Tuesday, June 18, 2013
Steinberg: St. Louis baseball writer makes hilarious jokes about the Nats
(www.washingtonpost.com)
Woo-hoo…I haven’t laughed at a Strauss this hard since Stanislas “Animal” Kasava danced with Harry “Sugar Lips” Shapiro! #stalaugh17
Read More...Joe Strauss @JoeStrauss
District in meltdown. Mention Natitude and it’s as if someone shook the hive. #NotMyMarketingCampaign
Now, this is funny, because apparently a few Nats fans got angry at Strauss or something. And by writing “#NotMyMarketingCampaign,” Strauss here signifies that he did not, in fact, come up with Natitude. Meaning he’s zeroing in on ...
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1 2 >I must be one of a tiny percentage of Americans with broadcast TV but without cable. As TFPetition notes, we're probably disproportionately poor (and hence not worth considering as a demographic to reach).
There has always been a franchise in Washington known as the Nationals. Surely you remember when Frank Howard was traded and they acquired Rusty Staub to be their cleanup hitter. Who can forget the great seasons Gary Carter and Andre Dawson had for the mighty Nats. We have always been at war with Eurasia.
I think it's about 20 dollars a month for me to get that package, which I can't see many people paying for one game. And I don't think the cable companies will move it because of complaints. You're going to lose a lot more eyeballs than you're going to gain subscribers.
Mine comes as part of an expanded basic type package.
I think from MLB's perspective making MLBN a "go to" place is useful in the long haul. It's not that people are going to pay for one game but if they start to get the sense that more and more things are being broadcast on that station they will start asking for the channel to be more easily accessible. ESPN got some heat in the early days of ESPN2 for putting some big events on that station even though many people didn't have it. I have a recollection of a UNC-Duke basketball game being one of the biggies. Eventually ESPN2 got folded into more general packages.
I'd agree with that. But I also think the long term strategy to maximize profits from the MLB Network is to do something like this.
I'm not going to take the time to look this up (call me out if I'm wrong) but I'm quite confident that the NFL Network is available to a greater audience and in general is on lower tiered packages. NFL Network wasn't always that way but they really were able to get things moving when they granted tv rights to themselves instead of making the games more broadly available.
Some Nationals fans, amongst whom one can apparently count eddieot, want to make it so. The franchise itself is more ambivalent, and celebrates both 'baseball in Washington' and its Expos' past.
In fact this will be the fourth home playoff game in the franchise's history.
Speaking of which, I don't understand how the networks haven't revolted over the Red Zone channel. I live in a 2 team market and couldn't care less about the local teams. So unless the Patriots are on, if I'm watching the NFL at all I have the Red Zone channel on in the background while I do other things, meaning CBS and FOX rarely get my eyeballs on the games they paid eleventy seventy chillion dollars for. I can't imagine I'm alone on that one.
God, such primadonnas.
The team generally celebrates baseball in Washington more than identifying with the Expos. I don't know that they directly claim the history of former DC teams, but there's certainly a tip of the cap to their predecessors here.
A minority of people with low end cable packages don't get the MLB channel. I've got the second tier FIOS ("premium" without any special movie channels) and AFAIK that's had the MLB channel right from the beginning. This is obviously a war of nerves between MLB and the cable companies to see who will crack first.
Revenue for twice as many hours' worth of TV programming from its network partner?
MLB tried that in 1995, and they were deluged with protests from viewers who understandably wanted to see all the games played, not just one. The obvious solution this time would be for MLB to allow a local broadcast channel to pick up its feed, but that would be an act of public spiritedness that baseball wouldn't even begin to consider.
I don't really see how this is understandable. How many people are actually able to catch games at 1PM? I'd wager that it's less than the number of fans that want to see specific teams play and would rather be given the choice between two games at night. I suppose that would require the MLB allowing a local channel to pick up a feed though, which is clearly out of the question for some mindboggling reason.
I feel like local governments should carry a bit bigger hammer with this sort of thing when they put up huge amounts of money to cover stadiums. I'm OK with blowing $600 million on a stadium, but if a city's going to do that, the MLB doesn't get to treat their product as a purely private item; it's now in the domain of public interest.
On my cable system the NFL Network and MLB TV (or whatever it is) are both on the same higher tier. When the NFL Network first started it was carried as part of the basic package but was bumped into a higher tier after a few months. AFAIK MLB TV was part of the higher tier from the beginning.
What playoff game (in this round!) IS available on local TV? Other than the World Series and whichever LCS Fox gets, the postseason is mostly a cable thing, and has been for a few years.
It's been true for basically every sport except for the NFL for years.
Word up. The amount of whining that goes on here in the wealthiest area of the country is just unbelievable.
Are the Nationals like the Cleveland Browns, where they inherited the history of an unrelated franchise with the same name? And if so, do they get the heritage of Senators II as well? Maybe Bernie Allen can throw out the first pitch.
Another sigh. I really do look forward to the eventual blessed day when we no longer have to keep rehashing out the whole Nationals/Expos/Senators thing, because frankly it's starting to get a little tiresome. Fifteen to twenty more years should do it, but I hope that it's fewer than that.
Either people would be upset that they'd have no notice, or they'll be upset at the start time.
Seems to me a 5:30, 6:00, 8:30, 9pm setup solves the problem.
Either people would be upset that they'd have no notice, or they'll be upset at the start time.
didn't the schedule that announced a 1pm start for the Nationals come out yesterday?
Next year there will at least be a 2012 NL East flag. (Or 2012 National League Champions or 2012 World Champions.) I don't think there will be a "We beat the Cardinals but got crushed by the Reds flag."
I imagine in 15 to 20 years San Jose will be whining about the whole Nationals/Expos/Senators/Nationals thing.
I'm part of that insignificant group, too. I can't bring myself to pay for television, however entertaining some of it is. When the cable companies (or whoever runs the show in the future) let me pick and choose what I want to watch instead of sticking me with a hundred time-wasting channels, let me know.
heh. it was also probably in the middle of the afternoon as well.
mlb.tv for 4.99
I streamed mlb.tv to my TV this year, with good picture results, though mlb.tv itself was unreliable compared to Extra Innings. Do others with mlb.tv stream to TVs, or is it mostly to computers? I ask because I've been experimenting being one of the "tiny percentage of Americans with broadcast TV but without cable," and I've found that the streamable content is more than I really need (e.g., the major pro sports packages except for the NFL).
I might have three extra playoff tickets as well since the 1pm game has caused everyone I know to bail or not be able to go. I've got them up for sale on stubhub now at the cheapest price for the section but the 1pm game is really killing the market so I have no idea if they'll sell or not.
It sounds like you're looking for DVR. It exists and costs around $5 per month on top of whatever your normal rate is. Most cable companies also have on demand versions of popular shows. Really, it seems like you're asking for features that the cable companies are currently offering.
Except the cable companies make you buy a basic package first, and then bundle up a bunch of channels at various different prices, and pay for various different options just to watch some things when you want to watch them.
I believe he is asking for the ability to pay for only certain channels and options instead of having to spend 100 dollars or more a month on hundreds of channels he'll never visit.
As soon as I found out there would be 2 LDS games on MLBN, I predicted where they would be: Washington and Detroit. Yep.
Yet another reason why I want a Nats-Tigers World Series: it would induce the MLB and TV executives to kill themselves.
And Fox is spending billions for baseball. So why not show the game on MLB everywhere else but show it on the local Fox affiliate in DC and St. Louis?
Down to just two extra tickets for tomorrow.
Me, too. Not poor, just ch..I mean thrifty.
McCoy how much for one of the tickets? You can BBTF message me if you want.
A big tumble from two weeks ago. Thank you 1pm start time. I could have sold them two weeks ago for anywhere from 130 to 150 dollars.
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