BaseballReflections.com Question Answering Service

By Bill Jordan
Updated: December 27, 2008

Recently, one of this site’s readers has a question about television blackouts and why he wasn’t able to see the games of his favorite team.

His exact question was:

I live in Terre Haute, Indiana, and I would consider myself a die hard Cubs fan. Anyway, for some reason my cable company, Time Warner Cable, does not carry Comcast Sportsnet Chicago even though both the Cubs and White Sox claim Terre Haute is part of their area as per the MLB Blackout may that can be found on Wikipedia. The Reds and Cardinals also claim us, and we do have FSN Ohio (Reds) and FSN Midwest (Cardinals). I don’t understand this. If we are considered the territory for the Reds, White Sox, Cubs and Cardinals, then shouldn’t we get all the FSN’s that have these teams? U was told by Time Warner that they do not carry it because of the blackout policy. I contacted CSN Chicago and was told that they wished to be on in Terre Haute. I checked with both Dish Network and DirecTV, and CSN Chicago is provided with some of their more basic packages. I don’t understand any of this/ Is someone lying to me or is it a complex legal problem? Any answers or insights that you could provide would be greatly appreciated.

After checking with many sources, the most useful answer on the issue came from Maury Brown, president of the Business of Sports Network.

His reply was:

While the territory might be available to one carrier or another, it has to do with agreements between those carriers and MLB. As an example, Comcast SportsNet Portland is available in my area, but I have DirecTV. DTV does not have an agreement for carriage of CSNP, so I wind up missing Portland Trailblazer games.

Baseball Reflections encourages readers to submit their questions about any aspect of the world of baseball to either one of their e-mail addresses (which can be found in the “About Us” tab at the top of the website). If neither member knows the answer, they will be sure to track down someone who does, as was the case this time.

Bill Jordan is a contributor to BaseballReflections.com. He can be reached by e-mail at [email protected].