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Griz, Cats on cable? Uncertain for Havre

Montanans received good news earlier in the week when they found out ESPN would indeed offer Saturday's University of Montana and Montana State University Football Championship Series playoff games on television.

Unfortunately, that offer may not include Havre residents who subscribe to Optimum/Bresnan Communications.

According to several customer service representatives at Optimum/Bresnan, Havre-area subscribers will not be able to purchase ESPN GamePlan, which is where Saturday's Bobcat and Grizzly games will be offered on television.

Originally, ESPN chose to put all of Saturday's FCS games, including the Montana-Central Arkansas and Montana State-New Hampshire games on its web-based ESPN3. In the past, ESPN had allowed local TV stations like the Montana Television Network, as well as satellite-based companies like Altitude Sports, to carry FCS playoff games in Montana, but this season, ESPN owns the rights to every NCAA championship, and the company was steering most of its FCS coverage to the Internet and ESPN3.

However, a large public outcry from Montanans, including pressure from the likes of Sens. Max Baucus and Jon Tester and Rep. Denny Rehberg helped push ESPN to at least offer this Saturday's playoff games on its pay-per-view package known as ESPN GamePlan.

But just as Havre's CW Channel wouldn't show Frontier Conference football games broadcast live by Lyon Productions this fall, including MSU-Northern's game against Carroll College on Oct. 1, now it appears that Havre cable customers will be out in the cold for the Cats and Griz this Saturday.

DirecTV and Dish Network subscribers can purchase the games on ESPN GamePlan for $26.50, and that price includes all eight FCS playoff games this Saturday.

Tamara Woronik of Boxcars Restaurant and Casino said that establishment still is waiting for the final word. Woronik said she talked to an Optimum/Bresnan representative Wednesday to find out if Boxcars could show the game, and is waiting for a call back to find out.

"(The representative) was flooded with a ton of calls from this area, " Woronik added.

She said Boxcars is hopeful it can show the games.

"It's sad if we can't, " Woronik said. "I think everybody feels that, and we have a lot of patrons expressing their interest in our getting the games. "

(Havre Daily News reporter Tim Leeds contributed to this story.)

 

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