A letter from the President of 9NEWS regarding the Olympic Games Opening Ceremonies broadcast

We deeply regret the technical difficulties that caused an interruption to the Opening Ceremonies of the Olympics.

The feed of the Opening Ceremonies was a live feed of the taped event. We rely on a digital satellite feed to broadcast these games. Unfortunately we had very heavy rain and lightning as a storm passed directly over the station's studio facility. The rain was so heavy that it caused interference with our primary digital satellite feed, which is not unusual.

For that reason we have a backup satellite path that uses a different technology and is less susceptible to rain fade. Unfortunately, when we initially switched to it there was no audio. That is regrettable. That problem was corrected within 11 minutes. We continued to monitor the signal from our primary feed and decided until we were satisfied we could provide a reliable HD Feed we would stay with our backup to maintain the integrity of the broadcast.

This is very unfortunate and we regret the inconvenience this has caused our viewers. Mother Nature threw us a curve and there wasn't much we could do except to wait it out. We restored our primary HD Feed 64 minutes after we lost it. There were no other issues after the storm passed.

Our operations department did all they could to remedy this problem so that our viewers could see this incredible event. Our viewers are our priority and we apologize for letting you down. Thank you for your patience and understanding.

Mark Cornetta

President & General Manager

KUSA-TV/KTVD-TV

9News.com