NHL Center Ice Blackout

[sparky88]

I am a Buffalo Sabres fan and I have dishnetwork. I live in the Buffalo area. I lost the viewing of all last seasons games because of the MSG dispute.
When I call dish to ask about any progress they told me not yet, but offered me the Center Ice Package half off ($85.00).
Will I be able to watch the Sabres with this package or will the Sabres be blacked out? I have the NHL network and when the Sabres of scheduled to air they are blacked out on that channel. I don't want to buy if i can't watch. The dish rep could not answer that question.

Any Help?

Thanks

 

[stone phillips420]

nhl center ice sucks for dish, your lucky if you get 5 hd games a week, where as with direct they give ya at least 5 hd games a day.

if you want center ice save your money its worthless on dish

save money sabres games wont be on dish.

 

[Mr Tony]

Any games involving your local teams will be blacked out on NHL CI. This is universal across all providers. They want you to watch it on the local RSN...now whether or not its carried is irrelevant, you are still blacked out

 

[stone phillips420]

wether game carried or not irrelavent, huh
direct shows nearly every game in hd except canada vs canada.
yet for dish basically nothing shown in hd.
the price for package is the same.

far better value for direct, dish is just stealing money from peeps.

if this is the way dish does center ice which it is, perhaps they should not offer package at all

maybe if you subbed center ice iceberg you would see giving dish any money for this package is a complete waste

 

[dare2be]

I fail to see how post#4 has anything to do with what was said in post#3

 

[king3pj]

nhl center ice sucks for dish, your lucky if you get 5 hd games a week, where as with direct they give ya at least 5 hd games a day.

if you want center ice save your money its worthless on dish

save money sabres games wont be on dish.

I have never had Center Ice and it wont be helpful to the OP because his games will be blacked out. I think the HD situation will be much better this season though. Ever since Dish did whatever they did a few months ago my Tigers games have been in HD almost every game.

I can only remember one that wasn't HD at the start of the game in the last couple months and they turned on the HD for that in the second inning. They are allocating a few extra channels to the HD RSNs now. Of course full time HD RSNs would be better but the situation has greatly improved recently.

When you factor in the NBA likely not having a season this year due to the lockout there will be almost nothing else on the RSNs competing against hockey for the HD slots. I would think most games would be in HD for everyone this hockey season.

 

[stone phillips420]

I fail to see how post#4 has anything to do with what was said in post#3

well let me help ya out with that as you seem

if you read the whole op, you would see When I call dish to ask about any progress they told me not yet, but offered me the Center Ice Package half off ($85.00). so as you can read the nhl center ice will still cost this person money. so im telling this person to save there money, its a waste

also the op asks Will I be able to watch the Sabres perhaps my tie in to directv is all non canada/canada games in hd with dish maybe 2 hd games a night if lucky. sabres in hd on dish no chance as channel is not currently offered either is the sd version either.

so in my post im trying to help the op understand save your money and dont get center ice with dish. if this person choose to switch providers they have that choice. if the person is a big hockey fan then center ice on directv is a no brainer.


hopefully this helps you a bit so as you now arent so

 

[stone phillips420]

I have never had Center Ice and it wont be helpful to the OP because his games will be blacked out.

the obvious answer here is if the sabres are make or break for op, they will switch to cable fios or directv providers which carry msg/msghd. Also with direct and center ice one "could" move if motivated to areas which no has home territory claim too team as far as i recall

 

[wolfjc]

nhl center ice sucks for dish, your lucky if you get 5 hd games a week, where as with direct they give ya at least 5 hd games a day.

if you want center ice save your money its worthless on dish

save money sabres games wont be on dish.

I really don't understand your complaint.
Last year I got almost ALL my Wings games were in HD and there were usually at least 2 HD versions of the Wings games as Dish also had the HD version & SD version
of BOTH feeds. Plus as I remember there were a LOT of other HD feeds usually two just like with the Wings.
Now at the start of the last hockey season when dish was in a pissing match with the FOX RSNs there were NO HD feeds of any FOX RSN on CI.
After that was fixed the HD feeds started right away.

 

[dare2be]

Your post#4 was not addressing the OP, only responding to iceberg's post#3. What he said is correct, and your rant of dish vs. direct center ice is irrelevant to iceberg's post. It's called a tangent and a thread-jack. Also, post#2 is off-topic as well.

 

[stone phillips420]

dish will show dead air or crawler before they will pony up more money to show more hd sports

 

[stone phillips420]

Your post#4 was not addressing the OP, only responding to iceberg's post#3. What he said is correct, and your rant of dish vs. direct center ice is irrelevant to iceberg's post. It's called a tangent and a thread-jack.

and your bring what to this thread?

 

[dwarren2]

Sent the OP a PM about an alternate way to watch Sabres games.

 

[king3pj]

dish will show dead air or crawler before they will pony up more money to show more hd sports

I don't think it will cost them any more money to show more games in HD this season. They already have the rights to show the games in HD. They just don't allocate enough space to HD RSNs. Like I said they are allocating a few extra HD channels to the RSNs now and the NBA is going to miss at least part of the season this year. There is a pretty decent chance that they will miss the entire season. This leaves almost nothing but hockey for the HD RSN slots this winter.

 

[king3pj]

Sent the OP a PM about an alternate way to watch Sabres games.

I'm not sure what your advice was, but the OP could "move" to another team's market and then take the offer on half off Center Ice. He would only get the other team's feed but at least he would be able to watch the games.

It would be cheaper to switch to Directv or another provider if the OP is not under contract with Dish though. Then he would be able to get his RSN as part of his package instead of paying $85 to watch the other team's announcers every game.

 

[dare2be]

I'm not sure what your advice was, but the OP could "move" to another team's market and then take the offer on half off Center Ice. He would only get the other team's feed but at least he would be able to watch the games.

Are you sure about that? I am in the Tampa market when when I had CI I could choose between home and away feeds most of the time in games where both markets were outside my local market.

Still, you are right, if he is not in contract, then the cheapest way would be to switch providers (cable or D*)

 

[king3pj]

Are you sure about that? I am in the Tampa market when when I had CI I could choose between home and away feeds most of the time in games where both markets were outside my local market.

Still, you are right, if he is not in contract, then the cheapest way would be to switch providers (cable or D*)

The reason he would only get the other teams feed is because Dish doesn't carry the RSN the Sabres are on so their is never any feed from that RSN available on Center Ice. If they did carry that RSN he wouldn't need Center Ice in the first place unless he wanted to watch other teams.

"Moving" to another market would allow him to watch the other teams feed on Center Ice without the blackouts he would get without moving.

 

[dwarren2]

I'm not sure what your advice was, but the OP could "move" to another team's market and then take the offer on half off Center Ice. He would only get the other team's feed but at least he would be able to watch the games.

It would be cheaper to switch to Directv or another provider if the OP is not under contract with Dish though. Then he would be able to get his RSN as part of his package instead of paying $85 to watch the other team's announcers every game.

If he moved, he would loose his locals from Dish. That could or could not be a big deal. As far as switching providers that may not be an option as it is in my case. I have to much stored on my dvr and ehd's to consider dropping Dish. And, here is a big reason, my wife has figured out how to use the dvr. She never was able to figure out my BUD. So if the wife is happy, I'm happy.

 

[dare2be]

The reason he would only get the other teams feed is because Dish doesn't carry the RSN the Sabres are on so their is never any feed from that RSN available on Center Ice. If they did carry that RSN he wouldn't need Center Ice in the first place unless he wanted to watch other teams.

yep, that didn't occur to me. /brainfart

another advantage to "moving" would be that any Sabres game carried nationally on NHLN wouldn't be blacked out.

 

[dare2be]

When I "moved", the chat CSR asked me if I wanted to switch my locals as well, so it appears that keeping the locals is an option? May be worth a try.