Why Are Baseball Games Blacked Out?

Many baseball fans are unaware that games are blacked out on television in certain areas. Find out why this is and how you can still watch your favorite team.

Overview of MLB’s blackout policy

As a result of Major League Baseball’s (MLB) exclusive national broadcast and cable television agreements, many baseball games each week are not televised in areas outside of each team’s designated home market. In these “blacked out” markets, MLB.TV subscribers cannot watch or listen to the live game audio or video broadcasts of these games.

In order to prevent baseball fans in blacked out markets from watching or listening to live game broadcasts that are not available in their local market, MLB imposes a blackout restriction on MLB.TV. Blackouts are determined based on the geographic location of a viewer and are generally imposed for live games that involve teams that:
-are playing in the same local television market;
-are playing in a nationally televised game; or
-are playing in a game that is being broadcast on an out-of-market sports package such as MLB Extra Innings.

How blackouts work

Baseball games are blacked out on TV for a variety of reasons. It could be that the game is being played in a ballpark that doesn’t sell out, so the league doesn’t want to televise it and risk having an empty stadium. Or, the game could be sold out and the league wants to encourage people to go to the ballpark.

Local blackouts

Local blackouts are when a game is not televised in your local market. For example, if the Yankees are playing the Red Sox and you live in Boston, you would be blacked out of the game on TV. The reason for this is that the game is considered “local” to Boston and is therefore only available on local channels.

National blackouts

blackout rules are designed to protect the local broadcaster of a particular MLB team. If a game is broadcast on a national network, it is blacked out on the local level. Check your local listings to see which games are blacked out in your area.

Why blackouts exist

In order to understand blackouts, one must understand the concept of exclusive rights. By law, Major League Baseball (MLB) and Minor League Baseball (MiLB) have exclusive broadcast rights within their territories. That means that no other entity can televise games without the express written consent of the league.

To protect ticket sales

When a game is blacked out, it means that you are unable to watch it on television. The main reason for blackouts is to protect ticket sales. By blacking out games, teams are encouraged to sell more tickets because fans will have no other choice but to come to the ballpark if they want to see the game.

Another reason for blackouts is when two teams share the same television market. In these cases, both teams want their fans to watch their games, so they black out the games of their opponents. This is done in order to prevent one team from getting all of the viewers in their shared market.

To encourage fans to watch games on TV

The main reason why baseball games are blacked out is to encourage fans to watch games on TV. By blacking out games, baseball fans are more likely to watch the game on TV and not go to the ballpark. This helps increase TV ratings and brings in more revenue for the team and the league. Another reason for blackouts is to protect ticket sales. If a game is blacked out in a particular market, fans in that market will be more likely to buy tickets to see the game in person.

How to get around blackouts

Use an out-of-market package

One way to watch a blacked out game is to purchase an out-of-market sports package. These packages, such as MLB.tv and NBA League Pass, show all the games for a particular sport, but they are only available to people outside of the teams’ local areas. For baseball, MLB.tv costs $24.99 per month or $118.99 for the entire season, while NBA League Pass costs $199.99 for the season.

Use a VPN

Virtual private networks, or VPNs, are a great way to get around blackouts. All you need is a subscription to a VPN service and a device that supports VPNs (most modern computers, smartphones, and routers do).

Once you have that set up, connect to a server in the location where the game you want to watch is being broadcast. For example, if you want to watch a game that’s being blacked out in your area but is being broadcast in another country, you would connect to a server in that country.

Once you’re connected, all of your internet traffic will go through the VPN server, meaning that any website you visit will think you’re in the location of the server rather than your actual location. This includes any website that’s checking for blackout restrictions.

So, if you connect to a server in Canada and visit MLB.tv, it will think you’re in Canada and let you stream the game even though it’s blacked out in your actual location.

FAQs about blackouts

TV blackouts are a common source of frustration for baseball fans. If a game is being televised in your local market, it will be blacked out on MLB.TV. In order to watch a blacked out game on MLB.TV, you must be located outside of the blackout area, or be connected to a VPN that allows you to bypass the blackout restrictions.

There are several reasons why games are blacked out. The most common reason is that one team’s television rights holder has not allowed the other team’s television rights holder to televise the game. This can happen when two teams share the same local market, or when one team’s rights holder (usually a regional sports network) has not struck a deal with MLB.TV to allow them to showgames outside of their normal coverage area.

Another reason for blackouts is MLB’s national television partners. ESPN, FOX and TBS all have exclusive rights to televise certain games each week, and those games will be blacked out on MLB.TV in order to protect the value of those national broadcasts.

Finally, some games are simply not available on MLB.TV due to licensing restrictions imposed by the teams or Major League Baseball itself. For example, some teams do not allow their games to be streamed online if they are also being broadcast on local radio.