Tonight after I got home from softball and post-game drinking 
I turned on Versus to check out the New Jersey Devils-New York Rangers playoff game. Instead of hockey, there was some sort of rodeo event on the screen. I thought maybe something happened to delay or postpone the game. I switched to ESPN and saw the score update. The game was going on — so why wasn’t it on Versus? When I switched back there was a crawl on the bottom of the screen: “Due to broadcasting restrictions Versus is not permitted to televise the NJ-NYR game in your local market.”
Ummm, hello? My local market is Philadelphia. Why a game featuring a New York team and a North Jersey-based, wanna-be New York market team would be blacked out in Philadelphia is completely beyond my comprehension — unless, of course, this was just another pitiful error by Versus, the network people often can’t find, even if they want to, which they usually don’t. — Joe Guckin
on Apr 13th, 2008 at 11:44 PM
Joe,
Head of marketing of Net and happened across your blog. lots of reasons why these things happen, but all I can offer is to try and help fix the problem — we value every fan and viewer. If you have the prblem again, call the main number at versus and ask for me. 203.406.2000.
on Apr 14th, 2008 at 7:50 AM
I agree with this! It is ridiculous that non new york markets are blacked out which only hurts a sport trying to stay just above water. I live in Delaware and and the game was blacked out on comcast. I really hope this does not happen for the rest of ranfers games on versus.
on Apr 14th, 2008 at 2:05 PM
We run into the same kind of blackout problems here in Sacramento. We’re 90 miles away from San Francisco, and we have a separate broadcast area. But because a big percentage of the Sacramento-Stockton-Modesto-Yuba City broadcast area is less than 100 miles from the ballparks and arenas in the Bay Area, the Bay Area games get blacked out here in the Central Valley. Just a matter of geography. They want you to drive 100 miles to the games if there are open seats. I believe Philadelphia and Manhattan are about the same distance apart as Sacramento and San Francisco.
on Apr 14th, 2008 at 3:48 PM
I called Versus and was told they are aware of the problem and are working to fix it. They wouldn’t say if it was an error and they wouldn’t commit to having it fixed before the next game. Although noncommittal, one would think their PR folks wouldn’t allow customer service to set an expectation of change if it were not at least possible.
Mark of Sacremento makes a valid point about the proximity. It’s about 104 miles from Philadelphia to Madison Square Garden.
In the first round, there aren’t any NJ Devil home games scheduled to be televised on Versus, but what about the subsequent rounds? Will I not be able to watch because the NJ Devils play in Newark (92.8 miles from Philadelphia and not in the same TV market)?
I can’t believe that the either the Rangers or the Devils have a problem selling out their arenas. It appears to be more of an issue over who has the right to show you the game (and their commercials) than it is over ticket sales.
on Apr 14th, 2008 at 5:24 PM
The Devils actually have a big problem selling out (as I’ve often discussed here), but even so, they aren’t going to sell many tickets to Philadelphians unless it’s Devils-Flyers. Since I’ve seen other games involving both the New York teams and the Devils on Versus during the regular season, I would imagine it might have been a technical glitch, either by Versus or on the part of Comcast locally.
on Apr 15th, 2008 at 12:43 AM
My problem is that there are games on Versus that need to be on another channel because Versus isnt in my area. I dont want to watch the Devils and Rangers. The playoffs need to be more widely available like they are in Canada (TSN).
on Apr 15th, 2008 at 1:17 PM
Several times this year the Penguins games were blackout here in Philly on the NHL network. I’m pretty sure Philadelphia is not in the Pittsburgh market.