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

[IJ Reilly]

Originally Posted by azentropy

I'm talking about for those who already do PAY for the service but happen to not be at home when wanting to watch a game.

Not sure what you mean. Which service, cable or MLB.com? If you are home (assuming you follow the home team) then you can't watch the game on MLB.com. Ironically MLB.com is great for people who've moved but want to continue to follow their old home team. It's also good for people who travel a lot. But... it's probably never going to be much good for people who want to cut the cable and watch the home team in their homes. And this is by design.

[roland.g]

Blackouts really hamper the sales potential for apps and services like this, NHL Gamecenter Live, and NBA TV. And while NFL Sunday Ticket from DirecTV is provider specific as is the Verizon NFL app, they too suffer the same ridiculous archaic blackout syndrome.

[Diode]

Originally Posted by Cuban Missles

When I first saw this article I was wondering why a game would be front page. Its not Apple hardware, OS, or Software. So why front page? However seeing all the responses I guess there are a lot of Apple fans that care about baseball. Who knew? Not me...

Surprise - people like things you don't like.

[paul3000]

I just want to be able to buy a subscription to my team and watch them. Is this so hard for them to figure out. The same goes for Football, I don't want to watch them the day after, nor do I want to watch every game.

[azentropy]

Originally Posted by IJ Reilly

Not sure what you mean. Which service, cable or MLB.com? If you are home (assuming you follow the home team) then you can't watch the game on MLB.com. Ironically MLB.com is great for people who've moved but want to continue to follow their old home team. It's also good for people who travel a lot. But... it's probably never going to be much good for people who want to cut the cable and watch the home team in their homes. And this is by design.

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.

[whyamihere]

The radio option seems rather pointless. Simply get a free radio streaming app like TuneIn Radio and listen to whichever station your favorite team's game is being broadcast on.

[roland.g]

Originally Posted by Moyank24

Exactly! There's a lot of money wrapped up in local cable deals - especially with baseball. We're talking about a 162 game season.

The Astros and Rockets here in Houston just created their own channel (with comcast), and they are playing hardball with the other providers. So, right now 70% of Houston can't even watch the Rockets on TV.

It's hard to see these blackouts going away any time soon. In any sport.

This isn't new. Comcast does this all the time. Whenever a contract with another provider like Dish or DirecTV expires they try to gauge them in the re-up, usually forcing the contract talks to stall, then those subscribers go without, Comcast hopefully gets some defectors before the deal finally gets made. Same with new "Comcast" owned stations. They want to steal subscribers so they leverage that over the other providers during negotiations.

Can you imagine if Comcast owned ESPN. They'd never want to have anyone else get it, hoping to get all the satellite subscribers back!

[mattwolfmatt]

I am a huge baseball fan, and I was living in another city and faithfully plunked down the $150 or so a year to watch my team. Now that I moved back home to where my team is . . . I can't watch my team and MLB gets $0.

Thanks, MLB?

[msnyder7]

Originally Posted by whyamihere

The radio option seems rather pointless. Simply get a free radio streaming app like TuneIn Radio and listen to whichever station your favorite team's game is being broadcast on.

Unfortunately, radio stations also get blacked out and require you to tune in with an actual radio or through MLB At Bat. You'll just get a broadcast of some random old content.

[Mac21ND]

Not buying until the blackout rules are changed. I live five hours from the "home" team I can't watch.

[mattwolfmatt]

Originally Posted by whyamihere

The radio option seems rather pointless. Simply get a free radio streaming app like TuneIn Radio and listen to whichever station your favorite team's game is being broadcast on.

Won't work, MLB will black it out.

[msnyder7]

Originally Posted by azentropy

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.

Get SlingBox. Seriously, $200 and you can watch your entire DirecTV on your phone. Over 3G, 4G, or Wi-Fi.

[yg17]

Originally Posted by grapes911

Networks pay a lot of money to exclusively carry games in local markets. It's not going to change any time soon.

Here's the flaw in their argument - at least for blacking out local games on phones and tablets: No one chooses to watch a baseball game on their 4" phone screen versus a big TV in all of it's high definition glory. I don't want to be able to watch Cardinals games on my phone while in the STL area so I can dump cable and never watch it on TV again, I want to watch games on my phone for the times when I'm unable to watch them on TV.

Of course I'm going to watch games on TV when I can, but I can't be in front of a TV for all 162 games. On day games, it would be nice to be able to have the game going on my phone while I'm at work. Even though I can see Busch Stadium from my office, I can't see the action inside the stadium

Perhaps there's a valid argument for blacking out games on Apple TV/Roku/etc and computers, because then people really wouldn't watch it on cable or satellite. But it seems like showing the commercials during breaks instead of the "Be back soon...." screen would solve that problem. Why the hell should networks care where the advertising dollars are coming in from as long as they're coming in? Besides, if the commercials are streamed nationally, the networks might attract bigger, national advertisers who I'm sure pay more money for a 30 second spot than sleazeballs like Ray Vinson (any Cardinals fans who watch FSMW know what I'm talking about).

[Patriot24]

Originally Posted by Diode

Dear MLB teams (as blackout restrictions aren't under jurisdiction by the MLB itself):

Please allow MLB at Bat to at least just stream the feed from your stupid local sports network created solely for your team.

Thanks,
Baseball fans everywhere

Unfortunately, it is not that simple. There are many parties involved between the action on the field and the consumer at home on the couch. The current deals would all need to expire and/or be renegotiated with the following parties at the table (who, by the way, largely have no interest in giving up their exclusivity pacts):

• Owners
• Players Association
• MLB Advanced Media
• Local Channels
• Regional Channels
• National Channels
• Advertisers
• Cable Operators
• Satellite Operators

It is the same situation as some YouTube videos that are blacked-out from being played on mobile devices. Until they can figure out how to monetize those feeds, they are not going to provide it in the hopes that you will filter to the channels that they are making money on. I'm not agreeing with the model, but that's the reality. They have little incentive to change. Money is the only way.

[ndpitch]

Ugh. I would gladly pay perhaps $200 a season if it meant I could watch my local games live. Otherwise this service is pretty useless. It defeats the purpose of the app. Sure, when I'm at home, maybe I'll watch the game on TV. But if I'm out in the yard, or at a store, or waiting in line somewhere, or at a bar where they don't have the game on, I'm paying all this money so I can see my own team play.

This is similar to the whole XM/Sirius fiasco. They're the same company, yet only XM radios get the MLB channels. And of course, I have a Sirius radio in my car and can't listen to any games.

Really annoying.

[DS79]

Can you watch the away-team coverage of home games? At least you'd still get to see the game, even with the other team's announcers.

[Cuban Missles]

Originally Posted by Diode

Surprise - people like things you don't like.

No, Baseball is a major sport in Cuba as it is in the USA. I love baseball. My point was my surprise that on a website dedicated to Apple hardware/OS/Software, we would go off on a baseball tangent. That was all.

[Patriot24]

Originally Posted by DS79

Can you watch the away-team coverage of home games? At least you'd still get to see the game, even with the other team's announcers.

Nope. If your local market team is playing, the game is blacked-out whether home or away. The only exception may be if the game is not being televised in your local market, but in baseball that is an extremely rare occurrence. Certainly not worth $150/season.

[Plutonius]

Originally Posted by whyamihere

The radio option seems rather pointless. Simply get a free radio streaming app like TuneIn Radio and listen to whichever station your favorite team's game is being broadcast on.

Doesn't work. The games are blacked out from all internet radio (tunein, etc). I got it in order to get the radio broadcast but I wasn't happy about the price increase to $19.99.

The Red Sox better beat the Yankees in every game this season .

[jcb10]

I'm glad they finally let us stream audio over a Mac/PC as well if you bought the audio via IAP. I didn't want to buy both a phone and computer audio subscription, and my doesn't have wi-fi that my phone is allowed to access.

[SeaFox]

Originally Posted by Diode

Dear MLB teams (as blackout restrictions aren't under jurisdiction by the MLB itself):

Please allow MLB at Bat to at least just stream the feed from your stupid local sports network created solely for your team.

Thanks,
Baseball fans everywhere

Note: Lots of times there is no local network carrying the feed. The Blackouts are also set locally in relation to game attendance. They will black out all local feeds of a game specifically to force people to come to the stadium to watch the game. And sometimes they black-out the feed if attendance is low to avoid showing all the empty stands on the air if the game is that low in interest.

[ckelley]

Originally Posted by SeaFox

And sometimes they black-out the feed if attendance is low to avoid showing all the empty stands on the air if the game is that low in interest.

The only team I've noticed do that is the Padres (and oddly, the Chargers as well). If that was the case for all teams, the Pittsburgh Pirates wouldn't broadcast more than 60% of their games.

(Not hating the Buccos, as a former Pittsburgh resident I like the Pirates and loved heading to the games, I'm just a Cardinals fan first.)

[hushypushy]

Man, I just can't wait for a la carte TV programming to arrive. Give me Speed and CSNBA so I can watch motorsports and baseball, and **** all the other worthless stations.

Luckily, my current living situation involves a cable TV addict, so I get to see every Giants game anyway. For me, the app is just a nice, <$1-a-day way to see what's going on in the rest of the league


CSB: Last year I traveled a lot for work and MLB.tv proved invaluable. I watched Matt Cain throw the perfect game from a hotel on the east coast!

[Bill Killer]

Originally Posted by SeaFox

Note: Lots of times there is no local network carrying the feed. The Blackouts are also set locally in relation to game attendance. They will black out all local feeds of a game specifically to force people to come to the stadium to watch the game. And sometimes they black-out the feed if attendance is low to avoid showing all the empty stands on the air if the game is that low in interest.

This is true for football, not baseball.

[SHirsch999]

Originally Posted by Plutonius

The Red Sox better beat the Yankees in every game this season .

If they do, those will be the only games the Sox win this year.