But no one mentioned “East Coast Bias” until you complained about the snark. The post that you thought was over the line was this:
So, you complained that the phrase “insert sarcasm” was snark. Like I said, I’m a Sox fan myself so I’ve seen what you complain about but your trigger is set a bit too sensitive. That was an extremely mild comment about the fact that ESPN shows more RS and Yankees games than any other teams. And it was on topic for this thread.
Why can’t *ESPN *air an alternate game? Because any game they choose to air for their national broadcast will be a duplicate of some local broadcast.
Why can’t they air a different game only in Braves/Red Sox markets, so that fans in New England get two games to choose from? Well, for one thing, putting together a second broadcast would double their expenses and barely increase their gross income on the night. For another, I’d speculate that their contract with MLB dictates that they get to pick one game and one game only for their national broadcasts.
And no one was threadshitting or being snarky. You’re weird.
Didn’t you just flounce out of here a few weeks ago? How long did that last, ten days or so?
This is a warning for you, do not call other posters names in this forum.
You’re starting to building warnings up, so the mods are going to be discussing your future posting privileges.
If I may turn things back on topic, MLB’s rules for blackouts/protected markets are simply ridiculous. Particularly once you get out of the major-market cities.
You see, it makes some sense to me for an ESPN Red Sox game being blacked out in the Boston/NESN area. NESN has the local rights, last thing they want is a competing broadcast on ESPN. Got it. Well, I live in Iowa, which has zero MLB teams actually based in the state. Any idea on how many teams get to claim the entire state as protected territory? Any guesses? Three? Four?
Try six. That’s right, six freakin’ MLB teams get to exert blackout rights over the entire state of Iowa. The Cubs, the White Sox, the Cardinals, the Brewers, the Royals, and the Twins. Now, in my area (eastern Iowa) the Cubs and White Sox home cable broadcasts are fairly ubiquitous … you won’t miss many Chicago baseball games. The others … not so much. They get blacked out if they’re scheduled for a national ESPN broadcast, even though we have no non-satellite way of receiving a Royals, Twins, or Brewers game on TV (or even the Cardinals, at least around here).
Ticks me right off, it does. I understand exerting your blackout rights in your local market with your local telecast, but it’s just baffling for six teams to hold the entire state when we can only see local telecasts for two or three of those teams. Maybe I want to beat myself up and watch the Twins or the Royals once in a while, you know?
Is that just for mlb.tv broadcasts? I know that system is archaic.
Stop threadshitting. [/channeling the OP]
Not just the mlb.tv broadcasts, although yes, those do apply. It’s pointless for me to pony up the money for mlb.tv, because every game featuring a Midwest team gets blacked out on there.
What I’m talking about are ESPN/national cable games other than the Sunday night/Saturday afternoon “nationwide” deals. If ESPN has a Cardinals or Twins or Royals game, and it’s not an exclusive game slot (other teams are playing at the same time, especially those Chicago teams) … I will have ESPN News playing on my ESPN channel, because they are forced to black it out. Like I said, I have no problem with protecting local broadcasts in those teams’ broadcast area … but reserving the entire state for six different teams (only maybe two of which you can count on actually seeing on your TV) seems excessive to the extreme.
How is it possible that in Iowa you are being blacked out of Cardinals games? Aren’t blackouts distance-based?
And if not…why the hell not? It should be determined by (insert someone from the FCC here) that from the a home game’s location a reasonable driving distance time in all directions should be blacked out. Otherwise let em televise
As a Braves fan, I wish that whole damn series was blacked out in my area. I wouldn’t have had to witness the Barves playing like it was spring training.
You got me, man. It should at least have some connection to whether you not you actually have some access to a team’s locally based broadcasts. Instead, it appears MLB let each team decide individually what areas they wanted to declare as “protected,” and these six all chose Iowa. Lucky us.
To be clear, I am not talking about attendance-based blackouts, like in the NFL, or any kind of blackout of a team’s locally originated broadcast. A TV station in this area used to pick up Cardinals games on Sundays, as part of the Cards’ regional network. Those games were fine. Likewise the White Sox and Cubs on Comcast, carried on our local cable systems. What I mean is any national network telecast - of ANY of those six teams - that is in conflict with any locally originated broadcast of any other of those teams, that gets blacked out. Regardless of whether or not we actually have access to that local telecast. There have never been Brewer, Royal or Twin games available around here on their regional TV networks, but that doesn’t matter.
And as I mentioned before, this also applies to MLB.tv. If I did pay for the video package, I would not be able to watch any games involving the Cubs, White Sox, Cardinals, Brewers, Royals or Twins, as the protection of their regional networks means their mlb.TV coverage is blacked out here.
Hopefully that makes some sense. It is an archaic, somewhat silly and technologically unaware way of doing business.
Uncle Jocko
Are you saying that you don’t have access to some of these teams at all, or because you don’t subscribe to cable/Satellite?
If there’s no way for you to get these games, I can’t see how there’s a blackout. The reason for the blackout is to protect the local network when they are broadcasting that particular game. The way I understand it is, there is no arbitrary designated area chosen by a team. If it’s possible to get the game locally, then it’s blacked out.
Is that not the case with you?
I believe the reason is that MLB teams protect that area so that they could sell their broadcasting rights to show games in that area. If I start Dale Sports Iowa, a new regional sports network, I can go to the Brewers and negotiate with them to show their games. If I don’t like their deal, I’ll negotiate with the Twins.