I am amazed. I have whined about this for years. Back in the 90's I had Primestar satellite tv and wth EI you got both teams broadcasts. Then they were bought out by DTV and that came to a sad end. I just happened to look at the on screen guide for the games tomorrow and I see that almost every game is on two channels instead of one. For example, the Sox game is on 727 AND 728. The only explanation I can think of is we will now get our choice of broadcasts. I am giddy about this, not because Don and Jerry are so good, but because everyone else is so bad. No more having to watch Michael Kay!!! No more Ken Harrelson!!!

If there is another reason that almost all the games are on two channels I am going to be furious, but for now, I am giddy.


Edit: The schedule page on directv.com confirms it!!!! Those of you who aren't transplants will never understand how truly exciting this is.

unfortunately, this is not true for cable subscribers.
at least not w/ Comcast.

Wow. Is this really, truly, truly, really true? For real?

Goodbye, Joe Migrane.

Goodbye, Hawk.

Goodbye, Kay and friends.

Goodbye every last place team's announcing duo that's too bored with their crappy team to give a solid night's work.

I think I might need some alone time now. Just me, a big, fully nude picture of the DirecTV logo, and a tub of Crisco. This is awesome.

Now we just need to work on getting the back up FOX games and all will be well.

You would still be stuck with Remy and Orsillo though.

I really wish they would just mike the hell out of the field and let us listen to the game as opposed to 2 random jackasses who just beat their gums for four hours and laugh at their own crappy jokes.

totally agree.
there should absolutely be a way to mute the announcers and just hear the crowd.

Edit - So are you saying we get the home broadcasts in addition to the away broadcasts, simultaneously? Ala I don't have to hear Tampa Bay prick ass bitches with that fat **** heckler I want to knock out, or Jim Palmer boring me in my sleep in Baltimore?

Please say its so. I am so sick of NESN getting blacked out. I can deal with Fox or ESPN blackouts, but not regular EI games.

If this is true (and isn't for cable), then this pretty much guarantees that I'm getting DirecTV as soon as we move out of our current apartment complex and into a house.

This is my first year with EI....in previous years did they have the on screen interactive features like the standings, league leaders, etc...? It's pretty fantastic. I was surprised also about the dual broadcasts, I had endured a couple of rough years of the Joe Magrane's, Hawk Harrelson's and those awful Blue Jay broadcasts without graphics on mlb.tv.

That started last year. You can also view in game boxscores.

If you watch the game w/an AV receiver and get Dolby Digital 5.1, you could always disconnect the center channel speaker. Theoretically, that would "mute" the dialogue and only give you the ambient sounds.

Myself as well. Now if they would only get the HD broadcasting together...

One can get NESN with Direct TV outside of New England, no? I know it is available here in NY. NESN pre and post games and the game itself in HD sounds pretty tastey.

I'm still in the stone age (no HD yet) but it looks like there are a lot of HD games.... for example, todays schedule...



edit: I can't get it to format properly, but any game with a "-1" after the last channel is an HD feed

Thanks, but I don't believe they are broadcast in HD on Cablevision... All the more reason for me to switch to DirectTV.

Sorry, that is the Directv schedule.

It looks official. Directv is using both home & away feeds for all MLB EI
games this year. Sox fans all over the country will be able to see every
NESN game in either SD or HD(except for maybe 3 Saturday Fox blackouts).

Looks like I will be looking at DirectTV next summer then, already paid for this season with cable (Cox) but I might make the switch next year. Cable can't even get HD games on much less give both feeds and the A's broadcasters are lulling me to sleep...

Then again I won't be able to record shows in HD anymore like I can with cable... Why can't Cox just get their act together.

Holy sh*&. You just single handidly turned me lousy mood around.

This is UNREAL. AMAZING. I'm seriously pysched. Awesome Awesome Awesome.

(Seriously--if you live out of the area, you have no idea how bad it is to watch Sox games on Fox Sports East Bum. It really ruins it some nights.)

BigSlick I love you.

I just got off the phone with the (dumbass) rep at DTV. Since they didn't auto-renew me like every other year, I had to call and get the cheap rate added to the package. She didn't know anything about the package - but it looks like from the schedule its confirmed - no more away announcers!

This is enough to do a shot of Absolute, which I will do in your honor. Thanks for the heads up bud. I appreciate it!

As much as I would like to take credit for making this happen, all I did was send an email to Bud Selig a couple of years ago. Well, that and I was the first one to stumble upon the fact that they did it. But then again, why should I question someones love of me?

On the other end of the spectrum, EI is not even offered on Verizon Fios, which pisses me off. I get NESN being in MA, but still, they've got the free preview going on and I'd like to check out a few games, not to mention that while they are giving away the free EI preview you also get Center Ice, so I could keep tabs on the Bruins opposition in the playoff race. Verizon doesn't have the NHL network either but Comcast does and that is why I won't be renewing my contract with Verizon when it ends.

Okay, I'm having a weird/good issue. I get the sports pack on DTV and for some reason, i get everything on there. All the live games - Bruins, Celtics, sox and any other pro team that I shouldn't get. I do subscribe to EI, but should not be getting the NESN feed on NESN...Weird good, which I'm sure will be remedied soon...unfortunately...

Baseball and hockey are both in their free preview week. (They give you the last week of hockey to try to get you to buy the playoffs). I'm not sure about basketball.

But I'm getting the NESN feed on NESN as well as EI. As well as all regional sports networks and their teams, hoops, hockey and Baseball. I have no idea how this hapenned...I just ordered the sports pack on Monday, maybe that's why it's all "messed up" in my favor.

Why would you get NESN if you expected the games to be blacked out? Do you just really like infomercials? You know you can look at Hazel Mae online, right?

During the free previews, and afterwards if you buy the package, you can either watch the games on NESN or the NESN feed on the EI channels.



Buying NESN unblocks the pre and post game shows.

Tonight I have realized the one drawback to getting both broadcasts. The Yankees are playing the White Sox. That makes my choice in announcers similar to picking between a stick in the eye or a knee to the nuts.

the next thing we gotta do is get them, at least on Comcast, to not put a 7 pm EDT game, followed by a 10 pm EDT game, on the same channel.

game 1 always runs long and game 2 gets joined in progress.

there's enough channels to split them up, isn't there?

For me, this would be an easy choice. Hawk and Kay are maybe a wash (I'd actually take Kay), but Al Leiter is several orders of magnitude better than Chicago's color commentator. Flaherty doesn't even factor in, but I'd take him over the White Sox sidekick as well.

What they really need to do is get the package on Dish Network. The way things are now is stupid. I can watch the stupid Rays and Marlins but NESN and the fox networks, which I get, block out the game in other areas of the country. It is bass ackward if you ask me. Also I can't even get the replays of the game or other programing. Just pre and post game shows. It really sucks.

Replays are blacked out on Directv also. Not only that but they black out the week in review show, and even Sox Appeal.

Consider yourself lucky.

No. I want to know whether or not that one guy had ever cheated.

Also, I pay the $5 a month or whatever to get all the regional sports networks. They're not supposed to black out anything except for games. If I can watch the Yankeeography marathon on YES, I should be able to watch a half hour of chicks with too much makeup getting assaulted with bad pickup lines in the monster seats. I want to not watch because I choose not to watch, not because DirecTV doesn't understand its own blackout restrictions.

If it makes you feel better, I'll not watch for you...

I always found that amusing. They have a weekly show too, the Red Sox Report, or something and they don't show that - except in rain delays and then they can show it. Apparently if it shows any part of fenway park they can't put it on the air. YES operates on different rules. If the Yankees win one day, they play it the next day on "Yankee Classics".

From what I've been told, each network tells Directv what needs to be blacked out and NESN is overly aggressive in making sure they don't cross the line.

The rule reads something like...

<paraphrase> Any show that shows a considerable amount of baseball highlights must be blacked out to out of market viewers.
</paraphrase>

Somehow Sports Desk is ok, but Sox Appeal isn't.

A different complaint on the same subject is, I hate the F'ing Blue Jays. The FOX contract says that the package can't show games that start less than 3 hours before the FOX broadcast (3:55pm). The Blue Jays schedule their games at 1:07pm. If they would back it up by 15 minutes I could watch Saturday's game. Instead it's blacked out. Also, FOX is too stupid to include their backup broadcasts in EI. If they did it would increase viewership, but I guess they aren't interested in that.

But then who will not watch it for you?

I don't want you to go out of your way for me.

I guess, based on the BigSlick version of events, I will have to complain to NESN. Stop f**king with me, NESN. At least tell me if the guy had ever cheated. And tell me if that girl was really Tina Cervasio with a new haircut. She had the same number of teeth. (58. I counted.)

We get even more absurd baseball blackout rules down here. For instance, even though Baltimore is over 400 miles away, it's a local team. So if Baltimore plays it's on MASN. What used to suck was that they didn't have a lot of weekend games on satellite, they were on local TV in Baltimore so they'd be blacked out here. At least now we get to see all the games when the Sox play, and Jim Palmer is one of the more informed color analysts I've seen from other teams. I think Cincinnati also gets local team status and of course the Braves who are a mere 240 miles away.

Sorry to post this here in an only tangentially related topic, but it seems as though I am not allowed to start a thread anywhere in the forum.

Eff you, MLB.TV

I am a Sox fan living in Dallas. I used to be on DirecTV with the EI package to watch games. I realized that all I ever watched was Red Sox and some network TV, so I dropped DirecTV, got an antenna and an MLB.TV subscription online for a lot of money.

It is bad enough when they black out online the Red Sox Astros games that aren't covered on local broadcast TV.
It is bad enough when they black out online the Red Sox / Yankees Saturday afternoon (FOX) games to show Angels / Mariners or other such nonsense.
The last straw is when they black out both the ALDS and NLDS online because it is on TBS.

Eff them, I'm done.

I understand the purpose of a blackout from a business perspective. The broadcasters wish to protect their ad revenue. When I had DirecTV, I would just switch over to TBS. No big deal. However, I don't have cable and am using an online subscription. Just feed me the damn TBS feed. I'll watch their damn commercials!

If DirecTV allowed you to get JUST the EI package it would be OK. However, you are FORCED to carry a base package to get past this.

Eff you, MLB.