Fox RSN's Need Updating, Anyway
I've been a DISH subscriber since June 1996, and the Fox RSN's have been a confusing mystery to me the whole time. I live in Arkansas, about 60 miles northwest of Memphis, TN, but I'm treated as though I live in the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex.
Truthfully, I really only care about hockey and soccer, but I do watch other sports on a casual basis. But I never know what game will be available when I turn on the TV: both pro and college sports are often blacked out to the local folks in Dallas---and me as well. I don't understand why the blackout can't apply based on a zip code or other basis?
Just when I think I've got it figured out, they surprise me by doing something that actually makes a bit of sense. For example, last year most of the Dallas Mavericks' games were blocked---but on one of the Alternate channels, I was able to get Memphis Grizzlies' games. I thought perhaps they were going to actually make decisions based upon geographical location, but apparently not. Last season, I wrote to the Dallas Stars, St. Louis Blues, Nashville Predators, and the NHL, simply asking for an explanation as to why when I'm 443 road miles from Dallas---but only 279 miles from Nashville and 234 miles from St. Louis---Fox has (seemingly) arbitrarily made the Dallas Stars my "home team?" As one would expect, I received no reply from any of the individual teams, and just a form reply from the NHL that said nothing.
If some new type of agreement is going to be eventually negotiated between Fox and DISH (and Cablevision, and who knows who else), why not put something in place to assign a home team in each sport, based on billing address, that more realistically reflects a local team?
I understand that there's no ambiguity if one lives in a metro area somewhere. But many of us don't, and there must be a better solution!
