Regional programming (AKA ESPN vs. Cable co.) Who decides which game to show?

Factual Questions
1

So my dad is watching the Atlanta Braves in their opening baseball game on ESPN2. In the middle of the 8th inning, with the Braves up by 3 and the LA Dodgers at bat with 2 men on base and 2 outs, the announcer says that they’re now going to the San Francisco/San Diego game that’s just starting. Now, we live in SC, but we’re only a couple hours away from Atlanta; closer to Atlanta than about half of Georgia. There are a lot of Braves fans in this area; far more than fans of all California teams combined.

My dad calls the cable company to express his outrage, referencing “The Heidi Incident” several times. I believe that his outrage is misdirected, and the cable company (henceforth referred to as “CC”) agrees and redirects him to ESPN, where my dad gets a recording. My dad believes that if this same thing happened in Atlanta, then the local CCs/ESPN will be getting millions of similar outrage calls.
1.) Was this the local CC’s call, or was it ESPN’s?

2.) Does ESPN give different feeds to different areas of the country?

3.) If so, does ESPN choose where to send what feed, or do they send them all and let the local CC’s choose which to air?

4.) Is it possible that ESPN had 2 or more feeds of the Braves game: 1 that cut to the SF/SD game, and another that didn’t?

5.) (for those in the Atlanta area) Was the game on ESPN2, and if so, did it also cut out there?

2

I think you’re dad’s rage is best directed towards the cable company. If you had satellite, you’d find a set of “ESPN Alternate” channels along with the standard set of ESPN channels…that’s where the Braves game got shifted to. It’s the cable company’s call if they want to stay with the game that’s shifting from main ESPN channel to one of the alternates if the game being switched has local interest. I would think that ESPN likely sends out alerts to cable company’s somehow when situations like this are likely to arise and the cable company should have had someone “on the switch”.

It is rather weird that they switched to the start of the Giants/Padres game though. Must have been some agreement with MLB to air that game in its entireity on ESPN2 and no such agreement to air the entireity of the Braves/Dodgers game.