MLB At Bat Updated for the 2013 Season, Local Game Video Still Blacked Out

iHamish · Feb 21, 2013

I'm located half-way between San Francisco and Los Angeles, and I'm in the blackout area for the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim and the Los Angeles Dodgers of Los Angeles.

This means I can't watch Oakland A's games when they are playing either of the LA area teams. Yes, I bleed green and gold. It's an affliction I've suffered from for many years and there's no cure for it.

The blackout rules are very strange in a couple of places. The state of Iowa is in the blackout areas of the Cubs, White Sox, Brewers, Twins, Cardinals, and Royals. Southern Nevada (think Las Vegas) is in the blackout areas of the Athletics, Giants, Angels, Dodgers, Padres, and Diamondbacks.

robogobo · Feb 21, 2013

This is the best $125 I spend every year as it lets me watch baseball while I'm currently living abroad (without blackouts of course). I just wish they'd give me a few days notice before charging the subscription renewal to make sure I have enough in my US account. That's quite a surprise bill.

TouchMint.com · Feb 21, 2013

robogobo said:
This is the best $125 I spend every year as it lets me watch baseball while I'm currently living abroad (without blackouts of course). I just wish they'd give me a few days notice before charging the subscription renewal to make sure I have enough in my US account. That's quite a surprise bill.

For real the best money spent!

I dont subscribe to cable so this is my entertainment for the summer. This will be my 3rd year getting it.

JuanValdezz · Feb 21, 2013

WhaT IS IAP?

New for this year, subscribers who purchase MLB.tv Premium or At Bat 2013 through IAP will get to access in-game audio or TV broadcasts not only on the iPhone and iPad, but on Android devices, as well as Macs and PCs and consoles (as applicable).

quietstormSD · Feb 21, 2013

$20 is way to expensive for an app upgrade that you have to pay for yearly.

Price should be $10

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JuanValdezz said:
New for this year, subscribers who purchase MLB.tv Premium or At Bat 2013 through IAP will get to access in-game audio or TV broadcasts not only on the iPhone and iPad, but on Android devices, as well as Macs and PCs and consoles (as applicable).

In App Purchase

Belisarius · Feb 21, 2013

Here's the thing with regards to MLB's blackout policy: until selling $130 subscriptions is worth more than the TV rights teams sell, the blackouts aren't going anywhere. The simple fact of the matter is that advertisers outbid fans by an order of magnitude, and teams are always going to follow the money.

japanime · Feb 21, 2013

I like the fact that they've finally added the ability to listen to the radio broadcasts on a PC as well as the iOS device.

But, I still don't see any info on the MLB website as to whether radio broadcast archives will be made available through the app. I don't want to get up at 2 a.m. here in Japan to listen to day games on the East Coast. I'd prefer to listen to the games on my own schedule. And it makes no sense that radio archives haven't been available in past seasons, because the app has provided archives of the video broadcasts.

SeaFox · Feb 21, 2013

Bill Killer said:
This is true for football, not baseball.

Maybe not where you are. But ten years working in the cable industry says yes, baseball does do it too. And there's at least one other person here who's aware of it happening.

IJ Reilly · Feb 21, 2013

azentropy said:
Both!

I pay for DirecTV with FSN, I pay for MLB.com and I still have local games blacked out. So if I'm not home but still in my "home" market, say I'm at my kids baseball practice, I can't watch the game on my iPhone or iPad etc because it is blacked out. That is silly.

Sure, because MLB.com has no way of knowing that you also pay for satellite.

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Belisarius said:
Here's the thing with regards to MLB's blackout policy: until selling $130 subscriptions is worth more than the TV rights teams sell, the blackouts aren't going anywhere. The simple fact of the matter is that advertisers outbid fans by an order of magnitude, and teams are always going to follow the money.

Not the advertisers but the sports networks, because they can pass along the costs of the huge sports media contracts directly to subscribers. Advertising revenue is the gravy.

bheimsoth · Feb 21, 2013

Apple has cash to use

If Apple wants to get into the TV market, they should negotiate/buy the rights for live sports. That is keeping a lot of people from cutting the cord. They have $39 billion in cash!! The last NFL Sunday ticket contract with DirecTv was for $700 million and will expire in 2014. I imagine it will go for $1 billion then but would be worth it. MLB would probably be less than that. I don't understand the what the whole local market blackout thing does. Hell, give the local stations the advertising proceeds. Use that cash, Apple!!

Moyank24 · Feb 21, 2013

robogobo said:
This is the best $125 I spend every year as it lets me watch baseball while I'm currently living abroad (without blackouts of course). I just wish they'd give me a few days notice before charging the subscription renewal to make sure I have enough in my US account. That's quite a surprise bill.

Ironically, I just got the receipt e-mailed to me about the $124.99 charge. Apparently it auto renews a few days before the ST games start.

Before smart phones, and when I lived in NY, I used to purchase the MLB Extra innings package. The ability to watch baseball all night was worth the $$. Now living in Houston, the option to watch the Yankees and any other game I want is worth every penny. For all that you get (annoying blackouts aside), $125 is a great deal.

sfmman2000 · Feb 21, 2013

HOW TO GET AROUND THE BLACKOUT

1. Jailbreak iPhone/iPad/iPad

2. In Cydia, download a location spoofer, such as "LocationHolic."

3. Open the location spoofer, choose MLB At Bat as an app you want to take a fake location, and set that location to a far away place.

Belmont31R · Feb 21, 2013

These sports packages are scams. Why would I pay $100+ for a service that means I rarely get to see local teams play (by local I mean 3-4hrs away!)? I guess it works out if your team of choice is far away but this has to be the worst idea in TV history to make it so local fans don't get to watch local teams play.

I do pay for NHL services, and I get blacked out there even when the game is not broadcast locally. I wouldn't mind it so much if they only blacked out games that were being broadcast but they don't. Maybe 1 in 3 games are broadcast but they black out 100% of them on the pay services.

Plutonius · Feb 21, 2013

Moyank24 said:
Ironically, I just got the receipt e-mailed to me about the $124.99 charge. Apparently it auto renews a few days before the ST games start.

Before smart phones, and when I lived in NY, I used to purchase the MLB Extra innings package. The ability to watch baseball all night was worth the $$. Now living in Houston, the option to watch the Yankees and any other game I want is worth every penny. For all that you get (annoying blackouts aside), $125 is a great deal.

It's even a better deal if you don't watch the Yankees

.

Moyank24 · Feb 21, 2013

Belmont31R said:
These sports packages are scams. Why would I pay $100+ for a service that means I rarely get to see local teams play (by local I mean 3-4hrs away!)? I guess it works out if your team of choice is far away but this has to be the worst idea in TV history to make it so local fans don't get to watch local teams play.

I do pay for NHL services, and I get blacked out there even when the game is not broadcast locally. I wouldn't mind it so much if they only blacked out games that were being broadcast but they don't. Maybe 1 in 3 games are broadcast but they black out 100% of them on the pay services.

Back in the day, the selling point for the MLB Extra Innings package was two fold: a) watch your favorite team if you don't live in your "home" market and b) follow your fantasy players.

I'm a huge baseball fan, so I'm probably a bit biased, but $125 to watch every game (again, not including blackouts), every day on your phone/pc/ATV. To me, that's a bargain. I'm also that person that will watch any game that's on (assuming the Yankees game is over).

I understand people that want to cut costs and cut cable are getting screwed over - but are you surprised that these cable companies don't want to make it easier for people to do that?

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Plutonius said:
It's even a better deal if you don't watch the Yankees .

It's been a LONG offseason, buddy. But the time is almost here for us to be enemies once again!

Go Yanks!

xforce11 · Feb 21, 2013

Love the app. I have Gameday Audio really affordable and get to use the app. I would love MLB TV but the cost is just not affordable for a season. Plus I'm in the Limbo area. My Nationals games get blacked out (even free) because I'm local (in North Carolina) but my cable provider does not carry MASN who show Nats games. Then I couldn't watch them on MLB either. This is no fun!

Belmont31R · Feb 21, 2013

Moyank24 said:
Back in the day, the selling point for the MLB Extra Innings package was two fold: a) watch your favorite team if you don't live in your "home" market and b) follow your fantasy players.

I'm a huge baseball fan, so I'm probably a bit biased, but $125 to watch every game (again, not including blackouts), every day on your phone/pc/ATV. To me, that's a bargain. I'm also that person that will watch any game that's on (assuming the Yankees game is over).

I understand people that want to cut costs and cut cable are getting screwed over - but are you surprised that these cable companies don't want to make it easier for people to do that?

!

Oh I watch a lot of games...I just think its a bit of scam that it ends up being so hard to watch local teams. I would pay more to get them...but its not even an option.

I live in Austin, and FS-SW plays Astros games and rarely Rangers games. If I were to get the MLB service I wouldn't even be able to watch Rangers games due to my location even though they aren't even the team FS runs here.

I don't mind paying for access but I just feel like its a crappy thing to do to local fans.

Moyank24 · Feb 21, 2013

Belmont31R said:
Oh I watch a lot of games...I just think its a bit of scam that it ends up being so hard to watch local teams. I would pay more to get them...but its not even an option.

I live in Austin, and FS-SW plays Astros games and rarely Rangers games. If I were to get the MLB service I wouldn't even be able to watch Rangers games due to my location even though they aren't even the team FS runs here.

I don't mind paying for access but I just feel like its a crappy thing to do to local fans.

I get it. I live in Houston, and the Rangers games are blacked out. I only care when the Yanks are playing them, but it stinks because the Rangers are rarely on the air here.

When the season starts, I'll just jailbreak so I don't have that issue. But, yeah, i can see how annoying it is.

Bill Killer · Feb 21, 2013

SeaFox said:
Maybe not where you are. But ten years working in the cable industry says yes, baseball does do it too. And there's at least one other person here who's aware of it happening.

On a regional level, though? I know that all games, sellout or not, of the Rangers are blacked out in OKC on anything other than FSSW.

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Also, Yankees suck.

Mahler12x · Feb 21, 2013

sfmman2000 said:
HOW TO GET AROUND THE BLACKOUT

1. Jailbreak iPhone/iPad/iPad

2. In Cydia, download a location spoofer, such as "LocationHolic."

3. Open the location spoofer, choose MLB At Bat as an app you want to take a fake location, and set that location to a far away place.

I used this last year and it worked great. I've got an Apple TV this year and can confirm Airplay works great with the app.

My question is, I've read where Airplay won't work with live streaming games, only archived and highlights etc. Is this true?

IJ Reilly · Feb 21, 2013

Bill Killer said:
On a regional level, though? I know that all games, sellout or not, of the Rangers are blacked out in OKC on anything other than FSSW.

The ticket selling contingency doesn't make much sense, since it's the owner of the broadcast rights that decides, not the team, and the broadcast rights owner doesn't have much if any incentive to release a local media market blackout for games. They pay a lot of money to the teams for the exclusive broadcast rights, so why would they?

Frobozz · Feb 21, 2013

I've been a subscriber to MLB.tv Premium for 4 or 5 years now, and was an MLB Gameday Audio subscriber for about that many before that. MLB is on the cutting edge of location-anywhere live streaming. It's a great product. The only obvious downfall is beyond their immediate control-- no local games. That point alone makes it a worthless product to the vast majority of consumers. It's fairly moronic, given the price tag. I just happen to be an out of market consumer, so it's always been an option for me.

convergent · Feb 21, 2013

The blackout rules have nothing to do with the app... so people need to stop equating them as the same. This is one of the greats apps... a game changer... no pun intended. I'm subscribing for the 4th year in a row now and love this thing. It gets better and better and to me, this is what the future of television should and could be. Bypass the cable companies entirely and subscribe to content providers directly, with a dedicated app to give you on demand access to all the included content.

I subscribed to one season of the alternative - Time Warner's MLB Extra Innings, and it was horrible... the quality was bad, the content was limited, and it was twice the price. And on top of that, Time Warner blocked my ability to even record the games on my Tivo and watch them later. MLB.tv blows that out of the water.

Since I live out of the market of my favorite team, I would have no way to get most of the games were it not for MLB.tv.

tominco · Feb 21, 2013

"New for this year, subscribers who purchase MLB.tv Premium or At Bat 2013 through IAP will get to access in-game audio or TV broadcasts not only on the iPhone and iPad, but on Android devices, as well as Macs and PCs and consoles (as applicable)."

It seems to me this is the way it worked the last several years. I've had MLB.tv Premium since they announced it for AppleTV. I've watched (or listened) on my AppleTV, iPod, iPad, Roku, Mac, Windows, and Android phone with no problems (ok, ignore the windows and Android... they are problems of their own.

As for the blackout restrictions. What I really hate is Saturday afternoons. I'm a Cardinal fan in Colorado, and would prefer to watch the Redbirds play, rather than get the Rockies, Dodgers, Giants, and Angels games they typically feed to this area. Then Yankees/Red Sox games are a pain too.

scotty588 · Feb 21, 2013

+1 for "LocationHolic" GPS faker for jailbroken iOS devices. Works perfectly to avoid blackouts.

As someone else said unblock-us.com I've heard works as well. Costs $5 / month though. Works by using their DNS servers, which create a reverse proxy to a different location.

MLB At Bat Updated for the 2013 Season, Local Game Video Still Blacked Out

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