I live in southern Milwaukee county and see all of the White Sox games on WGN. They are playing today at 6:00 Central and the game is on WGN, but according to my guide, the game is blacked out. The Fox game is on right now, so that can't be the reason for the blackout. Of course, there are no dirt members logged on now, so my husband called Dish. He talked to two different people who told him this is MLB's policy, but I don't see any reason for the blackout. Could this just be a mistake in the guide? Some other reason?
WGN Baseball Game Blacked Out?
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That is the exact reason for the blackout. Fox has a draconian deal with MLB that any games that are played during the timeframe of the Fox broadcast will be blacked out. Fox wants to force you to watch whatever regional game they are airing without regard to your home team.
Just got back home after several hours out, and lo and behold, the entire game recorded. The game was shown because there never should have been a blackout to begin with. The guide was wrong, but heaven forbid anyone at Dish would admit that. They just give the MLB blackout excuse without knowing the rules. Does anyone at Dish even check to see if their guide is correct, or if the game should even be blacked out? I'm guessing not.
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Ahh, I didn't notice that...which would be 7pm EDT, outside of the Fox window, so my post about the Fox broadcast being the reason for the "blackout" was irrelevant. Just a wild guess, but maybe the blackout was in the guide in case of the Fox game going into extra innings, and when it didn't, then it was lifted?
The MLB rules are crazy, and complex, and the Dish employees simply can't know what is happening with every MLB team. What we use is the GameFinder, and we can put your account number into it. That will tell the CSR what is available in your package, what is available with an upgrade, and what is blacked out. That same tool is available to customers on the mydish.com page. We see the same info, so I am guessing if the guide showed it as a blackout, GameFinder likely would have too, and the CSR would tell you that. There is no way, real-time, that a Dish CSR can find any more info out about a particular game than what the GameFinder shows.
I had an instance where a customer was asking me about a soccer game that was shown as blacked out on one of his 400-series channels. Think it was, maybe, an English Premier League game. The customer was furious that the game was shown as blacked out. I had no idea why, I have not the first clue about anything blackout related when it comes to soccer, but did suggest that perhaps his local Fox station was carrying the game as part of the Saturday (or Sunday?) soccer game they carry (or did carry). What I had heard was that these games are often blacked out until right before the game, and the blackout lifted.
