ABQjournal: TV Deal Is More Molehill Than mtn.:
By Rick Wright
Of the Journal
OK, does this make sense? If you live in Soda Springs, Idaho, you can watch Mountain West Conference football today on TV.
If you live in the Mountain West cities of San Diego, Las Vegas, Nev., or Fort Worth, you can't.
Nor can Lobo fans in Rio Rancho— or anywhere in New Mexico south of Socorro and/or east of Las Vegas— watch UNM play Portland State on TV tonight.
As for Lobo fans in Albuquerque, Santa Fe, Los Alamos, Taos, Las Vegas, Socorro, Gallup and Grants, only those with Comcast's Digital Classic package ($60.49 per month) get tonight's game.
If you have basic cable, you're out of luck. And if you have satellite TV, you're out of luck.
You won't get The mtn., the new all-Mountain West sports cable network that made its debut Friday evening and is broadcasting all but one of this season's Lobo football games.
Now, did I miss something here? Is there a Mountain West Conference school in Idaho?
Actually, there is a plausible explanation. Soda Springs and several other communities served by Independent Cable Systems of Idaho are heavily Mormon, making MWC member school Brigham Young their team of choice.
So The mtn. must have been an easy sell to Independent Cable Systems of Idaho.
Not so to Cox Cable in Vegas or San Diego. Not so to Cable One in Rio Rancho and Roswell.
Nor have DirecTV and The Dish Network, the nation's major satellite television providers, agreed to carry the new network.
So where does this leave Lobo fans who:
Live in mtn.-friendly zones but don't have cable;
Live in mtn.-friendly zones but either can't afford or don't wish to upgrade to digital;
Live in an area where The mtn. is unavailable?ABQjournal: TV Deal Is More Molehill Than mtn.
Does this make sense? The answer is no. But this is New Mexico, and answers don't have to make sense, they have to make dollar$.
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