Good news at out of market games?????

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Owners to discuss blackout solution

By Jeff Passan, Yahoo! Sports Aug 7, 4:39 pm EDT

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Baseball’s territorial blackouts, the scourge of so many frustrated television and streaming-video viewers, will be eliminated for the 2009 season if Major League Baseball’s executive council follows suggestions president Bob DuPuy plans on presenting next week.

At the owners’ meetings Wednesday, DuPuy said he will propose that if a team is not broadcasting in a geographic location for at least one season, it loses the right to black out games in that area. Gone would be the blackouts that prevent folks in Iowa and Las Vegas from seeing as many as six games each night and have caused viewing havoc throughout the country.

“I see no reason why there ought to be so many clubs able to black out in those territories,” DuPuy said. “That’s my intention. That’s my goal. I didn’t get any pushback. The whole thing is about making the game more popular and available.”
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Such an idea clashes with the current territorial-rights rules, drawn up in the 1960s to gerrymander each team a specific area in which it could build its fan base. The rules have lagged behind the technology of the Extra Innings package and MLB.tv, both of which offer every game only to black out tens of millions of potential viewers nightly.

While cities with teams rarely are affected – a local affiliate, such as the YES Network with the Yankees or New England Sports Network in Boston, usually carries a majority of games in major-metropolitan areas – ones on the periphery often suffer. Las Vegas, for example, is at least a four-hour drive from Los Angeles, Phoenix, Oakland, San Francisco and San Diego, yet games played by teams in those cities are blacked out. No Las Vegas cable company regularly broadcasts any of those teams’ games.

Under DuPuy’s suggestion, Las Vegas could not be claimed as part of any of those teams’ territory unless a team’s slate of games was carried by at least one local broadcast operator. If not, that team’s games would be available in out-of-market packages such as Extra Innings and MLB.tv.

Competition for new territories, DuPuy figures, is a good thing: The breadth of blackouts lessens, and the potential interest from teams looking to spread their base only helps the sport’s growth.

“I don’t think it hurts anybody,” he said. “Although I will say, I attended a meeting almost a year ago. Our broadcast people raised a whole bunch of hobgoblins. There are a bunch of esoteric rules. But I think we’ll be able to get past them.”

The biggest issue, DuPuy said, concerned so-called “haircut provisions.” Because television contracts tie advertising dollars to audience size, any potential shift in a coverage area could trigger issues. DuPuy’s staff pored over the 30 teams’ local television contracts last week and has yet to determine how potential conflicts would affect his plan.

DuPuy initially hoped to handle the blackout issue at owners’ meetings in May, though surgery on his legs forced him to participate in the discussions via conference call. The issue, spurred on by thousands of letters from angry fans, was deemed important enough to necessitate face-to-face discussions.

Not all blackouts will vanish under DuPuy’s plan. The blackout of Saturday afternoon games on Fox, which is part of MLB’s nearly $700 million annually in TV contracts, will remain. That blackout, as opposed to territorial rights ones, was for sale.

And while that’s no solace, the specter of teams in blacked-out areas finally having the curtain lifted is promising. With the MLB Network set to launch in 2009, there is incentive to get all television properties in working order.

“I would like to think that if we increase the popularity of baseball,” DuPuy said, “it ends up being a good thing.”



I have the sports pack and live in Wisconsin. Does this mean that I will be able to watch the other teams feed???????????????
 
That article is not completely accurate, teams carried by RSN's would still be protected. In the Las Vegas area Cox Cable offers FSN West/Prime Ticket, but Cox doesn't carry KCAL or KCOP, so Dodgers and Angels games not carried by FSN would be available by other networks, but the blackouts would remain for FSN telecast.
The Giants, A's, D'backs and Padres games are not available in Las Vegas in either case and would no longer be blacked out.
The change in blackouts will only affect ESPN, TBS and Extra Inning subs. But the change in coverage areas would affect some areas that have games available from multiple channels without a EI sub.
 
I pray to God it's true! There is nothing worse than having games you KNOW are being played, yet can't watch them on EI because of FOX and ESPN (primarily) blackouts. Remember a few weeks ago when ESPN changed the Angels game to 3PM PDT to accomodate the ESPYS...and EIGHT teams were involved in blackouts!!! That is just ludicrous!!!!!!:mad:
 
I pray to God it's true! There is nothing worse than having games you KNOW are being played, yet can't watch them on EI because of FOX and ESPN (primarily) blackouts. Remember a few weeks ago when ESPN changed the Angels game to 3PM PDT to accomodate the ESPYS...and EIGHT teams were involved in blackouts!!! That is just ludicrous!!!!!!:mad:

You missed this portion of the article

Not all blackouts will vanish under DuPuy’s plan. The blackout of Saturday afternoon games on Fox, which is part of MLB’s nearly $700 million annually in TV contracts, will remain. That blackout, as opposed to territorial rights ones, was for sale.
 
DuPuy needs to be a groundbreaker since Comcast is playing hardball and make a concession for satellite subcribers who live in the Phillies territory and do not have EI by lifting blackouts on all Phillies games televised by the opponents RSN if subscribed to sports pack (Remember the Phillies are NOT owned by Comcast Spectacor like the Flyers and Sixers are.)or work with Comcast to have a "Phillies channel" similar to the Braves channel with the Peachtree TV games.
 
This is a confusing article. "Local broadcast operator". If that means OTA. Well nine teams have no OTA networks at all (or broadcast only the home opener). That includes Boston. Six other teams have a system where they only show OTA games in the home DMA and simulcast to the rest of their territories via RSNs. That includes Atlanta, Dallas, and Houston.

So, a team could defeat this simply by giving a few games to a UHF station.

Or does it mean RSN. Well does that mean the RSN DirecTV carries, DISH carries, or the cable co carries. Well, 25% of cable companies are so cheep they carry NO RSNs at all. So teams will give up their rights there? And, for that matter, probably 90% of the surface area of the country really does not have a cable company. Its rural farm and forest land.

The solution, of course, is more simple, but it takes some work and some courage.

You take a map of the USA, by counties. Then you do a thoughtful and impartial review of each place, based on ticket sales, newspaper coverage, radio networks, ratings of national games of particular "local" teams, etc. Then you come up with a new map that assigns teams ONLY to their legitimate local areas.

Then you have the rest of the country. These people get no blackouts, but no local RSN games either. So what do you do? An "open zone", with a game every night selected from what the RSNs have, just for them. Sharing the revenue. This, BTW, is exactly what should have been done with Florida and Arizona/New Mexico, rather than expansion.

And you tell Comcast that CSN-P is on the dishes, tommorrow.
 
Surely they don't mean over the air broadcast coverage.

FWIW, the Reds and Cards started being on FSN South a couple years. I wonder if they saw this coming.

Also, the Braves and Reds started having weekend games on WGFX-FM in Nashville this season.
 
With Bonehead Selig as commish (and the "haircut provision" from the posted article), I"m not holding my breath on anything changing.

I did have hopes a while ago when Selig announced his retirement, but when his retirement date was extended out, I lost hope.

Maybe with Cuban as an owner, he might be able to get others to see the light on this type of thing and we would not have to hope for Seligs retirement.
 
Owners to discuss blackout solution

By Jeff Passan, Yahoo! Sports Aug 7, 4:39 pm EDT

*
Buzz Up
*
Print

More From Jeff Passan

* Boston adjusts to life without Manny Aug 6, 2008
* The Kid, reborn with the White Sox Aug 4, 2008

Yahoo! Sports

Baseball’s territorial blackouts, the scourge of so many frustrated television and streaming-video viewers, will be eliminated for the 2009 season if Major League Baseball’s executive council follows suggestions president Bob DuPuy plans on presenting next week.

At the owners’ meetings Wednesday, DuPuy said he will propose that if a team is not broadcasting in a geographic location for at least one season, it loses the right to black out games in that area. Gone would be the blackouts that prevent folks in Iowa and Las Vegas from seeing as many as six games each night and have caused viewing havoc throughout the country.

“I see no reason why there ought to be so many clubs able to black out in those territories,” DuPuy said. “That’s my intention. That’s my goal. I didn’t get any pushback. The whole thing is about making the game more popular and available.”
ADVERTISEMENT

Such an idea clashes with the current territorial-rights rules, drawn up in the 1960s to gerrymander each team a specific area in which it could build its fan base. The rules have lagged behind the technology of the Extra Innings package and MLB.tv, both of which offer every game only to black out tens of millions of potential viewers nightly.

While cities with teams rarely are affected – a local affiliate, such as the YES Network with the Yankees or New England Sports Network in Boston, usually carries a majority of games in major-metropolitan areas – ones on the periphery often suffer. Las Vegas, for example, is at least a four-hour drive from Los Angeles, Phoenix, Oakland, San Francisco and San Diego, yet games played by teams in those cities are blacked out. No Las Vegas cable company regularly broadcasts any of those teams’ games.

Under DuPuy’s suggestion, Las Vegas could not be claimed as part of any of those teams’ territory unless a team’s slate of games was carried by at least one local broadcast operator. If not, that team’s games would be available in out-of-market packages such as Extra Innings and MLB.tv.

Competition for new territories, DuPuy figures, is a good thing: The breadth of blackouts lessens, and the potential interest from teams looking to spread their base only helps the sport’s growth.

“I don’t think it hurts anybody,” he said. “Although I will say, I attended a meeting almost a year ago. Our broadcast people raised a whole bunch of hobgoblins. There are a bunch of esoteric rules. But I think we’ll be able to get past them.”

The biggest issue, DuPuy said, concerned so-called “haircut provisions.” Because television contracts tie advertising dollars to audience size, any potential shift in a coverage area could trigger issues. DuPuy’s staff pored over the 30 teams’ local television contracts last week and has yet to determine how potential conflicts would affect his plan.

DuPuy initially hoped to handle the blackout issue at owners’ meetings in May, though surgery on his legs forced him to participate in the discussions via conference call. The issue, spurred on by thousands of letters from angry fans, was deemed important enough to necessitate face-to-face discussions.

Not all blackouts will vanish under DuPuy’s plan. The blackout of Saturday afternoon games on Fox, which is part of MLB’s nearly $700 million annually in TV contracts, will remain. That blackout, as opposed to territorial rights ones, was for sale.

And while that’s no solace, the specter of teams in blacked-out areas finally having the curtain lifted is promising. With the MLB Network set to launch in 2009, there is incentive to get all television properties in working order.

“I would like to think that if we increase the popularity of baseball,” DuPuy said, “it ends up being a good thing.”



I have the sports pack and live in Wisconsin. Does this mean that I will be able to watch the other teams feed???????????????
Late gettiong in on this..
I live in the NC Piedmont. 4 teams claim this area as part of their repsective territory. Atlanta, the closest is 4 hrs by car. The others are DC Baltimore and Cincinnati. The latter three are ridiculous. DC is 6 hrs fomr here Baltimore 7 and Cincy 7-8 hrs away.
Granted, MASN, the Balt DC area RSN is piped into this area and is considered a local RSN. The Reds games are shown here whenver their games are shown on FOXCN. All Braves games are available locally save the ones on Peachtree TV. That service is not picked up by Dish or Time Warner Cable.
The fact that there are ANY blackouts in non MLB cities at least 50 miles from the team's city limit is amazing to me.
Quiter frankly I think any sports blackout is bull crap. If I am willing to pay for the games, just let me watch them.
 
dishcomm.

I suspect that you want see any changes in the blackouts in your area since you have access to some of the games of all the teams that claim your area.
 
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