Sunday’s Super Bowl Game was not without its own special costume malfunction, albeit a local one. Comcast subscribers watching the game on NBC affiliate KVOA-TV in Tucson got flashed with a 10-second porn clip during Larry Fitzgerald’s fourth-quarter Cardinal rally.
“KVOA-TV is investigating pornographic material viewed during the Super Bowl by some Tucson area Comcast viewers,” the station said in a statement. “Just after the last touchdown by the Cardinals, approximately 10 seconds of pornographic material was shown. It appears this material was only viewed by some Comcast customers.”
An internal investigation indicated that the cutaway didn’t originate at the station.
“When the NBC feed of the Super Bowl was transmitted from KVOA to local cable providers and through over-the-air antennas, there was no pornographic material,” station President and General Manager Gary Nielsen said. “The signal is transmitted from KVOA to Cox Cable via a fiber line. It is sent from Cox to Comcast through another fiber line.”
Engineers and both Cox and Comcast were said to be investigating the incident, but it is believed to have occurred just on Comcast systems. Comcast corporate spokeswoman Tracy Baumgartner told The Associated Press that the standard-def feed of KVOA had indeed been interrupted, though the HD feed was not.
Regardless of the source of the clip, KVOA was being inundated with viewer vitriol. One anonymous viewer asked, “When will it be ‘safe’ to watch the Super Bowl with children. Both my kids were watching the Super Bowl with me and I am floored that this happened, and when I personally tried to call Comcast, they hung up on me three times. This is not right. I am mad!”
KVOA is owned by the Evening Post Publishing Co. in Charleston, S.C. It’s not yet clear whether the station will be held in violation of FCC indecency rules, which nearly cost CBS $550,000 after Janet Jackson’s wardrobe malfunction during the 2004 Super Bowl.
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