Re: Response to Article Published Sept. 15th

Dear Editor,

 

I would like to respond to the editorial Deal Benefits only Comcast (Sept. 15th), by first ensuring that everyone know that CSTV is a CBS entity, and is not owned by Comcast as many think who have written in.  Also, the mtn. is a joint venture between CSTV and Comcast, and broadcast companies across the country do sell access to their subsidiary programming to other providers all the time.  Look at the company Viacom.  Every cable or satellite provider I know of carries the Viacom channels, even though until recently, Viacom was affiliated with CBS.  Walt Disney owns ESPN and ABC, and Time Warner is a cable provider, as well as an outlet for the WB and AOL.  And I don't see other cable providers shunning those channels and services.

 

As an officer for a local tech company, I study the implications of these types of changes that go on. And though I don't understand why Comcast and CSTV didn't, and haven't, been able to get wider coverage for the mtn., you may still be able to get the games if your cable provider won't serve up the mtn. to you, or if you are outside of Comcast's mtn. distribution area.  CSTV recently announced a site that will stream the games via Internet.  And when I say video streams, I'm not talking about the streams we are used to.  These are high quality streams. With the new Media Center PCs, and Microsoft's upcoming release of Vista with Media Center built into it, these types of solutions will become even more viable, and most areas now have some kind of access to broadband Internet.  Once again, the way broadcasting is done is now rapidly changing, from aspect ratios, to HDTV, from DVRs, to Media Centers, from broadcast TV, to OnDemand.  And CSTV and the mtn. happen to be on the very forefront of this change, so we should all expect headaches and confusion with the new technology, but expect to get unprecedented programming in the near future.

 
Tijs Limburg
Chairman and CTO of DMX - Digital Media eXceleron, Inc.

Murray, Utah
 

Deal benefits only Comcast

I was wondering, did the Mountain West Conference do any research before they made The mtn. channel deal?

Why would anyone in their right mind make a deal with CSTV/The mtn. (mostly owned by Comcast) and know that probably less than 2 percent of the MWC fan base cannot get, have or afford Comcast? Sure, CSTV/The mtn. (once again owned mostly by Comcast) said they offered DirecTV and Dish Network to carry the channel. Yeah, right! Why would Comcast offer a channel to their competitors? If DirecTV and Dish Network had CSTV/The mtn., then Comcast wouldn't get more subscribers. This deal only benefits Comcast, nobody else.

Christy Halla

Provo

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Fwd: Utah Utes vs. Northern Arizona

While we didn't stand up the Northern Arizona Lumberjacks like previous BYU Coach Crowton stood up Nevada a few years ago, we almost didn't show up to the first quarter of the game, allowing NAU to get on the board early.  It was great, however, that after that, the Utes rallied and posted 45 unanswered points.

 

The thing I have taken away from this game in my analysis of things, is that the Utes are not being diciplined very well as a team.  This is in effect, a coaching problem.  A disciplined team shows up to play ALL quarters of football, plays every down, and every play.  As well, the penalties are another large indicators of this, and the number turnovers in the UCLA game can be counted as another attribute of a less disciplined team. 

 

If there is anything Coach Wittingham can improve on this week to prepare for the harder teams that are coming up on the schedule, it is disciplining his squad. 

 

As I watched them warm us, as compared to NAU, I knew that they woiuld come out slow.  They were warming up like it was some sort of beach party.  I would have liked to see some warmup routines like Coach Meyer had 2 years ago.  This also brings up the point that if they are "lousy" in warming up for the most important day of the week, then how do they warm up for practice? 

 

Discipline plauged Coach Mac.  Coach Meyer took the same players Mac had the previous year, and made them a championship team and in two years a BCS buster, with discipline --sometimes so rigorous that after summer camp, a few players called it quits-- and maybe that is overkill.  But the Meyer solution worked, and is continuing to produce results even at the big time Florida U.  (Imagine being a Coach like Meyer and going into a bigshot school like that and telling the players on the nationally renowned Florida Gators that they are lazy, and that he is shutting down their plush locker room until he feels they are more disciplined.)  If Florida needs discipline, then assuridly the Utes cannot neglect it.  And I think Wittingham has forgotten it.  He's new at the head coach position, so we'll cut him some slack, but disciplined W's are the goal to beat this season, as a comparison; and when it boils down to it, we will win or lose on it.

 

All that said, I think the team improved this week, and I think the team will now take this confidence W and run with it.  I worry though, that we have once again become a desperation team, and not a definition team --a team that redefines football.  The game of football is driven in all ways, both the physical and the mental, by momentum, and should only need desperation as a final straw.  Despireration is dangerous because it causes a lot of 1 and 2 point losses --something the Utes were akin to in the 90's.  They then became a momentum team under Meyer, where every drive carried the next, and we saw some hints of that today with 45 unanswered points in 7 consecutive drives.  Do that every game, no matter who the contestant is, and you will win games.  Momentum also carries you through the red zone, and into the endzone.  Desperation just carries you into the bluezone --where teams get down on themselves because they are always a "play late and a yard short" of making a win. 

Tijs Limburg

 

(Editors note: Y fans - the bluezone is not an attempt of any kind as a cheap shot to your school.  However, I cannot do anything about the fact that the color blue is associated with depression and loss of will.)

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Tijs Limburg
Chairman and CTO of DMX - Digital Media eXceleron, Inc.
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