I live in Michigan, so the Lions are always shown on TV when they’re playing. But why do they “blackout” the other football channel (in today’s case, FOX) when they play home games?
It’s an annoying practice because I, for one, am not a Lions fan. They’re not a fun team to watch, and their games are usually meaningless, so when the Lions game is the only one on TV, I’m pretty upset. So please, tell me there’s a good reason that I can’t watch Dallas vs. Washington right now.
Why? Well, because that’s the way the rules are set up. The NFL believes that if you have too many games on TV to watch you won’t drive down to Ford Field to watch your not-so-beloved Lions play in person. So you only get one game per network. One game on Fox and one on CBS and in different time slots.
When the Lions are on the road, you will get two games from the network that is entitled to show them.
Could be worse, you could be in the Houston or San Francisco home market.
It could be WAY worse, given that if you live in the Bay Area, you are within the home territory of not one, but TWO local teams. So you almost always get screwed out of extra games.
I recall from living in Northern California that there were people in the East Bay area who would go to great lengths to try and pull in the Sacramento and/or Stockton television channels so that they could avoid the affects of the home games on the doubleheaders.
Quick follow-up:
Is there any way besides NFL Sunday Ticket to watch any game that I desire?
Visit a sports bar and use their Sunday Ticket subscription?
Quick answer…nope. And Sunday Ticket follows the same blackout rules that the network broadcasts do as well. They know where you live!
And yes, living in the Bay Area makes for painful Sundays. At 10am this morning the only game on was Jacksonville-SF. At 1pm the only game was Cincinnati-Detroit (because Oakland was blacked out). Joy. On the bright side, I was able to clear off my DVR.
Hey, if anybody in LA wants a football team, you can have your pick…
Moved to CS.
-xash
General Questions Moderator
No. It really pissed me off when the NFL re-upped with DirecTV only when the cable broadcasters wanted Sunday Ticket as well. I’m sure the NFL ran the numbers, but god there would be millions of subscriptions on cable.
I believe it’s this way for at least two more years.
I can top that - though I do get a double-header on one network each week. But try living in Connecticut, where you are automatically assumed to be a Jets, Giants or Pats fan. Meaning that you always get their games, and they will never break away from them, even if they’re blowouts. You’re stuck watching the Jets lose by 30 down to the final seconds, even if there are two other very close, important games coming down to the wire.