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Monday, October 18, 2021
Major League Baseball is in talks to launch a nationwide video-streaming service that would enable fans to watch their teams’ hometown games without a cable-TV subscription, The Post has learned.
The web-based service — which could address a decades-old annoyance for baseball fans that some have partly blamed for the league’s steadily declining viewership — could launch as early as the 2023 season, a person with direct knowledge of the negotiations said.
The National Basketball Association and the National Hockey League are also considering partnering with MLB on the new streaming service, sources said. Insiders say subscription rates would vary by geographic market and could be between $10 and $20 a month — well below the monthly cost of most cable-TV packages, which can easily stretch past $100.
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1. the Hugh Jorgan returns Posted: October 18, 2021 at 12:09 AM (#6047088)Is this still a thing in the USA? Do people actually buy cable packages?
I don't know of anyone in Sydney who has a cable package. Everyone just pays like $10 per month to 3-5 different streaming services and watches those.
Pre-pirating, I was paying about $100/month for cable, which was watched almost solely for sports. That went away about a month before the pandemic struck, and I've never looked back.
Like Inge in #5 the cost of the streaming service isn't much less than a cable service but the convenience of it makes it worthwhile to me. It's so nice not to have to drag wires all around my house and the big clunky box.
This would be $10-20 per month, according to the article.
You're welcome for subsidizing your sports viewing.
The ones I feel bad for are people in places like Nevada and Iowa. There is actually no way for them to legally watch a good percentage of games. Des Moines TV stations don't carry any of the 6 blacked out teams. So if you're a Cardinals fan there is no way to watch your team. And on any given day, 6 games could be blacked out, which means that you could have as many as 12 teams not be available to you that day. So if you're a Giants fan, you'll miss out on a good chunk of their games, too. And you can't pay to get them.
Those are the ones I don't get. If MLB wants to enforce a blackout in a place where I can watch a game legally well fair enough. It's their product and while I think it's a bit harsh I get it. But why someone in Iowa is blacked out on a game he literally can't acquire any other way is nonsense.
Yeah, a big part of this is sports fans losing the free ride we've had for a long time.
That's not strictly true. I don't know about cable, but as far as I can tell, DirecTV Stream (formerly AT&T TV etc.) carries 3 RSNs in Des Moines, covering 4 of the 6 MLBTV blackout teams: Cardinals, Royals, White Sox, and Cubs. $85/month but no contract, no equipment. Of course, that varies by location around the state -- I think northern Iowa can get the Twins or Brewers but maybe loses Cardinals and Royals, etc. With DirecTV via satellite, Des Moines gets all 6 of the MLBTV blackout teams, although then you have equipment and a contract.
Could definitely stand to be easier and cheaper but there are still legal ways, even in Iowa.
The Spurs and Blazers have no direct summer MLB counterpart but the Astros/Rangers could work for San Antonio and the Mariners have a following in Portland.
Edit: and in Honolulu, DirecTV stream carries all 5 of the California MLB teams too.
OK, I'm out of date then.
Surely the easiest way to run/market it is to run it through MLBtv but that's not where the revenue should be going (beyond a service fee or whatever). I've never understood how MLBtv could generate so much revenue -- how many people want out-of-market baseball? If you're a Cub fan in LA (or better, Australia), it's fine value ... without Cub games, there's no way I'd subscribe. So a package of MLBtv for one home-market team of your choice costs $100 a year; adding a second in-market team costs $50; adding out-of-market costs an extra $20-30. (Hopefully re-define "market" so Iowa doesn't have 6 teams ... I intend that mainly for NY, LA, Chi area subscribers.) In places where there's no market (i.e. me, maybe a few other places), $100 for everything.
Yeah, I don't think that feeling gouged is a reason to do something illegal.
Thank you Mr. Pope. I don't understand peoples attitude towards stealing content. I don't feel like I get good value by spending $75,000 for a Mercedes, but my response is to drive a Jeep, not steal a Mercedes.
From TFA:
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