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Thursday, August 14, 2008

MLB.com: DuPuy’s plan would end TV blackouts

[TV blackout] rules have become archaic, and Bob DuPuy, MLB’s president and chief operating officer, presented a plan to MLB’s executive council on Wednesday that would alter them considerably for the 2009 season.

DuPuy doesn’t expect action to be taken until the final quarterly meetings of MLB’s owners, which will take place in November. For now, he has presented a plan in which blackouts would be lifted in the areas in which no local broadcast operator carries the games of a specific MLB team.

“If a market is underserved,” DuPuy said, “and a club is not broadcasting, either over the air or through cable, or attempting to do so, it would be opened up to the out-of-market packages.”

NTNgod Posted: August 14, 2008 at 05:50 AM | 7 comment(s) Login to Bookmark
Tags: television

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1. scareduck Posted: August 14, 2008 at 07:25 AM (#2902633)

Already dealt with by Jeff Passan's Yahoo Sports column, with the more interesting detail that this will not eliminate the irritating restrictions on Fox broadcasts. BTF thread here.

2. BeanoCook Posted: August 14, 2008 at 08:13 AM (#2902642)

This is nothing. The Favre fans or TV stations in Wisconsin will only be able to watch a broadcast of roughly 50% of the Jets games, despite overwhelming demand. The NFL is in the stone age regarding TV. How many years has the NFL network been seen by no one?

3. X-Roid User Posted: August 14, 2008 at 08:52 AM (#2902647)

That plan, however, is not ready for a vote, because DuPuy is still collecting TV contract information from each of the 30 clubs.

Yeah, because it's not like they've had several years to already collect this information...

4. tribefan Posted: August 14, 2008 at 10:32 AM (#2902652)

The Favre fans or TV stations in Wisconsin will only be able to watch a broadcast of roughly 50% of the Jets games, despite overwhelming demand.

Serves them right for inflicting the Farve drama on baseball fans. We shouldn't have to sit through 10 minutes of NFL news in the beginning of August before they show the MLB highlights. Although now that I think about it, we had the same problem last year because of Michael Vick. Screw ESPN.

5. jolietconvict Posted: August 15, 2008 at 03:56 AM (#2904090)

Already dealt with by Jeff Passan's Yahoo Sports column, with the more interesting detail that this will not eliminate the irritating restrictions on Fox broadcasts. BTF thread here.

While the Fox blackouts are annoying there's at least a business case for them (whether you agree that it's the best course of action or not). The territorial blackout rules benefit no one, including the teams.

6. Halofan Posted: August 15, 2008 at 04:54 AM (#2904125)

This is the first step in moving the Athletics to Las Vegas.

7. Biff isn't really an apt handle anymore Posted: August 15, 2008 at 05:01 AM (#2904127)

#### blackouts.

We shouldn't have to sit through 10 minutes of NFL news in the beginning of August before they show the MLB highlights. Although now that I think about it, we had the same problem last year because of Michael Vick. Screw ESPN.

It's not even just because of Favre. ####### random-ass preseason NFL games get highlights on before real baseball games on ESPNews.

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Thursday, August 14, 2008

MLB.com: DuPuy’s plan would end TV blackouts

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