I really wish someone would broadcast a game with no commentary, use the same on-screen graphics they currently do and the in-arena announcer. Kind of like Nascar (as much as I loathe Asscar) does with their in car camera, where you hear the pit crew instead of announcers.
Damn I just signed up for nba league pass broadband 30 minutes ago, I wouldn't mind paying extra for HD games through the blazers if league pass games are in SD.
I remember when the NFL experimented with no announcers. They didn't have mics onthe sidelines, but jsut played the game with graphics and no announcers. Personally I hated it . . . thinking about it, maybe I need an announcer telling me what I just saw.
Reading the link in the OP, it sounds like only one option is going to be available to you anyways. The Blazers stream will only be available to those within the KGW Broadcast area. Everyone else needs to use the NBA league pass broadband.
I'm pretty sure that is correct. Only Oregon and SW Washington is considered Trail Blazer broadcast territory.
I can tell you with 100% certainty (unless something changed in the last few days) that all of Washington is Blazer territory. I am subject to blackout in Olympia with League Pass. In fact, Chris_in_PDX also mentioned parts of Idaho and Northern California being included as well. EDIT: Here is Chris's quote:
KGW does not broadcast to most of Oregon or Washington. I got the impression this may go to ALL of oregon and washington.
Well Kudos to the team for at least trying to find a workable solution while DirecTV and Comcast wage their pissing contest nationwide.
If the blazers come up empty handed and don't manage to strike a deal with Comcast to stream those games though, then this will still be considered a loss regardless of the kgw games.
I'm sure if Comcast had told the Blazers during the initial negotiations for their broadcast rights, "we intend to leverage your product in an effort to extort money form other providers at a rate far above the normal rate" I somehow doubt the Blazers would have gotten on board with that -- despite the amount of money they are making on the deal; there is zero advantage for the team if a huge chunk of their market doesn't have access to their product. God only knows how the current TV deal is structured and what kind of performance clauses are embedded in it (in terms of the Blazers being able to void it), but I'm guessing there's not a lot of wiggle room on the part of the Blazers.