Blackout regions are a sports fan’s worst nightmare.
If you’ve dealt with one while trying to watch your favorite team, even the slightest mention of a regional sports network can send you into a crazed mental breakdown. If you aren’t aware of the issue, then consider yourself lucky, because blackout regions have to be the dumbest thing in all of media. Especially for people that live near their favorite NBA, NFL, MLB or other professional team.
For example, if you’re a fan of the Memphis Grizzlies and you live in the surrounding Memphis area, you have two legal options to watch them play:
– Go to the game in person
– Have a TV subscription that includes regional sports networks (like Bally Sports, which filed for bankruptcy last year yet still holds the rights to games)
In the modern age of television, not a lot of people have basic cable. Many have decided to cut the cord, so if people do have a TV subscription, it’s likely streaming TV. And low and behold, regional sports networks are usually only included in cable television, not streaming.
You might be thinking, “Well what about subscribing to those MLB and NBA season long passes? Those surely get you the games you want to watch if you are paying for them, right?” Wrong. Even if fans pay their hard earned money directly to the respective league’s streaming service, the regional sports networks still maintain the rights to in-market games, thus have the power to enforce blackout regions.
It’s all really, really outdated and really, really, really stupid. Despite outcry from fans, it doesn’t seem like many sports leagues are doing anything to change it. And when I say outcry, I mean screaming videos like this one below from a Cleveland Cavaliers fan who just wanted to watch their favorite team play in the NBA playoffs.
He was ripping whoever would listen to his angry rant about not being able to watch a team close to the city he lives in play a super meaningful postseason game:
“Does the NBA want to grow the game or do they want to prevent their fans from watching their f**king games? I’m a Cavs fan in Cleveland, Ohio and I can’t watch my damn team in the playoffs without a f**king Bally Sports subscription. And guess what? Even if I did have a subscription to that sh*tty ass platform, sometimes it doesn’t even f**king work.”
EXACTLY. PREACH.
Whoops, sorry. I’m trying to stay as neutral as possible here, but I too am a victim of the horrid blackout regions. My favorite MLB team is the Atlanta Braves, and though I live almost five hours away from Atlanta, in an entirely different state, I’m blacked out from watching my favorite baseball team.
So I love when someone else tries to stick it to the man like this guy, because he’s speaking for all of us suffering from RSN. This Cavaliers fan apparently hates Bally Sports with a passion, because he continued and concluded his anti-blackout monologue with this:
“You know what the best thing about talking sh*t about Bally Sports is? They can’t afford to hire a f**king hitman on me anyways. They’re going to file for Chapter 7 bankruptcy sometime again soon. What are we even doing? Why is this game not accessible to everybody on national television? It’s the f**king NBA playoffs. What are we doing? Figure it out!”
In conclusion, it’s 2024 and no one plugs their TV into a cable line anymore. Let’s get with the times and end the blackouts shall we? It would certainly lower the blood pressure of a lot of sports fans, including this Cavaliers fan who just wants to watch his team compete in the postseason.
