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tcatdbs
I turned to ESPN last night and nothing there but "this programming is blacked out in your area"... I've never seen that before, don't they usually show another game if the local game is blacked out? I've only had Dish a week, so I don't know any better.
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Taco Lover
No, they don't. :)

I ran into this problem with SF Giants games. The game was showing in HD on ESPN, and SD on our RSN, so because of the blackout I was forced to watch the SD feed. It makes plenty people mad, but thems the rules.
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Jim5506
MLB makes the rules.

The game was on FSNSW and since we are in the FSNSW area, they blacked it out on ESPN.
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Albie
Because of the arcane MLB rebroadcast rules, ESPN was blacked out as MLB says your RSN of Fox Sports Southwest (Based on your location of Austin) has the rights to broadcast in Texas and believe it or not here in Louisiana (I got the same message here in New Orleans).

Taco Lover I feel for you, at least FSN Southwest had the Yanks/Rangers in HD
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dennispap
Albie said:
Because of the arcane MLB rebroadcast rules, ESPN was blacked out as MLB says your RSN of Fox Sports Southwest (Based on your location of Austin) has the rights to broadcast in Texas and believe it or not here in Louisiana (I got the same message here in New Orleans).

Taco Lover I feel for you, at least FSN Southwest had the Yanks/Rangers in HD
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I am in the new orleans market and last night on espn i watched the Saints game. Dont know why you got a blacked out message???:confused:
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Albie
dennispap said:
I am in the new orleans market and last night on espn i watched the Saints game. Dont know why you got a blacked out message???:confused:
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You're right, it was Wednesday night. :grin:
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T
Sometimes if the game they're showing nationally is blacked out in your area they'll show something else on one of the "alternate" channels which are on 141 or 145.
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Taco Lover
Albie said:
Taco Lover I feel for you, at least FSN Southwest had the Yanks/Rangers in HD
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Now that my RSN is in HD, it doesn't matter any longer. :)
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B
Some good news on the horizon for those stupid MLB blackout rules?:

http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news;_y...F?slug=jp-blackouts080708&prov=yhoo&type=lgns
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epokopac
bruin95 said:
Some good news on the horizon for those stupid MLB blackout rules?:

http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news;_y...F?slug=jp-blackouts080708&prov=yhoo&type=lgns
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Keep your fingers crossed. Hope this would apply to the Multi Sports Pack since MLB EI and The Baseball Channel won't be on E* until 2014 (if at all). MLB.tv is not an option for me. I prefer to watch movies or sports on a television, NOT on a PC.
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James Long
It looks more focused on the EI offering (preventing a local team from blocking distant coverage). Blackout rules don't make a lot of sense ... especially when the channel being blocked out is owned by the same people as the channel doing the blocking. Nobody wins.
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FTA Michael
tcatdbs said:
I turned to ESPN last night and nothing there but "this programming is blacked out in your area"... I've never seen that before, don't they usually show another game if the local game is blacked out?
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Years ago, ESPN would usually have another Alternate MLB game available for blacked-out markets. Back then, one of the advantages of having Dish was that I could choose between the national MLB game on ESPN or the alternate.

I heard that they stopped doing it (last season?) as a cost-cutting measure. :(
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S
The origninal contract between ESPN and MLB provided for them always producing a secondary game, except for Sunday nights where ESPN had nationwide rights.

It worked like this, say the main ESPN game was the Tigers @ Yankees. ESPN would produce a second game, say Reds @ Marlins.

On cable, whatever channel was ESPN would have Tigers @ Yankees, except in the Detroit and New York markets, where a tech at the cable headend would have switched to a different feed and thus have Reds @ Marlins.

But on DBS, it had to work differently, and better. On the main ESPN channel (206 on DirecTV) everybody except people in the NY and DET markets would get the Tigers @ Yankees, and everybody except people in the Cincy and Miami markets would ALSO get the Reds @ Marlins and that alt channel (210).

This meant, and the DBS companies never publicized this great advantage, that DBS customers got almost twice as much baseball.

Starting, IIRC, with the 2006 season, ESPN quit the practice of alt games. Now, on cable, people in the home markets of the game just get switched to ESPNews. On DBS, since customers already have ESPNews, you just get a blank screen.
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Wrister17
dennispap said:
I am in the new orleans market and last night on espn i watched the Saints game. Dont know why you got a blacked out message???:confused:
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Thats because the NFL game was a national game. there were no new orleans or arizona local channels or RSNs broadcasting the game. plain and simple, there was only 1 channel and 1 channel only to show the NO/ARI game and that was ESPN. in that situation everyone wins. the game that the OP was talking about was a REGIONAL weds night game. meaning the game is shown on ESPN, but the RSNs and/or local TV stations have the first right to the game. anyone in that DMA will not get the game on ESPN. its ESPNs right to show an alternate feed for those people if they wish, but its not necessary for them to do so. the blackout rules arent really as complicated as people make them out to be. your local RSN and or OTA will always have the right first and foremost. after that comes ESPN or HDNET or any other provider. unless its an exclusive game shown on a national carrier, you will always have people getting blacked out.
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dennispap
Wrister17 said:
Thats because the NFL game was a national game. there were no new orleans or arizona local channels or RSNs broadcasting the game. plain and simple, there was only 1 channel and 1 channel only to show the NO/ARI game and that was ESPN. in that situation everyone wins. the game that the OP was talking about was a REGIONAL weds night game. meaning the game is shown on ESPN, but the RSNs and/or local TV stations have the first right to the game. anyone in that DMA will not get the game on ESPN. its ESPNs right to show an alternate feed for those people if they wish, but its not necessary for them to do so. the blackout rules arent really as complicated as people make them out to be. your local RSN and or OTA will always have the right first and foremost. after that comes ESPN or HDNET or any other provider. unless its an exclusive game shown on a national carrier, you will always have people getting blacked out.
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Actually that is not true. The new orleans nbc affiliate also showed the saints game.
And for regular season nfl games, the 2 teams playing will always be shown on one of their local network channels. Even if it is a natl game. ON monday nite games on espn the 2 teams playing will also be shown on 1 of their local channels
as to not leave out the local people without cable/satellite.
I figured he was talking about wed 's game not thursday as he posted
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Jim5506
NFL and MLB have different blackout rules.

I believe the NFL blackout (during the regular season) is based on whether the game is sold out so many days prior to the game, whereas the MLB rules are dependent on nothing - if a local outlet has the game, the national one is blacked out except for the Sunday and Wednesday games.

The MLB blackout rules are from the 1960's - MLB, join the 21st Century.
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homeskillet
The NFL rule is...

The game must be sold out 72 hours prior to kickoff, or that game is blacked out for a 75 mile radius of the stadium. The NFL can flex a little bit at the request of the club on the 72 hour deadline.
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T
tcatdbs said:
I turned to ESPN last night and nothing there but "this programming is blacked out in your area"... I've never seen that before, don't they usually show another game if the local game is blacked out? I've only had Dish a week, so I don't know any better.
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I just block the ESPN channels.... No problems here!:D
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