Why does mlb have blackouts

TV Help Center. In addition, note: Home television territory blackout restrictions apply regardless of whether a Club is home or away and regardless of whether or not a game is televised in a Club's home television territory. Clubs may be subject to blackout outside of the United States based on their home television territory as determined by Major League Baseball.

Blackouts FAQ. Grid Icon icon Return to Help Center. Connect with MLB. All rights reserved. Home Odds. Bayern Munich Dortmund. Celtic Rangers. Toggle navigation Subscribe. Evan Drellich Aug 31, The blackout situation is a complicated one. It involves regional broadcasters, distributors, our individual clubs. And we are spending a tremendous amount of time in an effort to get to a better place in terms of where our games are distributed. As Manfred pointed out, three parties are involved besides fans.

The clubs are one. The teams sell the rights to broadcast games to a second party, the regional sports network, which is the station that produces the games. Already a subscriber? Log In. Subscribe now to get full access to the new sports page. Must read content, player grades, stuff you can't get anywhere else. Those certain situations, though, turn out to be a lot of situations. Unlike the NFL, which generally deal with nationally televised games weekly with certain in-market choice games, teams across MLB have their own regional networks which broadcast games.

If you're out of market, you typically won't get those games on your TV. Unfortunately, even in a shortened, game season in , blackouts will still be in place. Here's what to know about MLB's blackout restrictions in , including the map of regional broadcasts.

The one word that's important to note when it comes to MLB's blackout policy is "regionalization. In fact, in certain areas like Iowa, as many as six teams are subject to blackout rules. If you choose not to have cable in New York, the Mets and Yankees won't be available via streaming service. If you're in LA, the Dodgers and Angels won't be able to be streamed, as well.

There isn't an exact fix for this, either. The reasons for the blackouts is simple and twofold: the first reason is cable providers' desire for exclusive broadcasting rights in their local networks. The second, is MLB's desire to get fans into the stadium for attendance purposes.