MLB’s blackout problem keeps sport in dark ages....

[whitewolf8214]

.......

 

[whitewolf8214]

I wish them luck I don't think they will win but we can hope

 

[dangue]

This thread should be pulled for copyright reasons. There's no link to the original website hosting the article, no attribution, and the original post has it copied verbatim rather than fair use excerpts with additional commentary or analysis.

Edit: I'm assuming that whitewolf isn't the original author of the piece.

 

[AntAltMike]

This thread should be pulled for copyright reasons. There's no link to the original website hosting the article, no attribution, and the original post has it copied verbatim rather than fair use excerpts with additional commentary or analysis.

Edit: I'm assuming that whitewolf isn't the original author of the piece.

Howard Bloom's SBN

Sports Business News

MLB's blackout problem keeps sport in dark ages
Submitted by SBN on Fri, 06/22/2012 - 22:00

Major League Baseball did not grow into an $8 billion business over the last two decades without burying some bodies along the way...(more)

 

[Rey]

Howard Bloom's SBN

Sports Business News

MLB's blackout problem keeps sport in dark ages
Submitted by SBN on Fri, 06/22/2012 - 22:00

Major League Baseball did not grow into an $8 billion business over the last two decades without burying some bodies along the way...(more)

thank you.

 

[Will94]

The gist of the argument, and a pretty damn good argument at that.

Here's how the regional sports network (RSN) system operates. Exclusive content, such as live baseball, makes them must-carry channels for cable companies. RSNs approach them, demand to be included on their basic-cable tier and reap huge subscriber fees when the companies accede. In areas where it makes no sense to carry a particular RSN, the fans are out of luck even if they buy the Extra Innings or MLB.tv packages. Baseball will black out those games.

Why would Charlotte, N.C., where the Cincinnati Reds are for some reason blacked out, ever carry Fox Sports Ohio? It wouldn't, of course. Certainly Buffalo has no interest in Root Sports Pittsburgh. Canada's distribution of Rogers Sportsnet has been a mess historically – especially considering the Blue Jays own the entire country's rights – and Hawaii, which is thousands of miles from a major league stadium, splits its territory among the A's, Angels, Dodgers, Giants, Mariners and Padres.

No TV provider in Hawaii carries Seattle Mariners games. (AP)No TV provider in Hawaii carries Mariners or Padres games. Oceanic Time Warner, the dominant cable company on the islands, doesn't subscribe to the Giants or A's RSNs. When Sen. Daniel Inouye wrote MLB to voice his displeasure over the blackouts to his constituents, he received a letter from Chris Tully, the league's vice president of broadcasting. In the correspondence, obtained by Yahoo! Sports, Tully doesn't placate Inouye as much as turn into a salesman for the Bay Area teams' RSNs.

 

[Ramy]

No doubt the argument is credible but MLB will do whatever they can to keep it the way it is.

 

[TMC1982]

Jeff Passan of Yahoo! writes that MLB's antiquated blackout policy is hurting the sport.

 

[Claude Greiner]

The issue is if you lift the blackouts, then people have a choice to watch the more popular teams, instead of their local teams.

You get teams like the Yankees, and RedSox get a lions share of the revenue due to the fact they now have more viewers, and less popular teams such as Kansas City loose viewers.

The only way blackouts could go away, is if all the sports networks where under one umbrella and they all ran the same commercials, and the TV revenue was equally split between all the teams.

MLB Extra innings is generally a good value for the $200 you pay for the package to get 161 days of baseball. NFL on the other hand, is not as good of a value at over $300 for the Sunday Ticket and you only get 16 days of Football.