MLS Direct Kick - blackout rules???

MLS Direct Kick is for OUT-OF-MARKET matches, i.e. matches NOT involving your local team.

Because you live in the Washington DC TV market and because MLS sold local rights to all DC United matches (excluding those matches carried exclusively by the ESPN Networks or FOX Soccer Channel) to Comcast SportsNet Mid-Atlantic, opposing team's telecasts are always blacked out.

You will have to watch the match on either Comcast SportsNet Mid-Atlantic or Comcast SportsNet Mid-Atlantic Plus if the game were televised by either channel.

 

Go look at this page: http://tsq.com/alerts/MLSAPRILsked11.pdf . You will see that there was no blackout (BO) for the home team tonite for that game.

I'm not sure of the calculus behind the blackouts (home and away) but my understanding in the past was if the broadcaster was paying a rights fee or some other fee-type arrangement to the team (maybe a time barter, whatever), that the had the ability to enforce a blackout.

If the team was just buying the time from the broadcaster and producing the games themselves, there was no blackout.

But it's all so different from the other leagues' rules, that I'm not sure anyone knows (you'll see a notation BO LIFT, implying that a blackout could be imposed but isn't).

 

interesting that DirecTV has contradictory statements out there. everything from MLS (and other DK partners) has indicated that certain games will always be blacked out (due to national and local/regional broadcast rights deals).

since the game was not on CSN-MidAtlantic (their package of DC games this season did not include that 4/9 date), viewers in the DC United market/region could watch the DK presentation of the LA@DC match (which was using the FSWest telecast).

 

I've been a subscriber to MLS Direct Kick / Shootout Pkg since its inception and never seen a game blacked out. Granted, your local RSN may not carry it but other RSNs will have the feed and you will be able to see all the games carried by Direct Kick that day.

Too bad they don't have a part-time HD channel this year. Last year, on dish network, they had MLS HD for a few hours of games. Don't know what happened to it this year (greedy bandwidth policy on dish network), but it was
pretty cool for Direct Kick subs see most of that day's matches in HD.

I know most of the RSNs broadcast their games in HD and down-convert it to SD
since you can see the SD feed surrounded by black bars and the SD pic
is unusually good quality as it was sourced from HD.

 

are you in an "MLS market/area/city"?

if so, local (to your market) blackout rules will (or should) apply.

if you are not in an "MLS market/area/city", you'll never get a DK blackout (beyond the "nationally" broadcast games from Disney, Univision, Fox that have never been a part of DK).

 

Indeed. I regularly watch Crew matches on Direct Kick, via the other team's broadcast, and i'm as "in Columbus" as you can get.

As far as I can tell, the only games not on Direct Kick are those on the national partners (ABC/ESPN/ESPN2, TeleFutura, FSC.) You could get the Canadian broadcasts once in a while.

Long-time fans may remember Yahoo's streaming version of Direct Kick (platinum.yahoo.com). I had that, then got the PPV option through MLSnet.com. The past two years, I did not subscribe, then re-upped this year. I think last year, the online version blacked regional broadcasts out if that team was in your market...but their blackouts only lasted a short time before the policy was lifted.

In other words, I don't remember any blackouts applying to MLS Direct Kick.

 

I live in the DC suburbs. Other than those appearing on ESPN networks, FSC, Univision/Telefutura, no games have ever been blacked out.

Maybe the viewership is too small to be worth their time to enforce the black out.

 

Having read the document posted earlier in this thread I now know why I have had no blackouts thus far. Unfortunately that comes to an end this weekend as the Sounders-Union match is blacked out. Red Bulls matches have also been blacked out for me in the past.

 

Okay, now my program guide indicates that the Sounders-Union match is not blacked out. Guess we'll see tomorrow at 4.

 

I live about an hour and a half south of San Jose CA and I have MLS Direct Kick and NYRB vs Quakes on Saturday was a blackout. Why?

 

Ok, I know this is an old thread, but I have had similar issues with DirectKick on Verizon. I live in Baltimore, which is between both DC and Philadelphia. I do not receive News Channel 8 which shows DC United. Nor do I receive any of the Philadelphia channels. Yet on 3/24/18 the DC United vs Columbus game was blacked out. Verizon told me that if the game does not sell out the game is blacked out, but i thought that was only for local market games. What is the deal?

 

I'm not in an MLS market yet games are blacked. I do live five minutes down the road where they do get DC United matches, but sadly I'm not in an MLS market.

 

I don't think it has anything to do with the game selling out. Baltimore is probably considered DC's tv market and your only option would be NewsChannel 8. The fact that half the DC's territory doesn't get the channel is the team's fault.

 

Yet, I don't get News Channel 8 where I live.

 

Baltimore and DC are separate media markets. But I don't know if MLS, like MLB, considers them joined (like they do with Richmond for soccer -- but DC United has a Richmond TV deal).

 

They're separate markets, but the NHL and NBA have teams in D.C. but not Baltimore, and I'd expect the Capitals and Wizards to be on TV in Baltimore. Upstate New York does not share broadcast TV or radio with New York City, but they get the RSNs to show the New York City area teams. I'd also expect Boston teams to be on TV in Springfield (western Massachusetts), New Hampshire, Vermont, and Maine in places that do not share broadcast TV or radio with Boston. Are Seattle teams on TV in Boise and Billings? Are Texas and/or Arizona teams on TV in Albuquerque?

 

United were on in Baltimore for years when they were on an RSN (NBCS Washington, formerly Comcast Mid-Atlantic) that covers multiple markets in the region (hence Regional Sports Network, not a single market). Not only the Caps, United and Wizards -- but the Orioles have access to the DC market as well, thanks to the controversial MASN/MLB deal. All 162 Orioles games available in DC. Fuzzier with the NFL, but almost all Ravens games are on in DC.

What's kind of interesting now is that United's TV rights are owned by News Channel 8 in DC - a Sinclair owned station. Sinclair's headquartered in... Baltimore. And they own 3 channels in that market. Plenty of options for showing matches up there. And if United/Sinclair can't work out a deal, ESPN+ streaming should be allowed since it's out of market. Most pro sports leagues are bad at this - particularly baseball.

 

See I could care less about options for showing United in Baltimore. I live in Baltimore County. News Channel 8 is not broadcast in Baltimore County. Right next door in Howard County you get News Channel 8. This is why I got DirectKick, so I could watch United play. Now every United game is blacked out! So answer me this. The last several seasons I have had MLS Live, when I moved to Baltimore County from Howard I was able to watch United on MLS Live. Should both MLS Live and DirectKick have the same black out rules? Just sucks that one MLS viewing platform shows one match and that same match is blacked out on another. MLS viewing platform.

 

Should definitely complain directly to MLS, ESPN and DC United. This may be something that's not been calibrated correctly with the new streaming deal. I've seen some other ESPN+ hiccups as they learn on the fly.

 

Thanks, I will do that!

 

Keep us posted. Interested in logistics of things with ESPN+. I've seen some things that are definitely works in progress.

 

I have been wondering about ESPN+, but did not know if it was worth purchasing just to watch MLS. Not very happy with DK!

 

I live in the San Francisco Bay Area and I’m able to watch Earthquakes games on ESPN+. I don’t know if the fact that im logged in to my DirecTV account (where I get the RSN which shows the Earthquakes) on the ESPN+ app has anything to do with it, or whether ESPN+ users that aren’t authenticated with a cable/satellite/OTT provider would also be able to see the game. (I’ll test it out by logging out later.) On Direct Kick on DirecTV, I’d get a blackout message on any Direct Kick channel showing the Earthquakes with a message that it was searching for the proper channel, which would generally end in failure, even though I got the proper channel. It was really annoying when I just wanted to flip through the channels. I have the Sports Pack and I’d get a similar message on any out of market RSN that was showing a game on Direct Kick. I could only watch the out of market games on the Direct Kick channels and only watch the in market game on my local RSN.