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NBA League Pass Blackouts Are Terrible

Discussion in 'NBA Dish' started by rimrocker, Oct 10, 2025 at 8:03 PM.

  1. rimrocker

    rimrocker Member

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    I went to sign up today, but the blackouts were too much for me to purchase.

    I live in SW Oregon. We do get Blazers games on a sketchy local channel that can't make it over the hills, much less the mountains in the area, so I was expecting those games to be blacked out even though it's a 4.5 hours drive to Portland. However, in addition to the Blazers, the Warriors, Kings, and Jazz are blacked out. Now, Sacramento is 5 hours drive time, it's 6.5-7 to the Bay area, and 12+ hours to Salt Lake City. None of those teams broadcast in my area and in no logical sense of the word is my town "local" to those teams.

    Why would I pay full price to have over 25% of Western Conference teams blacked out? That's 16 Rockets games I wouldn't be able to see--1/5 of the season. This blackout thing seems discriminatory against rural folks. If I lived in Portland, it'd only be the Trailblazers that are blacked out. How does this make sense?

    Anyway, I guess I'll make do with other means.
     
  2. DaDakota

    DaDakota Fight Facism
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    Get a VPN like SurfShark and you can get around all of that.

    DD
     
  3. Red.Glare

    Red.Glare Member

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    As DD said, plus you can then purchase the much cheaper Euro League Pass and not worry about any blackouts. NordVPN (use it myself) is another good one and they just had/are having a promotion for about $4 dollars a month for 36 months + 3 months free. Then just pick a city/country to connect thru and you're all set to go. Since you're rural as I am, you might not have the fastest internet. So if you decide to go with a VPN, checkout the internet speeds to several European cities and pick the fastest one for your League Pass. Some are better than others, but all VPN's slow down your internet speed a little. Another perk, with a VPN, your internet provider can't track you and then sell your online info to a third party.
     
    #3 Red.Glare, Oct 10, 2025 at 10:52 PM
    Last edited: Oct 10, 2025 at 11:03 PM
    Entropy likes this.
  4. seeingredtx

    seeingredtx Enlightened

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    I live in Portland and feel your pain during the blazers games. I don’t get Blazers games and blacked out when playing the blazers. But only 3 games a year. I use vipleague.cc. Lots of pop ups, works best on PC but works on phone still.
     
  5. Hank McDowell

    Hank McDowell Member

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    League pass sucks. I buy it every year, but it truly ****ing sucks.
     
    juanm34 likes this.
  6. Dobbizzle

    Dobbizzle Member

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    I'd definitely recommend doing the VPN method if that means you guys get the same League Pass we get in Europe. I can watch every single Rockets game with a choice of which commentary I get whilst also watching 3 other games consecutively on split screen if I like on several devices. Nothing at all is blacked out anywhere. The only time you don't tend to get to choose the announce team are on big national tv games where that's the only option. Never ever have an issue with quality either, I'd never go back to illegal streaming with how quality the service is and I can watch every single NBA game live or on playback.
     
    cmlmel77 likes this.
  7. cmlmel77

    cmlmel77 Up all Night Watching Houston Sports
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    A VPN plus league pass is the way to go. The VPN also enables MLB app or paramount+ for Texans by moving to/from Houston servers. I can get every Houston game from all sports very clearly with that combo
     
    Dobbizzle likes this.
  8. T for 3

    T for 3 Member

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    do you know if that works in houston?
     
  9. DaDakota

    DaDakota Fight Facism
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    It works everywhere, you simply run it, and it spoofs your IP to another location, so when you login to NBA.com or Amazon it thinks you are there.

    DD
     
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  10. Easy

    Easy Boban Only Fan
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    Does blackout actually force people to go to live game?
     
  11. heypartner

    heypartner Member

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    correct me if I'm wrong, but none of you live in Houston. Have you actually beaten a local blackout?

    My experience (as I explained to @T for 3 in another thread), and also the experience of several other cfnetters (as well as many on reddit), the NBA (as well as MLB) have cracked down in the past two years. VPN no longer works to circumvent local blackouts. After years of it working, when it started failing, I did my own exhaustive testing two seasons ago while living in Houston to no avail ... I live in Colorado now, but can test again for Nuggest blackouts. But I'll have to time it properly so I can use their 7-day free trial. Will report back.

    In the meantime, can anyone here please confirm they are currently living in Houston and getting around blackouts with VPN?
     
    #11 heypartner, Oct 11, 2025 at 8:53 PM
    Last edited: Oct 11, 2025 at 8:59 PM
  12. Salvy

    Salvy Member

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    Sooo, I live in Houston and found a workaround but I'm not sure its going to last......NBA league pass detects my VPN, so I went ahead and got league pass via Amazon Prime..... However its not so straightforward since Amazon Prime also detected my VPN..... I realized this when I tried to watch anything and it would not let me because of my VPN..... When I signed up for league pass thou I set my VPN to Atlanta, it showed up that Hawks games would be blacked out. Sure, no problem. I then went and chose The Rockets as my team to watch all season. I then turned off the VPN and Amazon Prime has so far let me watch both pre season games from my TV or phone with no VPN...... I don't know if this will work all season, or just preseason or during my 7 day trial....
     
    RB713 likes this.
  13. DaDakota

    DaDakota Fight Facism
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    Yes, All year long the Astros were blacked out here in Austin - turned on Surf shark, restarted Amazon and watched the games.

    DD
     

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