Friday, November 27, 2009

Volleyball And My TV


Recently, as there usually is on TV , the provider gives you a free preview of new channels or featured channels that may be struggling or are perhaps unknown. In the grand scheme of things all it comes down to is a drug dealer "offering you a free ‘taste’." You accept an bang! Next thing you know you are on A&E on an episode of Intervention.

This is what Bell ExpressVu did with the Centre Ice Package. They give it to you for a month, get you hooked then when you get accustom to having every game at your fingertips they rip it from you like you were a breast feeding baby forced to go bottle. You still get some games via TSN and the like, but not everything. You don’t get all the goodness of total variety but you get a good mix. 1000+ games was tempting but I choose to pass, maybe game centre on NHL.com next year (especially after I adopted not 1 but 2 Western out of market teams to my favorites list).

Bell has decided to do this to me again with the introduction to the CBS College Sports station. Right now the main focus is College Football but they also have gotten my attention by throwing some NCAA Woman's Volleyball (the A-10 Conference Championship and the Conference USA Championship). Outside of an hour and a half of beach volleyball maybe 3 or 4 times a year on NBC when they show the AVP or if it is an Olympic year you might get a little more coverage...but just a little, there is not a lot of volleyball to be found.

The beauty of the game is that it is fast paced, strategic, athletic and entertaining. What is not to like about that? Also because there really isn’t a Pro League, at least not in North America you aren’t spoiled by having 1 big name or team. You can enjoy the game for the game and even if you don’t know the participants you can still be entertained by the game and not be blinded by the hype of a name.

It is because of this that I will have to put some serious thought into adding this channel to the package. It is sad that it has to get to this point just to see volleyball on TV but what can you do. Anything to get just a little exclusive American sports on my TV has to be taken VERY seriously.

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