FS Prime Ticket was forced to go to a split screen "on more than several occasions" Tuesday night in order to cover the overlapping Kings-Blues and Grizzlies-Clippers playoff games, according to Tom Hoffarth of the L.A. DAILY NEWS. The problem came at 7:30pm PT, when the Kings forced overtime "with a late goal" and the RSN then went "into a 10-minute intermission." That allowed the beginning of Grizzlies-Clippers "to appear full on Prime." However, when the Kings "returned, the Clippers went into hibernation." Prime Ticket then "went to the split screen, but kept the Kings' audio as Clippers viewers could at least see what was happening." When the Kings lost 6:35 into OT, Grizzlies-Clippers was "about two minutes into the second quarter." Prime Ticket and FS West had already "farmed out the Dodgers and Angels to other spots on the dial," and FS West was airing Red Wings-Ducks at 7:30pm. The Clippers game did air live on TNT, but both the national broadcasts of the Kings and Ducks games "were blacked out locally." An FS West spokesperson said, "We tried to make the best of a challenging situation. In similar situations going forward, we'll take a look at our plans and see if there's a way to serve all teams and viewers better." Hoffarth noted the scenario "could repeat again, but it doesn't seem likely in the next couple days" (INSIDESOCAL.com, 5/1). AWFUL ANNOUNCING's Ken Fang noted while there is "no official overflow Fox Sports channel in Southern California for conflicts, one was created in April for the Dodgers and it was utilized twice" (AWFULANNOUNCING.com, 5/1).
