MASN on Dish?

[IceRunner]

What stinks for me is that, here I Newport News, Va., I get CSN as my RSN. Baseball-wise I used to get Orioles games on CSN, but now I get ZERO MLB games on CSN because MASN (which I don't get) has both the Orioles and Nationals. Add the Extra Innings debacle and it's fairly frustrating.

 

[Voyager6]

Orioles fans can join the Nats fans in complaining to Dish, but it is like talking to a wall: It looks like Dish let MD-DC-VA-NC baseball fans down for the third year in a row. Not only will Nats and Orioles games not be available on MASN for Dish subscribers, but MASN will exercise their right to block other broadcasts, so no Nats or O's games on ESPN or TBS, either. The Nationals and Orioles share territorial rights to Maryland, DC, Virginia, and I believe all of North Carolina and parts of West Va. So as long as their primary carrier - MASN - is not carried on Dish, baseball fans in those areas stand no chance of seeing Orioles or Nats games on any other network, either. I am profoundly disappointed in Dish, and no longer recommend them to people, in spite of being a subscriber for 10 years (since Dish expanded to the east coast). I am now waiting for Verizon FIOS. It is sad that Dish has made me hate them almost as much as I hated Cablevision back in the day...

Don't you think that Peter Angelos, who owns MASN, deserves some of the blame. He is the one exercising the blackout rights which prevent anyone else from broadcasting the games. He may also be making outrageous demands for carriage rights. It took a long time for MASN to come to terms with Comcast and the other systems.

 

[Peter Parker]

You can blame him for the carriage rights requested (I guess). But is he really to blame for exercising balckout rights? in fact do the Orioles themsselves enforce it or does MLB?

 

[Peter Parker]

MASN2 is the extra channel for when both the Orioles and Nats are playing at the same time. Each team will be on MASN2 about the same number of times. It is only opened up while the game is played. Comcast is preempting CSPAN2 on some of its systems to fit it in. Direct also opens up an alternate channel.

I think MASN requires the availability of two channels, but I don't know if that's the hangup.

I've been emailing DISH and MASN regularly. DISH gives the same canned reply (and no reply at all the last two times). MASN doesn't ever reply, but its website has the question on its FAQ page. The MASN position is that DISH has been offered the same deal everyone else took, including Comcast (who had sued them). So we may have reached an impasse.

FWIW, a MASN representative at Orioles Fanfest on Sunday claims that they'll get it settled this month. We'll see.

i hope that you are right--though if we never get MASN at all it is academic. But in my area the cable companies are explicitly identifying MASN 2 as the Orioles feed.

 

[cjennings1]

This article (march 29, 2007) states that Dish was offered the same carriage rates as everyone else. If true it is very annoying we will not get to see the Orioles or Nats.

http://video1.washingtontimes.com/natsmailbag/2007/03/live_chat_with_thom_loverro_1.html

 

[howie14]

i hope that you are right--though if we never get MASN at all it is academic. But in my area the cable companies are explicitly identifying MASN 2 as the Orioles feed.

They've been explaining it regularly on the Orioles Radio Network. Because they didn't want it to look like they were slighting either market, they split the number of conflicting games down the middle. The Orioles and the Nats will both be transferred to MASN2 roughly the same number of times. Both teams should have been on MASN yesterday as there was no conflict.

I have no idea if the individual cable companies were allowed to move the games around so that each team would always be on the same cable channel. I'd doubt it, though.

In April, the Nats are on MASN 16 times and MASN2 11. The Orioles are on MASN 20 times and MASN2 only 7. They will each be simulcast on OTA TV 4 times, the only times I will see them other than when I'm at the park. And since there is no actual network for OTA games, that leaves DISH viewers outside of the Baltimore-Washington corridor completely shut out.

 

[Kaydigi]

It's sad. I wanted to pick up EI for the METS. Since they play the Nats about 16 times, they would be blacked out all the time in VA.

No MASN, no EI = Baseball season already over me.

 

[quickdraw95]

Who is to blame...

Don't you think that Peter Angelos, who owns MASN, deserves some of the blame. He is the one exercising the blackout rights which prevent anyone else from broadcasting the games. He may also be making outrageous demands for carriage rights. It took a long time for MASN to come to terms with Comcast and the other systems.

As a Senators/Nationals fan, I welcome every opportunity to brand Angelos as the Devil Incarnate, and in the beginning I did blame him for the blackouts. However, at this point I think the blame now falls squarely on Dish. As has been noted here, multiple sources have stated that MASN has offered Dish the same deal as other carriers, yet they continue to refuse to carry it. It only makes sense for MASN to enforce their right, as granted by MLB/Nats/O's, to be the primary carrier in their territory. If Dish refuses to carry MASN, why should MASN make this any easier on Dish by letting them carry the Nats or O's games when shown on a competing network? (in the case of the Nats, this includes Cubs/Nats and Braves/Nats game on WGN or TBS). If it was not for the fact that every cable system plus DirecTV has agreed to carry MASN, I might have some sympathy. However, by their actions if not their words, Dish has shown total disregard for MD-DC-VA baseball fans. I am glad people are keeping up the pressure - I will continue to try, but now it has become a race between Dish picking up MASN or FIOS to my house - whichever comes first.

 

[Chris Walker]

Scott have you heard anything from your Dish sources regarding this channel? I know you speak to them about Extra Innings but I was hoping you'd hear something about MASN along the way.

 

[psnarula]

i did the "move" to boston tonight. it was painless, as always. i'll get to see the orioles whenever they play the red sox and i'll get plenty of other AL-East coverage on NESN. it's not ideal, but it'll have to do until something gets figured out with MASN.

 

[jarrodk]

Move?

I'm a Yankees' fan in southcentral PA, and would like to pick them up. How do I "move" for coverage, and where do I need to move to to pick up the Yanks?

I've got a friend who is calling tomorrow to get out of his contract if Dish isn't planning on picking up MASN.

 

[psnarula]

yankees fans are out of luck with dish network. moving to NYC would be the conventional answer, but all yankees games in the new york market are on YES network and dish network doesn't carry YES. because YES owns the rights to all yankees games in NYC, yankees fans in NYC who have dish network see even less of the Yankees than the rest of the country because yankees appearances on ESPN are generally blacked out (i believe the only exception to this rule are the sunday night games where espn has exclusive broadcast rights).

and for your friend -- failure to carry a channel is not an acceptable reason to get out of your contract. they aren't going to be much help when he calls to cancel.

 

[Slamminc11]

...I've got a friend who is calling tomorrow to get out of his contract if Dish isn't planning on picking up MASN.

Tell you friend to enjoy ponying up the cancellation fee. If he reads his contract he will see that just because there is channel that Dish doesn't carry, doesn't allow him to get out of his contract.

 

[Robert NTSC Archivist]

I am glad I am out of contract with Dish (Never really had a contract) and DirecTV last summer and can dump either one with out penalty.

How ever if your a Yankees fan you really should have signed with DirecTV as all you will get is the WWOR-TV Friday Night Yankees plus any national telecasts on FOX or ESPN.

Dodgers did not look good the past two days in Milwaukee at all. Angels starting out 2 and 0 but could not find their game on DirecTV last night. Must have been a KCOP 13 telecast.

 

[jrbdmb]

Charlie has already lost two of the biggest markets in the northeast (New York and Philadelphia) because of a lack of local sports programming (and I understand Philly isn't his fault). Now he is apparently willing to cross off Baltimore and Washington D.C. (and probably most of the rest of Maryland and Virginia) as well.

 

[Cyclone]

Well, from what I understand about YES, is that they want $$$ from every Dish customer when only NY (and area) subscribers would actually be able to view the channel.

That works for a Cable system when "all" of your customers are in the NY area. But for sat, why would your average TX or CA customer want to pay an extra $1 or $2 mo for a channel they can't watch?

I'm sure MASN is in the same boat. Pete Angelos owns MASN and he likely wants bucks for both the Nats and Os coverage. Comcast and other locals feel the pressure to pay, but in Denver thats a world away. Honestly without HD, I don't feel any pain in their absence.

 

[howie14]

Well, from what I understand about YES, is that they want $$$ from every Dish customer when only NY (and area) subscribers would actually be able to view the channel.

That works for a Cable system when "all" of your customers are in the NY area. But for sat, why would your average TX or CA customer want to pay an extra $1 or $2 mo for a channel they can't watch?

I'm sure MASN is in the same boat. Pete Angelos owns MASN and he likely wants bucks for both the Nats and Os coverage. Comcast and other locals feel the pressure to pay, but in Denver thats a world away. Honestly without HD, I don't feel any pain in their absence.

I haven't heard anything to indicate that Angelos is asking for national money from DISH for MASN. As far as wanting bucks for both teams' coverage, while its easy to villify Angelos-I do it all the time-it seems likely he's charging what the market will bear. Especially if Comcast was willing to swallow it after all the bad blood between those two parties.

The problem here is that Charlie's bottom line is always the bottom line. I took DISH for the extra HD, I'm hoping that if Charlie doesn't pony up for MASN that Direct's HD dreams come true by the time my contract is up.

 

[jgantert]

I have FiOS TV and have the same problem (no MASN2). I was thinking about switching to Dish, but looks like I won't be after reading this thread. So I guess Comcast or DirecTV is my only choices. Yuck.

-John

 

[Peter Parker]

Th

In April, the Nats are on MASN 16 times and MASN2 11. The Orioles are on MASN 20 times and MASN2 only 7. They will each be simulcast on OTA TV 4 times, the only times I will see them other than when I'm at the park. And since there is no actual network for OTA games, that leaves DISH viewers outside of the Baltimore-Washington corridor completely shut out.

i believe me. it will just be confusing as heck.

 

[Peter Parker]

Scott have you heard anything from your Dish sources regarding this channel? I know you speak to them about Extra Innings but I was hoping you'd hear something about MASN along the way.

if not for the locals i would give this serious consideration.