[OSUBasketballJunkie]

Dispatch

OHIO STATE MEN?S BASKETBALL

Channel 10 will show games

Thursday, November 23, 2006

Bob Baptist
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

The sometimes-futile search for Ohio State men?s basketball games on local television is over.
All of the Buckeyes? games not televised by ESPN or ESPN2 will be on Channel 10 for the rest of the season, Frank Willson, the station?s director of operations, said yesterday.
Some recent games had been shown on Ohio News Network, prompting complaints from some viewers whose cable systems do not carry ONN. The Buckeyes? next game, at 8 p.m. Friday in Nationwide Arena against Youngstown State, will be on Channel 10.
"Each year, CBS, ESPN and 10 TV negotiate what games we?re going to be able to (air on Channel 10) and what CBS programs we?re going to pre-empt," Willson said. "ESPN came in with a much more aggressive schedule this year. ESPN wanted to air more games on WBNS than we had room to air under our CBS contract."
As a CBS affiliate, Channel 10 is sensitive to the network?s wishes, Willson said.
"If you say we?re going to run your programming and decide to pre-empt, they?re not happy," he said. "They have 200-plus markets they?re counting on to deliver viewers to their programming. Every affiliate that pre-empts CBS takes those viewers away from those advertisers and programs (that CBS has) paid to produce.
"But all parties worked well together and got it solved before there were too many inconveniences."
The starting times of two games were changed as a result. Games against Valparaiso on Dec. 2 and Cleveland State on Dec. 9 will start at 4 p.m. They had been scheduled for 2 p.m.
bbaptist@dispatch.com