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As expected, the Pac-12 Network had to change things just a little bit to get Dish Network to the table and reach a deal. From the original plan that was implemented, you could see that certain things had to shift. There would have to be overflow feeds and an emphasis on the primary content that interested satellite providers, which is the football broadcasts. There would be a national feed and extra channels to watch the rest of the games.
The good news is HD should be on its way.
@w_pettner The Pac-12 will only be avail in SD due to the timing of our agreement. We are working quickly make HD available to u soon. *TF
— DISH Answers (@dish_answers) September 8, 2012
Stevenson said the expectation is for all fball and majority of men's bball games to be shown in HD on DISH.
— Jon Wilner (@wilnerhotline) September 9, 2012
What probably most fans are concerned about regarding satellite carriage was the nature of high definition and standard definition broadcasts (although early reviews indicate that Pac-12 Network SD isn't all that bad). For the most part, Week 2 broadcasts on the Pac-12 Network via Dish came through an SD feed as both sides only came to a deal in a matter of days rather than weeks. So the new feeds this weekend probably had to be rushed, which meant not enough time to set up everything in HD.
Jonathan Gold caught up with Larry Scott and received his comments on the situation. They're in line with what you would expect.
On technical glitches for Dish Network customers with HD:
"Really, we only knew last night as we were getting this done that they were trying to get it done for today. My understanding is that the games will be in HD but they couldn't get it done today.
Obviously Olympic sports and the rest of the broadcasts in high definition would be nice too, but you can see why the satellite company might not view those events as the big priorities, particularly when Pac-12 Now should be able to provide that service down the line for Dish customers, with digital broadcasts that are supposedly top-notch. There are plenty of solid compromises for an individual looking forward at the versatility the Pac-12 Network hast o offer on Dish.