ESPN MLB Blackout in Dayton, OH Area

[rex]

I'm a longtime lurker on these groups as I had Dish Network (no cable where I lived) prior to moving to Ohio where I decided to give Time Warner a try. I've only had their service for a few days and I've already noticed several MLB games being blacked out on ESPN. Namely, the 7/19 evening broadcast of the Tigers and White Sox and today's (7/20) day broadcast of the Tigers and White Sox. This doesn't seem to make sense since the area I live in (zip 45502) is only in the Reds area (according to MLB.TV). I tried calling TW but they currently have hold times of almost 30 minutes. What I am seeing is that the ESPN channel here (26) is showing ESPNews and the HD channel (765) is blank. The ESPN website indicates that only the CHI area should have ESPNews on their ESPN channel today. I would mention that on Sunday, I did watch the Sunday Night baseball game just fine.

Has anyone else in the Dayton area experienced this or does anyone know why these games would be blacked out here?

Thanks for any information.

Brian

 

[GMFreak8]

Is the game available on another channel? Time Warner seems to black on games here if it's available on more than one channel.

 

[rex]

Today's game is not on any other channel and I checked and verified the same thing last night. I do see it listed on the Extra Innings channel but I do not subscribe to Extra Innings (I verified the channel does not come up).

Brian

 

[Hall]

I tried calling TW but they currently have hold times of almost 30 minutes.

As devoted as many sports fans are, if there's a good reason why TW blacked out a game, odds are their phone reps have the reason why knowing that people will call in and ask. I really doubt that any provider would black out an event just to annoy people....

It's been two days and you don't have a real answer. If you'd stayed on hold with them when you originally called, you'd probably know why.

 

[rex]

It's been two days and you don't have a real answer. If you'd stayed on hold with them when you originally called, you'd probably know why.

Thank you so much for your reply! It was so very helpful

 

[rex]

ESPN MLB Blackout in Dayton, OH Area: Update

So again tonight the game on ESPN between the Chicago White Sox and the LA Angels is/was blacked out here on TW (western Ohio, zip code 45502). I called TW to ask why and was given the answer that it was blacked out due to "FCC rules." It was obvious the support rep did not have any idea about it since he was stating I could not watch the game on ESPN because I was not in the Chicago or LA areas. Thus, I pressed and got a supervisor. He asked if the game was on WGN (it wasn't, they were showing AFV) and other than that he stated the system says it is blacked out because of local broadcast rights. I informed him that my experience has been that only games with the Chicago White Sox are blacked out which makes no sense since I live in the Reds territory. I even double checked with MLB.tv to ensure that for some weird reason my zip code wasn't showing up in the White Sox territory (it isn't). My zip code only shows up for the Reds. My brother-in-law in the same zip code with DirecTv was able to watch the game just fine. The supervisor indicated he would pass the information on to their programming director to see if maybe there is a problem.

Did anyone in the Dayton area happen to check to see if they were able to see this game? Or does anyone know of some weird reason why they would be blacking out the White Sox in zip code 45502? The only thing I can come up with is the town name here is Springfield and somehow their system thinks it is Springfield, IL (unlikely, I know, but the best I can think of).

Any additional information would be appreciated especially from Dayton area subscribers.

Brian

 

[cablewithaview]

as for games on ESPN being blacked out, ESPN NOT your cable company blacks out these games according to regions. ESPN equipped every provider with a receiver that switches to ESPN alternate and news feeds for a game that is blacked out in your region on the main channel. Cable operators do not switch any ESPN or II feeds period.

 

[Hall]

Sorry for digging up this old thread, but yesterday's Dayton Daily News had a small note about this in the TV/Media Insider column. The writer, Marc Katz, wrote the following:

ESPN News on our regular Time Warner cable ESPN station because either the Cubs, White Sox, or Tigers are the featured game, and we somehow are linked to those markets by Major League Baseball.

Good news on this front, however. ESPN is auditing all Ohio markets, and changes are in the wind.