NHL Center Ice issues

[kennya]

Purchased Center Ice this year again to watch the Caps and for whatever reason, the Caps broadcast has only been shown twice. The rest of their games have been the opposing teams broadcast even though I have it on the Caps channel. Why would that be happening? I ve posted a couple times on Caps fan pages on FB and this isn’t happening to everyone, people in other states are getting the home broadcast. Any clues? Thanks.

 

[Bruce]

Center Ice is included with ESPN+, which I have so to watch the Red Wings, I just looked, it is showing both the Capitals and Rangers broadcasts for tonight’s game.

 

[kennya]

Doesn't make sense…. If I hadnt already paid for C.I., I’d buy ESPN+, but man, I don’t want to do that. Makes no sense why Dish isn’t showing the Caps broadcast like they used to.

 

[Bruce]

Doesn't make sense…. If I hadnt already paid for C.I., I’d buy ESPN+, but man, I don’t want to do that. Makes no sense why Dish isn’t showing the Caps broadcast like they used to.

Now you know for next season, but I would call Dish and complain, use what you said for a refund.

By the way, NHL games look great on ESPN+, in 1080P.

 

[kennya]

I did talk to Dish once and that didn't get me anywhere.

Quick question for you, a lot of times on Thur through Sat, I have to record the games and watch them the next morning. Does ESPN allow you to rewatch a game the next day?

 

[Bruce]

I did talk to Dish once and that didn't get me anywhere.

Quick question for you, a lot of times on Thur through Sat, I have to record the games and watch them the next morning. Does ESPN allow you to rewatch a game the next day?

Yep, just looked, games are On Demand, went all the way to games on 12/23.

 

[AntiMoz]

Yep, just looked, games are On Demand, went all the way to games on 12/23.

I’m assuming that the OP is an out of market Caps fan. In the Sabres market we cannot replay games on ESPN+ for 48 hours because of blackout restrictions with MSG Network.

 

[Bruce]

I’m assuming that the OP is an out of market Caps fan. In the Sabres market we cannot replay games on ESPN+ for 48 hours because of blackout restrictions with MSG Network.

Be my guess also.

Same for me, I am now an out of market fan of the Red Wings, lived in the Metro Detroit Area for 53 years ( except for 3 years in the Army), now 3 years in Florida.

Also have Sunday Ticket for the Lions.

 

[kennya]

Yep, Im in Oklahoma. that was the one thing I was worried about is not being able to dvr the games if I switched to ESPN+. Thanks for responding and let.ting me know I can go back to watch the games I miss.

 

[zippyfrog]

Purchased Center Ice this year again to watch the Caps and for whatever reason, the Caps broadcast has only been shown twice. The rest of their games have been the opposing teams broadcast even though I have it on the Caps channel. Why would that be happening? I ve posted a couple times on Caps fan pages on FB and this isn’t happening to everyone, people in other states are getting the home broadcast. Any clues? Thanks.

Only 2 Caps broadcasts seems low... Dish has a bandwidth limit of the number of games it can show in a given evening. Based off of my analysis so far, it appears Dish is allocating bandwidth for 32 broadcasts an evening - in essence 16 games (16 home broadcasts and 16 away broadcasts). If there are more than 16 games, then some games lose out on the separate home/away broadcasts. This total is for NBA League Pass and NHL Center Ice combined. Looking at the schedule tonight, everyone should get their home broadcast; but as I look at tomorrow (Friday, December 29), I have a feeling some teams are going to see the opposite teams broadcast as there are more than 16 games when you add up NBA League Pass Games and NHL Center Ice games. I have observed this on the busy nights on the NBA League Pass side of things. I don't have Center Ice so I can't comment on that unfortunately.

But to hear only 2 Caps broadcasts - I find it hard to believe that they are only playing on the days where there are a lot of games going on.

 

[AntiMoz]

It used to be that if Dish did not have a contract with the home team RSN they would not carry that broadcast on Center Ice and they would carry the away team feed only. Now that Dish doesnt carry any RSN’s I’m not sure how they decide which feeds to carry. As the previous post mentions, perhaps its determined by available bandwidth.

 

[kennya]

zippyfrog, that's interesting, maybe that is the reason, and the Caps fans are getting the short end of the stick. I will add, that the Caps owner launched a new "network" that is the main provider for Caps hockey games (Monumental Network). I thought that maybe that was the reason why i was more or less only getting the opposing teams broadcast, but as i mentioned in my original post, i know others who are out of state and have Center Ice were getting the Caps broadcast the same night i was getting the opposing broadcast. That's the weirdest part of this whole deal.

 

[zippyfrog]

zippyfrog, that's interesting, maybe that is the reason, and the Caps fans are getting the short end of the stick. I will add, that the Caps owner launched a new "network" that is the main provider for Caps hockey games (Monumental Network). I thought that maybe that was the reason why i was more or less only getting the opposing teams broadcast, but as i mentioned in my original post, i know others who are out of state and have Center Ice were getting the Caps broadcast the same night i was getting the opposing broadcast. That's the weirdest part of this whole deal.

Wow - that is strange. Were the other people getting the home broadcast via Dish? Or were some of them getting it through DirecTV? That is the only thing I can think of. I can't wrap my mind around how someone in another part of the country on the same channel with the same provider, in this case Dish, would have a different broadcast.

 

[Bruce]

i know others who are out of state and have Center Ice were getting the Caps broadcast the same night i was getting the opposing broadcast. That's the weirdest part of this whole deal.

If those others have different providers then you, then it is obviously a Dish issue, everyone gets the same feeds, some do not get one, but not the other.

This is my second year with ESPN+, when watching the Wings, it always has both team’s broadcast on.

 

[MrMars]

Wow - that is strange. Were the other people getting the home broadcast via Dish? Or were some of them getting it through DirecTV? That is the only thing I can think of. I can't wrap my mind around how someone in another part of the country on the same channel with the same provider, in this case Dish, would have a different broadcast.

They likely no longer have access to the channel. The transmission method changed when it relaunched and since Dish does not carry the channel I can see them not getting the new equipment required to receive the feed. The NHL does book several feeds on 113W via Encompass Digital Media to Dish Network on C-Band when they don't have access to either feed. From memory MSG & NESN are in the same boat too. Do you recall who the Caps played when they did use their feed?

 

[zippyfrog]

Since Center Ice is in free preview, I can see what is being discussed clearly. It isn't just the Caps that this is like

Bruins @ Blue Jackets is using the Blue Jackets feed on 5330 (Boston Bruins channel)
Canadians @ Stars is using the Stars feed on 5334 (Montreal Canadiens channel)
Islanders @ Avalanche is using the Avalanche feed on 5341 (New York Islanders channel)
Hurricanes @ Rangers is using the Hurricanes feed of 5342 (New York Rangers channel)
Lightning @ Jets is using the Lightning feed on 5353 (Winnipeg Jets channel)
Flames @ Wild is using the Wild feed on 5356 (Calgary Flames channel)
Flyers @ Oilers is using the Flyers feed on 5357 (Edmonton Oilers channel)

Quite a few of the channels are doing this, so it isn't a bandwidth issue like I thought. And it doesn't completely line up with the former RSN's that Dish used to have.

I subscribe to NBA League Pass and it isn't like this at all. NBA League Pass almost always has the team's channel with the home call. I do wonder if part of that is because Dish does sell the NBA Team Pass and there is the implication that you get the home call when you purchase a single team. Dish also uses the feed directly from the NBA for the NBA league pass games, so there are no commercials nor additional animations are present. No tickers at all. And during commercials they will sometimes show highlights or the in-stadium entertainment.

 

[MrMars]

Dish had a majority of the Canadian feeds excluding SN1 as of a couple of weeks ago. Seems they lost them too. Had a feeling it was only a matter of time with the F2 satellite winding down. CBC is on C-Band so HNIC should hopefully remain.

Sent from my SM-G998U using Tapatalk

 

[Taxi77]

Wow - that is strange. Were the other people getting the home broadcast via Dish? Or were some of them getting it through DirecTV? That is the only thing I can think of. I can't wrap my mind around how someone in another part of the country on the same channel with the same provider, in this case Dish, would have a different broadcast.

They likely no longer have access to the channel. The transmission method changed when it relaunched and since Dish does not carry the channel I can see them not getting the new equipment required to receive the feed. The NHL does book several feeds on 113W via Encompass Digital Media to Dish Network on C-Band when they don't have access to either feed. From memory MSG & NESN are in the same boat too. Do you recall who the Caps played when they did use their feed?

We are in NC and have the same issue. Only 2 Caps broadcasts. There are always 2 channels for the game, both have the other teams broadcast. Very frustrating, almost like they are just not connecting the correct feeds. I was going to call Dish, but I was guessing that the person answering would have no clue. Sister up the street, who has Directtv, gets all of the Caps feeds on her Center Ice.

 

[Bruce]

We are in NC and have the same issue. Only 2 Caps broadcasts. There are always 2 channels for the game, both have the other teams broadcast. Very frustrating, almost like they are just not connecting the correct feeds. I was going to call Dish, but I was guessing that the person answering would have no clue. Sister up the street, who has Directtv, gets all of the Caps feeds on her Center Ice.

There are posters on Reddit with the same issues, they all say they are Dish Subscribers, how they claim to of handled it, they threatened to cancel their whole account, Dish then refunded what they paid for Center Ice and they then subscribed to ESPN+ on their own.

The only thing I wish to say, that 1080P picture on ESPN+ looks so much better then Paid Live TV, I have YTTV and it is so much better then that.

 

[DB10]

I would can center ice and get espn+ instead because picture quality is a lot better. I have espn+ as well as Monumental and center ice (free preview on Dish), and center ice is the poorest picture of the three. I’m local so I can’t watch caps games on ESPN+ but I watch a lot of hockey in general. It’s a bit more expensive at $11/month though. Some of the games look amazing, whereas they never look amazing on monumental or center ice.