No More Pirates

Posters lash out at you? I'm shocked! :eek2: In actuality, it's more like them having a difference of opinion.

 

Iowa is in the same boat as Las Vegas. See my signature for the MLB teams I receive in the Xtra package and if I was a sports pack subscriber, I would additionaly have both the Twins and Brewers.

 

Ok, I'm kind of confused now. I thought the original post was that they were dropping Root as his RSN, but it appears that even if he buys the extra or premiere or sports pack, he still won't get the Pirates on Root. I don't get why it's not available.

 

You have to see it through the eyes of Root. They receive a few cents on the dollar for the rebroadcast of their channel to out of market areas minus protected content by sports leagues. In market, they have premium rates for content. If a provider shrinks the in market they are willing to pay for premium content, then Root is not allowing for content to be delivered by any means without recompense. They love this discussion if it proves to put pressure on Directv by customers moving to cable companies with the content.

 

One of the most idiotic parts about this whole situation (of which there are many) is that Directv owns Root, in fact the legal name of Root Sports is Directv Sports Network.

 

Well I bet the local cable company has more local rsn's they provide so you could always cancel Directv and go to cable if your local cable company is good. I would have cable if blue ridge cable in my area had something similar to Genie.

 

The issue in the OP is plain stupidity. Blacking out a baseball fan via MLB EI because he lives near Pittsburgh but then telling him that he is also blacked out of Roots Sports because he lives to far from Pittsburgh is contradictory to a sports league actually wanting fans.

Not that this will help, but I would contact MLB and let them know about this. This decision is plain stupid and has absolutely no reason to exist. I would also contact Roots Sports and the Pirates directly. Something needs to be done about this. I thought MLB's Bob Dupay was 'supposedly' fixing these blackout issues a few years back.

 

see what I mean.. the poster stalks me on almost every post..

 

I've been saying for a long time that these companies run as companies within companies. They buy and sell from each other. I think this is evidence.

 

tell it to people in the law suit.

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/lawsui...kout-policy-allowed-to-proceed-015544096.html

 

This is just not an MLB issue. I live in NE Maryland and I am considered part of the Baltimore market. Directv, Dish and even Comcast offer CSN Mid Atlantic as my local RSN. The Philadelphia Flyers claim my county as their territory even though it is impossible to see their games via CSN Philly (not offered by any provider) and they blackout their games from NHL Center Ice.

While I can understand a blackout of a national feed or non-local feed if the game is available via a local network, but if the local feed is not offered/available in a particular market then why black the game out. The blackout rules sports leagues enforce makes no sense.

 

I received the same e-mail from DirecTV and am a die-hard fan of the Pirates. I contacted the Pirates and MLB. We'll see what they have to say.

It just seems idiotic to not allow a fan some method to watch their favorite teams games. I would be willing to pay for a premium service to watch the games, but at this point can only watch the Pirates when they are on against the Cubs (10 games), the Nats (6 games) or on MLB Network (5 games) or Fox (6 games).

At most I will be able to watch 27 out of 162 of the Pirates games on TV. Good job DirecTV and MLB!

 

I don't understand why he would be blacked out if he got MLB Extra Inning?

I have a similar situation for the Rangers in Hockey. With my situation in hockey, which seems identical to his in MLB, is I am in the outer ring fo MSG network converage and Directv choose not to pay the extra to include my zipcode as part of MSG's home area. So without CI, I get blacked out of every Rangers game. HOWEVER, if I did get NHL Center ICE, I can still get the Rangers games via either team's feed.

Where I get screwed out of any coverage is when the NHL network covers the Rangers. The NHL network games are NOT part of CI and what happens is the NHL Network says I am in the Rangers home area, so they black me out, but since Directv didn't pay to include MSG as my home are, I get blacked out there too(infortunately for me, the NHL network loves covering the Rangers). What's wierd is I DON'T get blacked out on the NBC Sports network.

This seems like the identical situation. Why would he be also blacked out on EI if he purchased it?

See tho, this is different then with NHL CI. My situation is identical to his with regard to the RSN issue of Directv not paying extra to include me in MSG's home area. However, when I had CI, if CI was using the MSG feed, I was allowed to view it without being blacked out. I was also allowed to see the opposing team's feed. Is this different than how MLB handles their EI package(sounds like it is)?



If the OP wants an answer to how to be able to see your game(via MLB.TV), PM me. It's quite easy actually. It's ashame viewers have to resort to questionable methods, just to be able to see something they are SUPPOSED to be seeing(aka. being in-market). :nono: :nono2:

 

Its different because Pirates games are not available on Extra Innings to him as an "in market" subscriber. See the email from DirecTv in the OP, they clearly state this, and there's people in similar situations with MLB teams throughout the country that can't get teams via sports pack or extra innings.

 

So MLB's EI is different than the NHL's CI package then. See my revision to my post above.

These blackout rules are just senseless. I was reading some statements by MLB on the lawsuit that is happening on the blackouts. MLB says it will hurt the smaller market teams while helping the bigger teams if blackouts are removed.

I don't get that. If you are a fan of the team, you will watch that team over any other... BECAUSE you are a fan of that team. I currently have a choice of viewing the Yankees/Mets/Red Sox(or Cubs even if you includes games on WGN America) in my area. I am a fan of the Yankees, so I watch the Yankees. I'm don't watch the Mets/Red Sox INSTEAD of the Yankees just because they are viewable to me.

I watch my favorite team. That's all people want. I'll be very curious to see where this blackout lawsuit goes, especially of MLB chooses to fight it, as it may require them to divulge things they may not want people to see.

 

Your wishes & desires mean NOTHING to big business monopolies.........

 

The outer ring of MSG dealing with the NHL has some weird rules I don't fully understand, such as some areas getting up to 50 Ranger/Devils games, but no more without Center Ice. As far as I know there isn't a similar situation out there in any sport.

Usually you're either in market and get the games on your local RSN without buying sports pack, or you're out of market and get the games with Extra Innings/Center Ice, or in some cases you're in market, but have to buy sportspack to get the games on the RSN because that RSN is not technically you're "home" rsn. These new situations are cases where people used to be able to buy the sports pack to watch the games for teams that are "in market" but not on the home rsn, but now DirecTV has apparently found some loophole to pay less per subscriber for these "fringe" people, and they can't get the games without either switching their service address, or getting MLB.TV and using a VPN or Proxy Server.

I agree with you on your points against blackouts, people just want to watch their favorite teams. If you want to protect the local ads, then include the local ads on Extra Innings, MLB.TV, mobile devices, etc. Instead, MLB.tv just shows a blue screen, or their own ads.

 

You're right, but blackouts are not good business or good for consumers.

 

Blackouts were barely effective many years ago when owners thought that everyone wanted to go to the games OVER watching it on TV

Now? HD has scared Goodell

 

Doesn't D* own Root Sports? Why would they black out their own product?