Directv can suck my....

Post #1 » by **Darth Celtic** » Fri Oct 9, 2009 11:44 pm

wtf...

why are preseason games out of market blacked out this year. first time in like 10years.

makes no sense. not like blacking it out will make me travel 2000 miles to watch the game, and all blacking out does is make all the commercials useless, so the channels make LESS money cuz less people will be watching the commmercials, so the ad people pay LESS money.

sometimes i'm worried about the u.s.a when people this dumb make these decisions.

Celtic Esquire · Post #2 » by **Celtic Esquire** » Fri Oct 9, 2009 11:49 pm

I'm with you Darth. Other posters have complained of the same thing and I think one person got a refund for part of the sports pack.

I'm going to call them tomorrow and complain and hopefully get some money back.

Post #3 » by **BrooklynBulls** » Fri Oct 9, 2009 11:57 pm

Oh man, I had no idea. That sucks.

greenchaos · Post #4 » by **greenchaos** » Sat Oct 10, 2009 12:00 am

Where do you guys live ? I have DirecTV premier package $127 a month with all HD channels....Im in Revere and Im watching it on 630 csneHD

Celtic Esquire · Post #5 » by **Celtic Esquire** » Sat Oct 10, 2009 12:05 am

greenchaos wrote:Where do you guys live ? I have DirecTV premier package $127 a month with all HD channels....Im in Revere and Im watching it on 630 csneHD

I'm in Los Angeles. I have the premier package as well, but DTV blocks all non-local games.

greenchaos · Post #6 » by **greenchaos** » Sat Oct 10, 2009 12:08 am

Celtic Esquire wrote:
greenchaos wrote:Where do you guys live ? I have DirecTV premier package $127 a month with all HD channels....Im in Revere and Im watching it on 630 csneHD

I'm in Los Angeles. I have the premier package as well, but DTV blocks all non-local games.

Damn man. That blows... I see a lot of people complaining...thazs not fair....start petition i say

TonyMontana · Post #7 » by **TonyMontana** » Sat Oct 10, 2009 1:04 am

Celtic Esquire wrote:
greenchaos wrote:Where do you guys live ? I have DirecTV premier package $127 a month with all HD channels....Im in Revere and Im watching it on 630 csneHD

I'm in Los Angeles. I have the premier package as well, but DTV blocks all non-local games.

I bet you your neighbors are jamming your signal since they probably know your a Cs fan. :lol:

SonicYouth34 · Post #8 » by **SonicYouth34** » Sat Oct 10, 2009 4:54 am

Comcast had the games...just sayin'.

Banks2Pierce · Post #9 » by **Banks2Pierce** » Sat Oct 10, 2009 5:51 am

SonicYouth34 wrote:Comcast had the games...just sayin'.

In Boston?

celticpride17 · Post #10 » by **celticpride17** » Sat Oct 10, 2009 4:08 pm

yes we know comcast had the game, but comcast does not have a a cable company in southern california so you use to be able to watch the preseason games on directv as long as you had sports pack or nba league pass,but this year directv is not showing the game unless you live in new england ,and comcast sportsnet new england is part of your package,so even if we have csn channel 630 here in so .cal. directv is blacking out the game to not only southern california but EVERYBODY else in the country that does not live in the new england or boston area!

crm0922 · Post #11 » by **crm0922** » Sat Oct 10, 2009 7:51 pm

I'm sure this has nothing to do with Directv and everything to do with the NBA's out-of-market blackout rules.

chakdaddy · Post #12 » by **chakdaddy** » Sat Oct 10, 2009 9:46 pm

crm0922 wrote:I'm sure this has nothing to do with Directv and everything to do with the NBA's out-of-market blackout rules.

Doesn't look like it. I've watched both preseason games on Dish network through league pass, here in Detroit.

celtxman · Post #13 » by **celtxman** » Sun Oct 11, 2009 4:04 pm

I personally called Dish Network to ask when their NBA League Pass coverage starts and just like DirectTV, they said it did not start until the season started. So if you are out of market like I am, you should not be able to get these games. In a nutshell it appears to be an NBA decision. So it is definitely proper to call and complain to DirectTV so they can be aware of our dissatisfaction. But it should be preceded or followed with a call/email to the NBA. It makes no sense to broadcast locally but not elsewhere. Logically if anything the blackout would be local, to encourage people who could actually go to games to pay the ridiculous full price for a pre-season game. Other than ticking off it's loyal fans, I have not found a reason behind the blackouts.

celtxman · Post #14 » by **celtxman** » Sun Oct 11, 2009 4:13 pm

chakdaddy wrote:
crm0922 wrote:I'm sure this has nothing to do with Directv and everything to do with the NBA's out-of-market blackout rules.

Doesn't look like it. I've watched both preseason games on Dish network through league pass, here in Detroit.

Interesting.....as I said in my previous post, when I called Dish directly asking as a potential new customer they said coverage started October 27 with no preseason games available. I hope I hear more stories like this because I really let DirectTV have it. See those of us out of market people pay an additional $12.95 for the Fox Sports package so we can get pre and post game coverage AND to keep NBA TV. So the reason I let DirectTV "have it" even though I thought the NBA was behind the blackouts was that they coerced me into paying $12.95 because they shut down the NBA channel right after the NBA regular season and re-open it just before the following season, to make you pay for the preseason games. By getting the Fox package you get the NBA channel and hence the preseason games.
Time is too short to change to Dish Network now, but it will be helpful to know if any other out of area fans are getting the preseason games through Dish.

return2glory · Post #15 » by **return2glory** » Sun Oct 11, 2009 8:56 pm

Ya, this sucks. I live in L.A. I've had DTV for 5 years now, this is the only time they have blacked out pre season games. I even got the sports package which includes FXNE, and the New England channel is blacked out here also. I get the pre game and post games stuff, but the game itself is blacked out.

C-West · Post #16 » by **C-West** » Sun Oct 11, 2009 10:19 pm

return2glory wrote:Ya, this sucks. I live in L.A. I've had DTV for 5 years now, this is the only time they have blacked out pre season games. I even got the sports package which includes FXNE, and the New England channel is blacked out here also. I get the pre game and post games stuff, but the game itself is blacked out.

Hey, return2glory, I am the guy mentioned earlier who got a bit of a refund from DirectTV. I also live in LA, btw. I have League Pass and the Sports Pack like you and I am completely baffled and dumbfounded at the moronic decision to blackout ALL preseason games. So here's how I played it to get a two month refund of what I pay for the sports package (the 600's and soccer, essentially):

DirtectTV claimed that preseason games have NEVER been available. The phone rep was obviously misinformed, so I politely informed her that this is not true, that with the sports pack, you have always been able to see preseason games on the local networds (like CSN or formerly FSNE) before League Pass kicks in for the regular season. Once I convinced her that this was a CHANGE in my programming, she talked to her manager and changed to another tactic - that it is not a DTV decision, rather, the decision to black out games is an NBA decision. I don't know if she is right or wrong about this, but there's a great retort which I encourage you to use. I told her basically "yes, that may or may not be the case. However, this is not an occasional blackout here. This is a blanket blackout of all the games which comprise the main reason I pay for the sports pack in the first place. I pay YOU (DTV) for the ability to watch preseason games, and not the NBA or anyone else. YOU know and YOU KNEW that the programming I pay for was going to take a drastic turn, and that ALL of the preaseason games would be unavailable this season. I did not. YOU did not alert me to this drastic change in programming prior to taking my money for September/October for the sports pack You didn't call me or e-mail me to say, 'we know you have the sports pack, but this year something will be missing - we just want to let you know before we take your money. You should have . . . . yada yada yada"

Direct TV has refunded me two months of fees I pay for Sports Pack. Believe me, this is not enough. I would gladly pay the fees to watch the games. But if we ALL do this, Direct TV will let the NBA know that this is really affecting them - and maybe things change. And yes, I also have very nasty e-mails and calls into the NBA.

Hope that helps.

chakdaddy · Post #17 » by **chakdaddy** » Sun Oct 11, 2009 10:38 pm

celtxman wrote:
chakdaddy wrote:
crm0922 wrote:I'm sure this has nothing to do with Directv and everything to do with the NBA's out-of-market blackout rules.

Doesn't look like it. I've watched both preseason games on Dish network through league pass, here in Detroit.

Interesting.....as I said in my previous post, when I called Dish directly asking as a potential new customer they said coverage started October 27 with no preseason games available. I hope I hear more stories like this because I really let DirectTV have it.

Yeah, it seems like they rarely know what's going on. But I've gotten all 3 games on the league pass channels. It doesn't look like all the preseason games are there though. Last year the league pass channels weren't even there at this point in the year.

I do suppose it's possible that I'm just getting them as some kind of leftover from last year's league pass subscription. I continue to get NBAtv year round for that reason. But during the Atlanta series my receiver died, and when I got it replaced, I wasn't getting NBAtv anymore during the playoffs - the first person I talked to had no idea how the programming worked, thought the "Race to the Playoffs" package was the only thing that was available, assumed it was for playoff games, not just a cheap package for people to sign up late and watch the rest of the regular season - but when I talked to a supervisor they added that back on and I've had NBAtv ever since. This year the league pass channels sat there blank all summer, and now some preseason games, including all the Celtics ones so far, are showing up.

return2glory · Post #18 » by **return2glory** » Mon Oct 12, 2009 5:21 am

C-West , thanks. They are only charging me $3 for the sports pack for Oct. So it's not that big a deal, but it still sucks that this is the first time that they've black out the pre season games. I was really looking forward to the pre season games.

I guess we are all a little spoiled. I remember before DTV, I was able to watch only 2-5 Celtic games a year in L.A. So for that, I'm grateful for DTV.

Celtic Esquire · Post #19 » by **Celtic Esquire** » Mon Oct 12, 2009 6:10 pm

Seems like we got lots of Celtics fan here in LA.

Any of you guys interested in meeting up during the season to catch a game or two?

armageddon · Post #20 » by **armageddon** » Mon Oct 12, 2009 6:13 pm

I called several times and had to educate the phone rep every time. They eventually gave me $10 a month for 6 months refund on my sports pack. I don't really want the money, just want what I pay for but its the only way to get to them.

There's just no accountability with any of these extra sports packages we pay for.