šŸˆ Bloomberg TV breaks story, SI picks it up..."FCC proposes to end blacked-out televised games."

TerryP

TerryP

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Full Statement in pdf format:

A few excerpts:
The sports industry has changed dramatically in the last 40 years, however, and the Petitioners argue that the economic rationale underlying the sports blackout rules may no longer be valid. Below we seek comment on whether we have authority to repeal the sports blackout rules. Next, we examine whether the economic considerations that led to adoption of the sports blackout rules continue to justify our intervention in this area. Finally, we propose to eliminate the sports blackout rules and seek comment on the potential benefits and harms of that proposed action on interested parties, including sports leagues, broadcasters, and consumers.

ā€œChanges in the marketplace have raised questions about whether these rules are still in the public interest, particularly at a time when high ticket prices and the economy make it difficult for many sports fans to attend games,ā€ Clyburn said in a [Nov. 1] statement.
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SI article here...
 
By the time the FCC gets around to changing the blackout laws they will be irrelevant. They almost are now. I have not missed a game this year because you can find a way around the law with the "Wonderful Interwebs".
 
bama alum said:
I hope that means an eventual end to all these expensive sports packages as well.
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IE?

RollllTide! said:
By the time the FCC gets around to changing the blackout laws they will be irrelevant. They almost are now. I have not missed a game this year because you can find a way around the law with the "Wonderful Interwebs".
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Outside of Bama, what would be blacked-out in the Mobile market?
 
TerryP said:
IE?



Outside of Bama, what would be blacked-out in the Mobile market?
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Any game that is on a local channel is blacked out on Direct TV. If you cannot pickup a local channel with an antennae you are out of luck. I have been able to find a game on the Internet if it is blacked out. The quality is not HD but is good enough watch.
 
RollllTide! said:
Any game that is on a local channel is blacked out on Direct TV. If you cannot pickup a local channel with an antennae you are out of luck. I have been able to find a game on the Internet if it is blacked out. The quality is not HD but is good enough watch.
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I don't have satellite so Direct TV never crossed my mind.

I was under the impression most packages that come from Direct and (can't think of the name of the other one) come with access to local channels.
 
planomateo said:
Don't forget, we still need providers to pick up the SEC Network.
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While they may juggle the ball a bit, I don't see ESPN's marketing department dropping the ball on this one. There may be a few places well outside the SEC footprint that don't carry it. However, here's I'm sitting on the east coast with the PAC and B1G network. I'd dare say I'm a little outside of the PAC's footprintā€”just a tad, mind you.
 
TerryP said:
I don't have satellite so Direct TV never crossed my mind.

I was under the impression most packages that come from Direct and (can't think of the name of the other one) come with access to local channels.
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If you pay for local channels you get the games that are blacked out on espn etc. if they are broadcasting. That means ABC CBS games use the blackout rule in their favor. The Internet allows you to get games that are on pay per view for free. I watched the BAMA-Chatanooga game this year on the internet without paying. There is always someone that will rebroadcast it with a streaming server. You just have to find it. It is not a consistent thing because I am sure it is breaking some FCC rule. That is why this rule is almost obsolete. It is hard to regulate off shore providers. I noticed when I was watching the game they had a counter showing over 200 viewers.
 
Just a matter of time before all sporting events are broadcast live online as part of normal service. BT (British Telecommunications) is already doing it with their BT Sports channel, they even give it out to their customer with BT Broadband. They picked up the Premier League and I believe this helped drive the creation of BT Sports. They were on a buying spree, they picked up numerous channels and have a pretty large subscription base within 3 months of launch (~2 million).

Getting the rights to this in under a year...pretty big move.
 
planomateo said:
Just a matter of time before all sporting events are broadcast live online as part of normal service. BT (British Telecommunications) is already doing it with their BT Sports channel, they even give it out to their customer with BT Broadband. They picked up the Premier League and I believe this helped drive the creation of BT Sports. They were on a buying spree, they picked up numerous channels and have a pretty large subscription base within 3 months of launch (~2 million).

Getting the rights to this in under a year...pretty big move.
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While we have the technology to do this and even if your ISP provides, lets say up to 45 megs, the video quality is still poor. Especially for games where the movements is as quick as basketball and football.

I get 24 megs at home and would cut the cord if I could maintain the same video quality.
 
RollllTide! said:
If you pay for local channels you get the games that are blacked out on espn etc. if they are broadcasting. That means ABC CBS games use the blackout rule in their favor. The Internet allows you to get games that are on pay per view for free. I watched the BAMA-Chatanooga game this year on the internet without paying. There is always someone that will rebroadcast it with a streaming server. You just have to find it. It is not a consistent thing because I am sure it is breaking some FCC rule. That is why this rule is almost obsolete. It is hard to regulate off shore providers. I noticed when I was watching the game they had a counter showing over 200 viewers.
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I find this a little funny...especially given the point I was the one giving instructions on how to use things like proxy servers for this years pay-per-view game. You're not preaching to the choir...preaching to the apostle. :bluebiggrin:

Now, with the satellite providers...I've no clue. January will mark the third year I've been out of the sports bar businessā€”where we had satellite. But that's not a good comparison because we always purchased things like ESPN's GamePlan, etc.
 
riz said:
Wait...they black out Bama games up there? Under what guise?
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Any SEC game (and likely other conferences as well) that's a PPV is blacked out in the state the school hails from...likely you know that though. Unless you're talking about my neck of the woods.

I can't recall who the opponent was this season but here in SC the charge they were levying on sports bars was $500.00 to broadcast the game. I want to say to get it in-home was either $40 or $50.

I ran that one through a proxy and actually put it on a video game screen, big one, because it was the easiest to reach the HDMI port.
 
I know a satellite trick that works when you are trying to get a game on. You go to the setup page and change the zip code to another state, then reconfigure the signal based on that zip code. If it is not blacked out in that state you should receive the game. I have not actually tried this out, however a satellite installer shared this with me.
 
RollllTide! said:
I know a satellite trick that works when you are trying to get a game on. You go to the setup page and change the zip code to another state, then reconfigure the signal based on that zip code. If it is not blacked out in that state you should receive the game. I have not actually tried this out, however a satellite installer shared this with me.
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That's no different that a proxy server.
 
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