Network policy led to delayed airing of Patriots

Many citizens of Patriots Nation were ready to sack CBS headquarters and/or Bangor television station WABI’s studios Sunday.

They were ready for some Patriots football, but alas, the network was not … At least not for a little while.

While the Patriots were scoring on their first possession and the Steelers were answering with a game-tying touchdown drive in the game’s opening six minutes, CBS was airing the finish of the 1 p.m. New York Jets-Jacksonville Jaguars overtime game.

That was bad enough for Pats faithful, but what really made them want to punt their TV sets and strangle a network official with a yellow flag was CBS’ decision to switch to the end of the Philadelphia Eagles-Oakland Raiders game after the Jets game concluded, further delaying the start of the Patriots broadcast coverage in the central and northern Maine markets.

“Those switches, which may not have been the best choice for this marketplace, have been done to us before,” said WABI program director Steve Hiltz. “We were swamped with calls.”

The delay, which forced viewers to miss the first 7 minutes, 38 seconds of the New England game, is the result of an intermingling of CBS and NFL rules and philosophies regarding maximizing coverage of the best games for a wide audience and satisfying primary markets’ desire to see their home teams play from start to finish.

“Our programming philosophy is to keep the majority of the country’s viewers on the exciting finishes to their conclusions, if possible,” said Vanessa Hambridge, CBS Sports’ director of programming. “We don’t like to take people out of games, but every week we have a doubleheader, we set up pullout markets, which mean markets in which we leave the ongoing game, even if it’s not finished, to switch to the start of the pullout market’s home team.”

For the New England area, CBS and the NFL have designated Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Portland as primary, or pullout, markets.

“When you’re not in the pullout market, you’re in a bigger audience for a game that may not be right for your particular station, but it’s part of a secondary and national audience that would want to see a finish to an exciting game,” said Hambridge, a Maine native who went to school and grew up in North Yarmouth and Cape Elizabeth. “Stations are moved as a block from game to game.”

Because WABI is not a designated pullout station, it is usually included among those “national audience” stations that are shifted from game to game, either because their primary game is a blowout or because there is a better finish going on.

“An affiliate can request to be a pullout station on a week-by-week basis as early as two weeks in advance of particular games,” Hambridge explained.

The “catch” with making that request is pullout stations must switch to their home team’s game as soon as it starts, regardless of whether the previous game is close, tied, or finished, according to CBS Sports vice president of communications Leslie Anne Wade.

“That’s tough. I don’t like that,” said Hiltz. “I still don’t like that they didn’t go to the Patriots game after the Jets game finished, but I don’t like the idea of ending a game broadcast before the game’s over, either, especially if it’s a tight game.”

So what is WABI to do?

“I’ll call my affiliate representative to see what we can do to make sure something like this doesn’t happen again,” said Hiltz. “Maybe we can become a ‘limited’ pullout station.”

Andrew Neff can be reached at 990-8205, 1-800-310-8600, or at aneff@bangordailynews.net