Hi, Tim Would you explain to me how the blackout rule work? Because I live in the Beaumont area and even with the NBA League Pass, they blackout every Rocket games here (including NBA TV). We can not get the Houston local channel 51, the only way we can watch the Rockets is when they show on national TV (TNT, ESPN..) So next year when the Rockets going to their own Fox network, are we still going to have a blackout rule again? That's really frustrating. I go over this subject every year but it does not help. I guess the Rockets do not care about a small market like this area...oh well......... I thank you in advance for any and all considerations, as well as the time and effort spent on this matter. Vincent, (my zip code is 77627)
Speaking of blackouts, did anyone experience that in Houston (TW Cable) during the first game on TNT. For most of the first quarter it said that the game is blacked out in Houston due to NBA regulations and all you could hear is audio and then all of a sudden the picture came back on and there was no more blackout....I am still wondering what that was....
aeroman, Check out this article from the Chronicle, which explains it all. http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/sports/2193167
Here's a thread started by Jeff during the blackout. It marked the events of that fateful night and the chaos that resulted from this near disastrous error. http://bbs.clutchcity.net/php3/showthread.php?s=&threadid=67246 In hindsight, it's pretty funny that a bunch of grown men (and women) went into a state of total panic from not being able to watch a ball game. But it sure wasn't funny back then.
I am in zip code 77651- Beaumont area-Port Neches. I also can get nationally covered games. We cannot get the game on radio -as 610's signal is too weak. We cannot get Ch. 51. I bought a 1/2 season ticket package just to see some games. We did get a very few games on Time Warner - advertising channnel last season - but there were precious few. I considered League pass and am now glad I did not do this....
Tbar, I just contacted KFDM (channel 18 on Time warner cable), they said they will have the schedule for Rockets games on their site (KFDM.com) later. They did not say how many games they would show. (I guess only a few games).....
NBA rules require the blackout of a team's games on League Pass for a 75 mile radius around the team's home city. (Before you respond, remember -- I'm just stating what the rule is. We didn't create it.) The rule generally exists to protect a team's local broadcast. The problem is that there are a few locations where Channel 51's over-the-air signal doesn't reach and local cable providers haven't picked them up -- and those areas get caught in the middle. If we can find situations where there's a local station that wants to pick up our broadcasts (College Station comes up frequently), we'd love to work with them. Sometimes there are opportunities, sometimes there aren't -- broadcasting is a tough business, and often local non-network affiliate stations is small markets operate on razor-thin budgets, and it's hard for them to assume the cost of broadcasting our games. It's a lot more expensive to patch into a live broadcast feed than it is to, say, run tapes of old syndicated sitcoms or movies. If there are deals to be made, we'd love to make them. It benefits us when more people are able to see our games. Tim
I agree. I HATE the stupid deal that Stern has with dish network for nbatv. I pay $150 for the league pass and still miss 11 rox games.
So what's the deal with College Station right now Tim? Cox says they are talking to you guys. Where is that at right now, if it's ok for you to tell us. We are desperate for some games.
I don't want to start another thread on the matter, but does anyone here have Charter Communications? I live in Birmingham Al and the local cable company(Charter) offers every other sports package, but no league pass. Tim, anyone...whats the deal.
Yeah Tim any info you can give us on the situation in College Station will be greatly appreciated. I and many others I know are dying over here. I know we get the 2 or 3 games a month on Channel 15 which is like public access or something but thats not near enough.
I also am wondering what is going on with College Station (Cox Media). The Astros made the deal with Cox to show all their games on the CH.15 (which is jsut an advertising channel for Cox). I hope the Rocket's are able to get a deal struck. I really miss being able to see the Rocket's games. I lived up in Dallas last year, and when I came down to College Station I thought I was going to be able to watch the games. Hopefully something will be agreed upon and we will be out of the dark to once again witness Rocket's Basketball.
Tim, thank you very much for the respond, I understand, that's business. (Just unfortunately, I live in the hick town, so not much as a basketball demanding market..) I would try to go to some games then. But could you answer my second question "So next year when the Rockets going to their own Fox network, are we still going to have a blackout rule again? Thank you
A better question would be will the broadcast strength of the new tv station be strong enough to reach beumont unlike channel 51 now. thats the best way around the blackout issue... is for the rockets to broacast the local feed strong enough to reach the outlying areas. unless of course this is going to be a cable only station which in that case they will be removing viewers from watching the game...
I'm not sure what you mean by the question -- if you're asking about the League Pass blackout in the 75 mile radius, I don't think that's likely to change. That decision is made on the league level, however. When we do get the Rockets/Astros regional sports network set up, whether or not games get shown in College Station will be a result of whether the network and the local cable carrier work out a deal for carriage. Tim
