This is what I’m thinking:
The Buffalo Bills’ 24-21 victory over the Chicago Bears in Saturday’s preseason finale had a 19.7 rating on WIVB-TV, the local CBS affiliate.
Saturday’s game had ratings in the 20s when quarterback Josh Allen and the starters were playing early in the game and declined after that except for one 15-minute period.
The three-game preseason average was 21.0, which was the same average for three preseason games in 2022.
The rating this year could have been higher if WIVB wasn’t off DirecTV because of a dispute with the satellite provider over retransmission compensation for carrying the local channel.
The preseason games averaged a 23.5 rating in 2021 for three games in what is the highest preseason average on record.
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There was one big asterisk: A rating point in 2021 was worth 5,285 households. A rating point in 2022 and 2023 is worth 6,375 households. In other words, more homes were watching the last two years than in 2021 despite the lower rating.
Inquiring minds want to know: When will WIVB and CW 23 be back on DirecTV?
I wish I could tell you. It is not a local issue and is out of Channel 4’s hands.
It is a national dispute between Channel 4’s and CW 23’s owner, Nexstar, and the satellite provider, affecting CBS, ABC, NBC and Fox affiliates across the country owned by Nexstar.
As I always write, consumers should root for the provider, in this case DirecTV, because it likely will pass down the increased cost it has to pay to carry Channel 4 and all the Nexstar stations across the country.
The start of the NFL season should increase the pressure on both parties to make a deal since those games are the highest-rated TV programs in the country.
Fortunately, the Bills open the season Sept. 11 against the New York Jets on “Monday Night Football” in a game carried by ESPN and WKBW-TV (Channel 7), the local ABC affiliate.
The first Bills game on Channel 4 isn’t until Sept. 17 when the Bills have their home opener against the Las Vegas Raiders.
NFL games will be on Channel 4 on the season opening Sunday on Sept. 10.
Channel 4 is carrying a CBS doubleheader the first two weeks of the season. It is likely going to carry the Cincinnati-Cleveland game at 1 p.m. Sept. 10 and the 4:25 p.m. game between Philadelphia and New England.
On Sept. 17, it likely will carry the Jets game at Dallas after the Bills-Raiders game.
If you are among the about 10% of people in Western New York who subscribe to DirecTV here and want to play it safe, I suggest you sign up for Paramount+, which is offering deals for $2.50 a month and $5 a month for 12 months through a special promotion on Sept. 20.
The availability of Paramount+ presumably puts less pressure on DirecTV to make a deal, especially since it is offering a $10 discount to those subscribers who apply for it.
Customers can enter their ZIP code at TVPromise.com to see if they are affected, and if so, they’re eligible for a $10 credit.
Steve Tasker was excited to tell a fabulous story on “One Bills Live” Monday about Hall of Fame coach Marv Levy telling him over dinner that J. Robert Oppenheimer was the president of the University of California who hired him to become the Golden Bears’ football coach.
The incredible story was timely today because of the success of the current Christopher Nolan film “Oppenheimer” starring Cillian Murphy about the theoretical physicist and director of the Manhattan Project that developed the atomic bomb.
However, the story comes with a couple of credibility questions.
Oppenheimer was a professor at Cal-Berkeley from 1929-42 but there is no evidence that he was ever president of the university.
And Levy was named the coach at California in 1960, 18 years after Oppenheimer left the university. And if you saw Nolan’s film, Oppenheimer appeared unlikely to be in the position of advocating for a coach after being accused of being a Communist sympathizer.
Told that there is no evidence that Oppenheimer was president at Cal-Berkeley, Tasker changed the story via a text: “Marv just told that he had understood that the voice at Cal that caused him to be hired was Oppenheimer… Marv seemed to have heard after the fact that Oppenheimer’s support was the difference at the very least.”
"It's like I said when I told the story. Everything that comes out of Marv's mouth is gospel to me. Lol."
Still, it is a great story – as long as you don’t let any facts get in the way.
