"Blackout Blues"

Major League Baseball's blackout rules are completely ridiculous, especially in this area.

I live in Eastern Pennsylvania, in the Philadelphia Phillies home television territory. Therefore, only their games should be blacked out for me, with the assumption that I can watch their games on a local channel or regional sports network. For some reason, MLB ridiculously has Phillies, NY Yankees, Pittsburg Pirates, and NY Mets games blacked out here.

People with Comcast Cable receive Phillies games on CSN, but do not get the YES Network.

People with Directv or DISH Network get Yankees games on YES, but not the Phillies, as Comcast won't allow satellite companies to carry their channel, CSN, since they are also their competitors.

It is a conflict of interest that Comcast owns both the regional sports network and the local cable company. It's an unfair business practice for them to deny their competition the regional sports network. It's unfair for local residents to be cheated out of having a local sports network just because they chose satellite over cable.

So basically, people in this television area get EITHER Phillies games or Yankees games, depending on their television carrier.

No one in this area receives Mets or Pirates games, so I don't know why they're blacked out.

So if the team you follow is playing one of those 4 teams, you cannot see the game live on MLB.TV, MLB Extra Innings, or any subscription package, or on ESPN, FOX, or any national broadcast.

If you are a Mets or Pirates fan, you can't view their games live at all.

The point of MLB's blackout rules is supposed to be so viewers watch games on local broadcasts, but in Eastern Pennsylvania, viewers don't receive 3 out of 4 blacked out games anywhere... Why are we punished more severely by blackout rules than other areas?

Hey MLB, it's time to stop alienating your fanbase, or you may someday fade into obscurity like the NHL? Maybe it's time to go back to airing your product on local broadcast channels like the immensely successful NFL does?

Copyright 2013 Denim McDemus