Many local TV viewers are riled at the Fox network for its second fumble in three weeks in the way it handles games sent to local affiliate KTVI (Channel 2).

Last Sunday, the network gave St. Louis viewers the Cardinals-Bears game, an attractive matchup in that former local darling Kurt Warner is having another magical year as quarterback for the team that used to play here. And that club was playing a team that still has some local following that was built in the gap between the Cards’ departure and the Rams’ arrival.

So after Warner threw four TD passes in the first half to give Arizona a big lead, with many local viewers wanting to see how he would finish, Fox cut away early in the third quarter to the competitive Green Bay-Tampa Bay game.

Of course this angered those who wanted to see Warner roll it up and many viewers were especially angered at massive inconsistencies at Fox — which two weeks earlier saddled them with the entire Cincinnati 45-10 blowout of the Bears.

The explanation ... an antiquated technical setup that does not allow switching out of all games, only the ones going to the largest audiences. The so-called "flex’’ was in place for the Cardinals contest, but not the Bengals. The result was a double whammy for KTVI viewers.

"Could we have stayed because of Kurt Warner?’’ Fox Sports vice president and spokesman Dan Bell asked. "The answer could be yes. However at the time that we switched, the score was 34-7. In the (previous instance) we received multiple complaints from the same market asking why we didn’t switch. I know a lot of that has to do with Kurt Warner. The objective every time you set up a ‘flex’ is to switch from a non-compelling game to a more competitive one. In this instance we did.

"I respect everyone’s opinion. ... I understand both sides.’’

The bottom line is that fan-angering moves like this — and in the bigger picture, the inability to switch from all games not involving the local team — just gives viewers more reason to buy the satellite package that shows every Sunday afternoon game and not stay with the local affiliate.

(RED) ZONING IN

One solution short of subscribing to the full satellite package is to take the much more inexpensive route and add the NFL’s new "Red Zone’’ channel, which switches from game to game on Sunday afternoons as teams threaten to score. It’s a fast-paced production that gives a broad overview of what’s going on around the league in quick snippets, many live. Even more enticing is that it’s commercial-free.

Red Zone is a companion to NFL Network and is available on most systems that carry that outlet, including Dish Network and AT&T U-verse, for about $7 a month. It isn’t available on DirecTV because that satellite system is the exclusive carrier of the NFL’s pay-TV package that airs games in their entirety and a channel similar to Red Zone is included in that package.

Charter Communications, the largest cable provider in the St. Louis market, remains at odds with NFL Network and doesn’t carry it or Red Zone.