Who makes the blackout rules?!?

[TrueBeliever]

Alright, up front I'll tell you I'm not much of a baseball fan, thus I don't post in this forum. Once in a while each season, however, I do decide to try watching a game or two... which is usually when MLB goes out of its way to stop me.

This past Saturday I'm channel surfing (I have Direct TV) and I see Fox is showing a Twins home game. So I turn to that channel and there's the game. (Granted, I didn't watch it for very long, but that's not the point right now.)

Then the next day I'm surfing again, and I see Brewers @ Cubs on TBS. Great! Except when I turn it on... blank screen. "This showing not available in your area" the little box says.

So let me get this straight. I live 2.5 hours away from the Twin Cities, and their game is on TV at my house. I live 4.5 hours away from Milwaukee, but their games aren't on TV at my house, even when they're in Chicago? Who the hell came up with this strategy?

Granted, since then I've been told that usually when a Brewers game is blacked out on one of my channels, that means it's on one of the regional channels elsewhere in my line-up. Tonight as I write this I actually went and dug around and found it in the mid-600s. But that's not the point. The point is, why does MLB insist on making their sport so hard to watch on TV???

And this is nothing new. I remember back in '98, when the Brewers switched from the AL to the NL and I actually got interested in them again, one night I thought I'd put on a Brewers/Braves game... and it was blacked out. And no it wasn't on any other channel, I checked. (This was back when I had cable.)

That's one thing I love about the NFL. I NEVER have to worry about a game being blacked out no matter where it's played or whether it's sold out. Geez Louise.

 

[efin98]

ESPN has been doing it for years with non-Sunday Night home and away games but TBS used to only black out the home games, away games were shown in full.

It's the current deal, MLB had it put in to "protect" the local broadcaster's viewership...

 

[jmt57]

That's one thing I love about the NFL. I NEVER have to worry about a game being blacked out no matter where it's played or whether it's sold out. Geez Louise.

I don't think that's entirely true; the NFL blacks out games in a local market if it's not sold out. At least baseball doesn't adhere to that policy; if they did a lot of MLB fans around the country would never see a home game on TV.

 

[TrueBeliever]

Well technically what I meant is I personally never have to worry about a game being blacked out, because Green Bay is always sold out and I'm too far from any other NFL cities to have their games blacked out. (Even if GB wasn't sold out, I think the rule only extends for, what, 50 miles?)

Actually if you want to get really technical, any afternoon games that are on my local affiliate will be blacked out on the Sunday Ticket channel they would otherwise be on.

Anyway, my point is that I don't understand why I have to go digging all over to watch a Brewer game when they're my "local" team.

 

[Synovia]

The point is, why does MLB insist on making their sport so hard to watch on TV???:

MLB doesn't give a ****. The TV channels insist on it. They don't want to pay for a game and have you watch it elsewhere.