MLB being sued over blackout rules

Crusaders

Crusaders

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MLB Faces Antitrust Suit Regarding Its TV Blackout Policies


Major League Baseball's television blackout policies are the subject of a class action antitrust lawsuit that was filed on Wednesday in the Southern District of New York. The plaintiffs in Garber v. MLB allege that the league has violated Sections One and Two of the Sherman Act by unfairly restricting its fans' ability to watch out-of-market broadcasts in two primary ways. First, through its MLB Extra Innings cable package and MLB.tv Internet package, MLB refuses to offer fans the ability to purchase just their favorite team's games, instead requiring consumers to purchase a package including all out-of-market MLB broadcasts. Second, both the Extra Innings and MLB.tv packages blackout any games broadcast locally via a regional sports network (RSN), meaning that fans cannot use those packages to watch their local team play, but must instead purchase a cable subscription to watch the games on their local RSN. The complaint alleges that these exclusive broadcasting policies drive up subscription fees for all cable consumers by enabling the RSNs to charge monopoly prices for their highly desirable sports programming. The Garber plaintiffs' complaint is available here, while MLB's specific blackout policies are explained here (and depicted in the accompanying map)...


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Hopefully this does something productive. MLB's blackout rules are a joke.
 
 
I never knew there was a big issue with the MLB blackout policy. These rules are pretty silly, but I'm not sure much can be done legally.
 
Bud Selig is the most glaring example I have ever seen of a nerdy kid who obviously got picked on his whole childhood, then grew up to be successful and is a complete dooche because he is still bitter over being picked on as a kid.
 
Stern just does whatever he wants.

Goodell is hated for all the extra rules and the "sissification" of the league.

Bettman is hated for favoritism (people say the NHL protects the big name players WAY more than the average "lunchpale" guy), expanding into the American South, and doing his best to keep hockey franchises in places like Phoenix while also seemingly doing his best to keep places like Quebec City and Hamilton (Toronto 2) from gaining one.

Selig is hated for just about everything, it seems.
 
Crusaders said:
I think this would have an effect on all of these types of sports packages.
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That would be great

Then I'd only have to pay $16 to see every Vikings and Canadiens game, instead of the combined $520 which it would cost now if I had both. Come on Justice System, do your job
 
I think the dumbest parts of the blackout rules is the exclusive time to networks and they still screw the people who pay for their broadcast packages. I pay for MLB.TV so I can see the Pirates and yet I still have to deal with only being able to watch Fox Saturday afternoons and ESPN Sunday nights.

But in their defense, I haven't seen any other sport offer the kind of broadcast package that MLB offers. I can't imagine the NFL giving viewers a chance to watch "condensed" games with all the time spent in commercials or between plays taken out the way MLB does, or show their games online with DVR features and archiving them so anyone can watch them anytime they want.
 
The NFL used to offer condensed games on DirecTV with the Sunday Ticket. They did it for a couple of years, but it must not have been that big of a hit.
 
The worst MLB policy is Fox Saturday Baseball. If your team's game is on Fox's regional coverage but a different game is shown in your market, you are SOL, even if you pay for MLB Extra Innings. This happens a lot as an out-of-market White Sox fan, most notably the day of Humber's perfect game.
 
How they pick where national games are shown is beyond moronic. Today, instead of Cubs vs Pirates, I'm getting Red Sox vs Rays.
 
I have MLB Extra Innings. Wanted to watch the Pirates' broadcast of Reds/Bucs because Kelch and Brantley suck together, but it is blacked out here. So dumb

#firstworldproblems
 
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