Fox Sports Midwest - Cardinals Blackout 2012

The issue is that last year, a number of games converted from broadcast tv to FSMW, and there was an existing contract,  Fox wanted to charge Uverse extra for those games, and Uverse wouldn't do it, so Fox blacked out 20 games (seemingly at random, since the broadcast games would have been Sunday afternoon games only, I think) in the St. Louis market.

The question is if there is a contract still in place that specifies a lower number of games than the 150 scheduled to be broadcast on FSMW, and if so, if the "overage" games will be blacked out again.

There was no question as to whether Uverse carries Fox Sports Midwest.  In fact, if they didn't, we wouldn't be having this conversation at all.

I am planning on cancelling my Uverse package this year unless ATT can figure out a way to get all the Cardinals games aired this year.  They are currently planning on blacking out another 20 games this year according to Katie Nagus the ATT spokesperson.

I think everyone who is a Cards fan should raise some{word filter evasion} about this issue.

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I thought black out rules were determined by MLB.  It would be in ATTs best interest to allow the networks to broadcast all the games that are played.  IMHO

Maybe someone will be along to give you information on where/how to send your message directly to ATT.  This is the peer to peer forum for UV subs.

Looks like this still isn't over:

http://www.stltoday.com/sports/baseball/professional/fsm-at-t-flap-over-cards-games-still-not-settled/article_c2354a74-5e76-11e1-88c8-001a4bcf6878.html

"The financial dispute between Fox Sports Midwest and AT&T that kept 20 of FSM’s 148 Cardinals telecasts off AT&T’s U-verse system last year has not been settled, so as it stands another 20 games are in line to be blacked out this season.

...

"We continue to talk with AT&T with the hope that they will choose to deliver all Cardinals telecasts to fans this season,’’ FSM spokesman Geoff Goldman said. "Every other provider in the St. Louis area will distribute all Cardinals games" this season.

...

AT&T spokesperson Katie Nagus said on Thursday that "we don’t have any updates to share at this time. U-verse TV customers will continue to have access to approximately 130 Cardinals games this season’’ on FSM.

"... We don’t believe AT&T and ultimately our customers should have to pay more for access to these (20) Cardinals games, especially while we’re trying to keep costs down for our customers.’’ "

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@bailorg wrote:

Looks like this still isn't over:

 

http://www.stltoday.com/sports/baseball/professional/fsm-at-t-flap-over-cards-games-still-not-settled/article_c2354a74-5e76-11e1-88c8-001a4bcf6878.html

"The financial dispute between Fox Sports Midwest and AT&T that kept 20 of FSM’s 148 Cardinals telecasts off AT&T’s U-verse system last year has not been settled, so as it stands another 20 games are in line to be blacked out this season.

...

 

"We continue to talk with AT&T with the hope that they will choose to deliver all Cardinals telecasts to fans this season,’’ FSM spokesman Geoff Goldman said. "Every other provider in the St. Louis area will distribute all Cardinals games" this season.

 

...

 

AT&T spokesperson Katie Nagus said on Thursday that "we don’t have any updates to share at this time. U-verse TV customers will continue to have access to approximately 130 Cardinals games this season’’ on FSM.

"... We don’t believe AT&T and ultimately our customers should have to pay more for access to these (20) Cardinals games, especially while we’re trying to keep costs down for our customers.’’ "

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At least we now know the answer from Dan Caesar's post this evening on stltoday.com. Someone needs to get on Cards Talk and post this information, too. There have been at least two threads there concerning this issue.

Owning a computer and not having the internet is like buying a refrigerator and not stocking it with food.

I just posted about the article on Cards Talk at stltoday.com

Last year AT&T and Fox Midwest were unable to settle a contract dispute and 20 Cardinal baseball games were omitted from the schedule.  I was told it was an effort to keep my rates low.

This month my rate have been increased by $3 a month due to programming costs.  I'd hoped this meant that AT&T, like every other TV service, would carry all the Cardinal games transmitted over Fox Sports Midwest, however I understand this dispute has still not been settled. 

If I am paying more and still not able to view all the Cardinal games, I guess I will have to move to Charter or Direct TV, both of which carried all the games last year and will again in 2012.  We learned last year that every single game can be important.  I don't plan to miss any this year with or without AT&T Uverse.