silver lining wise... does this increase attendance at watching parties (assuming the bar has twx)? will londoner greenville be the place that finally drags me from my sofa for road games? can i invite people over to watch my new tv and make friends irl instead of my pretend friends that i follow on twitter? will there be a downtown/uptown/lakewood group meeting up to watch away games? i sympathize with my non-twx fcd faithful, but damn i am looking forward to true HD games on channels i can actually find with sturm/followill along with legit pre/postgames. in your frustration, please do find some sliver of happiness for those of us who are stuck with craptastic twx and have finally been thrown a bone.
As long as games aren't blacked out on MLS live I'm not quite as bothered by this, but I still think it's a shit, audience-limiting move.
If MLS Live is something I can enjoy on my Apple TV and not have blacked out games, then that takes some if the sour taste out of my mouth. But it still stinks. MLB has their Internet presence down. I wish MLS would take a page from their book.
I live in Frisco. I have Verizon FiOS, and I love it (with the exception that my DVR HD space is too small). I had DirectKick 2 years ago and I hated it. I DVR'd the games last year that we did not attend. I bought MLS Live for this year with the Promo Code soonerfan posted on Big D Soccer making it $49.99, after FCD's twitter feed promised no games would be blacked out. I plan to pickup the $99 Roku and attempt to watch the games on my television. I am hoping there are other benefits to picking up MLS Live (the condensed versions of matches sounds pretty nice, especially for viewing other teams) and the Roku (like streaming Netflix in HD (HDMI cable from Roku, instead of through our Wii). I do not like the alienation of all fans that do not have TWC, but I am a sucker and I must watch my hometown team, also, my wife is not so excited about dropping $150 so I can watch FCD.
I think I'm going to give MLS Live a try this season in lieu of Direct Kick, which I usually get. Actually, I take that back. If FCD is serious about being able to watch them on Direct Kick if we don't have the means to acquire TWC (which I still don't know how they can determine this), then I will get it again on DirecTV when I move back to the area in a few months. I just still don't trust an internet stream over a true TV broadcast. I guess a good experiment will be this weekend when Direct Kick will have a free preview. Everyone who has another provider other than TWC and can't acquire TWC, see if the game is showing on your Direct Kick feed this weekend please.
Hmm, I don't think that's gonna be the case here. The Rangers have a 20 (!) year contract with FSSW starting next year I believe. Cowboys will never have to deal with a cable network deal, so the only hope would be to grab the Mavs and Stars. I find it hard to believe Cuban is going to go to a niche channel like this, when he owns one himself. The Stars get better rating than FCD, but they still do wouldn't be the driving force to create a network that could be sold to other providers.
Yeah, I found that out after I wrote all that. A channel which doesn't show the Mavs? It's funny that you should mention that. Cuban said the following a year and a half ago: As the blog (actually the DaMN) mentions, the Mavs are with FSSW until the 2016-17 season, but that's only as ironclad as the size of the buyout. And we don't know when their deal with FSSW is up, although with their recent time in bankruptcy, I can't imagine that it would be too long or too lucrative. Look, I'll be the first to say that this is just speculation on my part, but this is the direction that sports TV is headed. Comcast has managed to cut Fox out of most of their major markets, and it would appear that TWC is headed in the same direction. They're part owners of Sportsnet New York with the Mets, they're paying a ton of money to the Lakers to be on TWC SportsNet in LA, they're paying the Galaxy to be on TWC SportsNet (which in MLS is almost unheard-of), and they're paying a ton of money to the Dodgers to be on a new Sportsnet LA channel starting next year. But still, it does suck for local non-TWC subscribers in D/FW who want to watch FCD this season.
Just FYI: I posted this in the Houston forum since there is some interest in the blackout policy this year since CSN Houston isn't on much beyond Comcast. Direct Kick blackout guidelines are up for this season now: http://tsq.com/alerts/MLS DIRECT KICK blackouts 2013.pdf Unless they lift it on a special basis, games on CSN Houston and KPRC are supposed to be blacked out from Direct Kick in the Houston area. Interestingly, Dallas games on the TWC Dallas channel are blacked out throughout the entire state (El Paso, Corpus, even Houston!). Apparently the Dallas TV territory is larger or the Dynamo just don't want to blackout around the state.
Great info. Based on pdf, anyone in Dallas hoping to not be blacked out out because their apartment complex doesn't offer TWC can forget about it. RE Dallas/Houston regions: My guess is the entire state of Texas was made the Burn's region in 1996 when the league started. When the Dynamo joined, they were assigned a normal region around Houston, but they didn't reduce the size of Dallas' region because we have such a massive fan base across the state!
Order MLS Live, it's cheaper, if you have a Roku or a laptop and FC Dallas has already confirmed no blackouts this year.
I'm pretty sure that Texas was designated as Dallas' home territory in the beginning. I can recall watching Dallas Burn games on FSSW (it may have been Prime Sports then) back in the late 90s and even about 10 years ago a local Houston UHF channel 51 carried some Dallas games on TV. I vividly remember some Saturday night games being on, only because I was suprised to see them on that channel (although 51 seemed to carry all sorts of syndicated sports broadcasts then)
Oh, I already purchased MLS Live. Just pointed that out for the people that were holding out hope for DK.
I used POR2013 And I saw this posted PHI2013 Looks like the 3 letter code for a team followed by 2013 does it (or did it not sure if they still work). So i'd guess FCD2013 would work.
Chris Bettin @chrisbettin We just published MLS for Roku Version: 2.1! Expect higher quality streams.
So did anybody in the DFW area who was not in (or in too) a TWC area and got Direct Kick watch the FCD game on TV or did it get blocked out? When I got home around 1030 a sports feed/show was on 472 (?) so maybe it was shown.
I already spend way too much on TV. I have ATT U-verse. I have to buy every stupid English and Spanish channel in the US just to get GOL TV, all the ESPNs, and Fox Soccer. And now I can't get BeIN Sport, so I still don't get all the good soccer channels!!!! We can't get Time Warner in Fort Worth, so going to a local bar to watch games isn't even an option. This deal reminds me of when the NHL sold their games to Sportschannel. Who? Exactly. It was only available on the east coast. Thanks to that deal, many of us missed seeing a golden age of hockey featuring Wayne Gretzky. The NHL missed capitalizing on the greatest player to ever play their game just to get a big check. This is definitely not a "Major League" deal.
Well, I'll be polishing up on my Spanish. It's going to be a long radio season. Is the MLS app still going? I guess twitter will be the only way I get live info on the matches. Twitter will be my eyes and ears. Thanks HSG!
I attended the home opener and came home to review the Direct Kick feed - only to see "Blacked out for some bullshit reason etc..." A day later the game was rebroadcast on Colorado's Altitude network which I recorded and watched. I don't like this TWC bullshit. I don't give a fat fcuk if it benefits the FCD organization. I BENEFIT THE FCD ORGANIZATION YOU MUTHERFCUKERS! I'm a 13 yr plus season ticket holder and supporter group member fan. I'm one of the few MoFos in the DFW area who will SEEK OUT a broadcast of this team. Every week. I make the effort every season. What effort does FCD make for me in 2013?