The In's and Outs of Sports Blackouts

Have you ever sat down to watch your favorite team play the big game and at the beginning of the game or even some odd minutes into the game you see a message pop up saying "This program has been blacked out in your area" or "This program is not available in your area" and you call into your cable or satellite provider and start yelling and asking where your game is? Well, this frustrating event is called a Blackout and it has nothing to do with your provider. Let me explain...

In broadcasting, a blackout is when certain programming, usually sports, cannot be televised in a certain media market. The purpose is theoretically to generate more money by obligating certain actions from fans, either by making them buy tickets or watch other games on TV.

As a result of contractual agreements between professional sports leagues and broadcasters, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) may sometimes require to blackout some games of sports teams. The Sports Blackout Rule protects the holder of the exclusive distribution rights to a local sporting event (i.e. a sports team). The sports blackout rule is only applied if a local TV broadcast station is not carrying the local sporting event.

Therefore, if a local TV broadcast station does not have permission to carry the local game, then no other broadcaster's signal displaying the game can be shown in the protected local blackout zone. If a national broadcasting service like ABC, NBC, CBS, or FOX has national rights to broadcast a game, customers may not be able to receive that game, depending on their local market. All sports packages through every provider are subject to blackouts, there are no exceptions.

Sometimes also, the local cable company will buy the rights to a game and it will end up being blacked out on all of the Regional Sports Networks and only be available to cable subscribers.

Blackouts occur typically within 50 miles, and can include provinces and territories. Each league has differed blackout rules that can change at any time. Blackouts can also apply to Pay Per View sporting events and can change without notice.

In the NFL, any broadcaster that has a signal that hits any area within a 75-mile radius of an NFL stadium may only broadcast a game if that game is a road game, or if the game completely sells-out 72 hours or more before the start time for the game. If sold out in less than 72 hours, or is close to being sold out by the deadline, the team can request a time extension. The broadcaster is also not permitted to show a game even if it is a sold out home game in markets where there are two teams if one of the teams did not sell out their seats. Furthermore, broadcasters with NFL contracts are required to show their markets' road games. These requirements based on attendance mean that as a general rule, fans of teams with winning records will get to see all of their teams games on television, while fans of sub-.500 teams will only see the road games on television. Sometimes if a game is very close to selling out, but not quite there, a broadcaster with rights to show the nearly sold out game, will buy the remaining tickets (and give them to local charities) so it can broadcast the game. If blacked out, the broadcaster will air other programming, usually an alternate football game, instead. If it is a cable channel, like ESPN, the channel's signal will be blocked from the area. Fans can still hear the game on the radio, or get updates on the internet.

For satellite customers, Regional Sports Networks are based on zip codes, however for cable customers it is based on county boundaries. This is because of the technical differences in how the satellite and cable signals are distributed. Under no circumstances are you able to call up your satellite provider and lie to change your physical address in order to receive the signal to receive your game. This is called satellite signal theft and can be identified and pursued to the fullest extent of the law.

Now that you know what is going on when you see the above said messages on your television screen and know that your provider has no control over what is happening, then you have no reason to call and scream and yell at the poor agent on the other end of the line who can't do anything about what has happened.