Game Blocked out in Tenn. Why?

tidefanintn · September 5th, 2004, 11:02 AM

I ordered the game and when it was time they blocked it out here in Middle Tenn. Does anyone know why? Great game to listen to! I just wish I could have been there or watched it on tv. I will be there next week! Great game Bama!
LIVE AND DIE A TIDE FAN

TIDEFAN17 · September 5th, 2004, 11:11 AM

I am not sure. I live in the Nashville area and ordered the game through comcast. The first 8 minutes of the game was blacked out on my TV and I was mad about that. Dunno what the problem was. Thank goodness next weeks game is nationally televised on ESPN2.

roll2tide · September 5th, 2004, 12:21 PM

blackouts are never determined by the broadcaster (cable/satelite company nor does ESPN have any sayso-theyd love you to watch im sure) and normally determined by the league/teams involved. being a home game....either Bama or the SEC office blacked the game out in surrounding areas. my guess.....black out in Bama so you'll order PPV. black out in TN and other areas because they dont directly make a whole lot of money off ESPN GP. the message: we either get the TV money, the PPV money, or you come see the game.

okbama · September 5th, 2004, 12:59 PM

I tuned in a 5:55 and the dish logo was up.At 6:00 the end of the Clemson game was on, The game went into ot and about 6:10 the bama game cut in. I assume that's what was going on there.

lnadell · September 5th, 2004, 01:05 PM

Don't feel bad the game was blacked out in Atlanta also. About 6:30 our friend Tim that manages Smith's Olde Bar came around and said the alumni assoc. had called to say there was a chance the game would be blacked out, even though everybody showing the game in Atlanta had followed the instructions given by the University to get the game but we would not know until the game started at 7:00. Sure enough it was blacked out, thankfully they had a sattelite expert around who was able to tinker around and pirate the signal, although because it was a pirated feed we didn't have any sound, but hey watching is better then nothing at all. I think the problem is that ESPN now own all the pay-per-view rights for college games and so schools cannot give out the direct signal numbers anymore, and if ESPN decides to black a game out in certain markets there is not much the schools can do about, so basically ESPN has all the cards.

tmcabee · September 5th, 2004, 01:08 PM

I'm in Atlanta (Smyrna, actually) and watched the game on ESPN Gameplan via DirecTV. I did miss the first 4-5 minutes however, due to OT in the Clemson-Wake Forest game which was shown previously on the same channel (770).

mikeua69 · September 5th, 2004, 01:31 PM

It was blacked out in B'ham too. I watched about 5 min of the first quarter and it cut off.