We were the first to tell you about this last week on the Director's Cut Blog...and now here are the official details:CLEVELAND -- The Cleveland Indians, SportsTime Ohio and WKYC-TV3 announced the 2008 Tribe TV schedule. All of the games on the two networks will be televised in High Definition. (NOTE: This does not include the Spring Training games.)
SportsTime Ohio will television 141 total Tribe games on cable/satellite (133 regular season games and 8 spring training games). WKYC-TV3 will air 20 games as the flagship station of the Indians Over-the-Air network. Fox Sports National will televise 8 games during the regular season.
The Indians will continue to be among the industry leaders in High Definition broadcasts as all 153 network broadcasts will be in HD. (All 133 STO games and all 20 games on Channel 3).
STO will begin their season with eight telecasts from Spring Training, beginning March 5th at 1:05 p.m. when the Tribe plays host to the Atlanta Braves.
STO's spring training television schedule includes:
March 5 vs Atlanta
March 8 vs Philadelphia
March 11 vs Detroit
March 20 vs Tampa Bay
March 22 vs New York Mets
March 24 vs Atlanta
March 25 vs New York Yankees
March 27 vs Tampa Bay
"Since the launch of SportsTime Ohio two years ago, our sole vision for the Indians games has been to produce the best possible telecasts for Tribe fans, equal or better than any production in the league," said SportsTime Ohio President, Jim Liberatore. "Producing all of our 2008 broadcasts in High Definition builds on that mission and allows the Indians to become the first pro team in Cleveland to have all games in HD."
Rick Manning returns to the STO booth with partner Matt Underwood and WKYC Sports Director Jim Donovan will once again join the Indians TV broadcast team during the Tribe's over-the-air broadcasts on WKYC-TV3.
The Indians open their 108th season in the American League with a three-game series against divisional rival Chicago (March 31 & April 2-3) in Cleveland. The Indians will then head west following the Opening Series with stops in Oakland (April 4-6) and Los Angeles (April 7-9).
