Fox Sports Net Southwest questions - Dallas-Mavs.com Forums

EricaLubarsky · 09-27-2004, 01:47 PM

I'm thinking about getting Satellite, but I don't want to pay the 180$ for League pass when I'm not too concerned with any team other than the Mavs. ESPN, ABC and TNT will cover 17 games. Fox Sports is advertising that they will cover 42 unique Mavs games so, if it means saving $130+, I would be happy with 58 games instead of 82. A few questions, though...
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Does FSNSW blackout many or any games? I think that FSNAZ blocked out nearly all Suns games last season.

Does NBA League pass blackout all games for people living outside the local area?

Do people outside Eastern Texas get games?

FSNSW covers Eastern Texas, which means Houston and Dallas. Does FSNSW cover both teams or is it a generic channel that plugs in games specific to area (Dallas getting Mavs games and Houston getting Rockets)? If you are local, do you get Houston games? If you are a non-local, do you get any games? All 41 advertised?

I just got a DVD burner, and at the 4 hour setting, I get incredible resolution. I would be buying a lot of DVD+Rs/DVD+RWs if that worked.

Rhylan · 09-27-2004, 02:31 PM

If you are getting satellite rather than cable, then you'll get both FSSW feeds when there are two games on. One might be showing the regular feed and the "alternate" will be showing a Mavs game. Or, one might be showing the Rangers with the alternate showing the Astros.

Granted, I just was involuntarily switched to Dish Network from DirecTV (thanks to SBC). So, Dish may not be as cool about it as DirecTV. I haven't really payed attention, for fear of finding more reasons to hate Dish. But with DirecTV, I always got every Mavs & Rangers game advertised as being broadcast on FSSW, and plenty of Spurs/Astros/Rockets, as far as I could tell. Although I've never had the patience to actually look and see. I also get every locally broadcast game on local channels via satellite. You don't always have to live in Dallas to get the Dallas local channels, although this is FCC whimsy and you might not find out which local channels you can get until the dude comes to set you up. My parents live in Hamilton (check out a map) and they get the Dallas set of local channels on DirecTV.

In my experience, that's the beauty of satellite over cable. With cable, you get stuck with whichever FSSW some higher-than-God authority decides you should get based on the geography of this big ol' state. Which for me, meant no Mavs games on TV, and all Rockets games in the pre-Yao days while I was at A&M. It sucked. With satellite, you have the luxury of an alternate feed.

Ahh.. just remembered you are in Arizona. With Dish Network and/or DirecTV, you'll have to pay extra per month to get FSSW anyway. In my experience, both companies have about a $12/mo "super sports package" that gives you all the regional Fox sports channels, YES, MSG, etc. But under this scenario, you should still get everything covered by FSSW, via the alternate channel stuff.

FreshJive · 09-28-2004, 10:36 PM

I think if you live in or near an NBA city, all of the NBA games will be blacked out. I used to have satellite with a sports package that included all of the local sports nets from around the country and NBA games were always blacked out. If it weren't like this then league pass wouldn't be very popular.

EricaLubarsky · 09-28-2004, 11:04 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by: FreshJive
I think if you live in or near an NBA city, all of the NBA games will be blacked out. I used to have satellite with a sports package that included all of the local sports nets from around the country and NBA games were always blacked out. If it weren't like this then league pass wouldn't be very popular.

I live near Phoenix (in the metro area). I don't care if the Suns are blocked out (they already are because they don't sell tickets and the management sucks).

Will they also block out all games on FSN SW (Houston, Dallas), etc? Is that confirmed? I heard something similar last season but every Directv person I've talked to has told me that there will only be possible blackouts from the local team. I made the thread specifically because I wanted to see if anyone else had gotten sports pack for NBA games outside their area. Where do you live, Freshjive?

Also, if Directv tells me I will get the games and I don't, do I have a case for a league pass discount or an early termination to the 1-year contract?

FreshJive · 09-28-2004, 11:13 PM

I live in Dallas. I had Dish Network(Echostar) and there were a few games that slipped by, but nearly all games on every network were blocked out (one even blacked out in the middle of the game when they caught the error). Not just Mavs games, but all NBA games. This was acouple of years ago though. It may have changed by now.

EricaLubarsky · 09-28-2004, 11:33 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by: FreshJive
I live in Dallas. I had Dish Network(Echostar) and there were a few games that slipped by, but nearly all games on every network were blocked out (one even blacked out in the middle of the game when they caught the error). Not just Mavs games, but all NBA games. This was acouple of years ago though. It may have changed by now.

what a bummer. I just hope I don't have to buy League Pass. 12x6 is better than 180bucks.

Maybe the games were blocked out locally?

I guess I still have two questions:
Anyone have Directv with Sportspack outside Dallas?
and
If the Directv people tell me that there won't be blackouts, can I get a discount?

Fah Q · 09-28-2004, 11:49 PM

I had NBA leaguepass last year in Fla and none of the mavs games were blacked out.

FreshJive · 09-29-2004, 12:11 AM

"Maybe the games were blocked out locally?"

Unfortunately, not. The purpose was to make people living in NBA cities pay for league pass.

"Anyone have Directv with Sportspack outside Dallas?"

I know that people with Fox SW on cable in smaller cities see a mix of SA, Houston, and Mavs games, like the Mushroom described. Not sure about Satellite.

EricaLubarsky · 09-29-2004, 12:28 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by: Fah Q
I had NBA leaguepass last year in Fla and none of the mavs games were blacked out.

good to know. I was just trying to be cheap though and buy Sportspack (12 bucks a month for the 6 month season) to get the local Fox Sports Net. I wouldnt get 82 games, but I'd hypothetically get the 20 nationally broadcast games, the 42 on Fox Sports and the two on NBATV for a total of 60+ games.

Fah Q · 09-29-2004, 02:55 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by: EricaLubarsky

Quote:

Originally posted by: Fah Q
I had NBA leaguepass last year in Fla and none of the mavs games were blacked out.

good to know. I was just trying to be cheap though and buy Sportspack (12 bucks a month for the 6 month season) to get the local Fox Sports Net. I wouldnt get 82 games, but I'd hypothetically get the 20 nationally broadcast games, the 42 on Fox Sports and the two on NBATV for a total of 60+ games.

Sorry I must have typed before I really read through the posts. I didn't realize you were talking about the sports pack.
Like said the League pass had no blackouts that I could remember, but I'm not sure about the sports pack though.

EricaLubarsky · 09-29-2004, 03:05 AM

I'm reading up on message boards and unless they changed things in the last two years, I'm screwed.

There was a great letter from the office of Mr. Stern basically saying, "screw you, buy the league pass." From what I understand the NBA restructured the contract with Directv to screw the rest of us. At one time games were on the local Sports Networks via satellite, but now Directv and the NBA office are lining their pockets by charging 180 bucks for access to 30 teams- 29 of which I don't give a crap about.

I guess I'll either be buying the league pass or kicking myself when I only see 3 games in the first two months.

another question: does anyone know if there is any programming on fox sports net, League Pass or NBATV during October? Since I'm paying a monthly fee, if there isnt any Mavs content before the season starts, I might as well get installed in November.

Rhylan · 09-29-2004, 09:19 AM

Hmmmmm... so I suppose the only benefit to buying that sports pack (which I've contemplated from time to time) is to get regional MLB and NCAA coverage.

Murphy3 · 09-29-2004, 09:22 AM

Quote:

I'm thinking about getting Satellite, but I don't want to pay the 180$ for League pass when I'm not too concerned with any team other than the Mavs. ESPN, ABC and TNT will cover 17 games. Fox Sports is advertising that they will cover 42 unique Mavs games so, if it means saving $130+, I would be happy with 58 games instead of 82. A few questions, though...

Hypothetically speaking, if under your original plan 58 games are to be shown and 24 will not...aren't the 24 games not 'covered' worth $130? This brings up questions as to how loyal you actually are to the Mavs........
In all honesty, good luck with your Mavs situation.

EricaLubarsky · 09-29-2004, 01:04 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by: Rhylan
Hmmmmm... so I suppose the only benefit to buying that sports pack (which I've contemplated from time to time) is to get regional MLB and NCAA coverage.

MLB is blacked out too, I believe. It's all sports coverage. I'm unsure on the NCAA as well. It not officially professional, but Directv is making a killing on ESPN Full Court. I'd check with people on message boards first to see. I called and asked Directv people and they said I'd get NBA games, and they were wrong so talk to a programming manager there or look it up.

Male30Dan · 09-29-2004, 02:22 PM

24 games for $130 is a good deal... To attend one game is more than that for one ticket if you want descent seats...

I know I will be purchasing League Pass, (and I'm local), just to get games from the other NBA teams... On off-nights its nice to flip between games that I wouldn't otherwise be able to see...

Josh · 09-30-2004, 11:48 PM

I had the Fox Sports package on Directv for awhile and just about everything out of market is blacked out.. its kind of pointless unless you like flipping through 73 versions of best damn sports show.

EricaLubarsky · 09-30-2004, 11:56 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by: Josh
I had the Fox Sports package on Directv for awhile and just about everything out of market is blacked out.. its kind of pointless unless you like flipping through 73 versions of best damn sports show.

I really dislike BDSSP, actually, and stupid Fox Sports Net Arizona blacked out all the games locally as well and put on reruns of BDSSP for every single game.