Blackouts are Crippling Sports

After much thought on this subject over the years, I still don’t understand the need for Blackouts of Television coverage of sporting events.

As I was working tonight I thought it would be nice to use the MLB.com At Bat app for the iPhone to watch the Rockies take on the Dodgers at Coors Field here in Denver.  When I tried to load the TV broadcast I was told that I was in the local market and was unable to watch the game.  I have a home office that I do my work in, one that I specifically don’t have a TV in so I can focus when I work.  So I had no options to watch the game, only listen to the radio broadcast.  It just wasn’t the same.

Those who know me know that I am a huge Cubs fan.  The reason I am a huge Cubs fan is that I got to watch Cubs games growing up on WGN throughout the summer.  This is not the case anymore.  Most of the Cubs games that are broadcast on TV are done by Comcast Sports Net Chicago.  That is great for the people who live in Chicago, but as a Comcast subscriber in Denver, Colorado I am unable to get the network.  (I wish someone would explain to me why I can’t get a channel that is named after the provider I pay so much money to get service from)  The only way for me to enjoy those games would be to get DirecTV or Dish Network, and from what I hear the games are still blacked out.  This makes no sense to me.

The blackout process to me ultimately restricts people selling ads on those networks to just being able to sell ads to the local audience.  Though I may not make it to Chicago anytime soon, if I were to see an ad on during a Cubs game, I would make a mental note of that place and try to visit it when I do visit.  I do this all the time with Cubs radio broadcasts (Binny’s Beverage Depot is one I hear all the time on WGN Radio).

Blackouts also tell me that TV station and broadcast rights owners are still living in the 90s with their ways of thinking. This is the year 2009 and we have hit an explosion of new media sources across the web.  From services like Hulu we see how easy it is to monetize the web streaming process.

Years ago I bought a TiVo so I could fast forward through commercials, but the way that Hulu handles the ads makes me stop and watch them when they come on.  The MLB could take a hint from this.  Right now when a broadcast goes to commercial in the MLB At Bat app on the iPhone it just shows a banner that says the game is at commercial.  Why not sell ads spots here?  This would eliminate the need for people to pay so much money to watch the games on the web, and most likely earn money for MLB in the long run.

All in all I know that my thoughts fall on the deaf ears of the people who run Television stations and own the rights to various broadcast items, but I am hoping that over the next few years those people will wise up and realize that the web is here to stay and hopefully they can make it a better place to view what anyone wants to watch at any time.