Fox ALT and MLB

[dankimjohn]

Why do the ESPN alternative channels show different baseball games, but the Fox Sports Alt are blacked out?

[DCSholtis]

Can you give some examples?!!! are you a Directv or a Dish net sub?!!!

[dankimjohn]

Sorry Dish, in LA market. Like last night I could watch the Philies and Marlins on ESPN alt, but on the fox alt it was blacked out. Why are most of the fox alt blacked out, but never the ESPN alt?

Thanks in advance

[DCSholtis]

On Dish the only games you will see live are the ESPN games....There is no baseball package on Dish that would permit you to view the games on the Fox channels....Its a Directv and cable exclusive package.

[Guest]

I think he is not asking about a sports package but about regular sub.s.

ESPN has a national contract and except for those particulare markets where they have to black out a game, satellite viewers on D & E get to see all games on the mother ship, 2 and the alternates.
The FSN alternates are there because some markets have more than one team. If you live in Texas, both the Rangers and Astros are in the clear, one will be on the main FSSW channel and the other will be on an alternate. However, if you live in North Dakota then the alternate channel showing the Rangers or the Astros will be blacked out on your receiver. This is true on D & E.

If you should sub to EI on D then the alternate channel will probably be in the clear.

[JohnL]

Originally posted by dankimjohn
Why do the ESPN alternative channels show different baseball games, but the Fox Sports Alt are blacked out?

Simple,

The Fox Alternate feeds are from large cities that sometimes have conflicts when more than one team or League is playing so if you live in that DMA that the Fox Regional channel covers then and only then will the game be in the clear for you to watch. The reason is the Fox Regional sports networks only pay for the Local rights of the League that the team plays in.

Espn is a national carrier that pays for the games national rights. Sometimes a local Regional channel holds exclusive rights to their DMA's subscribers then the ESPN game is being broadcasted by the Local Regional channel so the ESPN feed will be blacked out in your market. This happens for the YANKEES with the YES Network and ESPN all the time and is especially annoying for major Yankees fans as YES holds the local rights and the YES claims all of NY state and parts of the Tristate area around NYC as well.

BTW I Hate Baseball it was only a good example.

John

[Mark Holtz]

If I may interject...

The RSN for Sacramento is Fox Sports Bay Area. When the exception of Golden State Warriors games, Fox Sports Bay Area isn't blacked out in Sacramento.

However, the Kings are mainly carried on two channels: KXTV-10 (who picked up the contract after an arbitrator declared the current contract null and void after KMAX voilated it), and Fox Sports. However, the Kings games on Dish are carried on one of the Dish alternate channels. The local cable systems, however, simply substitute the Kings game for the regular Fox Sports Bay Area programming.

[styxfix]

Do you know how KMAX voilated their contract and lost the KINGS? I've never heard of this happening.

[Mark Holtz]

Originally posted by styxfix
Do you know how KMAX voilated their contract and lost the KINGS? I've never heard of this happening.

It was the way KMAX handled the playoff coverage during the post season last year. See:

http://www.dbstalk.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=10752
http://www.dbstalk.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=11761

[TNGTony]

Fox Sports North has a Minnesota and a Wisconsin feed. When the Brewers and the Twins play on the same night, channel 446 becomes Fox Sports North (Wisconsin). Other than these times the two feeds are essentially the same. Since Fox Sports North does not have national rights to broadcast the game, the games are blacked out outside the area they are supposed to be carried.

See ya
Tony

[JohnH]

Just to clarify a bit. The Brewers games are always on the alternate and the Twins games are on the main whether there there is a conflict or not.