Poor TV Coverage

Were you, perchance, watching on Sun TV (surely the best TV station on the planet) or ABC? That would explain the Tigers slant. Still, it's very unlike Sun TV not to show a game in its entirety. Maybe because it was a pre-season game?

It was KTV Fuji Net.

They're probably not taking it too seriously, since it's just a pre-season game.

SkyPerfect's Sky-A has a two-hour digest of each day's camp for the Tigers. I'm not sure if it's every night or just weekdays, but it's impressive to think they can air batting practice and bullpen sessions and that the Tigers have enough fans who will watch (and sponsors who will pay).

- Were you, perchance, watching on Sun TV (surely the best TV station on the planet)?

Sun TV, he, he, he. The channel for Kansai baseball, pachinko maniacs, and weird Wednesday movie selections. Hey, but don't forget KBS Kyoto.

And in related news, what was bad has gotten worse. Nihon Telebi (NTV) has announced that it will not be extending the broadcasts for the opening card at Tokyo Dome this season. So instead of ending the broadcast as 9:24, expect the first meeting between the Giants and defending Central League champion Dragons to end abruptly at 8:54. The president of NTV says that he expects the players to pick up the pace in order to have the whole game shown.

The article mentions that starting in August of last season, after the Giants were pretty much out of running, that they stopped extending games. Furthermore, they plan on only broadcasting 40 home games this year, as opposed to 63 last season. (Note: This only applies to the standard terrestrial broadcast. Yomiuri Group's satellite channels will continue to either show the entire games or the segments before and after the terrestrial broadcasts.)

On the other hand, NTV bought the rights to broadcast Tokyo Big 6 league games this season, as they are hoping to cash in on the media generated interest in "the Handkerchief Prince."

- The president of NTV says that he expects the players to pick up the pace in order to have the whole game shown.

That is hilarious! Go ahead and throw it all back on the players! What a clown!

To the OP if you're new to the Japanese game and a big fan, I seriously recommend getting Sky Perfect TV's baseball package. You get virtually all Pacific and Central Leagues live and there's no "cutoff" time for the broadcast. You'll see it in its entirity. If you're a Tigers fan, all games will be shown live including rained out games.

Ratings for the Giants games no doubt was a factor in this decision. If the Giants pick up the pace and ratings follow then perhaps they will extend the games again and broadcast more games.

Or they can bring Kiyohara back since he is a draw himself.