Not sure if any of you are hockey fans living in upstate NY, but hoping someone can answer my question. I'm a huge Islanders fan and finally have something to cheer about this year, which makes this issue even more upsetting.
According to my zip code (12817), I'm in the home team territory for the Islanders, Rangers, Devils and Sabres. However, on any given night when any of these teams are playing on MSG, MSG+, MSG+2, some, if not all are blacked out (My guess is about half the games seem to be blacked out for each team). I've spoken with several reps & supervisors at DTV and no one can give me a direct answer. One supervisor told me to re-program the box, so I can receive the MSG SD broadcasts & I should receive all games in SD (of course that didn't work). Next supervisor told me that if the games are blacked out, they are blacked out in HD and SD and doesn't know why the last supervisor told me that. Anyway, their final answer always ends explaining that they have no control over blackouts and it's the NHL that blacks out the games, which really doesn't help me. I've called NHL Center Ice, just to see if I would get the blacked out Islander games if I purchased Center Ice. They told me no, because the Islanders are my home team. I've also called the NHL and they were also unsure of the exact reason.
As an avid hockey & Islanders fan, there's no worse feeling than being able to watch the pre-game show and when the end of the last commercial comes on at 6:59, wondering if the screen will go to gray with the error code 721! Some examples, the last 4 Isles games were blacked out (both the Devils and Islanders broadcast 3 nights ago & the Sabres game was the only game shown on MSG that night (MSG+2) and the previous 2 Isles games before that were both shown (Isles vs. Blues, Isles vs. Wild). Another example on 11-29 Isles vs. Devils I got lucky and the Isles broadcast was shown and the Devils broadcast was blacked out. I understand there are blackout rules, but why list those 4 teams in my home territory if they aren't going to broadcast them all? I guess what ticks me off the most is not knowing if a game will be blacked out until right before the game starts. I can't figure out any patterns and it seems like they just blackout random games. Really hoping someone here can shed some light on the situation, because it's driving me crazy.
According to my zip code (12817), I'm in the home team territory for the Islanders, Rangers, Devils and Sabres. However, on any given night when any of these teams are playing on MSG, MSG+, MSG+2, some, if not all are blacked out (My guess is about half the games seem to be blacked out for each team). I've spoken with several reps & supervisors at DTV and no one can give me a direct answer. One supervisor told me to re-program the box, so I can receive the MSG SD broadcasts & I should receive all games in SD (of course that didn't work). Next supervisor told me that if the games are blacked out, they are blacked out in HD and SD and doesn't know why the last supervisor told me that. Anyway, their final answer always ends explaining that they have no control over blackouts and it's the NHL that blacks out the games, which really doesn't help me. I've called NHL Center Ice, just to see if I would get the blacked out Islander games if I purchased Center Ice. They told me no, because the Islanders are my home team. I've also called the NHL and they were also unsure of the exact reason.
As an avid hockey & Islanders fan, there's no worse feeling than being able to watch the pre-game show and when the end of the last commercial comes on at 6:59, wondering if the screen will go to gray with the error code 721! Some examples, the last 4 Isles games were blacked out (both the Devils and Islanders broadcast 3 nights ago & the Sabres game was the only game shown on MSG that night (MSG+2) and the previous 2 Isles games before that were both shown (Isles vs. Blues, Isles vs. Wild). Another example on 11-29 Isles vs. Devils I got lucky and the Isles broadcast was shown and the Devils broadcast was blacked out. I understand there are blackout rules, but why list those 4 teams in my home territory if they aren't going to broadcast them all? I guess what ticks me off the most is not knowing if a game will be blacked out until right before the game starts. I can't figure out any patterns and it seems like they just blackout random games. Really hoping someone here can shed some light on the situation, because it's driving me crazy.
