Tampa Bay games and being blacked out

[Robert Ruggiero]

How  the Tampa Bay Lightning, Fans are being blacked out of the games and be enforced to buy.Espn plus. I'm at the point of not watching.

Edited November 8 by pilldoc

[TropicalFruitGirl26]

4 hours ago, Robert Ruggiero said:

How  the Tampa Bay Lightning, Fans are being blacked out of the games and be enforced to buy.Espn plus. I'm at the point of not watching.

 

I hear ya on the frustration part, but sadly, that is a league/ESPN contract decision.
Not the team's.

I never was a fan of the NHL getting back into bed with ESPN, but, it is what it is.
The big 'sports' network says how things are gonna be, how things are gonna get scheduled....teams have to abide.

I don't like it much either, but not gonna let it keep me from following my teams. There are other means to get those blacked out games.

[OccamsRazor]

9 hours ago, Robert Ruggiero said:

How  the Tampa Bay Lightning, Fans are being blacked out of the games and be enforced to buy.Espn plus. I'm at the point of not watching.

 

I know exactly how you feel but slightly worse/different...i have ESPN+ but i was trying to watch the Canes vs Flyers and couldn't watch because it was being shown on TV locally i live in South Carolina and i have to buy another tier of the sports package with Direct TV to get that channel i will not do it just to watch when the Flyers play the Canes i just won't watch...

[SaucyJack]

9 hours ago, Robert Ruggiero said:

How  the Tampa Bay Lightning, Fans are being blacked out of the games and be enforced to buy.Espn plus. I'm at the point of not watching.

Robert: can you clarify your point?  Specifically, are you subscribed with the RSN doing local Lightning broadcasts, either directly if available, or through whatever subscription via your TV provider? 

[SaucyJack]

OK, this only makes sense if you are not subscribed through the RSN.

 

My beef with ESPN+ was a few years ago when the yearly fee jumped massively from $60 to $100, and then very soon after to $110.  I did not renew, and figured part of that huge rise were all the NHL games except for your home market team (blackout).  I didn’t feel that having a ton of other teams’s games was worth the price hike.  And I still had the Capitals anyway via my RSN thru my TV provider. (But no longer, as my provider dropped it per Ted Leonsis jacking up the price too much this season.)

 

I relented and paid $110 in August because I missed my Bundesliga football and all the early rounds of the US Open, Australian Open, and Wimbledon.  The extra non-Caps NHL games were largely a non-issue but I do occasionally tune some other games in. 

Edited November 9 by SaucyJack

[GratefulFlyers]

Now it's $120 so in 3 months it's up another 10%. Unless your price and mine are different - "variable pricing" is a big part of Amazon's business model so why not Disney?

 

Here in NYC Center Ice is priced about the same as ESPN+ for a hockey season - about $70. ESPN+ offers other sports but their search function is so crappy it's almost impossible to know in advance what will be available live and what won't. The website is a big PITA imho.

 

19 hours ago, TropicalFruitGirl26 said:

There are other means to get those blacked out games.

 

Fortunately there are. Unfortunately they're not the most reliable. For instance the Thurs TB/Flyers game 7:30 start but most of the "host" sites had it scheduled for 9:30 so no links were available. I finally found it somewhere.