Chad Moriyama Dodgers, Sabermetrics, Scouting
I live in Hawaii. Obviously this makes it a tad difficult to either attend games or watch local broadcasts that are over 3000 miles away. Apparently though, MLB.TV cares little about that teeny tiny issue since they prevent me from watching every single Los Angeles Dodgers game live.
Yes, that’s right, apparently the entire West Coast collection of MLB teams are blacked out in Hawaii.
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MLB.TV originally informed me on Friday that I was blacked out from watching the games of five West Coast teams. On Saturday though, after being instructed to call back and talk to a supervisor, I was informed that I was actually currently blacked out from the entire West Coast and then some, a total of nine teams.
The shift in the number or location of the teams doesn’t make it any more or less stupid, since it’s just as realistic for me to watch or attend a game in New York on a daily basis as it is in Los Angeles. However, the fact that it only got worse with clarification from a supervisor was so pathetically stupid to me that I couldn’t help but sigh and feel sorry for the support guys who had no logical answer for my common sense questions.
All he could do for me is apologize about the idiotic policy, so doesn’t that indicate a problem with the policy itself if your own employees have no idea why the hell it exists?
Never blacked out the Dodgers before, only the Giants. Now it’s the entire West Coast … for Hawaii.
— Chad Moriyama (@ChadMoriyama) April 7, 2012
My problem isn’t necessarily with MLB.TV customer support though, as they tried their best to help out. Rather the issue is with the MLB policy itself, which is apparently built on preventing people like me from watching games in Hawaii. As recently as last year, this wasn’t a problem with Dodgers games, as Hawaii was only blacked out from San Francisco Giants games, which I could tolerate. Apparently though, the new revised MLB blackout rules somehow EXPANDED Hawaii’s blackout range.
What?
Unless I’m missing a gigantic flaw in my complaint, I’m quite sure it’s reasonable enough that people in Hawaii watching games on MLB.TV are no threat to local television ratings or stadium attendance.
So what in the hell is the explanation? I’ve yet to get a reasonable one, just apologies from customer service and sighs about how “they understand” but “there’s nothing we can do here”.
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This miniature rant won’t change anything, but it’s extremely frustrating that I’m willing to pay a lot of money for a service that immensely helps out a person like me, but now I’ll likely be forced to find other ways to access the Dodgers games live.
If the goal of MLB.TV was to alienate me as a customer, then they’ve succeeded.
Congratulations.
Obviously this doesnt make the policy any less stupid, but have you considered using a proxy server to get around the blackouts?
Yes, I have.
Working on options.
As you wrote, it was tolerable here in Hawaii when it was just the Giant games blacked out, as i would still get all the other Dodger games. And really the only reason i had MLB.TV was for the KCAL games, as PRIME is on Oceanic Time Warner here.
But what i failed to understand even about the Giant games is what was the MLB.TV blackout protecting. Not broadcast tv, as they are not even on cable here. Not attendance as you point out,we are 2,500 miles away. And not radio, as very few Giant games are even broadcast on radio here, maybe once in a while on a Saturday when ESPN 1420 isn’t doing volleyball or something.
Selig needs to address this. Just another reason why the NFL displaced MLB as our pastime.
Exactly.
Today, I tried to watch the Texas Rangers broadcast and was blacked out.
Texas.
The hell?
Ya, monumentally stupid. Proxy is one way of getting around it but could be slow. Why not try putting a slingbox in a west coast friend’s house? That’s how I get my baseball fix when I’m on the road in China or wherever.
Friend already offered, I might do that.
i was super stoked when i moved back to honolulu to find prime ticket on cable and that dodgers games still worked on MLB.tv . do they still work on replay? I usually am busy during the day and would probably watch after the west coast games are pau. replay worked for the games in SF last season.
also- SF giants are supposed to be on a KITV alternate digital feed (not like i’ve bothered to find that channel)
Everything works on replay, yes.
Never heard of the Giants being on television anywhere in Hawaii.
http://www.city-data.com/forum/san-francisco/1261471-kitv-tv-honolulu-broadcast-sf-giants.html
this is the only extant link i could find. there is nothing at KITV.com about it and the press release is 404.
Thanks.
Weird, I never see it.
Morans!
MLB also broadcasts on Sirius/XM Radio but if you have Sirius “equipment” you can not get the games, you need to have XM “equipment” and they don’t tell you that either until you install the equipment in your car or home and then call to turn on your service. Incredible!
Seriously?
It’s like they are trying to alienate fans.
Saw this on Reddit and BBTF, so it may be getting more attention than you think.
Like you said though, it seems that everybody agrees with you completely and have complained about this before and MLB has done nothing but make it worse to this point.
The Book too, but that doesn’t mean they give a shit.
What is the rationale here behind MLB’s thinking? Some sort of weird market/territory thing? I thought that was the whole point of buying the MLB package so that you can watch anything you want even if it was out of market?
Their argument is that it is IN MARKET.
:o
wtf? so i live in la. are you saying if i walk across the street to my neighbor’s house and try to watch the dodgers game via mlb.tv, we wouldn’t be able to because we’re considered in market?
Yes. Also probably the Angels, Padres, and Giants. Maybe Athletics too.
what.the.fuck. That’s some real fucked up shit. Stupid MLB indeed.
Makes no sense. I’m in Oregon, and on my MLB.tv I can see any game that isn’t blacked out nationally. Including every west coast team except Seattle, and they are on FSN or Root or whatever they call it, so I don’t miss them (not that I would care much).
I don’t like their national blackout policy — if there are three games on Saturday AM, I have to watch the one broadcast on the local Fox station, even if I’d rather see one of the others, which is usually the case.
But so far they haven’t stopped me from seeing a single Dodgers game. Maybe it’s an oversight on their part.
So far it seems Oregon is the only place exempt from idiotic rules.
Yeah there are stupid blackout rules in Philadelphia. I can’t watch Phillies, Pirates, or the Orioles. I understand Phils, and I don’t really care for the Pirates, but I am a Red Soxs fan so not being able to watch the Orioles might interfer with me watch the soxs every once and a while.