Fox Regional Sports Networks Block DISH and Sling TV Customers

[CubsWin]

While this doesn't affect the Cubs on NBC Sports Chicago, I am definitely worried about what is going to happen next year when they move to their new Marquee Sports Network. I will be surprised if Dish is willing to pay the price, especially prior to Opening Day.

 

[Tampa8]

So MLB.TV is basically useless since it doesn’t allow you to watch your local teams. I put in my zip and it said Cleveland Indians, Cincinnati Reds, and Pittsburgh Pirates were considered local and would be blacked out. Why would anyone subscribe to a service that doesn’t allow you to watch your local teams. That makes no sense to me.


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If you live in Tampa but are a life long Red Sox fan it makes perfect sense. Same reason SiriusXM is valuable to me beyond music and talk.

You could look online in how to possibly watch your local teams with their service....

 

[JSheridan]

Between stuff like this and Directv’s issue with channels like CBS I am so glad we stream our TV. Never once have I seen an issue with PlayStation Vue.

You will. No service is immune to the continuous price increases.

 

[ncted]

Between stuff like this and Directv’s issue with channels like CBS I am so glad we stream our TV. Never once have I seen an issue with PlayStation Vue.

You must not have any Sinclair stations then:

PlayStation Vue appears to kiss Sinclair goodbye: ‘We were unable to come to terms’

There are other examples as well:

beIN SPORTS returns to PlayStation Vue streaming service - World Soccer Talk

No one is immune.

 

[Radioguy41]

MLB overpays it's players so all prices go up. TV overpays for the rights so they want to force all subs to help pay the bill. Ballpark admission keeps going up so fewer people are willing to, or can afford to, pay the tab. That's not how you build a fan base. Attendance is down for 18 teams this year. Frankly I don't see this continuing indefinitely. At some point low attendance could reach the point where it would affect the continued viability of the ballpark itself.

 

[ChadT41]

MLB overpays it's players so all prices go up. TV overpays for the rights so they want to force all subs to help pay the bill. Ballpark admission keeps going up so fewer people are willing to, or can afford to, pay the tab. That's not how you build a fan base. Attendance is down for 18 teams this year. Frankly I don't see this continuing indefinitely. At some point low attendance could reach the point where it would affect the continued viability of the ballpark itself.

NFL is feeling this hurt also. Wasn’t it the 49’er’s that we’re selling tickets at one point for $2.49?

 

[bobsie]

I lost the ability to view my two favorite baseball teams. Cleveland Indians were on Fox Sports Ohio and Cincinnati Reds were on Fox Sports Cincinnati. Since I own Amazon Prime I tried to subscribe to MLB.TV since the first 30 days is free. Unfortunately, I received the message that the Cleveland Indians at Kansas City Royals is unavailable due to MLB.TV Blackout Restrictions. I don’t understand why it would be blacked out for me in Plain City, Ohio since the game is in Kansas City.

I also subscribe to MLB.TV via Amazon Prime Video. Since the Cleveland Indians are my favorite team (since I was 5 -- I'm now 74), I can watch all their games using either the home broadcast or the away broadcast (my choice -- guess which I always choose - the Fox Sports Ohio version of course). I usually do so after the game has completed using the "recently completed" games option. However, when the Indians play the Detroit Tigers (I live in Alpena, MI), my games on Fox Sports Ohio are also blacked-out even though its a 6-hour trip by car from here to Detroit and much further to Cleveland. But a disclaimer shows that the game can be viewed 90 minutes after the game is completed (if only they would say when it completed or the time it can be viewed). I seldom watch any of the games live because I can't skip through the commercial breaks, pause the game or rewind to a previous point with the live game. And if the game is in Detroit or if Detroit is playing in Cleveland, the live game is completely blacked out locally because of Fox Sport Detroit. So, I can watch the game on that channel but I hate hearing how great the Tigers are throughout the game and very little about the Indians.

The Amazon Prime Video version of MLB.TV does not show scores before (or during playback) so there are no spoiler alerts. I actually prefer MLB.TV's "At Bat" app because it allows viewing current and wildcard standings, viewing clips of key moments of a game, seeing scores of all teams and browsing the schedule forward and backwards with scores of games already played or any games completed currently (which can be optionally turned off). I plan on cancelling the Amazon version and going with MLB.TV itself when my Amazon monthly payment is due next. By the way, both the Amazon's version and MLB.TV's version cost the same ($24.99/monthly).

The bottom line is, the games are not completely blacked-out, just during the live game + 90 minutes.

 

[Joe h]

Unfortunately this isn’t a fight dish will win, live sports are literally the only reason I still subscribe to a cable/satellite operator. I can maybe go one or two weeks, and then Comcast is getting a call.

 

[zippyfrog]

While this doesn't affect the Cubs on NBC Sports Chicago, I am definitely worried about what is going to happen next year when they move to their new Marquee Sports Network. I will be surprised if Dish is willing to pay the price, especially prior to Opening Day.

I am also concerned about NBC Sports Chicago being renewed...

 

[ncted]

Unfortunately this isn’t a fight dish will win, live sports are literally the only reason I still subscribe to a cable/satellite operator. I can maybe go one or two weeks, and then Comcast is getting a call.

And when Comcast won't pay the pound of flesh that Fox Sports wants?

 

[nelson61]

Unfortunately this isn’t a fight dish will win, live sports are literally the only reason I still subscribe to a cable/satellite operator. I can maybe go one or two weeks, and then Comcast is getting a call.

Quite the opposite.

Dish has said in earlier years that only 20 percent of subscribers watch sports and some day they might walk away from the everyone pays model.

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using the SatelliteGuys app!

 

[dish network thieves]

I'm so sick of this company. I should've never left DirecTV back in 2013 and have no other choice now.


What I don't understand is why some of you who live in an area with broadband are wasting your $ using Dish or any other satellite? I simply don't understand it at all. That's like having a fancy and reliable vehicle sitting in your garage and driving around an old beater that's constantly breaking down instead.

 

[ChadT41]

I'm so sick of this company. I should've never left DirecTV back in 2013 and have no other choice now.


What I don't understand is why some of you who live in an area with broadband are wasting your $ using Dish or any other satellite? I simply don't understand it at all. That's like having a fancy and reliable vehicle sitting in your garage and driving around an old beater that's constantly breaking down instead.

Quite easy... I have tried streaming and hate it. I prefer traditional TV for many reasons, and Dish has everything I need. I prefer to supplement my TV viewing with streaming, not make it my main point of delivery.

 

[Tampa8]

I see the difference of opinion. Yes, live sports is different than most other programming and people have stayed with traditional pay programming to get their RSN's. But as Nelson61 says it may be the percentage or amount of viewers who do so are not as much as you would think.
The caveat? If even one person in the household wants their RSN it likely doesn't matter if the other five don't care.

In the end I think DISH needs these RSN's, but that is of course without having hard figures that DISH has.

 

[Tampa8]

I'm so sick of this company. I should've never left DirecTV back in 2013 and have no other choice now.


What I don't understand is why some of you who live in an area with broadband are wasting your $ using Dish or any other satellite? I simply don't understand it at all. That's like having a fancy and reliable vehicle sitting in your garage and driving around an old beater that's constantly breaking down instead.

Of course you have a choice unless DISH has a special contract with you where they literally come and hold you hostage. (No Claude remarks allowed. )
And my old beater DISH is much more reliable than streaming at either of the places I live where in Winter, from car accidents, and wind storms etc we lose cable on a semi-regular basis. I virtually never lose the DISH signal and if so maybe two minutes in a storm with a thick storm head. These disputes happen with everyone and that includes streaming services and will probably happen more. Further many of the disputes only affect some subscribers. I haven't lost anything in Tampa, and lost CBS for now in Ct. For what gets watched on CBS, mostly my Wife's soap opera she can binge watch free online. (Which points out why btrw DISH balks at high prices)

 

[PortlandChris]

That's an option, but streaming has it's issues. Local availability, plus bandwidth caps play into this. This summer we tried some of these and with Netflix and the others we are hitting our bandwidth caps.

Between stuff like this and Directv’s issue with channels like CBS I am so glad we stream our TV. Never once have I seen an issue with PlayStation Vue.

 

[zippyfrog]

That's an option, but streaming has it's issues. Local availability, plus bandwidth caps play into this. This summer we tried some of these and with Netflix and the others we are hitting our bandwidth caps.

Agreed 100%. And for the biggest sporting events, streaming just isn't there yet. And I don't know how they are going to work out the fact that there is a 30-45 second delay from the TV broadcast. I tried streaming a couple of sporting events from NBC Sports Chicago when I had a free week trial of Playstation Vue, and the final notification came through on my phone before it was done on TV. Usually the notification is about 10-15 seconds after what I see on Dish.

 

[JSheridan]

I'm so sick of this company. I should've never left DirecTV back in 2013 and have no other choice now.


What I don't understand is why some of you who live in an area with broadband are wasting your $ using Dish or any other satellite? I simply don't understand it at all. That's like having a fancy and reliable vehicle sitting in your garage and driving around an old beater that's constantly breaking down instead.

Please, go back to DirecTV!!! It won't be very long at all before you're whining about them too. Currently they have no CBS owned and operated channels, no Smithsonian, no Nexstar channels in 90 some markets, etc., etc.

And streaming doesn't do it for most people who just want to watch TV and have a good DVR experience with no commercials.

 

[comfortably_numb]

Currently they have no CBS owned and operated channels

Yep, my neighbor has Directv and saw me outside working on my dishes this morning.. He said, "Hey can you get me CBS with that?!"

 

[ChadT41]

Please, go back to DirecTV!!! It won't be very long at all before you're whining about them too. Currently they have no CBS owned and operated channels, no Smithsonian, no Nexstar channels in 90 some markets, etc., etc.

And streaming doesn't do it for most people who just want to watch TV and have a good DVR experience with no commercials.

Did they settle with the not owned but operated Sinclair Channels?