5 pm Update: Predictably, the blackout is still on.
Emails have been flying through cyberspace today on the Hawaii Giants Blackout, including one from Major League Baseball’s senior vice president for broadcasting, Chris Tully. Mr. Tully told us nothing we didn’t already know and essentially took it upon himself to wash MLB’s collective hands of the blackout.
His advice: Fix it yourself. Go tell Time-Warner you want them to cave in to Comcast’s dollar demands, or subscribe to a “more fan-friendly television programming distributor.” Can you believe it? We’re not in the Time-Warner camp, but isn’t it obvious that TWO corporations are involved in this impasse -- the other being Comcast?
That’s what we told Mr. Tully in our response, as well as our incredulity that MLB executives are once again turning their backs on the fans. Here’s this morning’s correspondence – first Mr. Tully’s email to Phil Kinnicutt followed by our response to that email in Phil’s unavoidable absence.
From: Tully, Chris
To: Phil Kinnicutt
Cc: Brosnan, Tim
Sent: Fri, Oct 1, 2010 11:12 am
Subject: Availability of Giants game telecasts in Hawaii
Attached is a copy of my letter to you dated 10/21/09. In that letter, I noted the continuing efforts of Comcast to secure distribution within Hawaii of Athletics games on CSN-California and Giants games on CSN-Bay Area.
As I’m sure you know, earlier this year Comcast Sports Net reached a deal with DirecTV for carriage of both of those networks in Hawaii. This resulted in approximately 280 telecasts of regular season games involving either the Athletics or the Giants being made available to DirecTV subscribers in Hawaii (in addition to the full slate of games of the Angels and Dodgers available through DirecTV on FSN West and FSN Prime Ticket, respectively).
We are fully aware and appreciative of the many A’s and Giants fans in Hawaii, and for that reason have included the State within the home television territory of both of those Clubs. We are basically treating fans of those Clubs in Hawaii the same as A’s and Giants fans in the SF/OAK market -- i.e., all of the CSN-BA and CSN-CA telecasts of the teams’ games are available for distributors to include in basic programming packages and “blackouts” apply only to that limited number of national network telecasts involving those teams that are distributed solely on an out-of-market basis and to our out-of-market subscription packages (MLB Extra Innings and MLB.TV).
Unfortunately, your local cable operator may not be as aware and appreciative of A’s and Giants’ fans and still has not agreed to carry these networks. Accordingly, we continue to encourage fans such as yourself to contact their cable operator to express their displeasure and/or to avail themselves of all of these games by switching to a more fan-friendly television programming distributor.
Christopher S. Tully
Senior Vice President, Broadcasting
Major League Baseball
From: Doug Carlson
Date: Fri, 01 Oct 2010 11:55:13 -1000
To: Chris Tully
Cc: Phil Kinnicutt , Jim & Paula Loomis, "jlitner@comcastsportsnet.com"
Subject: Re: Please Lift the Blackout of Giants Games in Hawaii!
Mr. Tully, your email has been forwarded to me by Phil Kinnicutt. As I noted in my email correspondence (below your email) with Comcast in the Bay Area, we already know this. It’s not news to us — and let’s be clear, it’s also not just a Time-Warner issue. Comcast is the other “unmovable object” in this scenario, and so are MLB and the Giants, apparently.
It is inconceivable that you and other MLB executives simply wash your hands of an obvious impasse that hasn’t been solved for two years. Your advice to Time-Warner to essentially cave in to Comcast’s dollar demand doesn’t help one wit.
Where is MLB’s concern for the fans? You seem to think MLB did Hawaii fans of the Giants and A’s a favor by including us in those teams’ home territories. PLEASE, PLEASE “un-favor” us immediately, because all your generosity has gotten us is a two-season blackout! How can that possibly help us? Treat us like any other market more than 2,000 miles from the Giants and A’s and let us watch the games — and not just on DirecTV. Let us watch their games on MLB.com at home and other networks at home.
This is about money — that we all know. Now, is there room within the consciences of executives at Comcast, Time-Warner and MLB to shove the money issues aside for three lousy games in 324 — the total number over the past two seasons that this blackout has been in effect? Give us the games this weekend. Let us watch the Giants win the division or not. You have just over 4 hours to step up for the fans. Will you do it?
Doug Carlson
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Comma`aina News — http://commaaina.blogspot.com
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