So sick of these illogical (and seemingly arbitrary) hockey blackouts...

[shinner]

You've mentioned that the local cableco has CSN. If the local cabler is showing Flyers games on CSN Philly, you most definitely are in the Flyers viewing area.

Then I should be blacked out 100% of the time, right?

Just as a bit of background, my local cableco (to my knowledge) did not offer CSN Philly until maybe 2 or 3 seasons ago. Comcast bought the cableco maybe 5 or 6 years ago. It seems very wrong to me that as Comcast creeps westward from Philly acquiring local cable companies, it can then claim residents under blackout rules.

I may have "read a good chunk of this thread", but I think I missed this:So you are a CI subscriber, and you are getting ALL Flyers games from the opposing teams' feed, except when they are on NHL Network.

Correct.....we will see tonight though. Flyers vs Leafs. NHL website shows it being broadcast by TSN & CSN Philly. DirecTV has it on 698 (which feed, I don't know). I tune to 698-1 and I see the blackout msg. If I tune to the SD channel, 698, I see the CAL sports show. We'll see what happens once 7PM hits. I'm betting I'm blacked out on both channels.

Now I'm baffled.

I think a call to NHL Network is in order. They are blacking you out thinking you are in the Flyers market.

Guess it couldn't hurt! I'll look into it....

EDIT: 7PM hit and 698/698-1 blacked out....but the blackout search function shows the game available on 770 (TSN feed). So I'm still sitting at 100% viewership when the Flyers are not on NHL Network and the opponent isn't either Pitt or Wash. When I ran the search earlier it only found the game on 698/698-1. Sucks the channel I am getting is in SD, but I'll take that over being completely blacked out.

[obxflyers]

Just as a bit of background, my local cableco (to my knowledge) did not offer CSN Philly until maybe 2 or 3 seasons ago. Comcast bought the cableco maybe 5 or 6 years ago.

It's kind of a glass half empty/full thing here in York, they added CSN Philly, like you said, but not in high def.

[shinner]

It's kind of a glass half empty/full thing here in York, they added CSN Philly, like you said, but not in high def.

As long as you have cable, that is

I'm just wondering where it all ends....Hanover is not traditionally a Philly market. I get all kinds of looks when I wear Flyers gear. You're practically an outcast if you don't wear Pitt or Baltimore gear. Our local radio doesn't broadcast Philly games, they play Orioles and Ravens. But because Comcast buys the cable company and a few years later adds the Philly sports channel to the lineup, it's now a Philly sports town and they can claim residents? That's what I mean by where does it end? How far west can they go and still claim viewership. It's ridiculous.

[obxflyers]

Not sure how it was over in Hanover, but here the Flyers were blacked out even before they added CSN Philly on cable, which meant the only way you could watch the games was to get satellite and "have" a zip code outside the black out area.

Even now it's still screwed up, on cable we get CSN Philly & FSN Pitt (both only in standard def) but CSN DC is available in HD, yet on CI the only 2 teams blacked out are Philly & Pitt, go figure.

[shinner]

Interesting tonight....Flyers vs Rangers. Dtv has the game on MSG and a Comcast RSN in California. Right before the game, the Comcast Cali channel was open for me and I saw the CSN Philly intro. I thought, awesome, I'll get to see the home feed! Well, a minute later it blacked out YET the MSD (SD of course) feed is still open. It's almost as if the Rangers had my local rights.

I don't get it....I just don't get it

[Greg Bimson]

So do I get to assume you have both Sports Pack and NHL CI?

[shinner]

Yep....correct.

[Greg Bimson]

I think the issue is a bit more involved and mundane.

Interesting tonight....Flyers vs Rangers. Dtv has the game on MSG and a Comcast RSN in California.

Technically, what DirecTV has is somewhat irrelevant. It is MSG that has the local broadcast for the Rangers and CSN Philly that has the local broadcast for the Flyers. CSN California has picked up this "NHL Extra" and is also receiving the CSN Philadelphia transmission of the game, so this NHL Extra feed is simply an out-of-market broadcast.

Right before the game, the Comcast Cali channel was open for me and I saw the CSN Philly intro. I thought, awesome, I'll get to see the home feed! Well, a minute later it blacked out YET the MSD (SD of course) feed is still open. It's almost as if the Rangers had my local rights.

Remember that part of the problem is that CSN Philly is not available on DirecTV (yet).

The Sports Pack gives you access to the "filler" programming on other regional sports networks, and the pro games on those other networks that are out-of-market are blacked out.

NHL Center Ice gives you access to most of the NHL games on the RSN's and those are broadcast in the 700's channel range. They are simply a remap of the same programming on the RSN's in the 600's channel range, so two different channels are showing the exact same game, but it is actually only one broadcast. So anytime you are viewing an out-of-market RSN and see the pro game blackout and "unavailable for your area", it is because that feed is not being used for the Center Ice, Extra Innings or League Pass package.

DirecTV probably has to pay something to use an alternate RSN for coverage. Therefore, they didn't want (or have permission) to use the CSN California feed of the CSN Philly coverage of the Flyers-Rangers game. It is because you have NHL CI that you were able to see the game, as without CI you would not have seen the game. So you definitely received the "out-of-market" feed because CI is the "out-of-market" package. In other words, you (and everyone else in the country)received the MSG feed of the Flyers-Rangers game because that was the feed provided to CI.

I still believe that everything you have said is working correctly, EXCEPT for the blackouts on NHL Network. I have a feeling that the NHL Network is providing DirecTV with a larger Flyer blackout zip code list than the Flyers have been claiming for NHL CI.

[shinner]

I think the issue is a bit more involved and mundane.Technically, what DirecTV has is somewhat irrelevant. It is MSG that has the local broadcast for the Rangers and CSN Philly that has the local broadcast for the Flyers. CSN California has picked up this "NHL Extra" and is also receiving the CSN Philadelphia transmission of the game, so this NHL Extra feed is simply an out-of-market broadcast.Remember that part of the problem is that CSN Philly is not available on DirecTV (yet).

Now lemme throw this at ya....on occasion (maybe 3 or 4 times) I've seen the Comcast Philly broadcast of a Flyers game on Comcast's Washington DC channel. Of course they referred to it as an "NHL Extra". With that in mind...why would the CSN California broadcast of the Comcast Philly feed vs the Rangers be blacked out for me, making me watch the Rangers broadcast via MSG? Keep in mind that Baltimore/Washington & Pittsburgh are my "home" RSNs.

I suspect it wasn't blacked out on CSN DC because that's one of my "home market" channels, but in reality it's really no different than the CSN Philly broadcast being on the CSN Cali channel...If I can watch the Sharks or Ducks on that CSN Cali channel (not my local team), then so should I, the Flyers (also not my local team). I don't recall who the Flyers were playing those games against, but if I remember correctly, the other team's RSN was not blacked out. IOW, I could have watched it on CSN DC or the opponent's RSN.

The Sports Pack gives you access to the "filler" programming on other regional sports networks, and the pro games on those other networks that are out-of-market are blacked out.

NHL Center Ice gives you access to most of the NHL games on the RSN's and those are broadcast in the 700's channel range. They are simply a remap of the same programming on the RSN's in the 600's channel range, so two different channels are showing the exact same game, but it is actually only one broadcast.

Oh, I understand all that....in fact, I've had to explain that to my wife in the past. I generally watch games on the channel in the 600s. About the only time I watch the CI channel in the 700s is if the game doesn't show up in the 600s. This usually only happens if DTV puts up a temp channel for a Comcast Philly feed, or they do the same for a TSN feed or that network that broadcasts some the Habs games in French (RDS?)

DirecTV probably has to pay something to use an alternate RSN for coverage. Therefore, they didn't want (or have permission) to use the CSN California feed of the CSN Philly coverage of the Flyers-Rangers game.

I don't know about that....I would be willing to bet that those who have that CSN Cali channel as their local RSN were being shown the Flyers/Rangers game in the same way that I've seen the Flyers own broadcast on CSN DC. I don't think DirecTV put the feed on the CSN Cali channel if they didn't have permission to use it.

I still believe that everything you have said is working correctly, EXCEPT for the blackouts on NHL Network. I have a feeling that the NHL Network is providing DirecTV with a larger Flyer blackout zip code list than the Flyers have been claiming for NHL CI.

Me too...I really should call the NHL offices and ask them because the DirecTV reps didn't want to hear it (most likely because they can't change it). I've seen it mentioned before that NHLN uses a larger blackout zone but what I haven't seen is anything official to back that up...it's all been hearsay/conjecture/theory.

[Greg Bimson]

Now lemme throw this at ya....on occasion (maybe 3 or 4 times) I've seen the Comcast Philly broadcast of a Flyers game on Comcast's Washington DC channel. Of course they referred to it as an "NHL Extra". With that in mind...why would the CSN California broadcast of the Comcast Philly feed vs the Rangers be blacked out for me, making me watch the Rangers broadcast via MSG? Keep in mind that Baltimore/Washington & Pittsburgh are my "home" RSNs.

Well, you did just explain why!

You have to remember the "open" and "closed" reasons.

With the base package, you are basically allowed to have your home RSN. In your case, DirecTV doesn't offer your home RSN, so you get no RSN's.

However, you have Sports Pack, so all RSN's are opened up with pro sports blackouts. In your case, since you are in an overlap territory, that also nets the pro sports on FSN Pittsburgh and CSN Washington.

Then you also have NHL Center Ice, which will opens up access to the games that DirecTV and the NHL have worked out. DirecTV is more than likely not going to open up the NHL games on an out-of-market RSN, as they prefer to open up the home RSN feed. Therefore, any NHL Extra games that are basically on an RSN where those two teams are out of market will not be included on Center Ice. Hence, the Flyers-Rangers game on CSN California is not opened up for NHL CI.

I don't know about that....I would be willing to bet that those who have that CSN Cali channel as their local RSN were being shown the Flyers/Rangers game in the same way that I've seen the Flyers own broadcast on CSN DC. I don't think DirecTV put the feed on the CSN Cali channel if they didn't have permission to use it.

I don't think I was clear...

DirecTV probably didn't have the ability to use the CSN Cali feed of the CSN Philly coverage on the Rangers/Flyers game for Center Ice. That's why it wasn't opened up.

My main point is that every single NHL game on any RSN is not opened up for Center Ice. It is usually just the home market RSN's that are opened up. Since CSN Cali is not the home market for the Rangers or the Flyers, it didn't make it into Center Ice and therefore was blacked out. It was available in the CSN Cali coverage area only as an NHL Extra.