It's been a bad day, this Sunday. Trying to get home to Chicago from Minnesota, flight canceled, hours in the airport with a fussy baby...good times.
So instead of trying to come up with anything new today (the Expectation Management series mercifully passes tomorrow), I'm just going to link to something I wrote a few weeks ago for my good friend The Common Man, whose site you should check out if you don't already. It (the piece, not the blog itself) is about the ridiculousness of MLB's blackout rules. Enjoy!
21 hours ago
I enjoyed your post about blackouts. I related well since when I moved to Utah it was a little ridiculous. I contacted my cable provider when I first moved to Salt Lake City (2006) and requested to have MBL Extra Innings, only to find out that they didn't offer it. Comcast is the cable giant in Utah - it's either you have Comcast or you have a dish. But Comcast did not offer MLB Extra Innings. When I inquired why they said there was "not enough of a market" for that package to be offered. I then contacted both Dish Network and DirecTV only to be told the same story.
ReplyDeleteSo I settled for MLB.Tv which was craptastic at the time. This year I am doing the MLB.Tv option because it's significantly cheaper than the MLB Extra Innings (which is finally an option for Comcast subscribers in Utah). It tends to work well and I'm actually enjoying the new programming (it's made some significant improvements since even last year) and considering I'm just barely far enough outside the blackout range. Thank God I don't live in Idaho.
Thanks for the comments, Kristen. Yeah, the blackout range for the Mariners is pretty crazy, too...I really doubt people in far eastern Montana regularly get over-the-air access to Messrs Niehaus (tragic) and Sims (kind of a blessing, actually).
ReplyDeleteI have Extra Innings now, and it's expensive, but I couldn't really live without it. I did do MLB.TV in law school, and noticed that it got a lot better as it went along. Except for not being able to watch any games involving the Orioles and Nationals, that is.