Skip to content

Why Does MLB Blackout Games

It doesn’t matter where you are; if you are using streaming services to access the best in MLB.tv, you can find that you can’t watch your favorite team in action.

Major League Baseball 2020 is in full steam, and missing games can ruin your entire season. If you are inside the USA or overseas, you can fall foul of these regular blackouts.

However, if you prepare yourself, you can go through the entire season and not miss a single game.

All you need is a valid MLB.tv subscription, a VPN, and a desktop web browser. Here you can learn how to watch out-of-market MLB games with minimal effort.


Why Do Games Get Blacked Out?

Here are why many sports face games blackout on certain occasions, and it isn’t just limited to 2020 MLB.

A blackout game is when a sports event, which was scheduled to be televised, won’t be aired in a particular media market.

This blackout can prevent broadcasting on regional sports networks and include cable, satellite TV, and streaming services such as MLB.tv.

Starting in 1975 and running up to 2014, the FCC issued sports blackout rules; however, those sets of regulations were limited and hardly involved the sports blackouts you experience these days.

The FCC repealed their sports blackout rules, which banned cable and satellite operators from airing sports events that were blacked out on any local broadcasting station.

Such action eliminates any Commission safeguard of the individual blackout measures of sports leagues. (Read How To Watch The World Series Online For Free)

You will find the demand includes local broadcasters who have to blackout a game should any team not sell a given percentage of gate tickets up to a specific time before the game starts.

Abolition of this rule, though, may not stop all sports blackouts. Sports leagues can elect to proceed with their blackout measures using reserved broadcast rights with the program broadcasters.

In most circumstances, blackouts of sporting events are based on the content owners’ contractual agreements, such as sports leagues and broadcasters.

Each sports league presents different rules on when a televised event will meet its blackout policy.

Besides selling tickets, some games are arranged when one game is at home (local) and the second game isn’t (away). You can also find two broadcasters scheduled for the same game inside the same market. (Read How To Bypass 4chan Ban)


Why Are Baseball Games Blacked out on Dish Network?

Dish has agreements with broadcasters, and depending on the circumstances, they are required to blackout games or events, such as League Baseball.

Rules are generally governed by the purchaser of the rights, such as Fox Sports. Should you find games blacked out in your area, it should be possible to watch the game using another DISH or other local channel with no blackout restrictions.

As DISH owns sling, you can find this also occurs, yet there is a workaround on bypassing any MLB blackouts. (Read Hotstar In USA Free)

Dish has a handy game finder, and with this MLB blackout map, you can find areas where games are not facing blackout restrictions. All you need to do is use a VPN you can change at the city level.

When local channels or regional sports networks have broadcasting rights in any geographical location (geo-restrictions), national blackouts have broadcasting rights.

If this happens, you can find that the event or game is not available outside that area.

Regional market blackouts were when ESPN, ABC, NBC, TNT, and CBS purchase said rights. If so, the game isn’t available on any regional channel inside the territory of the team. (Read How to Watch NBC Live Without Cable)

You will find different sports have different areas. MLB teams can have the same market as an NFL team; however, their blackouts are different.


How Do I Avoid Blackout on MLB.tv?

Here you can find out how to get around blackout restrictions MLB.tv has throughout the season.

Anyone signing up for MLB.tv may be misled into thinking they can watch every game. However, the site says they are also subject to local, regional, and national blackouts in the fine print.

There are a few exceptions for some MLB regular season and postseason games in some home television territories.

A VPN is the only way you can circumvent these baseball blackouts, no matter what the blackout policy for that reason.

You can quickly change your region to appear in another state or country using a premium streaming VPN. So long as your VPN allows you to switch to a city level, you can check which games will have a blackout and then change your location in a couple of clicks.

Using the MLB.TV site here, http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/official_info/broadcasts/national_wkend.jsp. You can see the map of blackouts and how they may affect you.

The way VPN work is to avoid the region detection of the service. Suppose using a browser, the MLB.TV app, they check your IP address, which determines your location.

A live stream will throw up an error if you are in these regions. A VPN will change your IP address to that of the outgoing VPN server, and thus, the detection system won’t know where you are.

The key is choosing the nearest region that doesn’t have any blackouts on any particular day. By doing this, you will have the fastest streaming speeds possible.

Also, your ISP won’t see you are about to watch blacked-out games via streaming. They won’t slow your connection, and you will have a connection at full speed.

Now, you can relax, knowing you can watch all your favorite MLB teams. You can access any region-locked content from streaming services and watch every game as if the blackout restrictions on MLB TV have never existed.

 

nv-author-image

Streamr Go

StreamrGo is always about privacy, specifically protecting your privacy online by increasing security and better standard privacy practices.