The Sportsline Blackout

There is a lot of buzz about CBS Sportsline's free broadcast of NCAA tournament games over the Internet. CBS will broadcast the first three rounds of the tournament and show video highlights of all the games for free. The idea is great because it drives traffic to their Web site and the video streaming is actually pretty good. There can be some wait time to get the streaming video feed if you’re not a VIP member, but the innovation makes small problems like this minor.

However, the blackout of local games is a huge problem with the service. Most people want to use the service to watch their team play while they're at work, but they are unable to because the game is blacked out because it is on TV in their area. I understand that the local stations have the rights to show the local games, and that is what causes the blackout, but there has to be some way around it. If CBS really expects to make this service a must-have, they need to find a way to broadcast the local games trough the site.