MLB Blackouts

jtur88 · 04-04-2008, 09:37 AM

If you want to have a good belly laugh, check out
GIS Sites: Major League Baseball Blackout Map - Repost
This is the map of how the MLB teams have divided us up to block out baseball telecasts. It is hilarious. The entire state of Iowa gets six games blacked out every day. But commuters living in central New Jesey can watch Yankee and Mets games without blackout. Eastern New Mexico residents happily "protect" four deserving teams, all more than 700 miles away. Central Nevada blacks out the Padres, but not the Dodgers.

jtur88 · 04-04-2008, 04:04 PM

By the way, I went to MLB.com, and tried to change my profile information to a different zip code, so a different team would be blacked out, but it didnt work. But maybe if subscribing for the first time, you can put in a Georgia zip and just lose the Braves games (which are all on cable anyway), that might work. Or maybe they read your IP.

LongtimeBravesFan · 04-04-2008, 04:52 PM

I don't understand what you mean by "balckouts". It says Alabama is blacked out for Braves games, but I can see all of them on cable.

bedir than average · 04-04-2008, 07:17 PM

It is the blackout for MLB.tv

You are forbidden from watching the game online, you must watch on TV.

LongtimeBravesFan · 04-04-2008, 10:12 PM

Well, since I don't plan to subscribe to mlb.tv, I guess it really doesn't matter.

jtur88 · 04-05-2008, 03:16 PM

It's a TV blackout that makes it impossible to watch a game in a blackout area from any national source, EXCEPT the home-team broadcasts of the team protected by your blackout zone. If you are in the Braves blackout zone, you cannot watch the Braves on MLB.TV, or on any other cable out-of-market premium package. You will also not get the ESPN or Fox national telecasts on Sat, Sun or Wed if they are featuring a Braves game. You will get the backup game instead. In other words, the Braves TV network has exclusive rights to show all Braves games in that zone, and nobody else is allowed to carry them.
If you live in Atmore AL, you can still watch the Braves Saturday game on Fox on a Pensacola station. (with rabbit ears), where the Braves will not be blacked out. But if the Pensacola station is on your cable lineup, your local Alabama cable company is supposed to black out that Pensacola station for the duration of the game, and they probably will.

LongtimeBravesFan · 04-05-2008, 05:03 PM

Well, if the game is on a Braves station, I'd rather watch that than see it on ESPN or Fox. Besides, if another game is on the national network, it gives me another option.

The various Braves cable stations are carrying 151 Braves games this year. Today's game is the second I've had to watch on another source. So four games into the season and I'm already almost 20% done with Joe Morgoan and Tim McCarver.

jtur88 · 04-05-2008, 07:04 PM

In the case of the Braves, which have three different networks doing their games, that's fine. But many teams televise relatively few of their games. A game will be blacked out even if is not being televised within the protected team's market. Here in Texas, FSN splits telecasts between the Astros and Rangers, but we can never see any of either team's games on any network or package, unless it is aired on FSN.

Strike_Out · 04-28-2008, 03:21 AM

I'm a subsciber to MLB.TV but luckily because I dont live in the U.S I dont have any games blacked out.

Simp · 04-28-2008, 09:45 AM

I started using mlb.com's radio broadcasts last year. For $15 you get all the games from spring training thru the World Series. It's a great deal for the most part, with a few bugs. I tried the TV for a month and wasn't as thrilled with that. Part of the problem could be my relatively slow (DSL) connection and less than state of the art equipment. But their crappy software (Silverlight) didn't help either. I was also randomly blacked out from all the games a few times. Their solution was to contact them with your zip code so they could fix the problem. Right. I've already sat on the phone for 15 mins. once, only to get a non-helpful, snippy response. An email to them was not responded to. I won't waste my time again-their customer service sucks. Maybe I'll try their TV again in a couple months and see if it's improved.

jtur88 · 04-28-2008, 10:10 AM

I haven't experienced the all-blacked-out problems you described. I subscribed to the premium (1.6M) and at first could not see the difference, and just used 800 and sometimes 400 because it loaded faster. At frist, there were frequent still locks requiring re-setting (that happend a lot last fall, too) but that has stopped happening, and also now I can see some enhancement in 1.6. (I have only a 256M hard drive, cable high speed). So you might want to try again. There is a huge variation in the picture quality from one game to another, for reasons I cannot speculate on, but I noticed in the out-of-market cable games a few years ago, sometimes a game would come in with very bad quality picture.

Simp · 04-29-2008, 09:06 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jtur88

I haven't experienced the all-blacked-out problems you described. I subscribed to the premium (1.6M) and at first could not see the difference, and just used 800 and sometimes 400 because it loaded faster. At frist, there were frequent still locks requiring re-setting (that happend a lot last fall, too) but that has stopped happening, and also now I can see some enhancement in 1.6. (I have only a 256M hard drive, cable high speed). So you might want to try again. There is a huge variation in the picture quality from one game to another, for reasons I cannot speculate on, but I noticed in the out-of-market cable games a few years ago, sometimes a game would come in with very bad quality picture.

I subscribed to premium as well. I tried the 1.2M and had problems with it immediately and never tried it again. I unistalled whatever it was I had to install to use the 1.2M. 800k is good enough for me. I'll likely give it a try again but I'm in no rush to cough of the $20. Have you tried hooking it up to your TV? Didn't work for me. I need to look into it further.

jackmcmanus21 · 04-29-2008, 09:30 AM

things definitely seem easier here on the east coast...we dont have too many blackouts

Kenneth · 05-25-2008, 02:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jtur88

In the case of the Braves, which have three different networks doing their games, that's fine. But many teams televise relatively few of their games. A game will be blacked out even if is not being televised within the protected team's market. Here in Texas, FSN splits telecasts between the Astros and Rangers, but we can never see any of either team's games on any network or package, unless it is aired on FSN.

Right, that's the situation I'm in. I'm a Rangers fan who moved to Houston for a job. In Dallas about half the games are broadcast on local tv, about half on FSSW. In Houston the only Rangers games that are broadcast locally are games on FSSW (but only when the Astros arent' playing), and national games (not many of those for the Rangers!). I'm lucky if it's 3-4 games a month.

Since Houston is considered part of the ludicrously large local Rangers market, I also can't view any Rangers games through Extra Innings or mlb.tv.

So basically there is no way for me to watch most Rangers games. The MLB could fix this problem by simply not allowing home markets to overlap (unless the teams are in the same metro area, like white sox/cubs or Dodgers/Angels or Giants/A's). At the very least they could allow games only being shown on local broadcast TV (Channel 27 in Dallas) to be shown out of 27's market.

jtur88 · 05-26-2008, 02:09 PM

The most conspicuously unfair anomaly I see in the black-out map is this: The area within 100 miles or so of a MLB team is left completely unblacked except for the local team. Which means that people who can attend a game live just about any time they want, can also watch every other team at will. But people who live hundreds of miles from a MLB city (like Iowa or Nevada) and have virtually no chance of seeing a game, have as many as six teams blacked out, which is 40% of all telecasts.

Here's my favorite: A street called Dakota Lane, at the east edge of Westby, Montana. If you live on one side of the street, you're in the Central Time Zone. But the Seattle Mariners are blacked out for your neighbor across the street.

Here's another one: West side of State Line Road, in Arcadia, Kansas, the Cardinals are blacked out. But if you live across the road, on the Missouri side, they're not ! ! !

04-04-2008, 09:37 AM	#1 (permalink)
jtur88 Hall of Famer Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: South Texas Posts: 6,844	MLB Blackouts If you want to have a good belly laugh, check out GIS Sites: Major League Baseball Blackout Map - Repost This is the map of how the MLB teams have divided us up to block out baseball telecasts. It is hilarious. The entire state of Iowa gets six games blacked out every day. But commuters living in central New Jesey can watch Yankee and Mets games without blackout. Eastern New Mexico residents happily "protect" four deserving teams, all more than 700 miles away. Central Nevada blacks out the Padres, but not the Dodgers. __________________ ------------------ RE-ELECT McCAIN Last edited by jtur88; 04-04-2008 at 09:40 AM.

04-04-2008, 04:04 PM	#2 (permalink)
jtur88 Hall of Famer Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: South Texas Posts: 6,844	By the way, I went to MLB.com, and tried to change my profile information to a different zip code, so a different team would be blacked out, but it didnt work. But maybe if subscribing for the first time, you can put in a Georgia zip and just lose the Braves games (which are all on cable anyway), that might work. Or maybe they read your IP. __________________ ------------------ RE-ELECT McCAIN

04-04-2008, 07:17 PM	#4 (permalink)
bedir than average Administrator Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Starbucks Posts: 8,256	It is the blackout for MLB.tv You are forbidden from watching the game online, you must watch on TV. __________________ US Men's National Team World Cup Qualifying \| Democracy in Sports Meets My First Campaign "You're only so sure you're right because they're so sure you're wrong." Orson Scott Card in Xenocide

04-05-2008, 03:16 PM	#6 (permalink)
jtur88 Hall of Famer Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: South Texas Posts: 6,844	It's a TV blackout that makes it impossible to watch a game in a blackout area from any national source, EXCEPT the home-team broadcasts of the team protected by your blackout zone. If you are in the Braves blackout zone, you cannot watch the Braves on MLB.TV, or on any other cable out-of-market premium package. You will also not get the ESPN or Fox national telecasts on Sat, Sun or Wed if they are featuring a Braves game. You will get the backup game instead. In other words, the Braves TV network has exclusive rights to show all Braves games in that zone, and nobody else is allowed to carry them. If you live in Atmore AL, you can still watch the Braves Saturday game on Fox on a Pensacola station. (with rabbit ears), where the Braves will not be blacked out. But if the Pensacola station is on your cable lineup, your local Alabama cable company is supposed to black out that Pensacola station for the duration of the game, and they probably will. __________________ ------------------ RE-ELECT McCAIN Last edited by jtur88; 04-05-2008 at 03:23 PM.

04-05-2008, 07:04 PM	#8 (permalink)
jtur88 Hall of Famer Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: South Texas Posts: 6,844	In the case of the Braves, which have three different networks doing their games, that's fine. But many teams televise relatively few of their games. A game will be blacked out even if is not being televised within the protected team's market. Here in Texas, FSN splits telecasts between the Astros and Rangers, but we can never see any of either team's games on any network or package, unless it is aired on FSN. __________________ ------------------ RE-ELECT McCAIN Last edited by jtur88; 04-05-2008 at 07:10 PM.

04-04-2008, 04:52 PM	#3 (permalink)
LongtimeBravesFan Senior Member Join Date: Nov 2006 Posts: 3,663	I don't understand what you mean by "balckouts". It says Alabama is blacked out for Braves games, but I can see all of them on cable.

04-04-2008, 10:12 PM	#5 (permalink)
LongtimeBravesFan Senior Member Join Date: Nov 2006 Posts: 3,663	Well, since I don't plan to subscribe to mlb.tv, I guess it really doesn't matter.

04-05-2008, 05:03 PM	#7 (permalink)
LongtimeBravesFan Senior Member Join Date: Nov 2006 Posts: 3,663	Well, if the game is on a Braves station, I'd rather watch that than see it on ESPN or Fox. Besides, if another game is on the national network, it gives me another option. The various Braves cable stations are carrying 151 Braves games this year. Today's game is the second I've had to watch on another source. So four games into the season and I'm already almost 20% done with Joe Morgoan and Tim McCarver.

04-28-2008, 03:21 AM	#9 (permalink)
Strike_Out New Member Join Date: Apr 2008 Location: Sydney, Australia Posts: 1	I'm a subsciber to MLB.TV but luckily because I dont live in the U.S I dont have any games blacked out.

04-28-2008, 09:45 AM	#10 (permalink)
Simp Member Join Date: May 2007 Posts: 359	I started using mlb.com's radio broadcasts last year. For $15 you get all the games from spring training thru the World Series. It's a great deal for the most part, with a few bugs. I tried the TV for a month and wasn't as thrilled with that. Part of the problem could be my relatively slow (DSL) connection and less than state of the art equipment. But their crappy software (Silverlight) didn't help either. I was also randomly blacked out from all the games a few times. Their solution was to contact them with your zip code so they could fix the problem. Right. I've already sat on the phone for 15 mins. once, only to get a non-helpful, snippy response. An email to them was not responded to. I won't waste my time again-their customer service sucks. Maybe I'll try their TV again in a couple months and see if it's improved.

04-28-2008, 10:10 AM	#11 (permalink)
jtur88 Hall of Famer Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: South Texas Posts: 6,844	I haven't experienced the all-blacked-out problems you described. I subscribed to the premium (1.6M) and at first could not see the difference, and just used 800 and sometimes 400 because it loaded faster. At frist, there were frequent still locks requiring re-setting (that happend a lot last fall, too) but that has stopped happening, and also now I can see some enhancement in 1.6. (I have only a 256M hard drive, cable high speed). So you might want to try again. There is a huge variation in the picture quality from one game to another, for reasons I cannot speculate on, but I noticed in the out-of-market cable games a few years ago, sometimes a game would come in with very bad quality picture. __________________ ------------------ RE-ELECT McCAIN

04-29-2008, 09:30 AM	#13 (permalink)
jackmcmanus21 Rookie Member Join Date: Apr 2008 Location: PA Posts: 12	things definitely seem easier here on the east coast...we dont have too many blackouts __________________ http://www.brigadeqm.com/brands/under-armour.html

05-26-2008, 02:09 PM	#15 (permalink)
jtur88 Hall of Famer Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: South Texas Posts: 6,844	The most conspicuously unfair anomaly I see in the black-out map is this: The area within 100 miles or so of a MLB team is left completely unblacked except for the local team. Which means that people who can attend a game live just about any time they want, can also watch every other team at will. But people who live hundreds of miles from a MLB city (like Iowa or Nevada) and have virtually no chance of seeing a game, have as many as six teams blacked out, which is 40% of all telecasts. Here's my favorite: A street called Dakota Lane, at the east edge of Westby, Montana. If you live on one side of the street, you're in the Central Time Zone. But the Seattle Mariners are blacked out for your neighbor across the street. Here's another one: West side of State Line Road, in Arcadia, Kansas, the Cardinals are blacked out. But if you live across the road, on the Missouri side, they're not ! ! ! __________________ ------------------ RE-ELECT McCAIN Last edited by jtur88; 05-26-2008 at 09:45 PM.