Blackouts are becoming more and more of a thorn in the side of sports fans.  In spite of archaic, restrictive national blackouts being under threat recently, blackouts are still hitting local markets around the country.  Nobody is safe.  Blackouts are the shadowy monsters of sports that always seem to be around the corner no matter where you live or who your provider is. Many of these blackouts have to do with continual disputes between content providers and the satellite and cable companies.  As the price of poker goes up in the television industry, those disputes have increased. And now the most passionate NFL market may face a significant outage for the first game of the new season. DirecTV customers in New Orleans are facing a blackout of the Saints’ first game with the Falcons this weekend thanks to an impasse between the provider and local Fox station WVUE.  The station went dark at midnight on Monday as the two sides failed to reach a deal.  Of course, given that Fox carries most of the NFC games on the NFL calendar, this means that the opener and several other Saints games are under threat of not being carried locally in New Orleans on DirecTV. New Orleans led all NFL markets with an insane 52.0 local rating for Saints games in 2013.  That rating is almost double the average rating share for a local NFL market and was almost 10 points higher than the second highest market, Denver (43.5).  This means that over half of the households with televisions in New Orleans are tuned in to Saints games.  The DirecTV dispute means there’s going to be a lot of unhappy Who Dats if WVUE is still blacked out come this Sunday. WVUE, through parent company Raycom Media, released this statement on the situation, via the New Orleans Times-Picayune

“To date we have been unable to reach agreement with DirecTV,” said the statement from Raycom. “For three months Raycom Media has been working with DirecTV to resolve this issue, so that DirecTV may continue to lawfully provide local news, weather sports and network programming to our viewers.”

DirecTV responded in the Times-Picayune with this blistering response…

“Raycom Media is denying DIRECTV viewers access to WVUE unless they pay more than double just to receive the same FOX shows that remain available over the air for free. We will always work to protect our customers and prevent them from enduring any unnecessary interruptions, no matter how brief. We appreciate their patience because it will have a direct impact on their bill.”

Interestingly enough, Saints owner Tom Benson also owns WVUE.  One would have to think Benson will do everything he can to get the Saints opener on DirecTV in New Orleans.  Perhaps he’s holding out till the last moment to strike a deal to get his team on the provider.  Nevertheless, Saints fans who subscribe to DirecTV and face missing out on the team’s first game, and perhaps more, are going to face a very stressful week. It’s just another example of the constant fighting and bickering between million dollar companies that leaves sports fans in the middle as the ones who truly suffer. [New Orleans Times-Picayune]

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