BillBoard has recently revised their policy on allowing albums that are exclusive to one retailer to enter into their top 200:

In consultation with Nielsen SoundScan, Billboard will now allow exclusive album titles that are only available through one retailer to appear on The Billboard 200 and other charts, effective with this week’s charts. Prior to this, proprietary titles were not eligible to appear on most Billboard charts.

Britney Spears’ new Jive album, “Blackout,” which would have been No. 1 had the Eagles’ data not been reported, will open at No. 2 with first-week sales of 290,000 copies.

The sad part is that Britney won’t even know who they are. I can hear her now, “I got second place to a bunch of birds?”