The high school basketball Class A state finals in Portland will not be televised by Maine Public Broadcasting Network this March because of a disagreement between Time Warner Cable and the Cumberland County Civic Center, according to a news release from MPBN.
MPBN has been informed by Time Warner Cable that it has been unable to come to an agreement to continue its partnership with the Cumberland County Civic Center and is therefore unable to install equipment needed to produce the games in Portland, the release said.
“As a result, MPBN will not be provided with the boys Class A championship and the girls Class A championship signals needed to broadcast these two games statewide as scheduled on March,” the release said.
Time Warner has partnered with MPBN in past seasons and since tourney games run at multiple sites simultaneously, MPBN needs several partners to cover the equipment and personnel necessary to cover Eastern and Western Maine semifinal games, regional finals and state finals in Classes A, B, C, and D.
“This is a tough situation as we definitely do not want to disappoint any of our viewers and basketball fans across the state,” states Gil Maxwell, MPBN’s chief technology officer. “We are in our 35th year of broadcasting the tournament and we completely stretch our own resources and rely on our partners in order to cover as many games as we can. We don’t have the equipment or personnel to fill the void and attempt to cover the Portland Class A championship games — our hands are tied.”
According to the release, MPBN has been contact with the Maine Principals’ Association regarding the situation and said that the MPA understands that without a signal from the Southern Maine venue, MPBN is not able to broadcast the Class A Finals.
MPBN will carry 42 tournament games this season with 21 games originating from Bangor and 21 games from Augusta as scheduled. MPBN’s coverage of the tournament begins on Wednesday, Feb. 19.
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