How do blackouts work?
National rights If a national broadcasting service such as ABC, NBC, CBS or FOX has the national rights to broadcast an NBA, NHL® or MLB® game, customers may or may not be able to receive that game through their DIRECTV subscription(s), depending on the local market in which they live. If a service that DIRECTV carries such as ESPN, ESPN2, TNT, TBS or USA has the national rights to broadcast a game, subscribers will be able to receive it through their programming package, although some of these games are also subject to blackouts. Regional sports networks do not obtain national broadcast rights to professional sports. Local rights If a local off-air broadcast channel (not ABC, NBC, CBS or FOX) or local cable system has the rights to broadcast a professional game in a certain region, customers in that area will be unable to receive that game through their DIRECTV® subscription(s). If a regional sports network that DIRECTV carries has the local rights to broadcast a game, customers withi
