Out-of-market sports package

In North America, an out-of-market sports package is a form of subscription television that broadcasts sporting events to areas where the events are unable to be seen by viewers on other broadcast and cable television networks due to the games not being broadcast in their local market.

Many leagues with major television contracts establish elaborate rules regarding which games are broadcast in different regions (with local teams usually getting preference). For viewers who prefer to see a game other than the one being locally broadcast in their designated market area, the out-of market package provides additional options.

While such a thing may not appear necessary to the average sports fan who lives in the market of their team, many circumstances may be in place that generate the desire to view teams out of market. Some include:

^*NFL Sunday Ticket is exclusive to DirecTV in the United States, but in other countries (most notably Canada) it is available more broadly, on several cable providers.

With the exception of ESPN3, Internet sports packages are primarily marketed directly to consumers and not through cable or satellite providers. Current Internet television and radio subscription or pay-per-view services include:

Major League Baseball and the National Football League are the only professional sports leagues to black out local affiliates' internet radio feeds. Ironically, while the NFL charges money for radio feeds, it sells the Internet television rights to other networks that make those games available online for free, the opposite model of the other U.S cities major sports leagues.

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