Hey ########, you need to be playing games to have games so stop ####### around and get players into camp.

The headline seems weirdly like it dates from 1928.

Sports on radio will never work!

I suppose I'm just too old-fashioned and don't understand this on-demand world. Why in the world would MLB want its product spread around ESPN, Fox, TBS, MLB network, Apple, NBC, maybe some facebook/youtube and whoever else I'm forgetting? Why would Fox want its playoff product diluted/confused with TBS? Why would NBC want to "broadcast" 10 games a year (or whatever this deal is supposedly covering)? All especially true for baseball where, what, 95% of fans are just interested in their local team?

I know the networks pay monster money so it apparently makes business sense and, even if MLB would like to have everything on 1-2 networks, they gotta grab as much money as they can from whoever is willing to give it to them and sell as many "national" games as they can.

It's all fine by me ... unless MLBtv has changed their rules for us international folks, I just get to sit back and stream any game I want from the one source.

Games of what?

Why in the world would MLB want its product spread around ESPN, Fox, TBS, MLB network, Apple, NBC, maybe some facebook/youtube and whoever else I'm forgetting?

The streaming market is so fragmented that this is the only way to get in front of everyone. If you have 15 games a night you can give 15 different networks an "exclusive" game. Of course we all know what the consumer wants is one app to watch all the games for their favorite team.

Ideally, I imagine that what MLB really wants is everybody paying a certain amount directly to them; right now, though, they're apparently able to bring in more by spreading it around because a game or two per week is worth more to each of cable channels/broadcasters than the whole week would be to a single one which doesn't want MLB completely dominating their schedule for a stretch. That doesn't seem like it would be a problem for the streamers, but right now, it seems like the league is maxing out the amount it's being paid while still making the no-middlemen situation they want impossible.

Why in the world would MLB want its product spread around ESPN, Fox, TBS, MLB network, Apple, NBC, maybe some facebook/youtube and whoever else I'm forgetting?

More customers is good for business.

The more platforms MLB affiliates with, the more money they get. The affiliates love it, because they can get MLB fans to sign up for their service to get games. I do wonder if MLB would benefit from taking all their streaming rights in house and offering everything on MLBTV. But I imagine their current model is more lucrative.

Games of what?

Thrones?

Why in the world would GRRM want his product spread out among NBC, HBO, and PlayStation?

Have we reached a point where we can get a KBO or NPB streaming package in the US? I would probably go for one of those for a year.

You can stream Pacific League games for ¥1595 a month. I’m tempted to sign up just to see Big Boss Shinjo managing the Fighters.

Edit: here’s a blog post from a few months ago that lists the options for (legally) streaming NPB games in the US.

#13. Thanks!

Streaming is still less than 50 percent of the TV market.
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/06/17/nielsen-streaming-makes-up-only-26percent-of-time-spent-in-front-of-tv.html

As a non-streaming, non cable household, I have slowly weaned myself from baseball and sports over the last five years. Except for football, some golf, college basketball, etc...all the other sports have disappeared from OTA television. I live in LA...there were no Dodger or Angel games (or very, very few) on OTA television last season. No Lakers or Clippers games, very few Ducks or Kings games. 90 percent of the people in LA couldn't name a Ducks player if their life depended on it.
Why be so obsessed with the streaming when there is a ton of time available to fill on Saturday afternoons?

I found up signing up for Pacific League TV and watched a Swallows/Fighters spring training game this afternoon:

Good:

i) With auto-translate features being built into browsers, it's easy to sign up and navigate the site
ii) streaming and broadcast quality was good
iii) you can watch the game at various speeds, so you could treat a blowout like a podcast and play it at 1.5 speed
iv) you can stream games going back to 2012, and it also includes farm team games
v) there's a spoiler mode for current games so time zones aren't that much of an issue if you're willing to watch yesterday's games
vi) Shinjo wore fingerless gloves while managing today, one had "BIG" printed on it and the other had "BOSS". This along might justify the ¥1595 per month.

Bad:

i) archived games are broken up into half-innings, so if you're paying attention to the time remaining bar you can sort of figure out what's going to happen, plus there's few seconds of buffering when the video for the next half-inning automatically starts.
ii) I don't know if this is a spring training thing or not, but the stream included footage from in-between innings, so you need to either watch it or manually fast forward to the next inning
iii) for reasons I don't understand, streaming fees are charged on a calendar month basis, so if you sign up on the 15th of March, you're paying ¥1595 for half a month then getting rebilled on the 1st for April
iv) there's no app so you need to rely on airplay or the android equivalent is to get it on a tv.
v) there's (AFAICT) no park sounds option so you're stuck with Japanese commentary

Overall I'd say it's worth it. I'm going to spend the month watching spring training games and Ohtani/Matsuzaka/Tanaka starts from past years.