No Universal Sports on satellite

Universal Sports Network got a nice plug by USA Today for its looser and more entertaining analysis and preview/review programming around the Winter Olympics from Vancouver.

The paper noted that the network is only available in about half of all TV homes but the story did not mention a massive black hole for the network: satellite service.

I double-checked and neither DirecTV nor DISH network carry the NBC Universal channel or have any plans to do so.

That means most of us have to find Universal Sports on over-the-air digital. In L.A., that’s channel 4.4. My physical therapist has it playing on his TV for patients in the workout area (probably because it’s free). But over-the-air is still somewhat of a crapshoot in terms of signal reception. In our house we have to hold a portable TV with a telescoping antenna on a certain angle in a couple of the only spots in the house where it gets the signal. Even then, the signal frequently freezes and breaks into pixels, especially if I breathe. It’s like the old days of rabbit ears, only worse since the picture often disappears completely rather than getting a little fuzzy or snowy, but at least you could make it out.

With Olympics events on NBC, CNBC, MSNBC, and USA Network, it’s not like we really need any further coverage, but Universal offers a lot of decent sporting events throughout the year, especially figure skating, which has lost almost all its luster in recent years, and skiing, snowboarding, swimming and track-and-field and other Olympics events that most of the world only cares about every four years during the Olympics.

It may not be worth the trouble or money for either satellite service but aren’t niche networks like USN the kinds of networks satellite was supposed to offer subscribers who can’t find their favorites on cable?