What Took So Long?

It is often said that the best inventions are the most obvious. While these products never seem to be the kind that fix big problems, they are the ones that make life just a little more convenient. They are also the ones that make you take a step back and think either, "Why didn't I think of that?" or "How come no one thought of that before?" After all, most of us couldn't dream of a way to improve a medical procedure, but we could have come up with a blanket with sleeves if we sat down and put our mind to it. Well, that can also be said about some simple technological advances that don't even require a new product. You find a website or a computer program that includes a tweaked feature you would have been using for years and you think, "How come this is just getting to me now?" This week I had that thought twice in the span of about ten seconds.

As you know, I love a good podcast. Well, a couple days ago I was listening to one based in Washington, D.C. and they were discussing the new NCAA TV deal. The old system just had one channel showing the games and left it up to the director's discretion to decide what game to focus on before bouncing between games as they get close/interesting (the director also got to decide what constituted 'interesting'). But the new deal will allow all the games to be broadcast over four stations and space the games better so there will be less over-lapping of early games ending and others beginning. The idea was that this way every single game can be seen in its entirety and those smaller schools that will probably not make it out the first round will still have their moment in the spotlight for all the alumni to see. The main question is, why is this just becoming possible in 2011? We've had cable, satellite dishes and systems with thousands of channels to work with for years now and the broadcasters are just figuring out that people might want to watch every single game of the NCAA tournament and do so without handing over control of the remote to some anonymous control room person in New York, who never seems to focus on the one game we really want to watch? This was a long time in coming.

In that same discussion they were talking about one of the channels that will show games, TruTV. The host of the podcast wasn't sure if he even got that channel and even if he did, he had no idea where it was on his guide. The co-host mentioned that he probably got it and then gave a list of channel numbers depending on various cable provider. He mentioned where it would be if you had Verizon Fios (which is what I have), but I figured that since they were based in D.C. it wouldn't be the same for me. But, on a whim I checked it out and sure enough, it was the same number. Apparently, if you have Verizon Fios, the channels are the same no matter where you live in the US. This is another thing that was a long time coming. It was always irritating to go and visit someone who lived just one town over, yet had completely different channel numbers. I always hated having to hunt for ESPN. I'm glad someone finally figured out that if you can have one cable provider all over the world, you can have the same cable channels in the same spots. Like I said, it's just one of those stupid little conveniences that make life easier. It's also why I refuse to be friends with people who have Comcast.