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
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