In four minutes, the channel I’m watching will go black. Why? Because there’s a hockey game on it covered under the NHL’s regional blackouts. In case you don’t understand how it works, try holding the following conversation with the NHL:
Them: You can’t watch that channel.
Me: But, I pay the cable company to watch that channel.
Them: Yes, but you can’t watch it. You don’t live in the right province.
Me: But I paid for that channel and the shows on it.
Them: You paid to watch the channel but you didn’t pay to watch our content.
Me: (insert rude expletive here)
Them: You could pay us more money and watch it on a different channel.
Me: What’s the difference?
Them: We get more money. Then, it doesn’t matter what province you live in.
Me: So I can see every game?
Them: Yes. Except some are blacked out…
I have begun to firmly believe that the NHL’s motto should be: The fans only count when we can suck money out of them.
Doug Rutherford 