They could possible even raise the price if they made the service to where there were no blackout. I don’t know how the economy is going to affect the number of subcribers this year, but I bet it goes down with the same blackout rules.

I received an offer from MLB to subscribe to TV. Living 284 miles south of Wrigley Field and knowing that I’m blacked out, I sent ANOTHER letter of protest. Part of the reply from MLB shocked me:

“After researching the information provided, it has been determined that you are
correctly blacked-out from the team you’ve indicated in accordance with our
existing black-out policy.”

CORRECTLY blacked-out? MLB say that I’m CORRECLTY blacked-out?!?!?! Given the debate that is raging among out-of-town fans that want to watch their teams but can’t, the wording of that comment is simply insulting.

You are right about blackouts to begin with, but the whole point is to protect the local broadcasts. So, it should be based on whether or not you get the games to begin with. For example, in Tallahassee, we are blacked out from the Marlins and Rays — it’s five hours to St. Petersburg and eight to Miami, it’s way too far to be able to go to a game, so that defeats the “if it’s on local TV, you won’t go”… I can’t go anyway.

Also, if I WERE a Rays fan (and I enjoyed watching them every now and then when they started) the games aren’t on TV here locally anyway with regularity, Sun and FS Florida divide up the games rather evenly, and with other things going on during part of the season (NBA/NHL Playoffs, college football) it’s not possible to show every game. So if I’m a Rays fan, I’m upset that not only can I not watch online or on my local TV, I have to go out.

I would understand if its on local TV, they would rather you watch your TV instead of the computer for the ads, but for me (and I’m sure many others), it’s simply not an option.

there are few Royals fans and Twins fans. Not many White Sox fans either. Why the Brewers have Iowa is amazing. Cubs and Cardinals rule Iowa in fan numbers. While this is a mess I do enjoy getting Cubs-White-Sox-Cardinals-Brewers game for free in my middle Dish Network package. What’s even harder to believe is the cable company in Des Moines (Mediacom) does not broadcast Cubs games but travel east to Cedar Rapids and the same company carries the Cubs. They lost a lot of customers to satellite when this happened, including me. This is probably the biggest fiasco I have ever seen in television and broadcast rights to areas must change.

…is all the jobs required to come up with plans such as these. Talk about jobs that are in place to create the illusion of value.

Fire these clowns that come up with this and utilize the same rationale as the NFL, a prescribed radius from the home team’s venue, period.

pulling the strings with some cabal of moronic sports robber barons who won’t give up their arcane rights for the 21st century.. ?

you can’t pull in your team’s games from say, 300 miles away even via satellite (e.g. direcTV, dish network etc)?

I ask because I’m local to Chicagoland and have cable…

Id like to see the Cubs as well as the local teams – dodgers and angels – and Im thinking about going the mlb.com route this year. Of course that means that they will black me out on the local teams. But what if I had a friend/relative that live in lets say New York to signup and I used his login info (tied to his address). Then I’d be blacked out for mets and yankees games ( who cares, except when the cubs play the mets), but do they track the login by IP (which would give relative location) or the physical address on the account? Does anyone know?

MLB.TV has kept me in the loop for Cub games but even then you still have the Saturday afternoon Fox blackout monopoly rules. I just never understood why limiting the number of customers/viewers can be considered a sound business move. This just makes me want to punch Bud Selig in the ear.

there is a work around. it works fine for me, since I am a single guy who watches little to nothing on local channels. You can use a friends or family members address in Chicagoland as your “home” and keep your actual home address as the “mailing bill to” By doing this, you will not be blacked out on Comcast, but you still will not get WCIU or Fox games (unless you have local Fox via rabbit ears or but the cheapest cable package which for me is like $10 a mo. and local Fox picks up the game). This is cheaper than the MLB package, and I get more games, since I am not blacked out on Comcast

and get some definitive fan loyalty numbers. All I know is what my nephew @ Iowa State tells me – LOTS of Cubs fans with an occasional Cardinals tee sighted.

MLB’s blackout policy is nothing short of draconian. I live in Nashville, TN and I cannot see Cubs vs. Reds games unless WGN carries the game. This is because the Reds black out middle Tennessee – no TV stations choose to televise the Reds so Cincinnati chooses to black out the region. This makes absolutely no sense; few people in Tennessee care about some team up in Ohio. The most popular team here is the Braves, who are from a state that actually touches Tennessee. Most of the serious baseball fans I know here HATE the Reds because of the blackout!

MLB Extra Innings subscribers should get ALL of the games and the teams should share in the revenues.

Subtitled: How to Boost BCB’s Iowa Readership

Indianapolis is also in the stupidly blacked out territory. We get screwed out of seeing games on ESPN several times of year. You can get the games on satellite or AT&T Uverse but none of the calbe companies carry CSN. I’d happily pay alot of money if I could see Cubs game on cable.

…so that I would stop obsessing over trades and rumors and what-not and actually get to work on time…

…I was wrong. So here are a few letters.

Dear Bud:

Welcome to 2009. Sticking with a blackout system devised in the ’70’s is kind of like trying to use a CB radio to pick up chicks. REALLY, REALLY DUMB. Also, it makes you — personally — look like even more of a dork than the whole “WS home field advantage for the winner of the All-Star Game” thing. I live in Des Moines, and on any given day, there are up to six games I can’t watch because someone, somewhere, thinks they might lose revenue if I did watch them.

Here’s a clue: people not watching the games leads to more lost revenue than people watching the games. If there’s not a Cubs game on, I’ll watch the Cards play, or the Twins. Or the Sux, if they’re losing or it’s the post-game press conference (Ozzie is great entertainment when he gets fired up). With the economy the way it is, and the whole steroids thing once again turning people in my ge-ge-generation (within view of 30) away from the sport, you might want to reconsider. Or maybe not. If you want everybody to just watch football and Nascar, that’s your call.

Also, as much as you love the Brewers, there are only two fans of that franchise in Des Moines. I laugh at them every time I drive by their house (mostly because of the sad, lonely Brewers flag hanging on a block with three Cubs flags in view). And no one in DSM roots for the Royals (because they suck, not because of any grudge against KC). I just thought you should know.

Gerald
——
Dear Mediacom:

PLEASE STOP BEING HATERS. You carry Comcast as part of the basic package in the Cedar River valley. What makes you think Des Moines has more ties to St. Louis than Chicago? Does anyone at your control center here in town actually watch baseball? Does anyone at your control center actually have a brain? Given everyone I’ve dealt with from your company, I doubt it. So let me spell it out:

DES MOINES HAS MORE CUBS FANS THAN CEDAR RAPIDS. Also, we have some team that has something to do with the Cubs, I think. Or it’s just spelled the same. I’m pretty sure I’ve seen them play ON A FEED FROM YOUR SYSTEM. Kindly remove your collective head from your collective arse and get with the program, before I have to grab one of my bass guitars, drive down to your offices on Ingersoll, and go all Pete Townshend on you.

Also, fix your DNS servers.

Gerald
—
K… I’ll be back in a few days. Yay… baseball is almost here… (but not on Mediacom…) yay!

There are some Brewers fans in the Dubuque area and John Sickels is a great example of a Twins fan from Northern Iowa. I imagine there are probably still Royals fans in the area around Omaha.

But for most of the state, including the big population centers of Des Moines, Cedar Rapids, Waterloo and Davenport, it’s all Cubs and/or Cardinals.

NFL is no better with this sometimes. Exampe, Austin, TX where I live is considered to be Tennessee Titans not Houston for the AFC. Now I am not a fan of either, but it is right on target with MLB.

hardly any, and i mean ANY sox/brewers fans up here along the border where I’m from. To be honest, Twins fans outnumber Cubs fans in this area, which is to be expected, but there is NOTHING more frustrating than tuning into the Fox game of the week to watch the Mets. I’ve already conceded the fact that WGN is slowly fading into oblivion and for now I have to go 10 miles to my sisters to watch any games on Comcast, but then when i think about getting mlb.tv and am also told those Cubs games are blacked out as well…not a happy camper

that there are NO Ranger fans in Louisiana

no teams blocked out there

I have no blackout issues at all ( just high prices for everything else)

Just looking through the map for the most absurd areas —-

Vegas and Iowa are up there, as well as Salt Lake City with two teams, one of which a 12 hour drive.

My favorite is SW Alabama not getting the Braves (makes sense-ish, mostly Braves fans throughout the SE) but also not getting the Rays or Marlins. Like there are tons of Marlins fans in Dothan.

Nine hours from St. Pete. 12 hours from Miami. Cubs games in both cities are blacked out. I heard that the same blackout rules apply even farther west in SW Mississippi!

..to re-work the blackout stuff. Unless they get compensated for it or are convinced they can make more under another structure I don’t see it ever changing. Similar to the BCS, it or something equivalent 9not a playoff) will be around as long as they get paid more under that structure. If there is no monetary incentive to change then there won’t be any change as no single person can come in and change this for MLB—not even Obama.

This map makes no sense. In Arkansas, we are associated with Texas, 4 hours from the house, St. Louis, 6 hours from the house, and Houston, 9 hours from the House? KC is 4 hours away and not even mentioned. My local cable company has a channel dedicated to Cardinal baseball. We don’t even have to watch the MLB package for Cardinal games – they show them on basic cable. I am just glad that the Cubs are considered an “out of market” team and I get them just about every game. I do feel sorry for my neighbor who use to live in Houston and can’t watch the minor league team that plays in a sandlot. Poor guy.

Toronto?

Instead of blacking out the games for the local markets, why not just air the entire broadcast with the commercials that you would see if watching over the air?

The companies that buy the spots would definitely not complain about the added viewers. Mlb.tv would benefit from the additional subscriptions.

Why is this wrong?

and it reminds me of this utterly bizarre test my eye doctor preformed on me to see if my color vision was deteriorating. So on top of having an insane policy of who should be able to consume their product, MLB is now giving me flashbacks. Way to go, MLB.