No more territorial blackouts? (Fox blackout to remain)

[David]

http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news;_ylt=AppvwnGzEl7INNzwvUqJUFkRvLYF?slug=jp-blackouts080708&prov=yhoo&type=lgns

 

Baseball’s territorial blackouts, the scourge of so many frustrated television and streaming-video viewers, will be eliminated for the 2009 season if Major League Baseball’s executive council follows suggestions president Bob DuPuy plans on presenting next week.

 

At the owners’ meetings Wednesday, DuPuy said he will propose that if a team is not broadcasting in a geographic location for at least one season, it loses the right to black out games in that area. Gone would be the blackouts that prevent folks in Iowa and Las Vegas from seeing as many as six games each night and have caused viewing havoc throughout the country.

 

“I see no reason why there ought to be so many clubs able to black out in those territories,” DuPuy said. “That’s my intention. That’s my goal. I didn’t get any pushback. The whole thing is about making the game more popular and available.”

 

 

Such an idea clashes with the current territorial-rights rules, drawn up in the 1960s to gerrymander each team a specific area in which it could build its fan base. The rules have lagged behind the technology of the Extra Innings package and MLB.tv, both of which offer every game only to black out tens of millions of potential viewers nightly.

[CubbieBum]

Mannnnnn you got my hopes up. It's not no more blackouts its just no more places with multiple blackouts in areas the team doesn't even broadcast in. Change the title before others get tricked as well.

[Keener98]

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