Posted on 04/25/2014 4:36:22 PM PDT by MinorityRepublican
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
“Radio only had Yankees games on back in the ‘ole days. Braves were still in Milwaukee at that time.”.
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What are you talking about? In the old days The Braves were in Boston.
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If you live in someplace like Las Vegas, Hawaii, or Iowa, six teams claim you as their territory. Other areas have fewer but still annoying team claims.
That means unless your television provider carries those teams’ home broadcasts, you can’t watch them, not even if you spend $200 on MLB’s Extra Innings cable/sat package or $130 on mlb.tv’s on-line package. ‘National’ broadcasts, like on ESPN or the MLB cable/sat channels, are blacked out for your location too.
By contrast, the NFL only blacks out games within 75 miles of the stadium, and only if they’re not sold out.
How about MLB.Com? Can't you get anything you want?
I'm so old, I still can't wrap my mind around that American League team in New York being called anything other than the Highlanders. :)
I’m in Dallas, have MLB.tv, and cannot watch any Houston game. They are not broadcast up here, and I understand it is difficult to watch their games even in Houston, since they lost their affiliate after the 2012 season. It makes no sense.
Why would I want to watch Houston? Well, if they’re playing a division rival, I’d like to see them on the very off chance they’ll pull off a win against them.
I never heard of The Highlanders.
Learn something every day.
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No.
The idea is that consumers should pressure a local television provider (including cable and sat) to add ‘home’ team network broadcasts to their packages.
There are workarounds either illegal or designed for commercial use like bars rather than individual consumers.
The result (by design) is that teams like the Yankees get the most exposure. The Cubs and Braves aren’t even accessible as they once were.
I think there’s a pixel there for the A’s.
That's not the problem I have living 100 miles from SF and having all but a handful of games televised locally.
I do remember living in the Seattle area and only having about 70% of Mariners games on the TV, but with Dave Niehouse on the radio, nobody cared:)
Right. If you live close enough, the local market will carry more-or-less local home team broadcasts, even if just on the radio. Teams are shrinking broadcast radio coverage, though.
Go out, say, 200 miles from the team, and the fan base isn’t big enough to support picking up the home team network broadcasts. But MLB blacks out that team’s games from sat, cable, and internet anyway, even though those games are otherwise available nationwide. Can’t watch even if you’re willing to pay more.
Worst case is probably Hawaii, which is a 5,000 mile round trip to catch the Dodgers, but matters not to MLB; blackout rules apply in Hawaii. Can’t watch the Dodgers unless local providers pick up home team network broadcasts.
Those in a realistic market area usually have no idea.
If you live in Reno you're not likely to see the Giant covered locally, and MLB won't let you buy it via other means.
That sucks right there.
I guess the best you can do is to find the resident radio affiliate associated with your favorite team, and pipe the coverage in via the internet off their website.
Used to do that, but MLB has cracked down on that too. Still might be worth a try with very small radio stations that carry a team’s broadcasts. They might be automated with programming slipping through.
I should point out for those who might not know that MLB has Gameday Audio. For $20 you can listen on-line to almost every game, either home or away broadcast. Great chance to compare announcers.
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