Alright, first things first...
1) Best take from TUC HQ last night:
Me: "I'm bored."
The Driver: "Here, make your own fun." (proceeds to rewind the PVR five seconds to show Joe Corvo getting decked by Petr Prucha in slo-mo);
2) Thank you for exploding my inbox last night...much obliged;
3) To answer your most frequently-asked question...
No, I did not write this. Firstly, I never sign missives with both initials. Secondly, I know where I am -- and regardless of my location, 9 times out of 10 I will sign, "from Thunder Bay". I like to remind people that I don't consider myself an Ottawan.
(Aside: In regards to the question itself, and frankly I don't know why they aired it -- I'm always suspicious of fake emails read by the Ottawa media. Why? Because I was asked to "create" some in the past during a guest stint on Ottawa Sports Radio. Surely they must be receiving real ones from real people by now. I hope.)
Once again...here are (some of) your emails:
"Okay, that's it. I'm not putting up with this (expletive) anymore. I think they shot this from Central Park West. I know I'll never be able to make out the names on the sweaters, but now I can't see the numbers." -- William
"(First intermission after the "Hockey Talk" segment, I think it was Ledyard talking about some highlights) 'All that happens here is Wade gets beat off the boards once again.' Worth the $10.95 right there I'd say." -- Ryan
"Rob Brodie wrote this on his blog and I have a big problem with it:
'There have been suggestions that, in this market at least, the number of pay-per-view games will grow to some massive number in the future. They cite the 17 PPV games the Vancouver Canucks offer as an example. Here's the difference: I believe there were 16 Sens games not slated to be televised by any network this season (five of which wound up on PPV). That's certainly not the case in, say, Toronto or Montreal, where there's TV demand there for every game.'
Three out of those five games were against Toronto, Pittsburgh and Detroit. You tell me on what planet would those games normally go untelevised. You know networks wanted those games, but the Sens knowing that they had PPV on the horizon wouldn't give them up. They wanted them for themselves to pull the biggest numbers." -- Gary
"I love how I'm supposed to be eased into this. One PPV game in January and then 3 in 11 days. I chose to go game by game because I wasn't sure I'd like the format. Now I have to put over 30 dollars on one Rogers bill. I'm a regular working guy and I feel stuff like that." -- Jamie
(Ed. Note: I think this is an excellent point, BTW.)
"No broadcast improvement in 3 games. Three strikes and your (sic) out, Senators." -- Peter
"Erin, do you think that there's a market for PPV in HD?" -- J.P.
(Ed. note: Yes, I do. It's growing, and it's definitely vocal -- I've seen threads bringing up this issue in the Sportsnet forums, and on the HF Boards. Is it an option for the Sens? No. But the fact remains that people are used to watching high-quality broadcasts because they've become readily available. The Senators showing a subpar quality PPV only aggravates traditional HD viewers even further.)
"I'm counting on you to keep telling us about the PPVs from now on. I've given the Senators enough of my money." -- Rick
"WTF was up with that segment with (the Citizen's) Wayne Scanlan babbling on about the Stanley Cup? That could not have been anymore painful." -- Stephanie
(Ed. note: If anyone wants to know what segment Stephanie is talking about -- email me.)
"Whenever the Sens release those PPV numbers I'm not gonna believe them. I've heard people complain non-stop about how bad the broadcast looks. The purchases will drop after the first spike, which probably happened when we played the Leafs." -- Trevor
"That about does it for me. Count me out for good because I refuse to pay for that garbage." -- Ann
Alrighty then.
On the plus side (again) -- I actually did enjoy the segment featuring Dean Brown and MSG. Unfortunately, it's now become plainly obvious that the Senators have no intention of ever improving the quality/clarity of the overall broadcast. And based on the emails above, it's going to become an issue for them, if it hasn't already.
Grade for last night's PPV: C
Overall rating: C
Next PPV broadcast: Sunday, March 18th
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