Blackout Games

[Ray Mercer]

I agree that the only thing keeping a large amount of people to sticking with cable is live sports. How though is a company like DAZN able to offer unlimited blackout free NFL games to everybody for 20$ a month? The NFL is far bigger than the NHL and they are able to offer viewers this package. If a similar product was offered by the NHL they would have a ton of subscribers. It’s ridiculous that as a fan I have to have the premium sports cable package as well as Center Ice to view my favourite non local team and the local team.

 

[HBK27]

I have Directv, but my parents want to get rid of it due to cost. I told them I'd appreciate if we kept it so I can still watch my sports. I heard about Fubo recently and have thought about possibly subscribing. If you don't mind, what exactly about Fubo is bad?

I cut the cord about a year ago and switched over to YouTubeTV. Despite the price increase they took a few months back (from $50 to $65 per month, while adding a few channels I have zero interest in) I still think it's a great product. Very user friendly menus, you can customize the order of channels in the guide, unlimited DVR space so you can record anything you might have interest in (for example, I record every NHL, NFL and NCAA hockey game just in case I feel like watching) and for sports you don't have to worry about the end of the games getting cut off if they go long - they'll automatically record the entire game, whereas with cable I had to extend the recordings just in case and even then there was a chance you could miss the end on some events. Overall, very happy with the product.

One downside though is there is no NHL Network or MSG Networks for the local teams here in NJ. I did a 7 day free trial of Fubo TV during the WJC's a few weeks ago to watch those games on NHL Network. A major problem for me personally is that FuboTV does not have an app for LG TV's, which is the brand of my two largest/most watched TV's. That meant I had to go through the web browser of the TV to watch Fubo and it was all very clunky. If the game was live and I was trying to watch it on a delay (so I could just fast forward through commercials/intermission), I would run into issues when trying to skip ahead that often lead to the game just not playing anymore. It was frustrating and I just had to give up trying to fast forward through a game that was still live. Even watching a completed game and trying to skip ahead or go back was a bit of an issue as you couldn't just use the buttons on the remote since there's no app - you had to point and click and there was always a few second delay before the feed would return (whereas YouTubeTV had no delay). This was also the case when watching on a computer.

If you have different TV's that support the FuboTV app, maybe you won't have as many issues. The good thing is they allow that 7 day free trial and you can add in as many extra packages as you want for it. I'd recommend you give it a shot and see what you think, as it was very easy to cancel. I think most other services have a 3 day trial, so see what works best.

 

[waitin425]

Sw ontario habs fan. I pay rogers for the sportsnet channels. Sportnet pacific has aired a bunch of habs games when they are out west. They get blacked out. Sportnest ontario instead plays Columbus vs Dallas or Boston vs Washington. I bet Sportnet Ontario ratings for those nights are abysmal compared to if they showed Habs vs Nucks.

Makes no sense other than the NHL forces them to do that, so I will fork over 30 more bucks a month for centre ice. It's corporate greed and nothing else.

 

[HBK27]

So, looks like Cable companies are now rolling out caps on data usage for internet service. If they can't gouge you on cable products, they'll nail cord cutters for internet usage.

At least Comcast is doing this in the Northeast, though it appears they are delaying the rollout a few months due to backlash. It's no wonder these are often the most hated companies as they roll this out during a pandemic as many adults have to work and video conference at home while many kids are doing remote learning. Just an all around scumbag move.

I just signed a 2-year contract with them about a year ago and they're still imposing these limits/overage charges, which I think is complete BS.

You get 1.2 TB per month and once you go over they begin charging $10 for every 50 GB (up to $100), so once you go over you will quickly wrack up the fees.

Is there any rollover for all those previous months when you were well under the limit? Hahahahaha, of course not.

I like how they try to sugarcoat it as only affected a "small percentage of customers" when they also damn well know that number is going to continue to go up as more and more people drop their shitty cable service.

Comcast postpones data cap in northeast following backlash

 

[Golden_Jet]

I have Rogers and like they have done for a few years when every NHL season starts they were giving a free preview of NHL Center Ice for 1 week. Anyway one of the games I could have watched was the Leafs vs Senators which was blacked out for me on TSN5, however it was available through the free preview with the TSN5 broadcast. Although the weird thing is that was also on TSN4 in the Toronto and both broadcasts were using Gord Miller and Ray Ferraro.

The only difference was on TSN4 they called it Molson Canadian Leafs Hockey and on TSN5 it was called Canadian Tire Senators Hockey.

That’s normal for a regional game. You need to watch it on your local feed, which for you was TSN4. Free preview still has the normal blackout restrictions.

 

[Masked]

Sw ontario habs fan. I pay rogers for the sportsnet channels. Sportnet pacific has aired a bunch of habs games when they are out west. They get blacked out. Sportnest ontario instead plays Columbus vs Dallas or Boston vs Washington. I bet Sportnet Ontario ratings for those nights are abysmal compared to if they showed Habs vs Nucks.

Makes no sense other than the NHL forces them to do that, so I will fork over 30 more bucks a month for centre ice. It's corporate greed and nothing else.

Sportsnet Pacific has the rights to regional Canucks games in the Canucks regional market. You don't live in the Canucks market so you can't watch their regional games. It makes perfect sense and this is nothing new.

 

[Eisen]

Blackouts seem counterproductive to me. How will you ever become a fan of your regional team if you can't watch it? Like hope that anyone pays NHL ticket prices just to try?

 

[SladeWilson23]

I cut the cord about a year ago and switched over to YouTubeTV. Despite the price increase they took a few months back (from $50 to $65 per month, while adding a few channels I have zero interest in) I still think it's a great product. Very user friendly menus, you can customize the order of channels in the guide, unlimited DVR space so you can record anything you might have interest in (for example, I record every NHL, NFL and NCAA hockey game just in case I feel like watching) and for sports you don't have to worry about the end of the games getting cut off if they go long - they'll automatically record the entire game, whereas with cable I had to extend the recordings just in case and even then there was a chance you could miss the end on some events. Overall, very happy with the product.

One downside though is there is no NHL Network or MSG Networks for the local teams here in NJ. I did a 7 day free trial of Fubo TV during the WJC's a few weeks ago to watch those games on NHL Network. A major problem for me personally is that FuboTV does not have an app for LG TV's, which is the brand of my two largest/most watched TV's. That meant I had to go through the web browser of the TV to watch Fubo and it was all very clunky. If the game was live and I was trying to watch it on a delay (so I could just fast forward through commercials/intermission), I would run into issues when trying to skip ahead that often lead to the game just not playing anymore. It was frustrating and I just had to give up trying to fast forward through a game that was still live. Even watching a completed game and trying to skip ahead or go back was a bit of an issue as you couldn't just use the buttons on the remote since there's no app - you had to point and click and there was always a few second delay before the feed would return (whereas YouTubeTV had no delay). This was also the case when watching on a computer.

If you have different TV's that support the FuboTV app, maybe you won't have as many issues. The good thing is they allow that 7 day free trial and you can add in as many extra packages as you want for it. I'd recommend you give it a shot and see what you think, as it was very easy to cancel. I think most other services have a 3 day trial, so see what works best.

Fubo is available on Fire Stick. I'll certainly give it a shot.

 

[GoBuds14]

Sportsnet Pacific has the rights to regional Canucks games in the Canucks regional market. You don't live in the Canucks market so you can't watch their regional games. It makes perfect sense and this is nothing new.

Doesn’t make sense if you’re trying to grow a business and a product

 

[Masked]

Doesn’t make sense if you’re trying to grow a business and a product

Are you really going to tell billionaires, who have grown enormous businesses, that they don't know how to grow a business? How big of a business have you ever grown?

 

[PoutineSp00nZ]

Until they give me a reasonably priced service to watch hockey, I'll continue to find other ways to watch. I'm not buying a cable package with lots of shit I won't ever use, or a streaming service that includes blackouts.

Suck my balls

 

[njdevils1982]

Blackouts seem counterproductive to me. How will you ever become a fan of your regional team if you can't watch it? Like hope that anyone pays NHL ticket prices just to try?

ask the ghost of dollar bill wirtz that question

 

[GoBuds14]

Are you really going to tell billionaires, who have grown enormous businesses, that they don't know how to grow a business? How big of a business have you ever grown?

Restricting a product from people who are willing to pay for said product is bad business from a financial and marketing standpoint, don’t confuse licensing contracts with good business

 

[Anglesmith]

Blackouts seem counterproductive to me. How will you ever become a fan of your regional team if you can't watch it? Like hope that anyone pays NHL ticket prices just to try?

The word "blackout" is referring to a different phenomenon these days. It used to be what you are referring to (the team not letting viewers watch on TV to encourage ticket sales), but nowadays people use the word to refer to the fact that you can get channels from other regions on your TV, but can't watch the games from that region.

 

[Masked]

Restricting a product from people who are willing to pay for said product is bad business from a financial and marketing standpoint, don’t confuse licensing contracts with good business

Poor attempt at dodging the question.

 

[Jetcetera]

Illegally stream every game. Screw em

 

[Anglesmith]

The problem is not one of "why didn't anyone think of that!" but rather that the league's network deals, meaning the deals that the NHL strikes with NBC/Comcast, Rogers Sportsnet, TSN are all predicated on the idea that live sports is what keeps people still subscribing to cable. They make damned sure that blackout restrictions are in place before they sign a deal with the NHL.

They do not want compensation in exchange for cord cutters watching their favorite teams on a streaming service. They want to prevent any more cord cutting, or make it clear that those who cut the cord do not get to watch live sports, at least not without resorting to illegal streams, VPNs, etc.

This isn't a by-product or an oversight to be worked around, but a core feature of cable companies holding the broadcast rights to hockey all up and down the national, the other national, and many of the regional sports broadcasters. They want blackouts and retaining those blackouts is a non-negotiable facet of the deals themselves. For many people, live sports is the only thing preventing the holdouts from cutting the cord for good. The cable companies and networks know that.

It's coming one day, but the cable companies are going to stave off that inevitable replacement of cable with some other model for as long as they can do so. It's such a good deal for the companies to charge people for a broad package of channels rather than a la carte viewing.

Blackouts actually come from the NHL and its teams, not cable companies. They are predicated on the idea that if a kid has easier access to the local team than any other team, they are more likely to become a fan of that team.

If Canadian broadcasters could broadcast every game nationally, their ratings would go way up.

 

[GoBuds14]

Poor attempt at dodging the question.

Yes I’m a billionaire who uses a lot of my spare time to argue about blackout games in hfboards.

Why in world would I try and dodge your silly rhetorical question? Maybe you should try and answer why you think it makes sense from a financial and marketing standpoint to restrict your product from people who are more than willing to pay?

 

[JustaFinnishGuy]

Yes I’m a billionaire who uses a lot of my spare time to argue about blackout games in hfboards.

Why in world would I try and dodge your silly rhetorical question? Maybe you should try and answer why you think it makes sense from a financial and marketing standpoint to restrict your product from people who are more than willing to pay?

It ain't a surprise that the average age of an NHL fan is going up every year because of this. Nobody who owns cable will ever know what the NHL is, but everyone has access to the internet and could become fans if they could see games..

I don't know, so I'll ask. Does MLB, NBA and NFL have blackout restrictions too, and do they have direct streaming options?

 

[spintheblackcircle]

I don't know, so I'll ask. Does MLB, NBA and NFL have blackout restrictions too, and do they have direct streaming options?

NBA Pass and MLB Season Ticket blackout games just like the NHL does.

"Athletes are greedy!"

"I deserve to watch games for free!"

...same person.

 

[GoBuds14]

NBA Pass and MLB Season Ticket blackout games just like the NHL does.

"Athletes are greedy!"

"I deserve to watch games for free!"

...same person.

I think most people here aren’t saying we deserve to watch the games for free. Seems as though people are paying for expensive sports packages so they can watch their favourite teams, yet are being restricted anyway. People are willing to pay for access

 

[CincoHolio]

Netflix, Disney, Hulu, or Amazon should invest in Sports broadcasting productions, and just do it themselves.

Please god no. Don't they own enough of the media already?? And Disney is already doing it and has been for decades.

 

[GoBuds14]

Please god no. Don't they own enough of the media already?? And Disney is already doing it and has been for decades.

Amazon Prime already is starting with streaming NFL. This is already happening and will likely be how we watch sports in the near future

 

[The Hanging Jowl]

It's crazy isn't it? I live in the metro Vancouver area and I can't watch any of the Jets/Sens/Leafs/Habs games unless it's on HNIC or they play the Canucks.

Oilers are playing in Montreal? Let's black that out for all you fans on the west coast because we want to promote....what exactly?

Just seems crazy to me. I almost get it during normal times but why now when there are no gate receipts? Don't these broadcasters want the advertising dollars that added viewership would provide? And when I say I almost get it during normal times...not really. It makes a little sense in the NFL when they used to black out *local* games that didn't have enough attendance. But we're talking about them always blacking out other markets. Why? I absolutely don't get the strategy.

 

[DeysArena]

Pro sports is the only industry that bans media from advertising their product.