Will remaining RSN football games be blacked out again?

[psychotrope]

Last week Dish told us we'd still be able to see the Saturday college football games that were on the removed RSNs because those games were still being shown on some of the remaining RSNs (such as CSN Bay Area, CSN Calif., and FSN-NW). Specifically they said 444HDALT would be available. But almost all of the RSN games were blacked out nonetheless last weekend (something that never happened before this dispute). Now the guide is showing a lot of remaining games that are on the RSNs that are still there with HD feeds on ALT channels. All day long 444HD is showing the FSN games for example. But will they all be blacked out again, just like last week? And why did Dish tell us those games would be available and then it turned out they weren't? Did they get snaked by Fox? Anyone know what will happen this Saturday?

Also, Dish Network's "Find My Game" page had inaccurate information last week, since games they claimed wouldn't be blacked out, actually were.

 

[psychotrope]

I should add that I have the multi-sport pack. I got it mainly for College Football and College Hockey, both of which are rarely (if ever) blacked out for out-of-market viewers. At least they haven't been blacked out in the past, before last weekend.

 

[psychotrope]

UPDATE: I got info from a surprisingly candid CSR over Web chat. He assured me that YES, all of those games will be blacked out. I don't know how knowledgeable he was or if he spoke English and understood what I was asking. But that's what he said. Conversely, the Dish Network Game Finder right now says that NONE of the RSN games are blacked out on Saturday. I'm going to assume that they will be blacked out again. Probably at the last minute.

 

[mhowie]

Dish is trying their best to push its remaining customers with an interest in sports out the door...

 

[Mr Tony]

that seems odd that they would black out some of the games. Now I'm coming from a Directv perspective but the "big" games on FSN are across all FSN's that arent showing other games. Now last week the Twins played at noon CDT. The Baylor/Kansas game that was suppose to be on I could watch on a dozen other FSN's with no blackouts.

 

[psychotrope]

The other thing I've noticed is that now, the remaining out of market RSNs are showing alternate programming when they would normally be showing College Football games a lot of the time. Check out the guide for this Saturday. I think Fox is doing this, along with the out-of-market blackouts that never happen with college football, to hurt Dish customers, make them miss the games and therefore miss the channels they've lost. But it's clear that it is Fox that is orchestrating this and not Dish. Am I the only one who's noticing this? I'm surprised more people aren't upset about missing college football games that are supposed to be on the RSNs that have not been removed.

 

[JTBenson]

From what I heard - Fox did not give Dish Network a feed to the games, so they were not able to show the game. It was not a Dish decision, but a Fox decision. (This is from a tweet on MattSarz who knows a LOT about College Sports TV.)

 

[LASooner]

This isn't true because I watched the end of the game last saturday when it went past it's time block in the guide, which is how they block out a game, if the game goes over into a scheduled program that isn't blocked the black out is lifted by whatever automated system they have set up. I watched the end of the Georgia/Colorado game on 444

 

[goaliebob99]

It isnt surprising that they are blacked out.......... Its quite simple, fox owns the rights to braudcast that game in your area on that local fox RSN. If you dont have that RSN, and its braudcasted on a diffrent RSN, then they have to black it out as they legally dont have the right to give you the game from an alternate provider, to your area.

 

[psychotrope]

That's true for professional sports, but most college sports are NOT blacked out, even if it is out of market. Some college basketball is blacked out, but those who follow college football on the multi-sport pack know that college football is almost never blacked out, even for out of market games on out of market RSNs. They don't HAVE to black it out. But Fox IS blacking it out to make sure we feel the pain of losing our local RSNs because they CAN black it out. I just hope their current tactics against Dish customers in this dispute don't set a permanent trend for future college football black-out policies.

 

[dishcomm]

Last week Dish told us we'd still be able to see the Saturday college football games that were on the removed RSNs because those games were still being shown on some of the remaining RSNs (such as CSN Bay Area, CSN Calif., and FSN-NW). Specifically they said 444HDALT would be available. But almost all of the RSN games were blacked out nonetheless last weekend (something that never happened before this dispute). Now the guide is showing a lot of remaining games that are on the RSNs that are still there with HD feeds on ALT channels. All day long 444HD is showing the FSN games for example. But will they all be blacked out again, just like last week? And why did Dish tell us those games would be available and then it turned out they weren't? Did they get snaked by Fox? Anyone know what will happen this Saturday?

Also, Dish Network's "Find My Game" page had inaccurate information last week, since games they claimed wouldn't be blacked out, actually were.

no one can or will answer this question. I would suggest "wait and see"..
Here's a list I pulled off my guide.
Note these are SD Channels
All times EDT

Noon
ch444.....Baylor @ Texas
ch450.....Tennessee @ Georgia
3.00PM
ch447.....Northern Iowa @ S Illinois
3.30PM
ch444....UCLA @ California
7.00PM
ch449....Oregon St @ Arizona'
ch444....Colorado @ Missouri
7.30PM
ch439 (Big Ten) Perdue @ Northwestern
8.00PM
ch447....New Mexico @ New Mexico St..
None of these are indicated as blacked out...

 

[Sassan]

Yes they will be blacked out, and the next 3 weeks probably will be too. However, if you call Dish and argue with the CSR, they will give you 3 free PPV movie coupons. Woot! *sarcasm*


And I bought the stupid sports pack for football season, and this is what I get. I wanna get pissed at Dish, but then I realize its Fox pulling the BS too, so they aren't any better.

Its just aggravating.

 

[joelwnelson]

I had the same problem trying to watch the Kansas-Baylor game. It was on 444-HD, and was on FSN-Midwest (one of the regions now not available). I also get FSN-Rocky Mountain but FSR was doing a Colorado Rockies special instead of carrying the football game. So with FSR, now my local Fox Sport Net station, not carrying the game, I assume that's why it was blacked out.

However, the Colorado Rockies programming was also blacked out as I'm in eastern Nebraska which is the Royals' territory, not the Rockies'...

The way I understand it is the HD games on 444-446 will be blacked out if you can't get it on one of your "local" FSN feeds. For me, with Rocky Mountain now being the only local, I can only see something on the alternate feeds if FSR is carrying it. If FSR is not but FSM is, then out of luck.

In the event you now have no local Fox Sports feeds available, you are probably out of luck on any Fox Sports Net programming.

Hoping FSR picks up the Nebraska-Oklahoma State game so I can at least see that one later this month.

 

[psychotrope]

On the positive side, you should still get the ESPN+, Big East Network, and SEC Network programming on channels such as Altitude 410, SNY 438, and MASN 432. Games include Tennessee at Georgia (also available on some local channels), UNLV at West Virginia, Utah at Louisiana Tech, Syracuse at South Florida, New Mexico at New Mexico State... basically the games that are also shown on ESPN3.com, with the exception of STO channel 431 games (Akron at Kent State and Toledo at Boise State) which are blacked out. Since the aforementioned games are not produced by FSN, they should be available. At least they were last week. And most of these games are NOT in HD.

 

[Pete K]

I'm betting most will be blacked out. The trembling chihuahuas (Georgia) will face Dooleys' stumbling Vols on the SEC Network, so most Dish subscribers in SEC territory will se the game regardless.

 

[cj43]

Multi Sport Pack

Sounds like its time to dump the sports packages if they keep this up. I only got it to watch the college football games.

 

[dvrexpander]

I thought customers that lost FX/Geo and all those other channels were going to get the sports package for free till its over with? I've not yet to get the sports package.

 

[JTBenson]

Sports pack is in the 9600's, but it is pretty useless.