League Pass Question

[dmac]

Is there anyone on here from the Austin area that has NBA league Pass? Do you have many/any games blacked out? I don't wan't to buy it and have a bunch of games blacked out.


:flag::flag::flag:

[WildcardManu]

umm.. no and if they black out they're usually opened on the FSN channels

[BOHOLANO#21]

the last few years that i have NBA league pass all spurs games were shown...

[robino2001]

Be careful with this. Austin is within the 75 mile radius that falls into the blackout restrictions. I don't know if any of the above posters are actually in Austin, have LP and therefore actually have direct knowledge (if they are, cool, I apologize). I've been hesitant to do it.

That said, you can get ~50-60 games between FSN, KXAN and the CW affiliate in Austin.

[robino2001]

Double post...

I found the league pass blackout rules for last year... Austin was a RSN blackout territory... meaning any games on FSN will be blacked out on league pass. That SHOULD mean any game on KENS or MY35 in SA SHOULD NOT be blacked out to Austin on LP. Again, that said, 10-15 of the games on KENS or MY35 are also shown on network in Austin (KXAN or WB)

Again... SHOULD... according to this. Not set in stone, but that's how it's supposed to be set up.

http://www.tsq.com/alerts/NBA%20League%20Pass%20blackouts%202007%202008.pdf

[BacktoBasics]

Its a crap shoot. I live in Corpus and the Spurs constantly show up in programming for FSN. At the last minute whoever decides the programming switches the telecast to College games and I end up with no Spurs on FSN and a black out on league pass.

[dmac]

Double post...

I found the league pass blackout rules for last year... Austin was a RSN blackout territory... meaning any games on FSN will be blacked out on league pass. That SHOULD mean any game on KENS or MY35 in SA SHOULD NOT be blacked out to Austin on LP. Again, that said, 10-15 of the games on KENS or MY35 are also shown on network in Austin (KXAN or WB)

Again... SHOULD... according to this. Not set in stone, but that's how it's supposed to be set up.

http://www.tsq.com/alerts/NBA%20League%20Pass%20blackouts%202007%202008.pdf


It's that SHOULD that bothers me. Oh well I might as well get it.

Does Directv have a SuperFan option like MLB extra innings so I can get the games in HD?

[Ed Helicopter Jones]

Double post...

I found the league pass blackout rules for last year... Austin was a RSN blackout territory... meaning any games on FSN will be blacked out on league pass. That SHOULD mean any game on KENS or MY35 in SA SHOULD NOT be blacked out to Austin on LP. Again, that said, 10-15 of the games on KENS or MY35 are also shown on network in Austin (KXAN or WB)

Again... SHOULD... according to this. Not set in stone, but that's how it's supposed to be set up.

http://www.tsq.com/alerts/NBA%20League%20Pass%20blackouts%202007%202008.pdf


Thanks for the link. Apparently I'm on the Nuggets affiliated area blackout list. I've never owned League Pass but am considering doing it this year. I was mildly afraid that the Spurs might have been our affiliated team, however I figured it had to be Denver, Phoenix or Dallas since they're all closer in proximity. Unfortunately I contacted Direct TV no one there at the time could give me that information. I love me the internets.

Of course, maybe I'll just stick by the old standard and go watch the games at the bar. I'll have to calculate my beer-at-a-bar to beer-at-home-plus-League-Pass cost ratio analysis to see which is the favorable choice.

[duncan228]

For anyone that might not know, League Pass does a free preview the first week of the season.

[hillscountry]

It's that SHOULD that bothers me. Oh well I might as well get it.

Does Directv have a SuperFan option like MLB extra innings so I can get
the games in HD?


hey dmac, i think we were in a class together a while back. I tried to get league pass on dish network a few years ago here in dripping springs, they did black out the games that were shown on local sa tv. I did get my money back...

[MrChug]

When I lived in Austin this past season we had the League Pass with TW. There should be NO game that is blacked out completely. Certain nights it took ALOT of channel searching, but I found every game.

[dmac]

hey dmac, i think we were in a class together a while back. I tried to get league pass on dish network a few years ago here in dripping springs, they did black out the games that were shown on local sa tv. I did get my money back...

Was it the Solaris class on 281 and ???

[DisAsTerBot]

When I lived in Austin this past season we had the League Pass with TW. There should be NO game that is blacked out completely. Certain nights it took ALOT of channel searching, but I found every game.

good to know :toast

[gmanrulz]

I also had LP in austin last season and they had every game

[gmanrulz]

oh and no more kxan in austin on time warner

[hillscountry]

Was it the Solaris class on 281 and ???

281 and Bitters, it's me. you still doin admin stuff?

[mrspurs]

Dta

[YoMamaIsCallin]

inDemand does the cable scheduling and rules for NBA League Pass. The document linked above:

NBA League Pass blackouts (http://www.tsq.com/alerts/NBA%20League%20Pass%20blackouts%202007%202008.pdf) (PDF file download)

lays out the rules and the status of the cable systems carrying NBA League Pass.

I can net it out for you. There are two kinds of blackout areas: OTA and RSN. OTA is a 75 mile radius from the team's home city, and RSN is at least 150 miles but in effect is wherever the team is likely to be broadcast on an RSN (Fox Sports for us).

TWC Austin is in the RSN blackout area, not OTA. This means that inDemand carried Spurs games on NBA League Pass on TWC Austin last year (unless they were on Fox Sports Southwest or national channels ESPN/TNT/ABC). If the rules don't change, then....

by paying for NBA League Pass, you can see all the Spurs games on TWC Austin -- either by watching them on national channels, FSSN, or League Pass. This is what I am going to do.

You also get NBA Broadband (so I can watch on the road), and NBA TV for free (don't have to pay TWC for it). I have a SlingBox and DVR so I can watch the non-League-Pass games on the road too.

It seems that even if a game is carried on KXAN or KNVA, it'll not be blacked out on League Pass, so the fact that KXAN is not on TWC Austin won't matter.

[YoMamaIsCallin]

To put a final cap on this:

I'm on Time Warner Cable in Austin. I purchased NBA League Pass this year. I can now receive all of the Spurs games. Those games that are not on national TV (ABC/ESPN/TNT/NBATV) or on Fox Sports Southwest ARE in fact shown on NBA League Pass, as I had predicted in the above post. (Note that NBATV is included with your NBALP subscription -- you don't have to get the separate sports package.)

However: when you sign up for NBALP, they tell you "Spurs games are blacked out". And, they show as "Blackout" in the program guide. But they are actually broadcast.

I spent actually over two weeks going back and forth with emails to and from support. Finally, I got a customer service exec to call me back. He explained that I was exactly correct on the blackout rules -- however, TWC chooses to still list those games as "Blackout" and to tell people the games are blacked out, despite the fact that they are actually broadcast.

To them, it's both a liability and a customer sat issue, and they don't feel they control the blackouts. So they made the business decision not to position NBALP as a vehicle for seeing Spurs games.

I respect that they have the right to make that business decision, but I do think they are missing the boat -- there are lots of Spurs fans in Austin who'd pay for this package if it was marketed to them as a way to see all the Spurs games they can't otherwise see.

[benefactor]

Finally got mine up a running too. I haven't missed a game yet.

[Embedded]

I paid a friend of mine near Seattle to set up a League Pass account for me, and no more blackouts. I can watch games on my tablet (tethered to my 4G phone) when I am not at home but still in the blackout area. I can also watch replays. I workout at Planet Fitness and wanted to watch replays of games on my tablet. There are 2 ways for me to do this. I have Dish Network's Dish Anywhere which connects my box to the internet, and I can DVR games and watch replays. BUT - the data compression isn't optimize for basketball so the quality is not as high as League Pass. You can launch League Pass from a tablet or phone running NBA Game Time. BTW this year's version allows you to select home or away feed. Trust me, that is HUGE!!! Do you really want to listen to the inbred glazed-donut face Dallas announcers when we're playing there? I didn't think so.