Wilmington Evening Journal - May 13, 1980

Helping Hand (excerpt)

Baseball blackout

I have both cable TV and Home Box Office from Rollins CableVi-stoa. On May 5, Rollins blacked oat Channel 17 from Atlanta. Since I am paying for this service I would like to know how they feel they have the right to black oat any channel. Who should I direct a complaint to about this?

                                                                                             LW.-Newark

Rollins had no choice but to black out the channel. The station was broadcasting a Phillies home game that was not sold out.

The Phillies sell the rights to televise their games to "Prism," another subscription cable service. And the Federal Communications Commission says no one else can televise a game contracted to another station unless the game is sold out or there is written permission from the team. With empty seats to sell, the Phillies were certainly not going to authorize free TV coverage. They have a lot of expensive ball players to pay.

You can address your complaint to the commission at 1919 M St. N.W., Washington 20554.