Recording Blacked-Out Channel Instead of Actual Broadcast

I have a favorite sports team set to record all new games (Boston Red Sox). This works fine as long as games are carried as usual on the regional broadcast (NESN). When a game gets picked up for national broadcast (like today's game on ESPN), the national broadcaster blacks out the game locally to let NESN carry it for the New England market. Xfinity is recording the ESPN broadcast of a series of shows other than the live game broadcast. The online listing shows the game on both ESPN and NESN, but that is not the case. I just fired up the recording expecting to fast forward through the gaps in action (no jokes about how many of those are in baseball, please :)). Now I have missed over half of the game and am watching live in the 6th inning. How do I get Xfinity to record the actual game on my preferred network instead of the national broadcast of not-the-game?

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Responses

XfinityLinda

Official Employee

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1.9K Messages

4 years ago

Hello, @requa! Thank you for reaching out in regard to your Red Sox game! I'm sorry to hear the recording didn't work because of the Sports Blackout. This would make it a little more difficult to watch your favorite team.

Over the course of the MLB's season, nationally-televised games may air on FOX, ESPN, FS1, FS2, TBS and the MLB Network. Local blackouts of national networks are common because virtually all games are televised in each team's local market either on a local broadcast station or regional cable network. These local/regional airings are never blacked out. This means you will rarely miss your home team games. You may just need to change the channel to find the game you're looking for.

Overflow Channels - In many larger markets, the number of games being played at the same time frequently exceeds the number of available channels/networks. When this occurs, the second (or third) simultaneous game will be televised on a part-time, extra channel.
To find out what channel a particular game is going to be on or when and where to catch coverage of your favorite team, we recommend that you check the local listings on your on-screen guide or visit team, league, school and conference websites for the most up-to-date information (weather and post-season scheduling can change frequently). Or you can simply say “Sports” into your Xfinity Voice Remote to go to the X1 Sports app.

For an additional fee, you can purchase the MLB EXTRA INNINGS pay per view (PPV) package, a collection of most of the televised games from other markets. The only games in the MLB EXTRA INNINGS package that are subject to blackout are those also carried by your local station/regional cable network.

requa

Contributor

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152 Messages

Thank you for responding, @XfinityLinda. It appears my question was not as clear as I had hoped. The issue is not that the national broadcast is blacked out, nor is it an inability to find the local broadcast. The issue is that the system that records the broadcast of my favorite team is recording the wrong channel when this occurs. In this case, it is recording ESPN when the game is on NESN. I don't discover the error until I wish to view the recording and discover that it recorded something else.

Thanks,

Dan

4 years ago

CCAntoine

Retired Employee

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1.4K Messages

Thanks for clearing that up Dan. What do your Recording settings look like? Is it set to record the games on ESPN or your favorite team no matter channel they may be on when they play?

4 years ago

requa

Contributor

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152 Messages

My recording is set to record this favorite team, not a specific channel. The issue happened again today (current game airing). TBS has the national broadcast, The guide shows the game airing on both TBS and NESN (regional). X1 is recording TBS, which is showing content other than the game. I am watching live on NESN. I do note that both TBS and ESPN in my market have channel numbers lower than that of NESN (831 and 849 vs. 851). Another event I have scheduled to record tonight (college football game) is listed on two ALC affiliates in my lineup, and the scheduled recording picked the lower-numbered channel (805 in Boston) rather than my local ABC affiliate (809 in Manchester). In other words, if the game is listed on multiple channels and my recording is set to record a team rather than a channel, is the X1 engine picking whichever channel has a lower number? Ideally for my Red Sox issue, it would work better if it defaulted to NESN if that channel listed the game, then pull it from another channel if it is not shown on NESN. Is there any way to set a preferred broadcaster for a favorite team in case of conflict?

4 years ago

user_096b62

Visitor

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4 Messages

And then... no response.

Same issue here with Red Sox/Tampa game today. Scheduled the full season. Most games on NESN but today both ESPN and NESN. ESPN is the channel they recorded (I assume the default is National vs. Local, but then again doesn't seem like they've put much thought into it). So, ESPN is blacked out and I get football reruns and miss the first 4 innings of a great game. Does Xfinity chime in on these posts?

One of the Xfinity Reps did give an honest answer that it's a known issue with Xfinity and will be address in "future" upgrades to record channels. At least then we will be able to record both and delete the blackout.

4 years ago

requa

Contributor

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152 Messages

4 years ago

Same thing happened tonight. The only workaround is to track down the broadcast schedule on the team site, then double record the national and local broadcasts. This really defeats the simplicity of being able to set a favorite team to record. I still don't understand why the X1 guide shows the game on both channels when it is definitely not the game on the national (ESPN) channel. Maybe it will be fixed by 2022.

Wakko0909

Visitor

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1 Message

3 years ago

Any update on this? This is happening with my golden state warriors games too. Super frustrating when I'm at work and don't know it's not recording the correct thing until after halftime

XfinityThomasA

Official Employee

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2.5K Messages

Hello, @Wakko0909. Thank you for visiting and post here on the Xfinity Forums and helping the community grow. It's important to us that you're able to record and enjoy your favorite shows and we apricate the chance to help out. If you had not already, can you double check that the auto-tune for your Xfinity TV box is set for the best available resolution to see if it helps? You can follow the steps here to do so.

I am an Official Xfinity Employee.
Official Employees are from multiple teams within Xfinity: CARE, Product, Leadership.
We ask that you post publicly so people with similar questions may benefit from the conversation.
Was your question answered? Please, mark a reply as the Accepted Answer. tick

3 years ago

craigrsch123

Visitor

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1 Message

3 years ago

Same exact thing happened to me for the warriors game tonight. DVR chose to record ESPN which was blacked out and did not record the game on local channel. This really needs to be addressed.

54321user

New Poster

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2 Messages

3 years ago

The same thing has happened to me for multiple sports broadcasts, including the Warriors tonight. Judging from the comments above, this is happening to a lot of customers who are trying to rely on the promise that Xfinity's "favorite team" recording system will allow the recording of all games of a given team. Right now, that is a false promise. And what's worse, this failure affects local viewers most, those who are within the range of a local game broadcast. Most professional sports teams have many double broadcasts (local and national) throughout their seasons. Xfinity should not be advertising the ability to record all games of your favorite team with one "favorite team" record command.

spotsbimmer

Visitor

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2 Messages

3 years ago

When selecting record team i.e. Warriors, recording fail 100% of the time when game is listed on both CSN and ESPN This has been happening for years, whenever Dubs are listed on ESPN, if I don't manually change the channel to CSN, I'll get 3hrs of "Sports Center" and I miss the game. Yet recordings work fine if it's on CSN, TNT, or ABC. Unacceptable that this is a known issue for years.

mike_Z

Contributor

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54 Messages

3 years ago

Anyone know if satellite service customers have this same problem?

user_59f5df

Visitor

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1 Message

3 years ago

This is nuts. One of the main reasons for keeping cable is to watch sports and the X1 doesn’t reliably record sports. I switched from YouTube TV to Xfinity and now I have to switch back. Goodbye.

user_28d286

Visitor

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1 Message

3 years ago

That’s it I’m switching to Astound it’s unacceptable they are tone deaf and the advice they provide is laughably stupid. I’m switching next week.

(edited)

user_c745e6

Visitor

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1 Message

3 years ago

Happened to me tonight. Again. Tuned into my Warriors recording only to find 3 hours of inane ESPN sports game show. Only seems to happen when ESPN is doing the national recording. How hard can it be to program favorite team recordings to default first to the local sports channel. People want to see their local broadcasters who know the team anyway over drop-in national broadcasters. Xfinity, please fix this or you're going to lose more customers.

XfinityThomasB

Official Employee

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2.1K Messages

Hello @user_c745e6. Thank you for reaching out to get us in the loop!

Could you please send our team a direct message with your full name and full address? Our team can most definitely take a further look at this issue.

To send a "Peer to peer" ("Private") message:
Click "Sign In" if necessary
• Click the "Peer to peer chat" icon
• Click the "New message" (pencil and paper) icon
• Type "Xfinity Support" in the "To:" line and select "Xfinity Support" from the drop-down list which appears. The "Xfinity Support" graphic replaces the "To:" line

3 years ago

user_21c690

Visitor

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2 Messages

3 years ago

Same thing happened to me, multiple times for over a year now. Here is what happens : ESPN HD labels the sports game show as “Golden State Warriors” and thus the DVR decides to record ESPN instead of the actual game airing on CBNC. Looking to switch to YouTube TV, we dont watch TV for anything but sports, and I pay the sport package at that.

mike_Z

Contributor

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54 Messages

3 years ago

I would ask for a refund of the sports package monthly fee for each month in which it failed to record correctly.

X1

requa

Recording Blacked-Out Channel Instead of Actual Broadcast

XfinityLinda

requa

CCAntoine

requa

user_096b62

requa

Wakko0909

XfinityThomasA

craigrsch123

54321user

spotsbimmer

mike_Z

user_59f5df

user_28d286

user_c745e6

XfinityThomasB

user_21c690

mike_Z

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