Phone Call from Dish Re: NESN

[tampa8]

I of course knew about the on going negotiations between Dish and NESN thanks to this forum. I however had not realized untill a couple of days ago one of the reasons NESN was negotiating for a higher cost. Instead of carrying a little over half the Red Sox games they will be carrying virtually all of them this year, duplicating what WSBK will carry for those outside the Boston DMA that WSBK serves, but still in the NESN district area. (More on this at end of post)

I emailed to executivecustomerservice@echostar.com breiflly explaining that I am in the NESN service area and get it now but was aware there is on going negotiations about Dish keeping it. I wrote that as a consumer I would indeed be willing to pay a SLIGHT bit more to get NESN because of the Red Sox increased coverage. I also very breifly mentioned I was aware everyone as a whole pays for the networks Dish carries and if there was a way to have only those who can get NESN pay the slight increase and still keep the increase slight I am all for it.

Well, on my answering machine yesterday was a call from Soraya Cartwright at Dish letting me know they are VERY interested on feedback of this type and she was passing along that I very much wanted Dish to keep NESN. I have to say I am glad there are still some large companies who will actually call a customer about a letter.

Now some other "News" - I called WSBK and after having to call back a couple of times and waiting on the phone for awhile I spoke to Bart (I think is his name) who was very nice. I asked if WSBK was indeed going to be blacking out their coverage of the Red Sox games outside their DMA. He said yes, it was a Major League rule and that they would. I then asked if he was familiar that they are carried by Dish across the country and he said yes, but only because he knows from time to time they receive letters from various areas of the country. I asked if they would indeed still be carried on Dish now that some programming would be blacked out when at this time none is. He has heard of no plans to change anything other than blacking out games. He said he would probably have heard something if they were not going to be carried by Dish, but he also said that really isn't something he is directly responsible for or has the up to the minute information on. I thanked him for his time and he wanted to know how I knew so much about what is going on. I told him about this forum and my general interest in broadcasting.
Although I had another question I did not want to bother him anymore so I will ask all of you.

KTLA (when they had the Dodgers) TBS, KWGN and WGN and all show the baseball games they carry without blackout to those of us outside their DMA, so why would WSBK have to?

[TV38]

After reading your post i emailed dish and told them i really wanted them to try and keep nesn because though i can get wsbk over the air they are only carrying about 35 games. I would have to think about direct otherwise. I too wonder why it seems only wsbk has to black out games when the other superstations are not.

[juan ellitinez]

I think they own part of nesn

[Geronimo]

Let's see WSBK has responded to me thre times.

The first time they said they doubted I coud receive their signal outside new England.

The second time they told me I would be able to see the games.

The third time they said I would have to contact NESN.

Now they have told you the games are definitely blacked out.

For some reason I don't completely trust the folks at WSBK on this one. Like I said in the other thread I will just wait till opening day.


NESN BTW is jointly owned by the Red Sox and Bruins.

[Pete K.]

Yep. Wait and see. As mentioned in another
thread KWGN no longer carries the Rockies
but WPIX will televise 50 Mets games this
season. As far as I know, none of them will be blacked out. Last season, WPIX did not
black out a single game in my area.

[Geronimo]

This one does get a bit more complicated in that we know they will have a blacked out feed going to the rest of NE----WSBK is on a lot of cable systems up there.. What feed will we get----stay tuned.

[MarkL]

There will be no blackouts on WSBK. Superstation subs recieve the local feed of WSBK as well in the 8000's, so it would be impossible to black the games out.

[Geronimo]

I hope you are right Mark. but as far as I know the idea of different feeds or blackouts for WSBK will be new. As a Sox fan I certainly hope you are right. But then again as a Sox fan I have learned never to be too sure about anything.

[Guest]

WSBK might find it difficult to black out the game just for Dish customers, but Dish certainly could. Since Dish's blackouts are illogical anyway, we will just have to wait and see. Clearly WSBK does not have any idea what is going on.
PS. Do not the Bruins games come through on Dish (they used to) or does WSBK no longer carry these? Would NESN not have the same problem for hockey as baseball?


Originally posted by MarkL
There will be no blackouts on WSBK. Superstation subs recieve the local feed of WSBK as well in the 8000's, so it would be impossible to black the games out.

[Geronimo]

It is true that we get the local feed (the only one that has existed up until now) but it is also true that we get local feeds of the RSNs. DISH blacks those out and they could black WSBK out too---or drop it altogether if they found the blackouts too hard to enforce.

[tampa8]

Originally posted by Geronimo
It is true that we get the loccal feed (the only one that ahs exiosted up until now) but it is also true that we get local feeds of the RSNs. DISH blacks those out and they could black WSBK out too---or drop it altogether if they found the blackouts too hard to enforce.

or drop it altogether if they found the blackouts too hard to enforce. Exactly what I am afraid of if what they told me is actually correct.

[FTA Michael]

Originally posted by Guest
PS. Do not the Bruins games come through on Dish (they used to) or does WSBK no longer carry these?
WSBK had no Bruins games this season. :(

[Geronimo]

Do not the Bruins games come through on Dish (they used to) or does WSBK no longer carry these? Would NESN not have the same problem for hockey as baseball?


All major league events are blacked out on all the RSNs. We can be fairly confident that we wont see these games on NESN if we live out of market. So the problem is solved by having DISH or DTV black them out.

Here WSBK MIGHT be doing the balckouts themselves. They do after all service most of NE on cable systems and SOMEONE will have to block the games out in Sprigfield, Pittsfield, Bangor etc.