Blackout (thing)

A series of rules designed to prevent televised sports events from being broadcast to certain areas.

The logic behind the blackout is that it protects the revenue stream of a sports franchise or team within its market area.

Blackout rules vary from sport to sport, but generally work in one of two ways:

• The Sell Out Rule -- common with NFL games. Applies to a 75-mile radius around the home team's stadium. If a home game in that facility is not sold out at least 72 hours prior to kick-off, the game will not be broadcast on television inside that radius. The idea is to protect the team financially by providing an incentive for fans to attend the game in person.
• The Market Protection Rule -- this rule is usually used in Major League Baseball. Each MLB team controls a market area made up of the region surrounding their home location. This allows the team to restrict out-of-market broadcasts of their games into their area.
  Example: I live in Florida, a market "owned" by the Florida Marlins and the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. However, I'm a fan of the New York Yankees and I have a satellite dish to see Yankees' games. When the Yankees play either Florida team, I only see the broadcast of the game if the regional sports channel in Florida carries the game. If the game is broadcast by an out-of-market network (such as Madison Square Garden Network), and the regional network doesn't carry the game, the MSG feed is blacked out in my area. Which means I'm screwed.

People like me who have satellite think blackout rules are stupid. We already pay a premium to get out-of-market sports, so we ought to be exempt from such idiotic efforts at protectionism.