New MLB Blackout Restrictions on RSN's?

[TheGuv]

I'm about to explode!

I live in Stronghurst, Illinois (Zip Code 61480) located in west-central Illinois.

I live in the CSN-Chicago RSN area and have always been eligible to recieve Cubs and White Sox games.

I also subscribe to the Multi-Sports package and in past years (1999-2006), I have been able to watch Cardinal games on Fox Sports Midwest on Channel 418 and Brewer games on ALT 444.

Tonight, I went to watch the Cardinals/Mets game on FS Midwest and the game was blacked out.

So I called DISH CSR and got a friendly person who understands English as a second language.

I was told that the Cardinals, Cubs, and White Sox are all going to blacked out for me, based on my zip code. But...I thought I lived in areas where these teams WOULD NOT be blacked out?

FYI, the Brewers are apparently not being blacked out to me. I watched their season opener on the ALT channel on Monday afternoon.

Is this a change? Have the MLB territories changed?

Why are my teams being blacked out this year but not in previous seasons?

What can I do?

 

[DWS44]

What can I do?

Perhaps a visit to this thread would be helpful

 

[stretch]

I heard the following from a friend in central Illinois:

In most of central Illinois NE of Springfield, the sat companies mark comcast sports net chicago as the RSN. However... the fan split in the area is really more 50-50... so some cable companies in the area (champaign-urbana is one example) carry BOTH realizing that the fan split is even.

but both Sat companies give CSN-Chi as the RSN... which forced cards fans to buy the sports pack to get the other RSN's which included FSMW, in order to get the Cardinal games.

so FSMW got pissed off at this treatment and pulled themselves off both satellite companies.

and thats all I know. And that's 2nd hand information, take it all with a grain of salt. But it seems to me you got a CSR with no clue as to how to explain what happened.

 

[TheGuv]

I heard the following from a friend in central Illinois:

In most of central Illinois NE of Springfield, the sat companies mark comcast sports net chicago as the RSN. However... the fan split in the area is really more 50-50... so some cable companies in the area (champaign-urbana is one example) carry BOTH realizing that the fan split is even.

but both Sat companies give CSN-Chi as the RSN... which forced cards fans to buy the sports pack to get the other RSN's which included FSMW, in order to get the Cardinal games.

so FSMW got pissed off at this treatment and pulled themselves off both satellite companies.

and thats all I know. And that's 2nd hand information, take it all with a grain of salt. But it seems to me you got a CSR with no clue as to how to explain what happened.

I still am able to get FSMW on channel 418 as part of the multi-sports package. Its the Cardinals game blackout that's got me annoyed.

 

[stretch]

whoa so the channel is still available but only the blackout has changed.. I misunderstood. Ill see what my buds back in C-U tell me.. ( i used to live there)

 

[jrbdmb]

Based on this map ...

http://www.baseballthinkfactory.org/files/astrodirt/discussion/419/

You should qualify to see the Cubs / Sox / Cards. (Not clear if you are far enough north to also see the Brewers.) However, the second part of the deal is that Dish must pay FSMW to show those games to subs in your area. Perhaps Dish is no longer paying the extra $$$ to show Cards games to subs in your area. (There are many teams shown on the map that you don't get with Dish - for example Iowa subs do not get six teams, and Royals fans in OK don't get to see their team even though they should.) Or it may just be a mistake.

Follow up with Dish and FSMW to make sure this isn't a mistake.

 

[JeremyL]

I think D* incorrectly applies blackout rules. Many times they've blacked out TBS showing a Braves/Cardinals game because it's airing on FSMW - even though FSMW is not our RSN. On top of that, TBS pays a fee for national rights on the games they show and should never be blacked out.

 

[jrbdmb]

New info, thanks to DanC at DBSForums:

http://www.cable360.net/competition/dbs/22780.html

New Cards blackouts appears to be the results of a dispute between FSMW and Dish / DirecTV.

 

[TheGuv]

Apparently there are new blackout restrictions relating to Fox Sports Midwest and Dish Network.

I just called the Fox Sports Midwest office in St. Louis.

There is a message at the number for Fox Sports Midwest telling people that "some customers in Central Illinois, Kentucky, and Iowa" will be affected.

They also, through the automated system, ask for the viewers name, city, zip code, and satellite provider and that they will call back with me info. They also ask viewers to contact their satellite provider regarding this issue.

The phone number for Fox Sports Midwest is (314) 206-7000. This is where you can call to get the same information I just got and to leave your information so they can contact you.

 

[mikew]

Occasionally, we see posts about "movers" and talk about how ethical those actions are. It is broadcasting negotiations like these that tip the "ethical" scale a little more to the middle.

 

[psnarula]

yep. even bud selig thinks the blackout rules are stupid:

http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news?slug=jp-blackouts071106&prov=yhoo&type=lgns

TheGuv should just "move" to a different zip code and all will be well in the world once again.