[Jtsummers]

And not just sports. In the mid-90s I lived in south Georgia and was a Star Trek fan, at the time that meant watching UPN. The local UPN station was blocked during prime time for our area (literally local, it was broadcast from that town) in order for the FL (Talahassee?) station to retain its viewership. Only one problem, our cable offered only the local UPN station, not the FL one, so the blackout meant a 100% blackout of UPN during primetime for our town (short of rabbit ears, I wasn't that big a fan). Later, the two ABC affiliates ended up at odds with each other when the closer one ended up blocked by the one out of Atlanta, again during prime time.