MLB Blackout Rules have me confused

[slocoma]

Wednesday, May 2nd ESPN had the Atlanta Braves vs. Philadelphia Phillies baseball game on. I live in zip code 16407 (which is near Erie, PA). This game was blacked out in my area. Anyone know why?

 

[lakebum431]

Was it on one of your local stations instead? That is usually the reason.

 

[slocoma]

Was it on one of your local stations instead? That is usually the reason.

I couldn't find it. I tried TBS and Fox Sports Pittsburg and Fox Sports Ohio. Those are the only other channels it would have been on.

 

[lakebum431]

I'm assuming you are talking about the game on 5/2. According to their schedule http://philadelphia.phillies.mlb.com/schedule/index.jsp?c_id=phi
It was on CSN and ESPN. So it looks like CSN had the local rights for your area.

 

[rockandchelle]

According to the Phillies Schedule it was on CSN and ESPN. I know for me down here near Atlanta, I watched it on Fox Sports South (HD)

http://philadelphia.phillies.mlb.com/schedule/index.jsp?c_id=phi

 

[slocoma]

I'm assuming you are talking about the game on 5/2. According to their schedule http://philadelphia.phillies.mlb.com/schedule/index.jsp?c_id=phi
It was on CSN and ESPN. So it looks like CSN had the local rights for your area.

CSN is Comcast. I have Dish and Comcast doesn't even service this area. Philly is over 300 miles from where I live.

 

[mdonnelly]

CSN is Comcast. I have Dish and Comcast doesn't even service this area. Philly is over 300 miles from where I live.

Yep, the Pirates claim you zipcode, and the Phillies don't. Sounds like a Dish Network screwup to me.

 

[lakebum431]

CSN is Comcast. I have Dish and Comcast doesn't even service this area. Philly is over 300 miles from where I live.

Very strange. There are several of the comcast sports net channels on Dish, but I don't know if you get any of them. Sounds like it may have been a mistake to me.

 

[JohnH]

Last negotiations, ESPN got some really weird blackout zones. However, this would be the weirdest I have heard of.

 

[Nebugeater]

HEre is an interesting article on the blackout issue.


http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news;_y...F?slug=jp-blackouts050207&prov=yhoo&type=lgns

Now is the time to right a wrong. Though sometimes I wonder if that is asking too much of Major League Baseball.

For the amount of hand-wringing it took to settle the Extra Innings-DirecTV brouhaha, I cringe to think how baseball will try to remedy a problem that affects millions of fans instead of thousands: The frustrating – and unnecessary – television blackouts.

MLB president Bob DuPuy plans to officially address the blackout troubles in front of the sport's powerful executive council two weeks from today at the quarterly owners meetings in New York. How seriously the eight-man council treats the concerns will go a long way toward proving whether baseball is serious about rewriting its archaic rules or simply raising the issue to muzzle all of the fans who are not allowed to buy the product baseball is selling.

Sound familiar? Throughout spring training, when it seemed as though the Extra Innings package would be offered only on DirecTV, commissioner Bud Selig showed a haughty disregard for the fans, mocking the thousands of cable customers orphaned by the league's proposed money-grabbing exclusive deal. In the end, MLB got its promise from cable companies that they would launch the Baseball Channel in 2009, and the majority of fans now have access to every game, every night. ........................................................

 

[pitbull2]

The Phillies-Braves game was blacked out for me too and I also live in a zip code that, according to MLB.com should only have Pittsburgh Pirates games blacked out. I called Dish and the 'support' person kept apologizing, but offered no reasonable explaination as to why it was blacked out. He even said that, according to his information, only Pirates games should be blacked out. After I got off the phone, I wrote to ceo@echostar.com and here is the response:

Thanks for the email. I can certainly understand your frustration, but
DISH Network is not at fault for programming blackouts. A sporting event
may be blacked-out when one broadcaster purchases the rights to an
event, and other broadcasters do not have the rights to broadcast that
event. The broadcasters who cannot show the event will be blacked-out.
Here are a couple of examples of how sporting events can be blacked out.


National blackouts occur when a local channel, or a Regional Sports
Network, purchases the rights to the event. In these cases, the event
will not be available to any channel that is outside of that region. See
additional details below.

Regional market blackouts occur when a national channel such as ESPN,
ESPN2, ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX, TNT, etc., purchases the rights to the event.
In these cases, the event will not be available to any regional channel
within that team's territory unless a regional channel purchases the
rights to the event. See additional details below.
I hope that this helps clarify the situation. Please let me know if you
have any other questions.​

 

[slocoma]

I called too, and was simply told I was blacked out... well I knew that, but I wanted to know why. I also emailed ceo@echostar.com and got the same response you did, but I pressed further and finally got this answer:

-------------

I have received a response from our programming team regarding this issue. ESPN has requested that certain zip codes be blacked out for the Phillies games; this includes your zip code (16407). I apologize for the inconvenience, but there is nothing that DISH Network has to do with the decision and there is nothing that we can do to change the decision.



Please let me know if you have any other questions.

 

[lakebum431]

You need to remove the direct contact information from that post please.

 

[sobonefnet]

I'm 300 miles from Philly too. No CSN coverage... I got screwed out of the ESPN HD broadcast as well.. If Dish could explain instead of being clueless on the matter - It wouldn't bother me as much.

 

[pitbull2]

According to ESPN.com, here is the reason why games are blacked out:

WHY IS A GAME BLACKED OUT?
Hey, it's a rare occasion when we want to watch anything else except sports on ESPN or ABC either! But we've got these things called contracts that obligate us to black out areas (determined by teams, leagues or conferences) in order to protect local and regional television commitments, and/or to protect ticket sales. So we've got to play by the rules and, if our contract calls for us to black out, show something else (generally, ESPNEWS) in your area when a local team plays in a nationally televised game, when they are playing either home or away.​

So, according to this, it makes no sense for these games to be blacked out in our areas. We are neither anywhere near Philadelphia, nor do we get the Philadelphia sports stations. If Sunday night's game is blacked out, I will be emailing ESPN to find out if they really are requesting Dish to black out these games. Unfortunately, after this Sunday's game, there are no more Phillies games scheduled on ESPN until July (another Sunday night game).