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

[shinner]

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Originally Posted by Greg Bimson

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.

Originally Posted by Greg Bimson

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.

Originally Posted by Greg Bimson

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]

Originally Posted by shinner

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]

Originally Posted by obxflyers

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.

Originally Posted by shinner

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.

Originally Posted by shinner

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.