The Hazards of Live TV: #25,126
Yesterday on FBN during “Bulls and Bears” the FBN video suddenly disappeared and this popped up on my DirecTV feed…
This was followed by several minutes of affiliate promo spots for yesterday’s edition of “Dish Nation”.
“Dish Nation” is a Fox Television Stations syndicated program that debuted last month. I hadn’t seen something like this since the old, old days in the late 80s when you could get a hacked satellite box on the black market which could tap into any satellite dish feed and you’d see that days’ Entertainment Tonight being broadcast out to affiliates followed by several minutes of affiliate promos for the episode (some of which were customized for specific TV stations). With the advent of Satellite TV networks like DirecTV, the days of needing boxes like that are over for all but the most hardcore satellite junkie so most people have no idea what transpires on a daily basis in the world of syndicated TV show broadcasting.
There are two possible explanations for this gaffe. Either someone at DirecTV punched the wrong button, though I don’t see how or why this would happen given this was a syndication feed, or someone at News Corp.’s uplink facility, which broadcasts FBN and presumably all of Fox Television syndication shows, screwed up. What’s amazing is how long this went on without being caught or stopped. The FBN disruption lasted a good few minutes before returning to “Bulls and Bears”.
