With Sunday’s Super Bowl featuring the New England Patriots vs. the St. Louis Rams just two days away, some area sports fans are becoming concerned on whether the game will be televised.

The issue may have become a little more complex on Tuesday when WABI-TV of Bangor made an inquiry to the Fox network, the carrier of the Super Bowl, on whether it could pick up the signal for the game.

WABI knew that another TV station in Bangor, WCKD, had exclusive rights to Fox sports broadcasts, but wanted an official answer from Fox so WABI could explain to its viewers why it could not carry the Super Bowl, according to Steve Hiltz, WABI’s program director.

Fox’s answer to WABI was that WCKD had exclusive rights to the Super Bowl.

This means in order to watch the Super Bowl on TV in Greater Bangor, a viewer can tune into WCKD’s UHF signal on channel 30 or be a subscriber to a cable company that gets a direct feed for Fox sports. WCKD is on Adelphia cable company’s channel 10, which covers much of the Greater Bangor area.

Two other cable companies which cover the eastern Maine area, Time Warner and Houlton Cable Company, will also have the Fox sports feed for the Super Bowl.

The game is also available to satellite TV viewers who subscribe to the Fox Network.

WABI had a past relationship with Fox, so WABI general manger Mike Young wanted to double check with the network on the Super Bowl even though WABI understood WCKD’s exclusivity for Fox sports, Hiltz explained.

WABI aired a segment during its Tuesday newscast explaining the reasons its could not carry the Super Bowl. While the segment answered questions for many viewers, it did create questions from others who called the station and other media outlets.

Many of the questions are coming from areas outside the local Bangor market that are not served by an off-air Fox signal in northern and central Maine, Hiltz said.

“A lot of folks are not accepting ‘no’ for an answer and for some reason they’re looking to us, but there’s nothing we can do,” Hiltz said.

Some viewers are also confused because WABI carried Patriots games throughout the season because it is an affiliate to CBS, which has the contract for AFC games. The Patriots belong to that conference.

Adding to the confusion, Hiltz said, may be the fact that CBS’ Portland affiliate, WGME, was able to get the Super Bowl through Fox because there is not another local station carrying the game.