Sunday Ticket blackouts!?!

[Ryan]

THis thread over at TivoCommunity.com seems to indicate that locally broadcast games are being blacked out on ST in both Seattle and Pittsburgh.

Sunday Ticket Rant (http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?threadid=78093)

Is there any confirmation of this and any reasoning behind it?

[Mike]

It's true. Reason behind it is to protect the games on your local stations. Local stations only want you to watch it there instead of on the Sunday Ticket. Other than that, no comment. :) Look for it to be nationwide next year.

[Ryan]

Yeah, I found the thread over at DBSForums.com .

I should have looked there first, bu I don't visit there too often anymore. Keeping up with all the postings at two sites takes too much time.

Any, it sucks. MMM comes to NFL ST. I see some of the poeple over at TivoCommunity are busy contacting their states atttornies general. I'll consider doing the same since I'm in PA, even though I'm not affected this year.

The AG might need to be involved since this change was implemented without notice.

They obviously have the right to change their operating procedures, but the subs deserve a chance to evaluate their options.

[hockeynut]

I thought the Sunday Ticket blackout rules were based on games being sold out and for zip codes near the stadiums?


Antonio

[Mike]

It may be different next year. It's being test marketed in Pittsburgh and Seattle this year (w/o the Sunday Ticket owners knowing 1st BTW). Whatever games are on the local FOX and CBS channels are blacked out on the Sunday Ticket channels. If the local station switches a game or joins the 2nd game late (whatever station has the DH) due to the 1st game running long then it's still blacked out on the Sunday Ticket channels. You will have to watch all Seahawk and Steelers road games on the local OTA stations if they are OTA for you or on DirecTV/Dish, but not on the Sunday Ticket channels. Next year, this may go nationwide.

[Ryan]

It's a similar system to the NCAA Mega March Madness package, where the game carried locally will be locked out (I like that term from the Tivo forum referring not to your local team, but another game carried locally), while the other games will be viewable in the package.

In the MMM package, DirecTV is supposed to lift the lockout if your local CBS changes games. I figure the NFL will attempt to do the same thing, but DirecTV hasn't handle the basketball thing all that well yet.

You know it's all about money, and who is getting how much of what piece of pie. In the end the viewer is the last consideration. The NFL doesn't want to give up any money from the networks and the affiliates don't want to lose local advertising revenue. The NFL should just give the networks a lower cost and keep the package open with all games to all subs everywhere (unless the local game doesn't sell out, which has it's own issues, but that's another thread!)

[hockeynut]

That sucks... it's the same thing DTV does here in Latin America. Whatever game Fox Sports Latin America shows, DTV doesn't show it on ST. Fox Sports LA was supposed to carry the Fins/Chiefs game a few weeks ago, but they changed their minds and showed some other stuff instead. So no Fins/Chiefs for latin america.

It gets worse too... DTV doesn't have a separate channel for each game, usually they dump the 4 pm games in the first 3 ST channels (usually 342,344 and 346). So any 1 pm that goes on too long on those 3 channels, you're outta luck for the 4 pm games.


Antonio