Question about MLB Extra Innings and Sports Pack

[matty8199]

Tonight's Angels/Mariners game was on FSN NW, but not Extra Innings. Since we are getting a free preview of EI, I assumed I'd be able to watch the game on FSN NW (since all of the other EI games are opened up on their RSN channels). No such luck - the game is blacked out. This leads me to two questions...

1) If I were paying for EI, would I be able to see this game or would it still be blacked out?

2) If it would still be blacked out, what's the point to that? I'm paying the extra money for EI, why not open all games up?

[JLucPicard]

My take on this? ....

Getting Extra Innings as a means to watch the hometown team (in your particular market) I don't believe is a wise choice. I will speak to this from the standpoint of being a Minnesota Twins fan in the Twin Cities area.

Of the 162 games they play this season, 2 of those will be on ESPN. 25 of those will be aired on WFTC 29 (the local UPN - or whatever - affiliate). 115 of the games will be broadcast on FSN North. That's 142 of the 162 games.

Of that 142, 140 of them are broadcast on what is considered "local" TV. All 140 of those games would be blacked out on EI. I am not exactly sure how the two ESPN games would be handled - blacked out on EI or not blacked out. However, you could still see them (I believe) on ESPN - possibly even ESNHD in High-Def.

Of the other 20 games, some - all - or none of them may be televised by the opponent's television outlet, so maybe you could see them on EI, maybe not.

For a fan of the local team living in that local area, I just can't justify the expense of EI.

Now, if you're a hardcore baseball fan (as I am of the NFL and an annual subscriber to Sunday Ticket), then it may well be worth your money to be able to see many out of market games.

The big plus of EI may be for the hardcore fan of some team who doesn't live in that market, such as a Mariners fan living in Austin Texas (for some gawd-awful reason! :D ). That's where I see EI being a great bargain.

But local fan in local area - you're losing waaay to many games to blackouts on EI to make it worth the money in my opinion.

[Edmund]

The Angel game wasn't blacked out on EI, it was just not available.

[SatelliteJim]

My take on this? ....

Getting Extra Innings as a means to watch the hometown team (in your particular market) I don't believe is a wise choice. I will speak to this from the standpoint of being a Minnesota Twins fan in the Twin Cities area.

Of the 162 games they play this season, 2 of those will be on ESPN. 25 of those will be aired on WFTC 29 (the local UPN - or whatever - affiliate). 115 of the games will be broadcast on FSN North. That's 142 of the 162 games.

Of that 142, 140 of them are broadcast on what is considered "local" TV. All 140 of those games would be blacked out on EI. I am not exactly sure how the two ESPN games would be handled - blacked out on EI or not blacked out. However, you could still see them (I believe) on ESPN - possibly even ESNHD in High-Def.

Of the other 20 games, some - all - or none of them may be televised by the opponent's television outlet, so maybe you could see them on EI, maybe not.

For a fan of the local team living in that local area, I just can't justify the expense of EI.

Now, if you're a hardcore baseball fan (as I am of the NFL and an annual subscriber to Sunday Ticket), then it may well be worth your money to be able to see many out of market games.

The big plus of EI may be for the hardcore fan of some team who doesn't live in that market, such as a Mariners fan living in Austin Texas (for some gawd-awful reason! :D ). That's where I see EI being a great bargain.

But local fan in local area - you're losing waaay to many games to blackouts on EI to make it worth the money in my opinion.

I live in Detroit and if the Tigers are on Fox Sports Detroit, they're also on EI. Unless EI decides to use the opposing teams coverage. Then it's Fox Detroit only. Also, the Tigers have 50 games not televised at all this year. That means, we in Detroit can't see them no matter what. Say they're playing the Twins in Minneapolis and EI is carrying the game, it'll be blacked out in Detroit. Even though there's no Detroit coverage, we just can't get the opposing teams coverage. I found that out last year. But there's been many times that a Tiger game or Red Wing game is on Fox Detroit and EI or Center Ice at the same time. If it's on both, I usually watch it on EI or Center Ice just so I can check on other games that may be on without having to punch in numbers, just surf.

[ansky]

Also, the Tigers have 50 games not televised at all this year. That means, we in Detroit can't see them no matter what.
Kind of off topic, but wow, I'm really surprised to read that. That is a lot of games to not televise at all. Do the Tigers just not have a big following in the Detroit area? Seems like FSN (or whatever network) would be missing out on a lot of advertising revenue by not televising those games.

[FLWingNut]

Those 50 games were supposed to be negotiated for free OTA TV, but the team and the station couldn't get together on a deal. For the second year in a row, no Tigers on free TV in Detroit.

[matty8199]

You guys are missing the point of my question...lol.

The Angel game wasn't blacked out on EI, it was just not available.

I'm aware of that, hence my original post where I said "Tonight's Angels/Mariners game was on FSN NW, but not Extra Innings."

My question was / is - if I'm spending the extra money for EI, why was that game not made available to me on FSN NW? It's beyond my control that EI chose not to include it, why should I be penalized for that when I'm paying for both EI and sports pack?

[KyL416]

Tonight's Angels/Mariners game was on FSN NW, but not Extra Innings. Since we are getting a free preview of EI, I assumed I'd be able to watch the game on FSN NW (since all of the other EI games are opened up on their RSN channels). No such luck - the game is blacked out. This leads me to two questions...

1) If I were paying for EI, would I be able to see this game or would it still be blacked out?

2) If it would still be blacked out, what's the point to that? I'm paying the extra money for EI, why not open all games up?
The only RSNs that get "opened up" are the ones that have the feeds they'll be using for channels 734-49. The opposing team's RSN that is not being used for EI will have the "not available in your area" message if you don't live in that RSN's territory. You're better off looking for the game in that channel range than browsing various RSN's for the game. If you can't find the game in that range or on the Sports Schedule channels, it won't be available on Extra Innings.

As for the Angels/Mariners game from last night, for some reason it wasn't available on Extra Innings for both D* and Sports iN Demand. Not sure about E* though. Basically, if the game isn't being carried on Extra Innings, it won't be opened up on the RSNs either. Sports Pack only gives you access to the other programming on the various RSNs, it doesn't mean you automatically get every team's feed no matter if it's being carried are not on EI once you subscribe to Extra Innings. BTW, MLB controls which games are available on EI.

[Edmund]

You guys are missing the point of my question...lol.



I'm aware of that, hence my original post where I said "Tonight's Angels/Mariners game was on FSN NW, but not Extra Innings."

My question was / is - if I'm spending the extra money for EI, why was that game not made available to me on FSN NW? It's beyond my control that EI chose not to include it, why should I be penalized for that when I'm paying for both EI and sports pack?

Looking over FSN NW schedule in the guide the only Angel game to show up was on Mon. Perhaps you want too far back in the guide?

[dodge boy]

A little off topic but D* really confuses blackout rules. I live in Ohio and my local fox affiliate can't get it's signal to D*. So they signed a blank waiver to all the subs in my local and we get fox 5 NY. Cool one more game for me to choose from on Sunday (NFL). Well a friend of mine gets NFLST and no locals, they black out the N.Y. game because it's supposedly on our local channel, but the game on our fox OTA affiliate isn't blacked out........ Just thought that was odd. Just another note, I use my O.T.A. for local games as they are "live" and Directv has a 4 second delay.

[matty8199]

Looking over FSN NW schedule in the guide the only Angel game to show up was on Mon. Perhaps you want too far back in the guide?

The EPG doesn't go back past what's current!

[ansky]

Also, I don't think Extra Innings guarantees that every game will be shown. Don't they advertise that "up to 30 games a week" will be shown?

[muledoggie]

I subscribed to EI a couple of years ago because I was tired of seeing one Rangers game per week (at most) on my sports pack.

I ended up feeling it was not worth it, though, because you would see a game in the schedule but never be sure whether or not the game would be blacked out until game time. I ended up with roughly 1/4 to 1/3 of the games blacked out (Yankees and Mariners games seemed to be mostly blacked out, fyi).

My understanding is that different MLB teams have contracts with various "regional" or even "local" networks. These contracts effect which games come on EI.

Not knowing about blackouts ahead of time ruins the whole value of EI, to me. Also not knowing how many games I would be getting with the EI sub sucked.

I blame MLB for this, BTW.

Why can't MLB just do like the NBA and NFL so people can follow their teams?

Jeff

Go Mavs, Stars, Cowboys, and Rangers!!

[jrbdmb]

A little off topic but D* really confuses blackout rules. I live in Ohio and my local fox affiliate can't get it's signal to D*. So they signed a blank waiver to all the subs in my local and we get fox 5 NY. Cool one more game for me to choose from on Sunday (NFL). Well a friend of mine gets NFLST and no locals, they black out the N.Y. game because it's supposedly on our local channel, but the game on our fox OTA affiliate isn't blacked out........ Just thought that was odd. Just another note, I use my O.T.A. for local games as they are "live" and Directv has a 4 second delay.My understanding is that DirecTV purposely blacks out out NFL football on distant network stations (like your NYC Fox). This would appear to be to push NFL Sunday Ticket. (Dish Network does not black out NFL games on its distant FOX and CBS stations.)

[DCSholtis]

Nope I get Fox 5 too as Im in the same O&O (Cleveland) and Ive never had an NFL game blacked out on Fox 5. Granted 99% of the time the Fox 5 game will be the SAME game as the one shown on our local here in the Cleveland DMA. No real difference.