this board screaming, “Ha! Hypocrite!”
      .
      So no thanks.
      .
      PAD

      1. So no thanks.
        .
        It was worth a shot. 😉
        .
        But this is only going to get worse as all the networks try and wring fees out of cable & satellite companies.
        .
        And the only result will be fewer and fewer people who tune in to network TV.

      2. Craig – Same thing up here. I work for the Canadian equivalent of the FCC (in the Computer room, not in Policy) and we’ve been having to sort out a similar mess where broadcasters want to charge cable companies more to carry their signals … which is available free off the air. Both sides have cranked up the rhetoric to ridiculous (and sometimes false) levels. Viewers worry that it’ll just cost them more, though no decision has been made, one way or the other.

  2. .
    If you have an HD TV, go get a digital antenna from the local electronics store. Even before we dropped Dish, we got one of those for when Jenn wanted to watch something like CSI while I was at work and the DVR was recording something I wanted to see. They suck for UHF signels, but you should be able to get your local ABC okay.

    1. As I noted, Jerry, I already tried that. For an indoor digital antenna to work, you have to be, at most, forty miles from the transmission source. Better to be twenty or so. We’re much further. See, when the government was making the whole big deal about switching to digital signals, what they didn’t bother to tell people was that digital degrades faster than analog. If I lived in Queens, an indoor digital antenna would be an option. Out on Long Island, the only option would be a roof antenna which–big shock–all local stores are sold out of. And even if they had one, and I didn’t kill myself installing it on the roof, chances are only 50/50 that I’d pick up anything.
      .
      PAD

      1. Not exactly true.
        .
        Digital and analog degrade signal strengths pretty much at the same rate, but digital is all or nothing – it’s either perfect or it’s not there.
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        Analog “degrades gracefully” – which means that even after it’s pretty well down, you can see *something* that resembles a picture if you squint a little. So, so long as you have a picture at all with digital, it’s going to be pretty well perfect.

        OTOH, one thing that affects the equation is that the new channel assignments are in different wavebands than they used to be – many that had been VHF (2 to 13) are now in the UHF bands. And UHF has a shorter range than VHF, all other things being equal. (Remember, a major reason for the transition was to clear up the VHF spectrum TV had been using for Public Service operations.)
        .
        The FCC was looking at the fact that only about 14% of homes in the US still get their TV signal over-the-air.

        Ten years ago, a drive through the country showed great big antennas with rotators.

        Now the same roofs sport satellite dishes.

      2. .
        Yeah, I was talking about the outdoor type, but I know that they’re 50/50 at best. Like I said in another thread, we can only get two of the three nets most of the time and rarely get the dámņëd UHF stations. We never get our PBS stations with the thing.
        .
        I miss the days when I could go to Radio Shack, shell out $75 and get all my local channels plus about 8 to 12 more depending on the season.

  3. PAD,

    Four years ago ABC and COX Cable got into a pìššìņg contest over having COX pay ABC to carry their HD signal. LOST is one of the few shows I watch and, as the Season premiere of LOST drew closer, no agreement was in site. I had been a COX customer for 20 years at that point, but I switched to DISH Network over it and I have never looked back. Been very happy ever since.

    I know this doesn’t help you tonight, but I wanted to share my similar experience.

    1. Except out here I have friends who have dish TV and complain about constant “No Signal” messages and their shows dropping out if there’s even the slightest inclement weather.
      .
      PAD

      1. We had satellite for a year or so, here in North Georgia.

        I think we had one or two occasions when, during heavy rain (which was rare in Georgia that year, i must admit), the signal blinked in and out, and one time we lost it entirely in a heavy snow with the wind from the south that packed the dish full of snow.

        You being considerably further north than we are, the signal in your area may be somewhat weaker … and, of course, you’re more likely to get heavy snow.

        The rainfall problems are due to signal attenuation, so nothing can be done about that, but as to the snow, i’ll bet it would be possible to rig some sort of radio-signal-transparent cover – like you see on microwave link dishes on cell towers – to keep the snow out.

        In fact, it wouldn’t in the least surprise me if someone already sells them.

      2. .
        Must be Direct TV users. The people I know that have them drop a lot. When we had Dish Network we only rarely lost signal. And even when we lost the HD broadcast we still could get their analog version of the channel.

      3. .
        They must be Direct TV users. The people I know around here that have DTV drop signal a lot. When we had Dish Network we only rarely lost our signal and even then we could still get the analog version of the HD channel we lost.

      4. For whatever it’s worth, I have DISH, live in the same general area as you, and inclement weather rarely gives me more than a less-than-a-second blip. Overall, I’m extremely happy with how reliable it is. Then, perhaps because you live on an island, and Union City, NJ is landlocked, means that the closer distance to the ocean affects things in your area?

      5. I’ll second Jerry — we’ve had DISH for almost a decade now, both in NJ and in California, and have had pretty good success with it. The foot-plus dump of snow we got last month knocked things out for a little while, but not for much more than a few hours. I’m glad things worked out this time (such as it was), but it might be worth considering if this ever comes up again.
        .
        TWL

      6. “The rainfall problems are due to signal attenuation, so nothing can be done about that, but as to the snow, i’ll bet it would be possible to rig some sort of radio-signal-transparent cover – like you see on microwave link dishes on cell towers – to keep the snow out.” Or just go with cable instead, assuming it’s available. Mother got fed up with the cable company’s way of doing business a couple of years ago and she went the satellite route. Didn’t take more than a couple of months to convince her to go back to cable as being inherently more reliable.

      7. The simple fact is that everyone on my block who switched to satellite–and there have been several–went back to cable. So obviously their experiences are going to carry more weight.
        .
        PAD

  4. Don’t you have some friends or family watching the Oscars? I keep hearing about Oscar parties, maybe you could convince someone to have a small one. Offer to bring the food.

    Ask if they have wireless and bring a laptop if they do. If they don’t, bring a wireless router, too.

      1. Start knocking on random doors in a nice apartment building. When someone opens a door and you see a party behind them, shove a meat dish in their hands (not enough people bring meat dishes) and say, “Hey! Sorry I’m late!” while walking past them.

  5. I feel kind of fortunate now to be one of the few people left without cable or satellite. I’ve got an old roof antenna– it’s analog, but it’s hooked into the converter box and it works perfectly fine. (And I’m much more than forty miles from the broadcaster.)
    Sorry, I don’t mean to rub it in, but it does feel nice to finally find an advantage to old-fashioned broadcast TV.

    Maybe you can find somebody to record it for you. Then when you watch it you can blog along with it as if it’s live. As long as you don’t let anyone tell you what happens beforehand it’ll feel the same, won’t it?

  6. I know this may not help because this is a show that you would like to watch live, but if you would like, I can DVR the Oscars and burn a DVD of it to mail to you. I’ll even keep the commercials for you so you can have the complete experience.

  7. I know this would be far less well written and entertaining but for all the pleasure we’ve gotten from you doing these things how about you set up a thread where we can tell you the results, along with pithy commentary (“Avatar, best screenplay???? THERE IS NO GOD!”) and Jerry Chandler could tell us the good (“Tilda Swinton dazzles with a nymph-like ensemble from Armani.”) the bad (“Oh my God, did Sarah Jessica Parker walk by a Salvation Army thrift store right as it exploded?”) and the ugly (“Steve Buscemi, John C. Reilly and Clint Howard in matching Yves saint Laurent tuxedos! My eyes! They burn!”) in haute couture.
    .
    But I’ll bet some last minute deal will make it possible for you to see it as nature intended.

    1. –
      Like I could identify an Armani if I saw it. I still get all of my favorite pants from BDU.com and my favorite shirts from horror host webstores.

      1. .
        Actually, the downfall to us doing it is that some of us can’t not be smart áššëš. I know for a fact that I would be sarcastic as hëll with most of the winners since they likely won’t be the correct choices by the Academy.
        .
        Next year they should just give me a call and save a lot of time and money with the whole “vote” process.

    1. Tried that. It wants to install a plugin that Bit.ly says is potentially harmful. Makes me too wary to go through with it, so no go.

    2. Mimi, I’m doubtful that the watch-oscar-live website is legit. I tested the player there, and it says I need ActiveX 11 installed. That leads to a Russian website.
      .
      And if you look at the text at the bottom of that page, it looks like it was written by a Russian with poor English.

      1. Yeah, didn’t try it myself. Just went from a couple news sites that said that people who didn’t have a tv could use it to watch. Fair enough.

  11. I’m in the same boat, Peter. Honestly, the only two shows where this will affect me are the Oscars and LOST, and I can at least watch the latter online the next day or whenever (though avoiding spoilers is going to suck). It’s going to be interesting to see how long this pìššìņg match lasts, but I’d bet on Disney *not* blinking first.

  12. I still have ABC in Hartford, CT. If you want to drive up there and watch it with me, I’ll let you crash in my dorm.

  13. At one time, by law, the cable companies had to carry the local stations, including the local network affiliates. Has that changed? The last time one of these pìššìņg matches was going on in the city various commentators noted that the cable company was basically lying by saying they wouldn’t carry the local channel since legally they had to, They couldn’t block out the local affiliate only the other cable channels owned by the same company. That was a few years ago but I don’t remember that law ever changing, (then again I don’t really pay attention to this stuff anymore sooo).

  16. Heh. From the commercials the local affiliate has been airing, ABC has been acting like it’s Cablevision being the unreasonable one. Calls to viewers to cancel their service if Cablevision doesn’t play ball and such. No mention at all of the $40 million price tag to keep running their programming, of course.

    1. Where as Disney claims Cablevision pocketed $8 billion last year, and Cablevision certainly won’t tell you how profitable they are.
      .
      It’s the rich fighting the richer. Which pretty much means we lose.

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