I love my cable sports package. It’s awesome. And I don’t throw the word awesome around lightly. Every month I pay for and receive the NHL Network, ESPN Classic, CBS College Sports, FOX Sports World, the Fight Network, The Golf Channel, GOLTV, MLB Extra Innings, NASCAR Hot Pass, NBA League Pass, NFL Sunday Ticket, NHL Center Ice and College Basketball and Football – did you catch all of that? It’s a lot of sports.
Here’s the thing though, there is rarely a time when there is only 1 game on TV out of all of those channels. Usually there are at least 3 different things that I could be watching at any given time.
That’s where the art of channel surfing comes in. A lot of people channel surf. Or at least they do what they think is channel surfing.
There are a few things that one has to keep in mind when trying to juggle multiple games on different channels at the same time.
1. The Recall button. This is important, but not as important as you may think at first. If you are only watching 2 games and have no other need to check other channels at all from the start to finish of the contests the recall button is a fantastic tool to aide you in your sports viewing experience. However, don’t learn to rely on it too heavily as there will come a time when it no longer does the job that you require of it.
2. If you are working more than 2 channels at a time you will need more than just the recall button to get the job done. Here’s my suggestion – write it all down. On a Sunday afternoon during the NFL’s regular season there can be up to 5 games on at 1 time. There’s no way I’m going to remember which channel all of those games are on. But, jotting down the game and channel number on a scrap piece of paper or, even better, a white board means that you will always know where you’re going around the dial. It may sound lame to you but just think about it – time and aggravation saved is always a good thing.
3. Don’t get too sucked into 1 game. It’s true that most nights there is going to be 1 game that is more important or more interesting or more entertaining than the others – but you never know what you will miss if you don’t bounce back and forth to check it out. March Madness is a great example. It is way too easy to get sucked into whichever game Gus Johnson is calling – but if we’re talking about round 1 you can’t just listen to Gus and get sucked in. You have to remember to go back and check the scores of the other games. At some point Gus isn’t going to be calling the most intense match-up… it’s bound to happen. And you have to be ready for that.
4. If you’re worried about getting sucked into a specific game keep this in mind for a trick to remind yourself that there’s more going on – Watch the Ticker! That’s it. Simple. Pretty much everyone has a ticker scrolling across the screen these days. That means that you can keep an eye on what’s going on in the rest of the world and can change to the other games as necessary. The ticker will also let you know (in most cases) what the clock situation is in the games that are in the crawl. That means that you can decide when to change over. Or you can see that it is halftime/intermission and you don’t need to waste your time with that game for a while. The ticker is one of the greatest inventions for sports fans of the last generation. Don’t let it go to waste.
5. Plan your breaks. This can be hard. When you have multiple games on multiple channels and even with multiple sports in play there may never be a moment when there isn’t game action. However, at some point you are going to need to go to the washroom or let the dog out or smoke or pour a drink or get something to eat. It’s tough. I won’t lie. But here is my suggestion – pick the game that you are having the most fun with and use that as your timer. If you care most about 1 game and you can make sure that you won’t miss any of it you make that happen. If you have to leave the couch/chair during game action this seems to be the best solution.
At the end of the day there is no reason that you can’t enjoy more than 1 game at a time if you so choose. The channels will be broadcasting them, the announcers will be calling them and you’ll be sitting in your favorite spot with the remote control in your hand.
Make the effort to maximize your efficiency and there’s no limit to how many games you can enjoy each month with your cable package!
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