Today’s ‘Free Game’ Denied to Fans in Hawaii

There’s still no deal between Comcast and Time-Warner to carry Giants games in Hawaii, and there’s no hint of a deal anywhere. That means Giants games – including the one touted today at MLB.com as the “MLB Free Game of the Day” – are still blacked out in Hawaii, thanks to Major League Baseball’s idiotic “home television territory” policy.

Hey, Bud Selig! You’re condoning something that denies innocent fans the ability to watch our teams because the suits refuse to do the deal! How can you possibly be OK with that? What’s next – muting games so we can’t even listen to them on our computers and smart phones?

At this point, we wouldn’t put it past you and your VIP-box pals.

This is how Hawaii Giants fans "watch" the games.

Giants Exec Tosses Off Our Request for Waiver; Comcast Rep Provides Same Old Song ‘n Dance

We had thought Giants executive Mario Alioto might thoughtfully ponder the latest request from Giants fans in Hawaii for his organization to grant a waiver that would allow Giants games to be shown in the state, which is part of the team’s “home TV territory.” No rush, we thought, since we’re already into the third season of Giants games being blacked out here. Maybe the Easter weekend could produce a change of mind, a softening of attitudes.


It didn’t happen. Alioto quickly tossed off our email to Marisa Veroneau, Affiliate Marketing Manager at Comcast SportsNet Bay Area, whose emailed response arrived three hours after ours hit Alioto’s computer (his address is maliioto@sfgiants.com).


Veroneau’s email covered pretty much the same ground as what she wrote in March, with one major difference: She wrote then that Comcast “won’t give up until we are done” negotiating with Time Warner “to have Comcast SportsNet fully distributed in your community.” Today’s email contains no such nose-to-the-grindstone commitment. Instead, she asserts that “our Giants coverage is available to every local Hawaii TV provider, and as a result of our negotiations, DirecTV and Dish Network now carry Comcast SportsNet locally on terms that all parties are fair and reasonable.” It ends with her advice to “consider changing your service to DirecTV or Dish Network.”

That’s totally disingenuous, of course. Those two networks have managed to capture only 6 percent of the Hawaii television households, leaving the rest of them blacked out for Giants games. As we wrote in our response to Veroneau, “the market has spoken loudly about our preference, and DirecTV and Dish Network are not it. You are repeating the same mantra you’ve used for the past two years.”

Big League Stew, a Yahoo Sports column, today picked up on Ferd Lewis’s Honolulu Star-Advertiser recent column and joined the movement to end the blackout. The Stew noted an important angle worth repeating: “The MLB allows six teams to lick Hawaii’s donut (by including the state in their home territories), even if there’s no chance that its providers can pay all their regional networks for the privilege of airing their games.” With the Angels and Dodgers already in the expense column, maybe Oceanic Time Warner’s reluctance to cut a deal with Comcast SportsNet Bay Area stems from a simple inability to pay. Here’s what an Oceanic executive wrote to us in February:

“For years the only regional sports available to us was provided by Fox West and Fox Prime Ticket. Rates were very low and both have been carried on our Analog Expanded Basic for over 30 years. It wasn’t until Comcast’s recent acquisition of Bay Area Giants and Oakland A’s that there was even the possibility of carrying those teams but unfortunately, the rate being asked for access to 2 teams of interest in Hawaii makes no business sense. Because of our ‘close’ proximity to the market, they are prohibiting us to put the Giants and A’s on a sports tier. That means it would go on our standard service and all our subscribers would see a rate increase on their monthly cable bill, north of 6%.”

So there you go – a rock-ribbed standoff between two corporate giants that leaves Giants fans out of luck and thankful for whatever comes our way – like the 12 games KITV will carry this summer. We urge all baseball fans in Hawaii to write Mario Alioto at the above address and ask him to waive the “home TV territory” clause, thereby allowing Giants games to be streamed by MLB.com to Hawaii in the absence of a Comcast-Time Warner deal. The blackout affects not only Giants (and A’s) fans but also fans of all Major League teams that play the Giants and A’s during the season.


Here’s Veroneau’s emailed reply on Alioto’s behalf:

Mr. Carlson,

Mario Alioto at the Giants passed on your email to me for the latest information regarding our network’s carriage status in Hawaii. Comcast SportsNet Bay Area and our Giants coverage is available to every local Hawaii TV provider, and as a result of our negotiations, both DirecTV and Dish Network now carry Comcast SportsNet locally on terms that all parties agree are fair and reasonable.

We have offered these same terms to Time Warner Oceanic, but to date, Time Warner Oceanic has opted not to make Comcast SportsNet Bay Area and our Giants coverage available to their customers. We encourage you to contact Time Warner Oceanic to let them know you want to see the Giants on Comcast SportsNet Bay Area by emailing http://www.oceanic.com/contact_us or calling 808-643-2100 or consider changing your service to DirecTV or Dish Network.

Sincerely,

Marisa Veroneau

Comcast SportsNet

KITV Deal Snips Away at Hawaii Blackout Curtain

Giants fans in Hawaii can rejoice – a little. Honolulu television station KITV has announced a deal to carry a dozen Giants games on its digital channel this season, starting on May 20 (see story below). That’s good news, and we’re doffing our cap to KITV because 7 percent of the games is better than 0 percent. But this is no time to let up the pressure to have the blackout lifted completely. We doubt MLB will do anything – it's too busy trying to save the Dodgers! – so we’re urging the Giants organization to do the right thing. Here’s our email sent today to Mario Alioto, Giants senior vice president for marketing (his address is malioto@sfgiants.com):

Mr. Alioto, I’m following up on my email of April 9th that may have escaped your attention. If it’s not available, you can read it on my End the Hawaii MLB Blackout! website under the headline Giants Could End the Blackout with a Waiver. The absence of such a waiver is noted in today’s Honolulu Star-Advertiser story on KITV’s new agreement with Comcast to carry 12 Giants games this season, a welcomed development that snips away at the blackout. But 12 games out of 162 is only 7 percent of the season. Throw in a game here or there and Giants fans in Hawaii can watch maybe 10-12 percent of the season. We’re now into a third year during which MLB.com refuses to stream any Giants games to Hawaii computers due to the “home television territory” provision.


Now that the blackout curtain has holes in it, the Giants could tear it down completely and thereby score unfathomable positive publicity for the organization by granting the waiver, as the Mariners and Padres have done. You’re at the top of the mountain as World Champions, and there’s no better time to grant it — a magnanimous gesture to your Hawaii fans that would be so recognized by all of baseball. “Classy” already describes the Giants — especially your ball park and your broadcast team, which is the best in the big leagues.


Intransigence by Ocean Time Warner and Comcast and their inability to cut a deal is a blot on the Giants — maybe not your doing but a stain nevertheless. Get rid of it by granting a waiver. Your fans in Hawaii would walk even taller, and so could you.
All the best and Aloha,


(from the 4/22 Honolulu Star-Advertiser)
KITV will air 12 Giants games
By Ferd Lewis
POSTED: 01:30 a.m. HST, Apr 22, 2011


KITV will come to the partial rescue of frustrated local fans of the San Francisco Giants, carrying 12 of the World Series champions' games this season, the station announced.


General manager Andrew Jackson said the package will begin May 20 with a game against Oakland and run through Sept. 16, with nine Giants home games and three road contests.


He said the games will be shown on KITV's digital channel, Oceanic Cable 126, and be free over the air on channel 4.2 via digital antenna.


The package is a result of negotiations with the Giants' California provider, Comcast. It comes as local fans have expressed frustration with Major League Baseball, whose policy has blacked out for nearly two years most San Francisco and Oakland A's games here on outlets other than DirecTV.


Oceanic and Comcast have been unable to reach a deal on a comprehensive package, and the Giants have so far refused to grant a waiver of their territorial rights.


KITV sports director Robert Kekaula said, "As a kid growing up in Hawaii, the uncles and aunties brain-washed us to love the Giants, and it has been sickening recently since we couldn't watch them play (on TV). But, now, we're really jacked that we can!"

Giants Could End the Blackout with a Waiver

Major League Baseball won’t respond to our letter seeking help to end the television blackout in Hawai`i of Bay Area baseball teams. Comcast and Time-Warner, the two parties that won’t cut a deal to carry Giants and A’s games in Hawai`i, just point fingers at one another.


The blackout is now in its third season. It’s obvious the two corporate giants have no interest in inking an agreement to carry the games for a relatively small audience 2,500 miles into the Pacific.


It’s therefore left to the clubs themselves to do something for the fans – grant a waiver on their “rights” that would permit MLB.com to stream the games on the Internet and on smart phone apps. The Mariners and Padres have done it; the Giants and A’s could, too.


Mario Alioto, senior vice president of marketing for the San Francisco Giants, responded to an email sent two years ago this week advising us to contact all the parties, including Dish and DirecTV. These two companies share about 6 percent of the Hawai`i market and apparently carry the Giants here. Hawai`i consumers obviously have chosen not to patronize them in any appreciable numbers.


Here’s the email we sent to Mr. Alioto yesterday appealing to him and the Giants to do the right thing for the fans – grant a waiver that recognizes Comcast’s and Time-Warner’s intransigence and allows fans of the World Champions to watch the Giants here in Hawai`i.

Mr. Alioto, you were good enough to respond to my email two years ago. It’s clear by now Comcast SportsNet Bay Area, the RSN providing Giants TV coverage, believes Time-Warner Oceanic in Hawai`i is unreasonable in not paying Comcast’s price to carry the games in Hawai`i. Just as obvious is Time-Warner’s belief that Comcast’s price is outrageous.


Baseball fans in Hawai`i have contacted Time-Warner and Comcast and have received only finger-pointing as a response. Appreciate if you will that Time-Warner Oceanic serves approximately 94 percent of the homes here; DirecTV and Dish are not realistic alternatives, so please do not suggest we all switch to those services to watch the Giants. The market already has shown an overwhelming preference for cable.


Neither side has moved an inch for the past two years. They are dug in and have moved on to other money-making opportunities, leaving blacked-out Giants fans out of sight and out of mind. There’s no reason to believe the parties will budge this year or any year ahead.


In recognition of the stalemate, the Giants organization can be the first participant in this blackout to think of the fans. The Giants can grant a waiver to allow your games to be shown in Hawai`i in the absence of an agreement between the cable company and the RSN. The Seattle Mariners and San Diego Padres have done just that, undoubtedly because their fan base in the islands is relatively insignificant, and blacking out their games wouldn’t be worth the aggravation. The Giants can and should grant the waiver precisely because your following here is so big.


Enduring the blackout for the past two seasons was bad enough, but that’s been compounded now that the Giants are World Champions. MLB, Time-Warner, Comcast — they’ve shown no concern for Giants fans in Hawai`i. Show us the Giants do care. Grant the waiver and lift the blackout. Be the hero and your organization will benefit from incalculable goodwill.


Aloha,

Ironic: Giants on TV in Season’s First 4 Games; MLB’s Broadcasting Executive Ignores Our Plight

Call it ironic or just Major League Baseball’s taunting way of sticking it to Giants fans in Hawai`i. After two seasons of blacking out the Giants here, MLB has cooperated with the networks and Time Warner Cable in allowing the Giants’ first four games of the season to be shown in the 50th State.


The opening weekend series with the Dodgers was carried on the Oceanic Time Warner cable system using four different network arrangements -- Opening Day (ESPN), Friday (Prime Ticket), Saturday (FOX’s Game of the Week) and today (ESPN’s Sunday Night Game of the Week).


But those and all other Giants games this season (as well as the past two) are not available via streaming at MLB.com and MLB’s At Bat 11 iPhone app. The games are still blocked due to the “home territory” scam and corporate intransigence.


We might be lucky enough to see the Giants on TV again when they play away games with the Dodgers, but they'll be few compared to entire 162-game season we could watch on MLB.com until 2009.


That’s when the suits at MLB decided to black out Internet streaming in deference to the regional sports networks (RSN) that hold the broadcast rights for Giants and A’s games – Comcast Sports Net Bay Area and Comcast Sports Net California respectively.


After years of “negotiations”, the RSNs and Time Warner Cable have failed to reach an agreement to carry Giants and A’s games in Hawai`i. The RSNs say Oceanic Time Warner refuses to pay its price, which Oceanic calls exhorbitant.


As a result, Giants and A’s games have been unavailable on the ‘net and for nearly all broadcast games going into the third consecutive season. MLB just looks the other way, but a more self-serving and sinister motive presumably is governing:


What's MLB's Motive?


MLB condones and even encourages the blackout to rile up Hawai`i fans enough so we’ll pressure Oceanic to cave in on the RSN price. Such a deal undoubtedly would be a financial gain for MLB in some way.


Such would seem to be MLB’s stance based on the letter sent to US Rep. Mazie Hirono late last year by Christopher Tully, the Senior VP for Broadcasting. Read it and see if you can find a hint of concern about the blackout and what it means to the fans.


Mr. Tully has not answered the letter we sent him and posted here on February 17. That enforces our belief that the suits sitting in their Park Avenue offices and VIP suites around the nation’s ballparks think the fans are last in MLB's ranking of priorities when there’s money involved. And ain't it always?

They Lie; Giants Blacked Out Again in Hawaii

Despite the program guide listing on TV this afternoon (above), and despite what the morning newspaper said (below right), the Giants-Padres game was not seen in Hawaii today.

Even with inconsequential preseason games, the insatiable quest for profits among the usual suspects is keeping the World Champion Giants off about 94 percent of Hawaii’s television screens.

Blame for this despicable two-year-going-on-three blackout of Giants and A’s games in Hawaii belongs to Time Warner Cable and the two Bay Area sports networks with rights to the teams’ games – and don’t leave out Major League Baseball.

Read the email and letter correspondence in previous posts below and you’ll see finger-pointing all around. MLB executives are content to sit in their VIP box and let the corporations sort it out – fans be damned. The local Time Warner cablecaster says the sports networks want an arm and a leg to carry their games, and the networks think TW is just cheap.

Those attitudes leave Giants and A’s fans SOL, and nobody wearing a suit seems to give a rip. Maybe if every baseball fan in Hawaii who believes this condition must end were to pledge an end to spending money on baseball – games, shirts, everything – somebody in MLB headquarters might wake up.

First Pitch in 4 Weeks; Hawaii Blackout Still On

Here’s an exchange of emails with a representative of Comcast SportsNet Bay Area, which has the broadcast rights to the San Francisco Giants and distribution rights for those games in Hawaii, which is in the Giants’ “home television territory.” The Giants open the 2011 season four weeks from today against the Los Angeles Dodgers in LA. We’re still trying to figure out whether those games will be blacked out due to the peculiarities of the Giants’ territorial deal or whether they’ll be shown thanks to the Oceanic Time Warner’s deal with the Dodgers network. Here’s the email exchange:

Mr. Carlson,
I wanted to provide you with an update on the distribution of Comcast SportsNet Bay Area/San Francisco Giants in Hawaii. We have recently secured distribution of Comcast SportsNet Bay Area and our Giants coverage on Dish Network throughout Hawaii, in addition to the network’s current availability on DirecTV. We are continuing to negotiate with other providers like Time Warner that don't yet carry the channel, and won't give up until we are done. We share your desire to have Comcast SportsNet fully distributed in your community.
Please let us know if you have any questions. Thanks again for your interest in Comcast SportsNet.
Sincerely,
Marisa Veroneau
Comcast SportsNet

Hello, Marisa. Thank you for your update on the status of negotiations between Comcast SportsNet Bay Area (CSNBA) and Time Warner Cable (TWC). Without an agreement between your companies, the San Francisco Giants will once again be blacked out for all but a relative handful of television viewers in Hawaii.


As you know, only about 6 percent of Hawaii television sets are served by Dish Network and DirecTV. Major League Baseball’s Senior Vice President for Broadcasting, Christopher Tully, has suggested to blacked-out baseball fans in Hawaii that it’s a simple matter to watch Giants and A’s games; just join one of those networks, he says. We say back to Mr. Tully and the other executives in MLB’s head office, “Get off the sidelines and stand up for the fans! Enforce negotiations or whatever it takes to end this ridiculous blackout.”


Please keep us informed of the negotiations’ status, and if you have information you think Hawai`i fans should know about what’s holding up an agreement, please share that with us, as well.


If negotiations appear gridlocked, Comcast might well consider doing something extraordinary — and extraordinarily good for your corporate image: Work with the Giants organization to waive the blackout of their games in Hawaii, just as the Seattle Mariners and San Diego Padres have done. We fans do not deserve to be held captive for a third season by corporate interests whose actions run counter to the best interests of the game.


Aloha.....DC

Letter to MLB: Stop Monitoring & Start Acting!

The following letter has been mailed to Major League Baseball’s headquarters. If you agree that the infamous Hawai`i MLB Blackout must end, send your own letter. A third blacked-out season is about to begin.

February 17, 2011


Mr. Christopher S. Tully
Senior Vice President, Broadcasting
Major League Baseball
245 Park Avenue
New York, NY 10167


Dear Mr. Tully:


I am one of many baseball fans in Hawai`i asking Major League Baseball to intercede in the business standoff between Time Warner Cable and Comcast Sports. Two subsidiaries of the latter have television rights to Bay Area baseball teams – Comcast Sports Net Bay Area (Giants) and Comcast Sports Net California (Athletics).


As you are aware, Hawai`i is in the “home television territory” of both teams. We’re also in the home territory of four other teams – the Dodgers, Angels, Mariners and Padres. PrimeTicket and FOX Sports West, the regional sports networks (RSNs) for the Dodgers and Angels respectively, have long had a business arrangement with Time Warner to carry the two Los Angeles teams on Oceanic Time Warner in Hawai`i. The Mariners and Padres have waived their “blackout rights” in Hawai`I, even in the absence of a deal with Time Warner.


Comcast and Time Warner have not reached a similar deal, and for the past two seasons Giants and A’s games have been blacked out in Hawai`i, including streaming on MLB.com. You said in your letter to U.S. Representative Mazie Hirono (D-HI) dated December 15, 2010: “Please rest assured that MLB is committed to serving the best interests of our fans in Hawai`i and that we will continue to monitor the progress of these carriage negotiations.”


Clearly, Mr. Tully, the negotiations have gone nowhere for the past two years, and there is no indication from Time Warner and Comcast that they’re going anywhere now. Your letter also seemed to place the blame on Time Warner because “Oceanic Time Warner has not yet agreed to carry the two Comcast RSNs.”  That certainly is true, but your conclusion that the fault is all Oceanic Time Warner’s seems strange in having apparently prejudged the issue in Comcast’s favor. Here is the latest email I’ve received from an Oceanic Time Warner marketing representative, dated February 15, 2011:

“For years the only regional sports available to us was provided by Fox West and Fox Prime Ticket. Rates were very low and both have been carried on our Analog Expanded Basic for over 30 years. It wasn’t until Comcast’s recent acquisition of Bay Area Giants and Oakland A’s that there was even the possibility of carrying those teams but unfortunately, the rate being asked for access to 2 teams of interest in Hawaii makes no business sense.


“Because of our ‘close’ proximity to the market, they are prohibiting us to put the Giants and A’s on a sports tier. That means it would go on our standard service and all our subscribers would see a rate increase on their monthly cable bill, north of 6%.”

Mr. Tully, this issue involves two companies that have failed to work out a deal -- one that insists on charging a fee that the other believes is too high and refuses to pay. This could go on forever, and notwithstanding your suggestion that Hawai`i baseball fans simply switch to DirecTV if we want the games so badly, that is a non-starter, and you should rethink your position. DirecTV has far fewer subscribers than Oceanic Time Warner; the market clearly has spoken with regard to which service Hawai`i subscribers prefer.


Please also rethink and/or clarify this statement in your letter to Rep. Hirono: “While we are not satisfied with the current distribution of Giants and Athletics game telecasts in Hawai`i, we continue to believe that fans in the State are best served by the broad availability of the RSNs that carry Giants and Athletics game telecasts, and we would not want to see their access be limited to the purchase of a separate subscription package.”

Your comment appears to defend DirecTV’s interests in carrying the Giants and Athletics games here. Does MLB benefit financially if DirecTV is the only carrier of games in Hawai`i? Is MLB pledged to defend DirecTV to the exclusion of any other potential service provider? Is MLB in a conflict of interest with the vast majority of baseball fans in Hawai`i – promoting MLB’s interests ahead of ours?


MLB’s “monitoring the progress” position clearly is not in the best interests of baseball fans here, so please respond to this letter by stating what MLB is doing to end the impasse between Time Warner and Comcast Sports.  Please do something to actually help us! Your response will be posted at the web site printed at the top of this letter.


Sincerely,
/signature/
Doug Carlson


cc:  Rep. Mazie Hirono

Commish’s Office Says Local Cable’s To Blame, But It Won’t Lift a Finger to End Hawaii Blackout

We’re within weeks of Spring Training and only a few more away from the regular season, and STILL there’s no breakthrough in the impasse to allow Bay Area baseball teams to be viewed in Hawaii on anything but DirecTV.

Christopher S. Tully, Senior Vice President, Broadcasting for Major League Baseball, has written to Rep. Mazie Hirono (D-HI) in response to her inquiries about the problem, which is described in detail in our earlier posts here. We have Rep. Hirono's permission to publicize the letter, which is posted immediately below this entry.

Summarizing the Issue

MLB teams all designate a “home television territory” for which a regional sports network (RSN) has the rights to distribute televised game coverage. The RSNs make deals with local cable TV and satellite systems to carry their games.

Hawaii is in the home TV territory of the San Francisco Giants, Oakland Athletics, Los Angeles Dodgers, Los Angeles Angles and two other teams -- the Seattle Mariners and the San Diego Padres. The RSNs with rights to the Dodgers (PrimeTicket) and Angels (FOX Sports West) have negotiated deals with both Time Warner Oceanic on Oahu and DirectTV. Those teams games are available all season long, and hardly a night goes by without either a Dodgers or Angels game carried by the cable system with the largest subscriber base, Oceanic Time Warner.

However, similar agreements have not been reached by Oceanic with Comcast Sports Net Bay Area and Comcast Sports Net California for Giants and A’s games respectively. Only DirecTV has made arrangements with those RSNs, meaning only DirecTV subscribers can watch the Giants and Athletics.

Not incidentally, also unavailable in Hawaii is live streaming of Giants and A’s games at MLB.com, a channel many of us here used to watch those teams for most of the decade. MLB put an end to that option without any announcement at the start of the 2009 season. But get this: the RSNs with rights to the Mariners and Padres games have waived blackouts of those teams' games in Hawaii, so even though there's no deal to carry the M's and Padres on cable or DirecTV, MLB.com streams them live and they're occasionally carried on other networks in Hawaii. That isn't the case with Giants and A's games, which means fans of teams playing SF and Oakland in their Bay Area parks or at home anywhere in the USA also are denied the enjoyment of watching their favorite MLB team.

Disappointed by the Delay

As for baseball fans who can’t afford DirecTV, don't want it or don’t even own a TV set, MLB’s attitude seems to be, “You’re SOL, pal. This is the 21st Century. Get with it!”

Tully expresses disappointment in his letter at Oceanic’s “delay” in reaching similar agreements with the two Bay Area RSNs. For its part, Oceanic has implied that the fault isn’t theirs but the RSNs. Comcast in the Bay Area has been mostly silent and has ignored our attempts to smoke them out.

For that matter, so have the Giants, the team we follow. The only person in the Bay Area who’s taken any interest in the Hawaii Blackout is San Francisco Chronicle columnist Scott Ostler, who threw his lot in with the fans in a column late in last year’s season.

Who’s on First?

We’re still trying to understand the hold-up in resolving this mess. Although Tully lays it squarely on Oceanic Time Warner’s desk, the cable outfit is more than ready to blame others – the RSNs and even the teams. Here’s an email received last year from an Oceanic executive:

“It has nothing to do with the TV providers. The clubs don’t see a benefit in opening it up to Hawaii. I suppose they think the die-hard fans will fly to the West Coast to buy a ticket.”

So it’s the clubs? Why would the Giants and A’s not want their fans in Hawaii watching their games on cable TV? Is there something to this – that the clubs would be financially disadvantaged somehow if the RSNs arrange deals in the 50th State?

Just the Facts, Please

That comment just doesn’t make sense, so in an attempt to sort this out, we sent the following email to the Oceanic executive yesterday:

“Why were the two SoCal agreements finalized but not the other two? I’d appreciate a real simple answer to understand where everybody’s chips are at the start of the season. Beyond that question, is anything happening to reach an agreement? Are there any negotiations underway with the Bay Area RSNs? If not, why not? If so, what can we expect from them?”

MLB has brushed aside the good Congresswoman’s inquiry, implying it’s not MLB’s problem, but surely it is an MLB problem and concern. How could it not be? Giants and A’s fans are quickly losing our Aloha for MLB by being denied the enjoyment of watching their teams by corporate intransigence.

We’d Rather Fight than Switch!

And no, Mr. Tully, most of us don’t find your suggested remedy – simply switching to DirecTV – to be reasonable. If we wanted DirecTV, we’d already be subscribers. Your letter to Rep. Hirono had a spin on it as good as Barry Zito's biggest bender, but we're not going to swing at that one.

We fans are getting screwed while you sit in the Commissioner's office and monitor the screwing.  We’re tired of it! Do something to bring the corporations together. Simply “monitoring the progress of these carriage negotiations” between Oceanic and the RSNs is not enough. It’s been TWO YEARS already! How much longer do you need to monitor this disaster before you step up and fix it!?

Write to MLB

Join the effort to end the Hawaii MLB Blackout. Write to this address:

Mr. Christopher S. Tully
Senior Vice President, Broadcasting
Major League Baseball
245 Park Avenue
New York, NY 10167

MLB Commish’s Office ‘Explains’ the Blackout

Hawaii baseball fans have turned to our Congressional delegation in the hope federal officials might prompt some positive action from Major League Baseball in ending the blackout of Bay Area teams on the largest cable company in the state. Here’s the response to Rep. Hirano from MLB’s Senior Vice President for Broadcasting, Christopher S. Tully.

Office of the Commissioner

MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL

December 15, 2010


The Honorable Mazie Hirono
US House of Representatives
1524 Longworth House Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20515


Dear Rep. Hirono:

I am writing in response to your letter to Commissioner Selig regarding the availability in Hawaii of game telecasts of the Dodgers, Angels, Giants, and Athletics. By way of background, Hawaii is included within the home television territory of each of these Clubs and, accordingly, their regional sports network (RSN) rightsholders are authorized to arrange for the distribution of game telecasts of these teams throughout the State. However, in order to effect that distribution, the RSNs need to reach carriage agreements with the local cable and satellite providers.

I’m pleased to advise you that PrimeTicket’s telecasts of Dodgers games and FOX Sports West’s telecasts of Angels games are carried by both DirecTV and Oceanic Time Warner Cable as part of their basic programming packages. DirecTV also distributes the Comcast Sports Net Bay Area and Comcast Sports Net California RSNs as part of its basic service, thereby making all Giants and Athletics games carried on those networks available to fans in Hawai`i. Unfortunately, Oceanic Time Warner has not yet agreed to carry the two Comcast RSNs. While we continue to be disappointed in the delay on the part of Oceanic Time Warner in carrying the Giants’ and Athletics’ RSN rightsholders, we remain hopeful that a deal will be reached.

As far as MLB Extra Innings and MLB.TV, our out-of-market subscription packages of games, they are intended to supplement the game telecasts available to fans on the RSNs distributed within their local markets. Accordingly, these subscription packages provide fans with access only to those game telecasts not otherwise available in their local market. As described above, game telecasts of the Dodgers, Angels, Giants and the Athletics are already distributed in Hawai`i via their locally-distributed RSNs. While we are not satisfied with the current distribution of Giants and Athletics game telecasts in Hawai`i, we continue to believe that fans in the State are best served by the broad availability of the RSNs that carry Giants and Athletics game telecasts, and we would not want to see their access be limited to the purchase of a separate subscription package. (Blog Comment: Please! Just label this "spin.") We want to preserve not only the access to the games that DirecTV subscribers currently enjoy as part of their basic programming package (and the existing opportunity for other fans to gain access by switching to DirecTV), but also the incentive for Oceanic Time Warner and the Comcast RSNs to finally reach carriage agreements that will afford cable subscribers in Hawai`i the same access to game telecasts of these two teams that they currently enjoy for Dodgers and Angels games.

Please rest assured that MLB is committed to serving the best interests of our fans in Hawai`i and that we will continue to monitor the progress of these carriage negotiations.

Sincerely,


/signature/
Christopher S. Tully
Senior Vice President, Broadcasting


See our comments at the post immediately above this letter.