Bally Sports preempting MVC games

by **Hooper** » November 30th, 2022, 8:32 pm

Someone please educate me. Tonight as the ISUb/Drake game was coming down to the wire Bally Sports Midwest preempted the game for an NBA studio show. Now, I understand preempting for an NBA game that has started and referring fans to ESPN+ or the Bally Sports App but apparently Bally's is allowed to cut away from a close MVC game and go to studio talking heads just....talking? Not cool.

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by **pafan** » November 30th, 2022, 8:46 pm

Been happening for years. I remember watching an Aces game more than 10 years ago that got pre-empted with like 30 seconds on the clock by a Pacers pregame show. I was told at the time the Pacers have priority over anything else on Bally Sports Indiana. Not sure about other cities/regions.

It's pretty rare that the schedule lines up in a way that this is possible. Normally the MVC and a Pacers game would completely overlap, it just happens that the Pacers are in SLC tonight.

by **Hooper** » November 30th, 2022, 8:55 pm

I have seen Pacers games preempt MVC games for years too. But this wasn't even a Pacers pregame show...it was some pre-recorded studio show just talking basketball. And so it seems this type of show also takes precedence over live MVC games? It happened right at the tick of 9pm so I'm guessing the MVC media deal with Bally Sports says the MVC gets X minutes of airtime and if the game goes long/into overtime, well tough luck. Just not cool.

by **MissouriValleyUnite** » November 30th, 2022, 9:10 pm

NBC Sports Chicago+ let the Drake/ISU game spill over, preempting the start of UCA/Loyola.

by **ValleyFAN** » December 1st, 2022, 8:00 am

I was able to watch it on ESPN+ somehow and it was not preempted at all.

by **squirrel** » December 2nd, 2022, 2:49 pm

MissouriValleyUnite wrote:NBC Sports Chicago+ let the Drake/ISU game spill over, preempting the start of UCA/Loyola.

This is the way the "Heidi rule" should work as an SOP. But so many of these processes are automated and schedule overlap generally rare, or you have inexperienced or disinterested staff that are going to go the path of least resistance. They are much less likely to hear from an Evansville or Drake fan about a game disappearing than a Pacer fan.

We see it a lot with our championship game. A few years, the lead-in game has gone long and CBS has stayed with it. However, there was one year where they did cut away from the end of at least one game to pick up the start of the Big Ten game, which is a general no-no. Networks can get away with it more now because they can so easily make the game available elsewhere when they need to. Also bigger leagues can have more favorable contracts that protect their interests and have pre-emption clauses written in.

by **Birdfan2018** » December 2nd, 2022, 5:26 pm

squirrel wrote:
MissouriValleyUnite wrote:NBC Sports Chicago+ let the Drake/ISU game spill over, preempting the start of UCA/Loyola.

This is the way the "Heidi rule" should work as an SOP. But so many of these processes are automated and schedule overlap generally rare, or you have inexperienced or disinterested staff that are going to go the path of least resistance. They are much less likely to hear from an Evansville or Drake fan about a game disappearing than a Pacer fan.

We see it a lot with our championship game. A few years, the lead-in game has gone long and CBS has stayed with it. However, there was one year where they did cut away from the end of at least one game to pick up the start of the Big Ten game, which is a general no-no. Networks can get away with it more now because they can so easily make the game available elsewhere when they need to. Also bigger leagues can have more favorable contracts that protect their interests and have pre-emption clauses written in.

“Heidi Rule”? You’re showing your age!

by **Bulldog2323** » December 2nd, 2022, 6:00 pm

On Midwest we got the whole game and then they went to TN Tech/St. Louis no problem.

While this arrangement was great in its day, it's too confusing and not worth it now. Most grads from the last 10 years I talk to tell me it's too confusing. I think next TV contract we stick to CBS Sports Network & ESPN+.