Why must I pay to watch MLB games for the team in my market?

rogun · ‎12-13-2009

I am tired of not receiving the games for my market's favorite MLB team! I am tired of them being blacked out on nationally televised stations, when I should be receiving them ALL for free on regional channels. This is a great reason for me to switch back to Comcast, where the games were FREE, as they should be on Uverse.

texasguy37 · ‎05-18-2009

It appears that you have posted this before and have been given suggestions.

http://utalk.att.com/t5/TV-Programming/Major-League-Baseball/m-p/206190#M47861

JamesTheName · ‎06-24-2008

Rogun, I sympathize with you and so do many posters on here but, I don't care what service provider you have or had, the only free MLB games you ever got were from your local RSN, ESPN, Fox, WGN, TBS. If you were able to watch any and every game like you say, then you didn't check your bill when you got it because the only way you did get them was if you had MLB Extra Innings and you did pay for it. Only other way is if that provider made a big mistake and turned those channels on when they weren't supposed to.

RCSMG · ‎12-10-2007

If you drop UV and get an antenna, then you can watch local games on your local stations, and when thyere is a blackout you will not have paid anything. And if they are being aired on your local channels or one of the networks you get to watch them for free.

kryptonite · ‎04-10-2009

rogun wrote:
I am tired of not receiving the games for my market's favorite MLB team! I am tired of them being blacked out on nationally televised stations, when I should be receiving them ALL for free on regional channels. This is a great reason for me to switch back to Comcast, where the games were FREE, as they should be on Uverse.

I had Time Warner and I had to pay for the teams in my market. The guy down the street with DirecTV has to pay for those same teams in his market. What exactly are you trying to ask?

You can get the "sports pack" which gives you the out-of-market channels, but any game not in your market, as determined by Major League Baseball will be blacked out.

Datalyss · ‎11-13-2009

I upgraded to U450 so I could watch more baseball and it doesn't make sense that all of the FSN channels are blackout even the ones in the west. I am in zip code 27517 the Raleigh Durham area. What channels should I be receiving that are not blackout. I thought some of them might be blackout but not all of them. I am very disappointed and I will certainly go back to package U200 in a few months or another provider. Why pay for something that you don't even receive. I know you get the movie channels but I had rather have baseball than movies.

paul416 · ‎10-10-2008

I wonder if he is refering to having the national telecast(ESPN) blacked out when his local team is on when it is also showing on a local station? For instance, the Cub game may be on the ESPN Monday Night game but is also on WGN in Chicago. Instead of giving the Chicago viewer the option of watching either telecast, the ESPN feed gets blacked out in Chicago. That is what he might mean.

texasguy37 · ‎05-18-2009

nmckay wrote:

I upgraded to U450 so I could watch more baseball and it doesn't make sense that all of the FSN channels are blackout even the ones in the west. I am in zip code 27517 the Raleigh Durham area. What channels should I be receiving that are not blackout. I thought some of them might be blackout but not all of them. I am very disappointed and I will certainly go back to package U200 in a few months or another provider. Why pay for something that you don't even receive. I know you get the movie channels but I had rather have baseball than movies.

Those are the MLB blackout rules! Games for teams that are not in your market are blacked out on the out of market regional sports networks.

jhibbs1009 · ‎12-28-2008

paul416 wrote:
I wonder if he is refering to having the national telecast(ESPN) blacked out when his local team is on when it is also showing on a local station? For instance, the Cub game may be on the ESPN Monday Night game but is also on WGN in Chicago. Instead of giving the Chicago viewer the option of watching either telecast, the ESPN feed gets blacked out in Chicago. That is what he might mean.

Not sure if that is what he is referring to, but the rest of your statement is accurate. On Monday and Wednesday nights(ESPN), and Sunday afternoons (TBS), if your local market team is on the national broadcast as well as a local network, the national broadcast will be blacked out in that local marked area. The reason for this is to protect the commercial and advertising revenue for the local network. The only games that should never be blacked out are the FOX Saturday afternoon games (although not every market gets the same game) and the ESPN Sunday night Game of the Week, both due to exclusive broadcasting rights for their respective time slots.

Now in the case of the FOX Saturday games, your local networks/RSNs cannot televise a game that starts after 3pm CT or before 6 pm CT. The White Sox ran into this issue last season. They were able to join the game in progress after the exclusive time frame for FOX expired.

cheer · ‎10-20-2007

rogun wrote:
I am tired of not receiving the games for my market's favorite MLB team! I am tired of them being blacked out on nationally televised stations, when I should be receiving them ALL for free on regional channels. This is a great reason for me to switch back to Comcast, where the games were FREE, as they should be on Uverse.

Be specific.

Where do you live? What is your MLB team? What channels are being blacked out, and when?

I would be VERY surprised to find out that games are blacked out on U-Verse but not Comcast. If that's happening, you can get AT&T to fix it.