Someone Please Explain Sunday NFL Ticket Blackouts

[Greg Ambrosius]

Someone please explain this one to me: Are NFL blackouts also part of the NFL Sunday Ticket on DirecTV? I love to watch the Game Mix with all 8 games on one channel and yesterday during the early games the Atlanta-Tampa Bay and Oakland-Cincinnati games weren't part of the Game Mix. On the scroll below, it said those games couldn't be shown on the Game Mix as part of the NFL's local television rules. I assume that means the blackouts. Then in the doubleheader games in which there were only 3, the Baltimore-San Diego game wasn't part of the Game Mix. Sucks.

Now if I'm paying $300 a year to DirecTV and the NFL for this package, why the hell are they blacking out games on the Game Mix? They were still available on 712 and the other channels, but they weren't available on the Game Mix. It makes no sense. I'M ALREADY PAYING FOR THIS!!

I know the easy solution is to just flick to the games or to watch Red Zone, but again I'm paying for the Game Mix and why the hell do I care if the NFL blacks out the games in the local markets. Am I the only one complaining about this? Did it only happen to me? I know this has happened before, but yesterday's top game was Atlanta-Tampa Bay and I wish that had been part of the Game Mix. Oh well, the NFL controls everything, even when we pay for it.

Next week I'll just go to Lambeau Field to watch a live game, where the Packers block wireless access inside the stadium so that I can't follow my fantasy players. You have to love the NFL, which controls everything even after you pay them to enjoy their games.

[Ry's Guys]

Amen Brother!!! I felt the same way. With the Thanksgiving games I only had Julio and D. Moore going at noon yesterday. Turn on the game mix only to find neither of those games were on. It sucks! I'm not in their local market and as you said I paid for it! Same thin in the afternoon as my opponent had Ravens on his squad.
One tip Greg. If you have the Sunday Ticket App which is free with the subscription we are talking about you could flip on the game on your mobile device. Not the same but atleast I knew when ATL had the ball and I could flip around. Same with the Raiders/Cincy game. Worked like a charm. Unfortunately for some odd reason the Bal/SD game could not be shown on the app due to local blackout restrictions?!? That really confused me. How was I able to watch the earlier games on the app?

Don't get me started on the terrible WIFI at Soldier Field...

On a side note c'mon Bucs fans you've got a decent team that's exciting to watch sell the place out!

[Money]

Someone please explain this one to me: Are NFL blackouts also part of the NFL Sunday Ticket on DirecTV? I love to watch the Game Mix with all 8 games on one channel and yesterday during the early games the Atlanta-Tampa Bay and Oakland-Cincinnati games weren't part of the Game Mix. On the scroll below, it said those games couldn't be shown on the Game Mix as part of the NFL's local television rules. I assume that means the blackouts. Then in the doubleheader games in which there were only 3, the Baltimore-San Diego game wasn't part of the Game Mix. Sucks.

Now if I'm paying $300 a year to DirecTV and the NFL for this package, why the hell are they blacking out games on the Game Mix? They were still available on 712 and the other channels, but they weren't available on the Game Mix. It makes no sense. I'M ALREADY PAYING FOR THIS!!

I know the easy solution is to just flick to the games or to watch Red Zone, but again I'm paying for the Game Mix and why the hell do I care if the NFL blacks out the games in the local markets. Am I the only one complaining about this? Did it only happen to me? I know this has happened before, but yesterday's top game was Atlanta-Tampa Bay and I wish that had been part of the Game Mix. Oh well, the NFL controls everything, even when we pay for it.

Next week I'll just go to Lambeau Field to watch a live game, where the Packers block wireless access inside the stadium so that I can't follow my fantasy players. You have to love the NFL, which controls everything even after you pay them to enjoy their games.

The reason it's blacked out on the game mix is so the local market has no chance of seeing the game. They do not have the capability of providing different game mix's per market. When the game mix first came out the blacked out games were included. The NFL closed this loophole the following year. I live just south of LA in Orange County and because we're within a certain radius of San Diego we could not get that game anywhere, local or direct tv. The red zone channel was the only way to see glimpses of it throughout the day. I'm sure the NFL will figure how to close that one two.

These jackasses are making billions of dollars off of us and they screw with you anyway they can. Their comeback would be that they are protecting their product. When is enough, enough?

[Fourslot40]

The baseball package offered by DirecTV is even worse. For most of the season, they blacked out all Saturday night games. You could only see the 1pm - 4pm starts. DirecTV blames the MLB commissioner for calling the ball on these blackouts. It seems silly to me that you are "paying" for a product, but can not watch what you are paying for because of money.

[Greg Ambrosius]

Thanks for the explanation guys, but it still doesn't make sense for the NFL Sunday Ticket to show the entire game on say channel 712 (Chargers-Ravens) but not have it on the Game Mix on 702. They aren't blacking out the entire game for pay subscribers; in fact it's on full screen if you just want to watch that one game. So why is it blacked out on the one small screen among the field of 8 games?? Totally stupid and inconvenient. Remember, the Sunday Ticket was $199 this year, but an extra $100 if you wanted the Red Zone and Game Mix. So I'm paying $100 for this channel and they are blacking out multiple games per week from that extra service. It makes no sense at all.

The MLB Extra Innings package excludes Saturday games because of their national TV contract with Fox. As part of the deal to extract more money, MLB agreed to black out all games from MLB Extra Innings during their national broadcasts. Again, it makes no sense since they are restricting the rights of the die-hard baseball fans who paid extra to watch Fox and every other game that day. Seems like they are cutting off the hand that feeds them, but I'm sure it was enough to get Fox to pay more $.

[wiljiro]

I watch my games on the Sunday Ticket App on my IPad -

To log in, you need to "Allow" your location - So the local games on Network TV are NOT viewable on the Ipad -

Only way to see anything from these games is to watch the Red Zone tab -

Very annoying

Wiljiro

[Money]

Thanks for the explanation guys, but it still doesn't make sense for the NFL Sunday Ticket to show the entire game on say channel 712 (Chargers-Ravens) but not have it on the Game Mix on 702. They aren't blacking out the entire game for pay subscribers; in fact it's on full screen if you just want to watch that one game. So why is it blacked out on the one small screen among the field of 8 games?? Totally stupid and inconvenient. Remember, the Sunday Ticket was $199 this year, but an extra $100 if you wanted the Red Zone and Game Mix. So I'm paying $100 for this channel and they are blacking out multiple games per week from that extra service. It makes no sense at all.

The MLB Extra Innings package excludes Saturday games because of their national TV contract with Fox. As part of the deal to extract more money, MLB agreed to black out all games from MLB Extra Innings during their national broadcasts. Again, it makes no sense since they are restricting the rights of the die-hard baseball fans who paid extra to watch Fox and every other game that day. Seems like they are cutting off the hand that feeds them, but I'm sure it was enough to get Fox to pay more $.

They are blacked out totally in the local viewing area. So while you were able to get the charger game in Wisc on channel 712 that channel did not exist this weekend to direct tv S. Cal subscribers. If it was in the mix the S. Cal folks could view it, so they exclude it because they cannot separate the mix by market like they can the individual feeds.

I hope that makes sense.

[Greg Ambrosius]

Thanks for the explanation guys, but it still doesn't make sense for the NFL Sunday Ticket to show the entire game on say channel 712 (Chargers-Ravens) but not have it on the Game Mix on 702. They aren't blacking out the entire game for pay subscribers; in fact it's on full screen if you just want to watch that one game. So why is it blacked out on the one small screen among the field of 8 games?? Totally stupid and inconvenient. Remember, the Sunday Ticket was $199 this year, but an extra $100 if you wanted the Red Zone and Game Mix. So I'm paying $100 for this channel and they are blacking out multiple games per week from that extra service. It makes no sense at all.

The MLB Extra Innings package excludes Saturday games because of their national TV contract with Fox. As part of the deal to extract more money, MLB agreed to black out all games from MLB Extra Innings during their national broadcasts. Again, it makes no sense since they are restricting the rights of the die-hard baseball fans who paid extra to watch Fox and every other game that day. Seems like they are cutting off the hand that feeds them, but I'm sure it was enough to get Fox to pay more $.

They are blacked out totally in the local viewing area. So while you were able to get the charger game in Wisc on channel 712 that channel did not exist this weekend to direct tv S. Cal subscribers. If it was in the mix the S. Cal folks could view it, so they exclude it because they cannot separate the mix by market like they can the individual feeds.

I hope that makes sense.

It does Joe, but it's still stupid on the NFL's part. You PAID FOR THIS SERVICE.

So you didn't have the Chargers game on 712 and you didn't have the Chargers game on the Game Mix either? And everyone else gets the Chargers game on 712, but not on the Game Mix?? That's the part that makes no sense to me. I understand they can't separate the Game Mix by market, but I'm sure they could if they wanted to. So they are excluding that game to millions of paid subscribers because they can't figure out how to separate the Game Mix by markets? I don't buy it.

Again, don't charge me an extra $100 for this service if several games a week are going to be blacked out. Or give me some of that money back. I'm paying for all of these games on Game Mix. It's not my fault Tampa fans don't want to support their local team.

This is as dumb as the rule that says you can't review a scoring play if the head coach throws a challenge flag!! Sorry to do that to you, but it's been that kind of weekend for some of us Packers and Lions fans.