Blackout (broadcasting)
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- For blackouts of syndicated programming, please see "syndication exclusivity".
In broadcasting, a blackout is when certain programming, usually sports, cannot be televised in a certain media market. The purpose is theoretically to generate more money by obligating certain actions from fans, either by making them buy tickets or watch other games on TV. While financially a logical procedure on the part of those providing the programming, blackouts are frequently unpopular with the affected audience.
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[edit] United States
[edit] MLB/NHL blackout policies
Major League Baseball and the National Hockey League have very similar blackout rules. Unlike the National Football League, the blackout of games have nothing to do with attendance. Games are blacked out based on two criteria.
- Local broadcast and cable stations which contract with a team to show their games in the local market have priority to televise those games over national broadcasters (assuming that the national broadcaster does not have exclusive rights to the game, as discussed below.) If ESPN telecasts a game, and the game was scheduled to be telecast by the local rights holder, the game will be blacked out on ESPN in that market (usually replaced by ESPNEWS). Similar blackouts occur on other networks which telecast nationally, such as TBS and WGN, although these would be considered local broadcasts in Atlanta and Chicago respectively since the networks only cover their local team (the game would be blacked out in the opponents market only.)
Also, ESPN's blackout zone is larger than that of the superstations.
- The Fox network has exclusive nationwide rights for MLB games on Saturdays between 1:00 PM ET and 7:00 ET and ESPN has the same rights for games on Sunday after 8:00 PM ET. Games beginning in these periods of exclusivity can only be telecast by the network holding the exclusive national rights (although games that run long, such as extra inning games that run past 7 PM ET on Sundays, are not cut off. Also, ESPN sometimes waives this for the Texas Rangers, as extremely hot weather in their market usually requires playing at night for safety reasons). For FOX, this generally applies to one time-slot per market, since its coverage is not usually a doubleheader. Thus, local television coverage is allowed during the other time-slot, but the game will not air on MLB Extra Innings. Starting with the new MLB TV contract in 2007, TBS will telecast a Sunday afternoon game-of-the-week, but no nationwide exclusivity is granted to the network. The same contract will grant Fox more flexible start times for broadcasts and may expand the window of exclusivity.
In the NHL, the policy has changed in recent years. Now, most national cable games are shown throughout the country. Occasionally, the league will grant its cable partner an exclusive window and not schedule any other games involving U.S. teams at that time. For NBC's network coverage, only games it televises can air during its window, but the channel does offer regional coverage. Things are a bit more complicated in Canada (see Hockey Night in Canada).
In MLB there are no radio blackouts, although ESPN Radio has exclusive rights to the World Series and only the flagship stations of the two participating ballclubs can originate coverage, though their broadcasts are also available on XM Satellite Radio. All other network affiliates of the two clubs must carry the ESPN Radio feed, and they may not even be able to do so if they compete with an ESPN Radio affiliate in the same market. The two flagships must broadcast ESPN Radio national commercials (though they can run live commercial reads during broadcasts and sell ads during typically extended pre/post-game shows).
Additionally, radio stations (including flagships) may not include MLB games in the live Internet streams of their station programming. (MLB makes its own streams of the team networks available for a fee.) Some stations will replace the game with a recorded message explaining why the game cannot be heard on their stream. Others will simply stream the station's regularly scheduled programming that is being preempted by the game.
[edit] NBA blackout policy
The NBA used to blackout nationally televised games on cable TV within 35 miles of the home team's market, however, these are now restricted to games on NBA TV.
[edit] NFL blackout policy
- See also: NFL_on_television#Blackout_policies
In the NFL, any broadcaster that has a signal that hits any area within a 75-mile (120 km) radius of an NFL stadium may only broadcast a game if that game is a road game, or if the game sells-out 72 hours or more before the start time for the game. If sold out in less than 72 hours, or is close to being sold out by the deadline, the team can sometimes request a time extension. Furthermore, broadcasters with NFL contracts are required to show their markets' road games. These requirements based on attendance mean that as a general rule, fans of teams with winning records will get to see all of their teams games on television, while fans of sub-.500 teams may only see the road games on television, unless their team routinely sells out anyway (which many do). Sometimes if a game is very close to selling out, but not quite there, a broadcaster with rights to show the nearly sold out game, will buy the remaining tickets (and give them to local charities) so it can broadcast the game (usually, this would involve no more than a few hundred tickets because of cost). Other teams elect to close off sections of their stadium, but cannot sell these tickets for any game that season if they choose to do so. If blacked out, the broadcaster will air other programming, usually an alternate football game, instead. If it is a cable channel, like ESPN, the channel's signal will be blocked from the area. Fans can still hear the game on the radio, or get updates on the internet.
In a similar rule, to gather more ratings for a home team's game, the channels that do not have the rights to the home team's game cannot show another game at the same time, even if the home team's game is blacked out, unless the network that was supposed to show the home game "trades" time-slots. As a result, if the home team's game is a Sunday day game both networks can air only one game each in that market. (Until 2001, this rule applied whether or not the game was blacked out, however, this was changed because some markets virtually never aired doubleheaders as a result.) Usually, but not always, when each network can show only one game each in a market, the two stations work out between themselves which will show an early game and which will show a late game. This only affects the primary market, and not markets in a 75 mile radius, which always get a doubleheader each Sunday.
The NFL has sometimes aggressively enforced this blackout policy, which was once Federal law, to the extent of pursuing legal action against some sports bars that have used antennas to pull in distant television signals in order to show games for their home market's team that would otherwise be blacked-out. This is mostly done in home markets and secondary markets where the NFL knows that a blacked-out team routinely draws fans from the secondary market to its stadium (such as Rochester, NY with the Buffalo Bills).
Radio rules are similar to Major League Baseball's. Westwood One has national exclusivity for the Conference Championship games and Super Bowl, although the local flagship stations may broadcast these games (Green Bay/Milwaukee is a unique case where both cities have flagship stations for the Packers).
For other games, no station within 75 miles of an NFL stadium may broadcast a game unless it has an affiliation deal with one of the teams involved (which would one of the local teams, as teams cannot sign affiliation deals within 75 miles of another team, unless the two cities are themselves closer than that).
[edit] Boxing blackout policy
In boxing, a policy very similar to the NFL exists, as the event cannot be shown by any broadcaster that has a signal that hits any area within 75 miles (120 km) of the event.
