New Sunday Ticket rule?

[FarAwayFanatic]

This is my sixth year for the Sunday Ticket. I live in Ohio, and I just flipped over to the Tampa Bay and San Fran game. It says it is not available in my area. So I called Directv, and after telling them my situation, they put me on hold for about 5 minutes, then came back and told me if my local channel is broadcating the game, they cannot broadcast it on the Sunday Ticket channel. The only games I have EVER had blacked out in 6 years is the Bengals, which I understand per the NFL blackout rules. When I argued that this has never happened before, she said she doesn't know what the previous years rules were, but that is the way it is now. WTF?! I can't get the local channels here, I get the LA and NY affiliates through Directv. Is anyone else experiencing this? It is crap! They are only supposed to blackout local teams! Should I raise some more ruckus, or is this the way you guys understand the rule to be?

 

[Shane]

Originally posted by FarAwayFanatic
This is my sixth year for the Sunday Ticket. I live in Ohio, and I just flipped over to the Tampa Bay and San Fran game. It says it is not available in my area. So I called Directv, and after telling them my situation, they put me on hold for about 5 minutes, then came back and told me if my local channel is broadcating the game, they cannot broadcast it on the Sunday Ticket channel. The only games I have EVER had blacked out in 6 years is the Bengals, which I understand per the NFL blackout rules. When I argued that this has never happened before, she said she doesn't know what the previous years rules were, but that is the way it is now. WTF?! I can't get the local channels here, I get the LA and NY affiliates through Directv. Is anyone else experiencing this? It is crap! They are only supposed to blackout local teams! Should I raise some more ruckus, or is this the way you guys understand the rule to be?

It really makes sense. No reason for them to broadcast a game that can be had on the local channel. Why cant you get the local channel????

 

[jon_nyaz]

Originally posted by FarAwayFanatic
This is my sixth year for the Sunday Ticket. I live in Ohio, and I just flipped over to the Tampa Bay and San Fran game. It says it is not available in my area. So I called Directv, and after telling them my situation, they put me on hold for about 5 minutes, then came back and told me if my local channel is broadcating the game, they cannot broadcast it on the Sunday Ticket channel. The only games I have EVER had blacked out in 6 years is the Bengals, which I understand per the NFL blackout rules. When I argued that this has never happened before, she said she doesn't know what the previous years rules were, but that is the way it is now. WTF?! I can't get the local channels here, I get the LA and NY affiliates through Directv. Is anyone else experiencing this? It is crap! They are only supposed to blackout local teams! Should I raise some more ruckus, or is this the way you guys understand the rule to be?

This is a new rule for this year. The local network affiliates complained because they have certain advertising slots that they use to sell adversiting to local companies. Their problem is if you watch the game on Sunday Ticket instead of on the local channel, those specific ads don't show up on screen because Sunday Ticket doesn't broadcast the local affiliate's game, they broadcast the national version only. So, the screen would just go blank when a local commercial came on.

The solution to your problem is to subscribe through Directv to your local channels. If you do that, you'll get local broadcast within 2 minutes of subscribing (I think I pay like $5/month for it). If that doesn't work, you'll need to get a basic cable subscription or good old-fashioned rabbit ears to get the local channels. I agree it's a pain unless you have the local channels already on Directv.

 

[FarAwayFanatic]

Well, we're supposed to get directv local channels here come the first of the year. And I can pull in the local channels with an antenna, but I don't have one hooked up on my "football" tv cause I never had the need. I was just a little ticked off because that has never happened to me before. It seems strange that this is the first time I have run into this. Thanks for setting me straight though.

 

[Stout]

Re: Re: New Sunday Ticket rule?

Originally posted by jon_nyaz
The solution to your problem is to subscribe through Directv to your local channels. If you do that, you'll get local broadcast within 2 minutes of subscribing (I think I pay like $5/month for it). If that doesn't work, you'll need to get a basic cable subscription or good old-fashioned rabbit ears to get the local channels. I agree it's a pain unless you have the local channels already on Directv.

That's the problem...Direct TV doesn't offer local channels for all areas. It's incomplete.

 

[jon_nyaz]

Re: Re: Re: New Sunday Ticket rule?

Originally posted by Stout
That's the problem...Direct TV doesn't offer local channels for all areas. It's incomplete.

That would be a problem, yes. I thought Ohio was covered.

 

[FischerKing]

I didn't know about it until I was burned on it a few weeks ago. I record about 5-6 games per week using Tivo through DirectTv, then watch then during the week. I came home and found that one of the games didn't record at all - I was ticked. I discovered that it had played on a local channel and just assumed that if it's playing locally then the 700's must black it out. I wasn't aware that it was a new ruling - however, I did think that it was a bit stupid of them to do that. They should have some message or warning on the screen regarding it.

Shawn