I have, um, known of people to share logins for MLB.tv -- however, it only lets you watch one game at a time on your account, so they aren't losing out on too much.
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Major League Baseball Offering Gift Subscriptions for MLB At Bat 2014
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The TV Blackout!
I love baseball, I love the MLB app. Last year, as the Dodgers finally got into the playoffs, I kept that app close to me every night. It's good programming, and a well-done thing. I'd even pay $100 or more a year for MLB.tv, except... for the stupid blackout policy.
If the home team's game is on the air, okay, but what about when your team's playing east coast (or west coast) teams. On my iPhone, I listen or watch while I'm at work. If I watch 5 minutes of the game on a break, I'm doing good. Just to see if they get everybody out in the 9th, or to see what happens in the 8th? Can your slugger get a grand slam? When you get home, and it's televised, watch it on TV! If it's not televised locally, and it's not on a network game of the week thing, then use the app!
You could even run the ads. I don't care. The money's in my pocket, but it's staying there unless the chains are taken off MLB.tv.
I love baseball, I love the MLB app. Last year, as the Dodgers finally got into the playoffs, I kept that app close to me every night. It's good programming, and a well-done thing. I'd even pay $100 or more a year for MLB.tv, except... for the stupid blackout policy.
If the home team's game is on the air, okay, but what about when your team's playing east coast (or west coast) teams. On my iPhone, I listen or watch while I'm at work. If I watch 5 minutes of the game on a break, I'm doing good. Just to see if they get everybody out in the 9th, or to see what happens in the 8th? Can your slugger get a grand slam? When you get home, and it's televised, watch it on TV! If it's not televised locally, and it's not on a network game of the week thing, then use the app!
You could even run the ads. I don't care. The money's in my pocket, but it's staying there unless the chains are taken off MLB.tv.
a lot of cable companies now have apps that stream live TV to mobile devices. some only work on wifi, some also on cellular
You don't think I had internet before I changed my cable plan? That $130 ($134 actually) was TV + internet. Now I'm at $69.95 plus the $7.95 for Hulu Plus, which I didn't have before. I already was on Netflix and Amazon Prime, so those don't enter into the equation.
So overall I'm saving around $55/month.
I wouldn't say it's MLB that's stuck. Rather, it's the networks. I think they (incorrectly) assume it's difficult to sell high-value advertising for a national/worldwide market. If you think about it, when you watch sports on TV, a lot of the ads you see are targeted towards people in the broadcast region of the team. For example, Jack in the Box runs lots of advertising during Dodgers broadcasts. They don't have restaurants east of the Mississippi, so they're likely not willing to pay top dollar to advertise when a now larger chunk of the viewership is outside of their area.
The real money is not in advertising. When a team sells their broadcast rights to a cable company, that cable company passes those costs directly through to cable subscribers.
i did the cord cutting thing for a year and last week signed up for TV again. paying $105 now for the next year including the box rental. before that it was $60 for just internet. and still have netflix. its OK, but the selection is still pretty bad, especially for younger kids.
disney jr you have to pay.
i accidentally signed up for MLB TV last season and it was so so. some saturdays every game was blacked out, not just the local ones. all the nationally broadcast games are blacked out.
amazon has exclusive access to viacom content which annoyed me. i let my amazon prime expire since it wasn't anything special.
i tried Hulu Plus and cancelled after the first month.
ironically my wife never watched netflix until this past weekend when she decided to go on a The Office binge. but i've watched more TV since i got cable then in the last year. now that they stream almost every live tv channel to the ipad including on demand
Fox Sports had a deal with MLB where their Saturday afternoon games were given an exclusive broadcast window - no other game was allowed to be broadcast on any station during that time period. Even your local sports network couldn't broadcast your local team's game if it was being played at a time that overlapped with Fox's Saturday game.
I believe that deal expired at the end of the past season - if not, it expires after 2014. But it was really absurd.
We buy a lot of stuff on Amazon, and we like the free two-day shipping. We hardly ever watch their video offerings, to be honest - we were Prime members before that perk existed (or maybe we just didn't know about it).
my wife says that amazon is more expensive for a lot of things and lately best buy has been the same price as amazon on a lot of electronics. so i just hit best buy during lunch at work
even with the fox sports deal expiring i'll probably stay with cable and watch the mets and yankees live
even with the fox sports deal expiring i'll probably stay with cable and watch the mets and yankees live
Good point. I'm about to cancel Dish and move over to the horrible Time Warner family because Dish is almost certainly not going to carry the new SportsNet LA station for the Dodgers.
Time Warner really has an amazing racket going. If you're in Los Angeles, you can't get the Pac-12 networks on DirecTV, and you can't get the TWC SportsNet stations on Dish. So, if you're a fan of LA sports, you're stuck with TWC or the mostly unavailable-in-your-neighborhood fiber-optic providers.
Someone told me that dish goes out of their way to avoid regional sports channels for lower pricing
The cable companies and the pro sports franchises have a racket going together. They are in cahoots, for all intents and purposes.
I'd be surprised if the satellite providers don't get the rights to broadcast the new Dodgers network, but they will have to pay dearly for it. As I understand that deal, the Dodgers retain the media rights to the team but at the same time they struck a deal with TWC to produce and carry for 25 years. If the other providers get cut out they could cry foul, and I believe they'd have the law on their side. The law protects common carriers. Not that anyone is looking out for the consumer.
You have it exactly backwards. Their new media deal ($6b over 25 years) gives them the ability to spend roughly $240m a year on payroll without selling a single ticket.
I don't see Dish caving, because they're not carrying Time Warner SportsNet, which broadcasts all the Lakers games. It's been over a year now. The Dodgers are popular, but I think more Angelenos care about seeing the Lakers (Not me, go Clippers!). If they've managed to survive that, I think they'll try to survive not carrying the Dodgers.
And if they do cave in, and they have to raise my rates each month, then Dish will not be such an attractive option for me anymore.
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I can't speak to cities other than LA, but they do carry the Pac-12 Networks, which gives you UCLA and USC, and everyone carries Fox Sports, who are the main providers here for the LA Kings, Ducks, and Clippers.
I didn't know that, but then I am a TWC subscriber and Dodgers fan. Happier about the latter more than the former these days.
Unfortunately that means I also pay for Lakers, Clippers, Ducks and Kings games that I never watch.