I hate Sportsnet.

[Cleveland Steam Whistle]

Originally Posted by dissentowner

Great, but this is a Saturday game. You know, the day when Sportsnet broadcasts all the Canadian teams except us apparently. I can't recall seeing any other teams blacked out. I know there were a couple Oiler afternoon games and they were not blacked out.

Your anger is directed in the wrong direction. Sportsnet would likely happily show you the Flames game rather than the American teams, but the Flames and the NHL likely wanted more money than would be worth for them to buy the national rights for a game that starts at 4pm eastern when 99% of the viewing audience in your region is going to turn in the Leafs an hour later.

[GioforPM]

I am old enough to remember getting one game per week. Well, Montreal on channel 11, in French.

[Erick Estrada]

I remember as a kid staying up until 11:30 on a Sunday night just to see a replay clip of maybe two goals total from a Flames game in say Quebec City. That was as much as you would get a lot of the time in the 80's.

[GioforPM]

Oh, my one game a week was for any team (and by any team I mean Toronto or Montreal). When the Flames started we'd get one additional game per week on 2/7.

[Jacks]

Things have progressed a lot since the 80's guys, there is a thing called the internet now. If you pay for the NHL package you should be able to watch all the games. They are just shooting themselves in the foot by offering no (reasonably simple) paid alternative to illegal streams.

[CaptainCrunch]

Originally Posted by CsInMyBlood

Jeez, back when I was a kid we were lucky if we got 8 Flames games on TV in an entire season.

NOW GET OFF MY LAWN.

We were lucky to get 30 games a year when 2&7 was running games because on the weekends unless your playing the Leafs or Canadians you didn't see them on hockey night in Canada. When they ran one game on Saturday.

[Finger Cookin]

Isn't Sportsnet still largely hobbled by its origins as a regional network with regional TV deals? It's contractual stuff preventing games from being broadcast nationally. Not technology or lack of benevolence or anything. At least as I understand it?

Are regional TV deals for teams going away for other NHL teams? For teams in other pro sports leagues in North America? Or around the world? I don't know.

It will be interesting to see if these deals are updated with the Flames, Oilers, Canucks, etc when they come up for renewal with Sportsnet. Only time will tell.

[GioforPM]

Originally Posted by Jacks

Things have progressed a lot since the 80's guys, there is a thing called the internet now. If you pay for the NHL package you should be able to watch all the games. They are just shooting themselves in the foot by offering no (reasonably simple) paid alternative to illegal streams.

It's not not Sportsnet though, it's the licence from the NHL.

[Textcritic]

There are 39 nationally televised Flames games this year. The outrage in this thread is ridiculous.

[Dion]

Originally Posted by Textcritic

There are 39 nationally televised Flames games this year. The outrage in this thread is ridiculous.

Indeed! I grew up watching hockey before the Flames came to Calgary. I was a Bruins fan then and was lucky to see them on HNIC when they played either the Leafs, Habs or Canucks.

[Snuffleupagus]

Originally Posted by DeluxeMoustache

I have Telus and watched SNW on the Optik TV app on my phone when in a hotel in Ontario that didn’t have SNW

And it got better, last year Telus had the stupid "home" key in the channel guild which meant you could only watch that channel from your home tv(sportsnet one was on the list) but now it's wide open, every channel you subscribe to is available on the app.

dissentowner:

If you have a smart TV and a buddy in Calgary willing to give you his telus TV acct info you're in business. If not, just spend the $150.00 for all hockey games

[Inferno]

Yeah, it's pretty ridiculous. Until this year when Rogers took away GameCenter Live for subscribers it wasn't an issue for me. No way am I spending that much to just watch one team. When somebody pays for a channel like Sportsnet they should be able to watch whatever game they want.

[カナダ人です]

You think their television broadcast sucks (which it does), you should listen to SN radio stations... absolutely brutal!

[hwy19man]

Originally Posted by dissentowner

OK, I will take a picture of my tv tmrw that shows it is blacked out in my region. It was last Saturday.

You have misinterpreted my signature. I want Sportsnet to all Saturday games, that is why I say they "must" do that. This is the reason why I complain to Sportsnet.

[topfiverecords]

Originally Posted by Snuffleupagus

And it got better, last year Telus had the stupid "home" key in the channel guild which meant you could only watch that channel from your home tv(sportsnet one was on the list) but now it's wide open, every channel you subscribe to is available on the app.

dissentowner:

If you have a smart TV and a buddy in Calgary willing to give you his telus TV acct info you're in business. If not, just spend the $150.00 for all hockey games

That won’t matter. His IP will still be out of region.

[Mightyfire89]

Oh for pete’s sake. Be happy you can watch almost every Flames game now. In the 80s we got to watch about 25 games a year or so, maybe approaching 50 a year in the early to mid ‘90s.

Pissing and moaning about this stuff is such BS

[getbak]

Originally Posted by Finger Cookin

Isn't Sportsnet still largely hobbled by its origins as a regional network with regional TV deals? It's contractual stuff preventing games from being broadcast nationally. Not technology or lack of benevolence or anything. At least as I understand it?

Are regional TV deals for teams going away for other NHL teams? For teams in other pro sports leagues in North America? Or around the world? I don't know.

It will be interesting to see if these deals are updated with the Flames, Oilers, Canucks, etc when they come up for renewal with Sportsnet. Only time will tell.

The teams want the regional deals. It's better to get 100% of the money from a regional broadcast than 1/31 (soon to be 1/32) of the money from a national broadcast.

There are very few nationally televised games in the US at all. NBCSN shows one or two games per week; the main NBC network shows one or two games a week, mostly after the Super Bowl; and NHL Network picks up a handful of games throughout the season too. Some teams appear on national broadcasts quite often, such as the large-market teams like Chicago and the Rangers, most teams are hardly ever on national broadcasts.


MLB and NBA broadcast deals are very similar to the NHL's. A small number of national games, mostly featuring the high-drawing teams, with the rest available through a regional broadcaster.

The NFL is the only North American league where every game is under a national network contract. Even then, the availability to subject to regional availability.


All of the leagues offer some sort of out-of-region subscription package like NHL Center Ice.

[K1LLswitch]

My biggest complaint as someone who travels frequently is you need BOTH a Sportsnet subscription to watch at home and a Game Center Live subscription for when you are travelling. That is the BS. If I’m paying for GCL - it stills goes to blackout if I am in the local region, forcing me to pay for two services.

[Tsawwassen]

Originally Posted by getbak

There are very few nationally televised games in the US at all. NBCSN shows one or two games per week; the main NBC network shows one or two games a week, mostly after the Super Bowl; and NHL Network picks up a handful of games throughout the season too. Some teams appear on national broadcasts quite often, such as the large-market teams like Chicago and the Rangers, most teams are hardly ever on national broadcasts.

There are 110 games on NBCSN and NBC this season plus about 15 games each month on the NHL Network.

[Thor]

I stopped buying NHL Gamecenter after spending nearly an entire season with an issue where my stream kept buffering, their amazing tech support was only during the game night and would never or was unable to do follow up to take it beyond the regular, try turning on off your computer stuff.

I now proudly pirate streams after almost 2 years of frustrations with tech support with them.