Astros are in NYC tonight. Game is on TBS, but it's blacked out for us, 1,800 miles away.

Why?

- Are you in the NYC blackout area?
- Is the info in your cable provider / streaming provider set up to have your home location around houston or in the houston blackout area?

EastCoastAgNc said:

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- Are you in the NYC blackout area?
- Is the info in your cable provider / streaming provider set up to have your home location around houston or in the houston blackout area?

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No, I'm in Central Texas. Hence the 1,800 miles away reference. I can stream it through Fubo, but why is it blacked out for viewers 2,000 miles away?

I don't know the specifics for the Astros, but generally speaking the RSNs paid a lot of money to have exclusive rights within a certain area. The RSNs don't want to pay all that money and then have you watch the game on some other channel. Or have you buy the MLB.tv plan and then not watch it on their channel.

Blackout rules apply to the regions of both trans playing, not just the home team. Also the blackout areas for national games are probably larger than the regional ones

But if a game is on Fox TV or ESPN you can watch it anywhere. Makes no sense.

Martin Cash said:

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But if a game is on Fox TV or ESPN you can watch it anywhere. Makes no sense.

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ESPN yes. Fox, not really. They usually run 2 games on Saturday nights at the same time. Some parts of the country get it, others don't. The key factor with those two networks is there is no competing RSN broadcast.

Basically someone gets paid to come up with ways to make games harder to watch, then they hire one of their friends as a consultant to come up with reasons people aren't waching games

I did not understand a few weeks ago why I could not stream the Cubs game when they played the Astros. I am in the DFW area. Shouldn't I only get blacked out against any game they play the Rangers?

10andBOUNCE said:

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I did not understand a few weeks ago why I could not stream the Cubs game when they played the Astros. I am in the DFW area. Shouldn't I only get blacked out against any game they play the Rangers?

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The blackout regions can get really insane.

If you live in Des Moines, Iowa you are blacked out from Cubs, Royals, Cardinals, Twins, White Sox, and Brewers. Which means you can be blocked out from 12 teams and 6 different games assuming they are all playing opponents outside the six.

If you live in Anchorage, Alaska you are blacked out from Mariner games despite being almost 1,500 miles away.

Edit: Hawaii looks to be blacked out from Angels, Dodgers, Athletics, Padres, and Giants.

The blackout rules aren't meant to get you to go to the game, they are meant to get you to use the cable service. In reality, all it does is make people mad. I think everyone can see it's a bad deal for MLB except MLB.

I don't think any visual representation can reflect MLB's insane blackout rules.

People in Iowa can't watch the Royals.

Or the Cubs.

Or the White Sox.

Or the Twins.

Or the Cardinals.

Or the Brewers.

MLB surely hopes they will all become diehard Diamondbacks fans any day now.

AustinAg2K said:

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The blackout rules aren't meant to get you to go to the game, they are meant to get you to use the cable service. In reality, all it does is make people mad. I think everyone can see it's a bad deal for MLB except MLB.

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It's especially infuriating because the Royals singed a crappy deal with Bally Sports which in not available on any of the National TV streaming providers and only the local Spectrum TV service. Oh, you can buy the Bally Sports ap for $19.99/mo…. Which is about the same as the MLB TV service.

Just get a VPN on your tablet or if possible your router and stream whatever you want if you have MLB TV (got it free thru T Mobile).

MLB are complete idiots

Maybe they are blacked out because no one like a team that keeps on cheating.