The case of the Missing MSNBC Live News…
I received this email this morning from a reader…
I live in the Sacramento, CA area and watch Morning Joe every morning. On Monday MSNBC was running another of their useless prison programs and I thought it was a change in programing because of the holiday. Then I found out that Morning Joe was in fact broadcast on Monday. Is possible that MSNBC runs a different program in different parts of the country?
At first I thought this must have been a mistake. But then I saw this tweet from a Detroit viewer to Contessa Brewer…
MSNBC’S news shows are not on in metro Detroit today. Lock-Up on instead. Feed mix-up? Phones not being answered at 30Rock.
So, evidently some markets were not showing MSNBC Live yesterday but others were. DirecTV, for example, had live MSNBC all day. I have a query in to MSNBC regarding this matter and I’ll update when I get more information…
Update: This problem occurred again this morning in Sacramento where both Morning Joe and The Daily Rundown got pre-empted by tape. Still hunting down the cause, though it may be Olympics related. NBC supposedly restricts the Olympics from being broadcast outside of the country, and that could explain Detroit, with its close proximity to Toronto. Though that doesn’t explain what’s going on in Sacramento.
I’m still investigating and hope to have an answer when I return in a couple of hours…
Update 2: Still no firm answer as to why this is happening but its far more prevalent than I originally thought. It’s happened in Boston. And apparently it’s also impacting Canada. People have been complaining on Twitter about it. Producer Nikki Egan was looking into it.
Hey- @dailyrundown fans – if you don’t see us this morning – tweet me your location and your cable provider.
So is Willie Geist…
@CogitateOnThat Where do you live? Need to get to the bottom of it.
Update 3: From an NBC Universal spokesperson: “There are a small handful of systems that chose not to carry NBC Universal’s Enhanced coverage of the 2010 Vancouver Olympic Winter Games. These systems receive a separate MSNBC feed, which does not include Olympic programming.”
That feed does not include Morning Joe and Daily Rundown. So that’s why things are the way they are for some viewers.
Inside Cable News 
February 16, 2010 at 8:09 am
Spud: I know they do this to feeds outside the US as NBC doesn’t have Olympic broadcast rights for other than the main network outside the US.
I can see local channels wanting to put on Doc-Block rather than MJ, to get better ratings, but it doesn’t make much sense to preempt Olympic coverage even on low rated sports; as they should rate higher than Doc-Block.
February 16, 2010 at 9:00 am
More people probably vist this web site than watch MSNBC, so who cares?
February 16, 2010 at 9:50 am
Having been in Toronto I can tell you the US stations there come out of Buffalo not Detroit.
February 16, 2010 at 10:46 am
“Having been in Toronto I can tell you the US stations there come out of Buffalo not Detroit.”
Actually you get a choice of either but most people in Toronto chose Buffalo because it’s closer.
Spud: I don’t think NBC could stop border stations from showing Olympic coverage as that would be unfair to residents from those cities.
What surprises me is that they are producing MJ & DR at all as there potential audience must be tiny.
(FNC viewers can insert your snarky anti MSNBC BullS*** comment here) 🙂
February 16, 2010 at 10:50 am
Well Windsor is definitely served by the Detroit market. But I don’t get it. MSNBC is a cable channel. It’s not a broadcast outlet whose signal extends across the border to Canada. Are they putting MSNBC Olympic coverage onto Canadian cable systems? Why do that when Canada has its own coverage, not to mention the Canadian content regulations are pretty heavy-handed about restricting US programming percentages. I must be missing something here.
February 16, 2010 at 11:06 am
L&J, if you hadn’t noticed, this blog is not called Inside Fox News. What’s the point of offering up an anti-MSNBC comment on an MSNBC-related post? Maybe every time Spud posts something about FNC, I should chime in with “Who cares about Fox?” That’ll make for intelligent conversation, eh?
February 16, 2010 at 11:21 am
They’re not putting Olympic coverage on MSNBC in Canada. That’s got to be blocked. But its’ the other MSNBC programs like Morning Joe, Daily Rundown, etc…which are getting blocked and shouldn’t be.
This appears to be a provider specific issue where they screw up what they’re supposed to block and when. Of course this should really apply only to out of the US markets and doesn’t excuse Detroit, Sacramento, and Boston
February 16, 2010 at 11:25 am
Oh so then MSNBC in Canada is supposed to get docs instead of Olympics, but somehow that feed is being picked up by US cablers? That could explain it.
February 16, 2010 at 11:28 am
I’d guess MSNBC has put up a second satellite feed for cable systems outside the US, one that would not carry the Olympic coverage. But it would seem some U.S. systems didn’t get the word or got it wrong and took the non-US feed. Most systems are un-manned and the error may not have been noticed.
Just an semi-educated guess.
February 16, 2010 at 11:32 am
Keep up the good work, Spud.
February 16, 2010 at 11:34 am
I live in south florida, and yesterday morning I woke up watching morning joe via comcast, went to the gym and they had msnbc on but in “Doc” form. I found that odd as well, went home an watched the same time on my DVR, and it was indeed live news programming. Direct TV was the provider at the gym.
February 16, 2010 at 11:35 am
I thought I was being funny Joe. Sorry it if hurt some feelings.
February 16, 2010 at 11:45 am
NBC has blacked out it’s subsidiary feeds outside the US for a number of Olympics now (summer & winter) replacing them with Doc Block shows on MSNBC. It’s part of the broadcast deal they sign with the Olympic Committee. The same thing occurs with CNBC except they substitute CNBC docs instead of Lockup.
February 16, 2010 at 1:38 pm
this has gone on for many of the past olympics. a short time prior to the olympics starting, cable affiliates are “swung over” to an olympics-version of msnbc which is essentially a different satellite feed, and it’s supposed to be transparent to viewers. if they don’t swing over and/or are not part of the swing-over, then customers see filler programming instead of hockey, curling and other olympics programming. the same thing goes for cnbc and presumably usa. if you have a problem talk to your cable company to see if they are on the olympics-msnbc. as always, it has to do with money, rights and paying for olympics.
February 16, 2010 at 1:56 pm
The problem is that this other feed is airing nothing but filler programing! And its not just when the regular feed is airing olympics, but when they airing their own live news coverage.
February 16, 2010 at 2:07 pm
The feeds for USA and CNBC are not affected. We’re getting them like we’re supposed to. It’s just MSNBC.
The most curious thing about the Lock-Up and Dateline reruns that we’re getting instead of Morning Joe, Daily Rundown, etc. is that there is no outside advertising being run during them. When the shows go to break all that is shown are MSNBC show promos and NBC’s “The More You Know” spots. If the reruns were intended as alternate programming I don’t think that would be the case.
This alternate programming theory also doesn’t explain why MSNBC producers and on-air talent are still trying to figure out what’s going on two days in.
February 16, 2010 at 2:48 pm
Well, hell, is it really too much to expect them to correct the feed so their morning news shows are shown? Are they actively looking to alienate viewers and their morning on-air talent?
Who can we complain to?
February 16, 2010 at 2:59 pm
The problem isn’t MSNBC correcting the feed. The problem is the cable affilliates either a) being on the wrong feed because they forgot to switch over to the Enhanced feed or b) being on the wrong feed because they’re too cheap to purchase the enhanced feed.
It really isn’t MSNBC’s fault that providers are either incompetent or cheap.
You could make an argument, I guess, that MSNBC should include Daily Rundown and Morning Joe in their alternate feed. To be honest, I’m not at all clear why they weren’t included. But that’s what got set up.
Still, the vast majority of providers did want the Olympics enhanced coverage so I don’t know why there had to be a few cheap pocket holdouts.
February 16, 2010 at 3:07 pm
“If a tree falls in the woods…”
February 16, 2010 at 3:13 pm
The issue isn’t that I’m missing Women’s Hockey. That is something I would take up with my provider if it were a concern.
MSNBC shouldn’t be blacking out shows that are part of their regular programming. At the very least they shouldn’t be arbitrary about it. They’re still showing regular programming between 11AM and 5:30PM ET, as well as Countdown and Rachel Maddow. There’s no reason to black out their block of morning shows.
Again, who do I complain to at MSNBC?
February 16, 2010 at 3:20 pm
It’s a problem that’s higher than MSNBC. It’s NBC Universal. Unfortunately I do not have a direct line for you to complain to. Maybe your provider would know?
February 16, 2010 at 3:29 pm
Just out of curiosity.. Do the people not getting the Olympics feed have very small cable companies?
That said, I agree with polculture @ 3:13pm.
February 16, 2010 at 3:29 pm
I sent tweets about what’s going on to Geist, Scarborough, Brzezinski, Guthrie, and Todd, as well as to producers Nikki Egan and Chris Licht. They’re getting screwed by this, so they should at least know.
February 16, 2010 at 3:42 pm
terence @3:29 pm
My cable provider is very small. It’s my apartment complex and nothing else.
February 16, 2010 at 3:49 pm
Yeah but there’s nothing those people can do about it. The decision was made far higher up the ladder.
February 16, 2010 at 4:15 pm
Well then they should go right to the top and complain to the boss. Oh wait, Olbermann isn’t on twitter.
February 16, 2010 at 4:32 pm
I like the graphic, Spud. And thanks for the good reporting.
February 16, 2010 at 5:00 pm
It really isn’t MSNBC’s fault that providers are either incompetent or cheap.>
The first thing depends upon the level of communication that MSNBC had with the operators in regards to the switch. They could have done a piss poor job on communicating it. So it could be part of their incompetence.
Also, look at the stupidity of MSNBC. One would think they would have at least run a scrawl and explained to the viewers why they weren’t seeing the shows they were missing out on. But incompetence rules at NBC.
Now if the cable operators don’t take it they are cheap? LOL Have you seen any of the contracts? Instead of cheap perhaps they are being prudent. Or perhaps they aren’t being stupid like NBC who will lose $250 + million on these games.
Isn’t it funny how NBC used the Olympics when they were going to cable operators/satellite providers and trying to get increasing for the channels monthly affiliate fee. Trying to leverage more money from them because of 2 weeks every two years.
Now they try and squeeze even more money out of them?
What’s the benefit to the local cable providers if they do pay up for the enhanced feed? Do they get a ton of more local cable ads during the airing of the Olympics?
February 16, 2010 at 5:04 pm
I also love how Savannah Guthrie and other MSNBC anchors are having to link to a TVNewser story about why people can’t see them. Another great job NBC. Even the talent was unaware. Nor did NBC get around to issuing a press release almost immediatly when the anchors were being hit with the tweets.
But communication is not NBC’s strong suit. Just like their incompetance is not telling Chris Jansing the athlete was dead.
February 16, 2010 at 5:17 pm
I also love how Savannah Guthrie and other MSNBC anchors are having to link to a TVNewser story about why people can’t see them.
We don’t agree on much but we definitely agree on this, particularly since TVNewser was following my progress on this all day and mentioned me by name multiple times in their post.
February 17, 2010 at 2:38 pm
I am one of the lucky few who was truly excited to watch the winter olympics and am getting all these bonus shows instead. My cable company is very small and only serves a small town and then the ensuing farm land areas out here.
I complained, a lot, to my cable provider and their response was always “NBC’s greed.” They feel that NBC is totally screwing over the cable companies in general, and completely knocking out the small businesses.
Anyway, very interesting article and comments. Nice to see that they found a way to anger both their regular watchers and the bonus watchers of the olympics. But like they already said, this is less than 1% of their total viewership, so who cares.
February 17, 2010 at 3:15 pm
And then there’s the 1% that wish they’d stop showing Women’s Hockey and Curling so I can watch cable news. I haven’t cared about the Olympics since Nadia Comaneci, which tells you something about my age and my (lack of) interest in sports.
February 17, 2010 at 7:12 pm
HERETIC!!!!!
February 17, 2010 at 7:44 pm
Now now, Spud, I’ve still got my auto racing. I met Jamie McMurray (Daytona 500 winner) in San Francisco today. Got his autograph on the owner’s manual for my new Chevy. Like a little boy, I was.
February 26, 2010 at 11:59 am
Glad to have this information about MSNBC broadcasting (or lack-thereof) this week. I am addicted to MSNBC news/commentary, and have not been able to access any regular morning programming all this week–only awful documentary stuff…ugggh! Am in the Province of New Brunswick in Canada, and Rogers, my cable provider, simply said “Contact MSNBC if you want to complain.” At least I have been able to see Rachel and Keith in the evenings. Would not remain sane without them, since my alternatives are the strange people and messaging on Fox News and the “blandness” of CNN. Hopefully, Monday will bring a return to regular programming for Eastern Canadians.
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