If your answer includes the letters S-O-L, you are correct (and I’m not talking about the sun).

I have DirecTV and live in San Luis Obispo. Some Dodgers games are on KCAL-9 a Los Angeles-based station. Cable has KCAL included here, but for whatever reason, DirecTV doesn’t. SLO has its own media market these days and local stations can’t be burdened to compete with such robust stations as KCAL.

And KCAL has the rites to the Dodgers. So despite the fact that KCAL is NOT ALLOWED to broadcast here, their rites to broadcast Dodgers (and incidentally Lakers) games, the games have to be blacked-out.

I paid over $100 for MLB.tv, and I still can’t see this game. If I drove to San Francisco, I could see it on TV. If I had cable, I guess I could see it.

Side note: Charter must have some sort of KCAL loophole. Nobody will ever tell me about it, but it’s definitely frustrating.

I could go back to cable, but then I’d be beholden to the company with the worst customer service there ever was, have less HD channels, and pay more.

Those are things I’m not willing to compromise on.

In the end, I’m disappointed. And everyone who wants to watch the Dodgers and Lakers are disappointed.

And the Dodgers (and Lakers) have made mistakes by signing with KCAL. The only other option would be that neither of these teams care enough about SLO County to make their games accessible for DirecTV users here. Some estimates say that satellite providers account for up to 25% of the television market. That means that one out of every four homes in San Luis Obispo County don’t have access to the local games.

I can watch the Cubs play the Astros tonight, but since I have DirecTV, there is nothing I can do to watch the Dodgers and Giants on KCAL. Maybe eventually I’ll grow weary. Maybe I already am. Maybe, I’m not alone.

See what we’re missing out on by not being able to watch the Dodgers or Lakers in SLO?