Dishtv / Center Ice Problem

MacOfNiagara

Registered User
Feb 8, 2006
3,194
107
Ithaca
Loved our game but missed the first half of it. Switched to Dish this year and knew they didn't carry MSG so I added center ice.

Watched the leafs on night 1, no problem. Sabres games start and all I got was a black screen. Switched to the other games, no problem. Both Sabres channels SD HD black screen. Customer service little to no help. They did confirm it wasn't blacked out. When switching to the channel I could see the correct title of the show and a progress bar for how far we were in to the show.

Any ideas? Terrified in going to miss the home opener.
 

jcbeze

Registered User
Dec 27, 2005
1,768
954
Loved our game but missed the first half of it. Switched to Dish this year and knew they didn't carry MSG so I added center ice.

Watched the leafs on night 1, no problem. Sabres games start and all I got was a black screen. Switched to the other games, no problem. Both Sabres channels SD HD black screen. Customer service little to no help. They did confirm it wasn't blacked out. When switching to the channel I could see the correct title of the show and a progress bar for how far we were in to the show.

Any ideas? Terrified in going to miss the home opener.


got you covered via PM if it is indeed blacked out
 

MacOfNiagara

Registered User
Feb 8, 2006
3,194
107
Ithaca
Same thing for game 2. Planning to switch back to Directv. Although their sites and customer service give conflicting reports on the packages and availability of MSG.

Can anyone with Directv confirm what package they have and if they get MSG?
 

old kummelweck

Registered User
Nov 10, 2003
25,181
5,282
I was on the road this weekend and Albany was a black out area for MSG/Sabres on NHL.tv, so Ithaca would not surprise me to find it is considered Sabres market.

A friend of mine got one of the streaming apps through roku in Buffalo, and it has MSG and he can watch the sabres games. I would think you can get MSG on your dish if you call them.
 

Sabretooth

Registered User
May 14, 2013
3,102
636
Ohio
Same thing for game 2. Planning to switch back to Directv. Although their sites and customer service give conflicting reports on the packages and availability of MSG.

Can anyone with Directv confirm what package they have and if they get MSG?
If you're in-market, it shouldn't take too high a package to get MSG, and shouldn't need center ice. Where my parents live in pennsylvania, they're in-market for both the sabres and penguins, get both teams' local RSN. In cleveland we're in market for both the penguins and blue jackets (but not the sabres unfortunately, so center ice for me it is).

This tool: NHL.TV™ and NHL Premium™ Blackout Detector

says ithica is a blackout area for the sabres (zip 14850). So since dish doesn't carry MSG you won't be able to get the sabres on center ice as it has the same rules as nhl.tv.

On directv, the sabres centerice channel is MSG so everyone on directv watches on the same channel in network or out. I suppose if you had a basic directv package that didn't carry msg and signed up for center ice through directv, you'd probably get the sabres game on msg activated (but not pre/post game content as the channel gets shut back off). This probably isn't the most efficient way unless you want to watch more than the sabres because I'd imagine the package that does include MSG is probably a cheaper increase in cost than center ice on an annual basis.

But, I'm not in new york so idk how the various MSG channels are distributed/restricted. Not sure if MSG western new york would be active in ithica or not, but I'd think it'd have to be if it's considered a sabres blackout area?

Another thought... since you already purchased center ice, you should be able to log in to nhl.tv using your dish center ice credentials (this worked the past few years but haven't confirmed yet this year) to watch games. The sabres would still be blacked out (*cough* vpn *cough*)
 
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brian_griffin

"Eric Cartman?"
May 10, 2007
16,664
7,884
In the Panderverse
I live out of state and have direct tv and center ice. I get Sabres on MSG. Only issues have been with certain games vs. Hurricanes (my local team) Devils, Islanders, and Rangers where I sometimes don’t have the Sabres production (RJ, Rayzor, etc) available.
 

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