Did you think the only TV dispute occurring in the hockey world was DirecTV / Versus?

Think again.

Recently news broke in the St. Louis area that Dish Network (as well as Mediacom) was unable to reach a deal with Fox Sports Midwest and that 35 of the 74 Blues games scheduled on FSM would be blacked out. FSM wanted more money for offering more games, rightfully so, and Dish wants to keep their overall rates low by not giving FSM the money they are asking.

Where does this leave the St. Louis Blues fan? In the dark, quite literally.

This issue is not limited to just the STL area as Dallas is also facing a similar situation.

However, here in St. Louis there appears to be confusion as to who is at fault and whether FSM went to lengths to make Dish Network appear more at fault. Looking back, the news of the blackouts broke just a matter of hours before the first scheduled blacked out game. Clearly, this immediately shows the fan was never kept in mind as the news was hidden until the last moment, and then *poof* so long broadcast. Quite literally, as 10 minutes of the first period were shown before the feed switched to other FSM programming.

With no end in sight, and the two sides apparently on opposite sides of the negotiating table, St. Louis fans with Dish could be in for a long season with few games to watch.

So what options do those effected have? You can of course complain to either Dish or Fox Sports Midwest (or both), or you can choose to switch providers. DirecTV and AT&T were able to reach an agreement with Fox Sports, so some fans have switched their service over. Hopefully a deal can be reached soon, but a change in providers could be needed in order to experience all the programing to the fullest without blackouts.