I am beyond livid at this point and feel so powerless. I live 3 hours from Buffalo and 4 hours from New York City. I get blacked out of every single MSG broadcasted game. I pay for ESPN+, Max, and just cancelled DirecTV now. Today’s game was unavailable on ESPN, because it was a national broadcast. So I tried Max… Nope! Blacked out. Same story with DirecTV. How am I blacked out of a national fucking game!?!? I am left steaming the game on my laptop with yet another subscription with a VPN. I just want to watch a game on my TV like a normal human, but even trying to cast to my TV get trapped in a local VPN jail.
How in the fucking hell does this make sense in 2023, that before I lived in market I have to pay more to watch games because I refuse to pay some blasted cable corporation $100/month for television I won’t watch. GAAAAH!!!!
by CartographerLocal321
22 Comments
[deleted]
I’m with you there too. Literally living in the city of Buffalo and it’s blacked out not only on HBO Max, but TNT as well on YouTube TV. Astoundingly stupid, I’ll never be able to wrap my head around why they do things like this.
Time to sail the open seas
It’s like the NHL doesn’t want us to watch legally. Infuriating.
I’m in the Hudson Valley and blacked out for national broadcast on TNT and ESPN+. 3 1/2 hours from Philly, 7 from Buffalo. In the NYC market… makes zero sense. No option besides crappy pirate stream. So dumb.
I live in Philly and I’m usually blacked out Flyers games (don’t have Comcast) but I’m watching this on Max
Congrats. Because jeez is this a missable game.
Just get MSG Plus.
We need federal laws against blackouts and requiring that any service licensed to stream a pro sport must carry every single game with no exceptions.
I’m not sure if you heard, but MARKKY also has STREAMS. You should ask him.
I watched on MSG
I feel your pain. I’m a Sabres fan in central NJ, only watch Sabres games, and any games against the Devils, Flyers, Rangers and Islanders are all blacked out on ESPN+. Even if I had cable, there is no way I’d be “in market” for all those games. We do go see them in person when they are playing in Newark, but that’s only once or twice a year. (Happy side note: met GMKA while waiting for an elevator at the game on Friday, and he was so kind to us.)
I actually pay for cable and was thrilled that the game was on TNT since spectrum doesn’t carry msg. I even invited family over to watch it. It sucked so bad when I turned it on at 7 and it was blacked out in Buffalo. I’ve never seen a product (the NHL) that had customers wanting to consume it, but it so difficult to access. Hurting the sport for sure
Does your laptop not have HDMI out?
Blackouts are what caused me to step away from cable and become a pirate.
It’s funny, I just paid off my mortgage this summer, so I thought I would treat myself and finally start paying for my hockey streams. It might be nice to stop using the crazy ad-covered 720p(ish) pirate streams.
AHLTV was a nice pickup. $65 for the entire Amerks season was a pretty sweet deal.
Unfortunately, for the Sabres, ESPN+ still has those stupid blackout rules. So it goes.
As a Devils Sabres fan I’m so fucking done with MSG and Xfinity
Get a hacked fire stick. I couldn’t take this crap anymore. I’ve tried multiple times to pay money and do it right but I’m always stuck with this shit so..
I live an hour from Buffalo and the TNT broadcast was blacked out at my house..like wtf? I guess the only way to watch games this year is the Jack Sparrow method.
Three letters for you. VPN
I would try NHL66. It’s a streaming website. Still trying to find a VPN that’s free and let’s me pick my country so I can stream ALL Sabres games that are blackedout.
Same experience it sucks so hard right now they need to get rid of national broadcast rules they exclude any streaming services. Or we all just need to pay that 5$ for a vpn