How to fix the FOX Blackout crap, my opinion anyway :)

by jeffro on Apr 11, 2009 11:41 PM PDT Comment 13 comments

So this rant got me to thinking.

It's true that the media situation for MLB sucks eggs.

There is a strange parallel between the leagues situation and the A's. In the past few years the A's have been all over the place on TV (Channel 36? FSN BA, FSN BA+ or the last few innings on either?). In that same time the MLB game of the week has been on TBS, ESPN, Food Network... Just kidding about the Food Network.

So how should it be fixed?

My simple plan requires MLB to make Fox do two things. Rip off the NFL, and rip off XM Radio.

First, the NFL ripping off: Make every team in the league schedule their Sunday games during the day and at one of two times (10:05 Pacific and 1:05 Pacific) save for one game, the Sunday Night contest.

By doing this, it would allow for the entire slate of games to be broadcast. If they followed the NFL modus operandi, certain local markets would get the local game while most of the country would get the "marquee match up." ESPN would still broadcast THE marquee match up at 5:00 Pacific.

The biggest difference between the NFL and MLB, as far as broadcasts go, is driven by the schedule. 162 games requires each team to have a TV Broadcast crew and a radio broadcast crew. Meanwhile, NFL teams only have radio broadcast teams and the networks provide the TV crews.

This would present a challenge. It would probably cost prohibitive for FOX to create 14 broadcast crews. That is why they would rip off XM and use the home teams broadcast crew for each Sunday broadcast. Heck, they could even combine thecrews of the two teams playing and change out the play by play guy to give eacht eam equal time. Either way, it would be fairly simple and cost FOX diddly.

There are other challenges for certain. The Rangers play in an undomed stadium in a place that gets hotter than jabanero salsa with no Coke Zero on hand to wash it away, for instance. This plan requires a change in the day of the week that FOX broadcasts games and "Sunday Baseball on TBS" would have to become "Saturday Baseball on TBS." These are just two of many things that would pop up.

What would you propose?

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Fox has its mid day block because they believe that if you will be watching FOX

instead of watching your home team. Until someone convinces them that people are not going to tune in to watch that game, and instead either wait for their home team game or listen to it on the radio, then they will keep doing that huge blackout swath.

Solution is simple. Just have teams start their Sat games after 1 PM PST, and avoid the blackouts.

Although I thought that if the game was on Cable, you did not have to black it out.

Chicago. Where the Dead can Vote. Where the Voters of Tomorrow are found in the Obituaries of Today.

by Zonis on Apr 12, 2009 12:05 AM PDT reply actions 0 recs

I think it's after 4pm PST

And until baseball ditches this awful Fox deal, they should do that.

CuttheMullet, from "The Thread":
"Whenever I’m about to do something, I think "would an idiot do that?" and if they would, I do not do that thing."

by DMOAS on Apr 12, 2009 12:49 AM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

If everyone refused to watch the Fox game,

and instead wore a sign on Saturday afternoon reading, “You expect me to listen to Tim McCarver talk about two teams I don’t root for?” I’ll bet Fox would do something. Like air three more reality shows about pathetic people desperately trying to get attention by agreeing to odd arrangements.

I like Cindi. A. She never pretends to know more than she does. B. She has unbridled enthusiasm for her "Hotties," and isn't afraid to show it. -IM4Oakgal

by Nico on Apr 12, 2009 9:08 AM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

Hey, no need to dump on my favorite shows!

Everything is sunshine when you are Ray Fosse, bitches.

by stormtown on Apr 12, 2009 9:18 AM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

"Meet Your New Nanny!"

Who cares if it scars the kids!!!

I like Cindi. A. She never pretends to know more than she does. B. She has unbridled enthusiasm for her "Hotties," and isn't afraid to show it. -IM4Oakgal

by Nico on Apr 12, 2009 9:55 AM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

Which creates a great lead in for:

“I’ll Make You Good!”

CuttheMullet, from "The Thread":
"Whenever I’m about to do something, I think "would an idiot do that?" and if they would, I do not do that thing."

by DMOAS on Apr 12, 2009 11:06 AM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

Re: Your idea for how to crew the broadcasts

I really wished they’d do this for all playoff games. Yes there are a lot of poor broadcasts teams out there, but at least it would give the games a certain intimacy that only someone who’s been following the team can really give. That and having both team’s crews in the booth together would create a much more interesting broadcast. Certainly worlds better than listening to 3 idiots who don’t know either team talk about the Yankees and Red Sox regardless of whether they’re playing or not.

CuttheMullet, from "The Thread":
"Whenever I’m about to do something, I think "would an idiot do that?" and if they would, I do not do that thing."

by DMOAS on Apr 12, 2009 12:48 AM PDT reply actions 0 recs

Are people happy with the NFL tv schedule?

I’m always seeing people criticiizing the game selection, and I hate that people in LA can watch 2 games each at 10 and 1 and people in the Bay Area often only get 2 total.

Everything is sunshine when you are Ray Fosse, bitches.

by stormtown on Apr 12, 2009 9:25 AM PDT reply actions 0 recs

Saturday Game of the Week is an anachronism; just get rid of it

When I first started watching baseball on television, most teams didn’t have many games on local television. In the Bay Area the A’s and Giants each had maybe 25 games a season on a local channel. The NBC Game of the Week with Curt Gowdy and Tony Kubek was something I looked forward to because it gave me a chance to see some players that I might only see a few times a season.

Now with just about every game on TV, plus all the highlight shows on ESPN and MLB Network, I don’t see why we need Saturday network telecasts. I know that the ratings for those games are low except in the participating teams’ local markets which would get the games locally anyway if the Fox broadcast didn’t exist.

Fox has MLB for the All-Star Game, its share of the playoffs and the World Series. I bet they’d make more money showing reruns of the week’s Bill O’Reilly shows on Saturday afternoons than they do televising baseball. Just let ESPN and TBS deliver all the national telecasts of regular season games without any of the blackouts and exclusivity except for the Sunday night game.

by Soaker on Apr 12, 2009 9:26 AM PDT reply actions 0 recs

Soaker! I'm about to email you - please check and then call me tonight!

I like Cindi. A. She never pretends to know more than she does. B. She has unbridled enthusiasm for her "Hotties," and isn't afraid to show it. -IM4Oakgal

by Nico on Apr 12, 2009 9:55 AM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

Considering MLB took a little over a Billion dollars from Fox with this deal there is no way MLB is going to change anything.

by Panamafan on Apr 13, 2009 9:48 AM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

I live in Texas and for some reason I can't watch the A's Pregame or Postgame...

I tried calling DirecTv yesterday and they told me it’s because of Fox/Comcast contract that only local Bay Area audiences can watch the Pregame and Post game. That’s not FAIR! I pay for the MLB Extra Innings and I can watch any sports channel because of the sports package that I have. I can watch any teams Pregame/Postgame show but I can’t watch the A’s! This SUCKS! I’m totally pissed because this is the only reason why I pay for the sports package so I can watch the programming for the A’s. And now they are telling me that I can’t! F*** you COMCAST! And I hate early Saturday games because those are blacked out too! F*** YOU FOX! I hate watching the Mets/Phillies/Yankees/RedSox……….etc.

Thank you.

Bobby Crosby's hamstring: "F*** You, Bobby!"

by LiZaRdReVoLuTiOn on Apr 13, 2009 10:38 AM PDT reply actions 0 recs

You forgot

the Cubs. They show up a lot.

"To this day and dating back 25 years, before every game he plays, Henderson stands completely naked in front of a full length locker room mirror and says, "Ricky’s the best," for several minutes."

by VORP is too nerdy on Apr 13, 2009 3:05 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs