It was not just TBS' coverage of the Nationals-Cardinals NLDS Game One that experienced video freezing over the weekend. ESPN's coverage of the NASCAR race at Talladega and some Comcast systems also experienced video and audio problems. All attributed atmospheric issues related to the Fall Equinox. Some ESPN viewers in various locations lost the picture during the NASCAR race for about 8-10 minutes. An ESPN spokesperson said these issues occur every October. CBS, NFL Network and NFL RedZone said they had no outages reported. But their feeds froze on Comcast's DC system Sunday afternoon.
A Comcast spokesperson said some of its systems were affected because the "earth station, satellites (and) sun" aligned, causing video to be lost for several minutes. Fox also said it did not experience any outages, though it was prepared to. "Fall sun transits were scheduled to hit yesterday as we were on the air with NFL," a spokesperson e-mailed. "Since each affiliate location and dish size dictate the time and duration impacted, all of NFL transmission was distributed across two satellites with specific instruction provided to stations on our protection plan."
