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NBC replaces Weather Plus with Universal Sports
If you thought for one second that when Weather Plus was killed that NBC was going to actually dedicate all of its allotted bits to bring you the HD you desire -- sans all the macro-blocking -- think again. We are glad that NBC learned that there aren't many people interested in yet another weather outlet, but evidently the next at bat is a 24/7 sports channel that's already available in some NBC Universal owned and operated affiliates. Universal Sports will consist of 2400 hours of live sports coverage a year combined with 5000 hours of classic sports replays. The local stations will also be able to air a few of its own commercials as well as some local sports and sports related programming, which might be cool. Although we recognize the desire of DTV stations to find profitable uses for its extra bits, we don't approve if it interferes with the main programming. So this combined with NBC's recent track record in sports has us very skeptical -- you know messing up Football Night in America and things like the 12 hour Olympic sports delays.
NBC kills useless, bit stealing, Weather Plus channel
If you've ever tried to enjoy a sporting event on NBC, you've probably noticed that when the action really starts getting good, your picture quality goes south, and fast. This phenomenon has been thanks to 90 of the NBC affiliates around the country deciding to steal bandwidth away from the primary HD feed and dedicate the bits to a 24-hour weather channel called Weather Plus. Well after four years of trying, NBC Universal decided that if you can't beat 'em join 'em, and instead bought a stake in The Weather Channel, which thankfully ended up meaning no more Weather Plus. The bad news is that the macroblock loving fools are already starting to think about what other crappy SD programming can go in its place.
