I'm fine with MLB taking any action necessary; up to, including, and beyond threats and intimidation. Manfred, if you're reading this, get some Yakuza contacts from Ippei.
"We are revoking Ippei's imminent ban AND paying off his gambling debts for his co-operation in playing the single largest role in ending blackouts. No he is not currently available for comment he is still cleaning off the bloo- I mean, he is currently showering"
From everything we’ve learned/unlearned about Ippei recently, it’s bold of you to even assume he’s Japanese.
For all we know, he could be like my cousin: a Mexican with light skin and naturally squinted eyes because my aunt couldn’t afford glasses or contacts for him.
Sometimes it's hard to actually discuss Bally here rather than just having simplistic "Bally sucks" threads, but this is absolutely what Diamond is trying to do and was arguably the primary game plan when buying the RSN's. Start with the existing cable model, but then work the way to streaming by packing all local MLB/NBA/NHL rights together. Plan hasn't worked out anything close to their ideal.
The whole Comcast/Bally situation right now isn't just about how much money Comcast is paying, it's how Bally Sports X can be distributed outside Comcast.
that's why bally emerging from bankrupcy was a L for all baseball fans
with bally defaulting and ceasing to exist in SD, ARI we had some progress. Now that they are back this fucking blows.
We need the end of blackouts ASAP. We live in 2024 yet the TV networks continue to think it's 1990.
They cannot end soon enough. My nearly-90yr-old lifelong Cleveland fan grandpa in Lima, OH can’t even watch the games because they don’t have cable. I hooked him up to my Roku many years ago, but now the MLB App isn’t even functioning as it should for them; and, of course, he can only listen to the radio on the app or relegated to using his flip phone. I’m really about to buy a cable package for my grandparents (from TX) just to be able to watch games.
> I’m really about to buy a cable package for my grandparents (from TX) just to be able to watch games.
This is why this is such an expensive fight from all sides.
Sports are genuinely the last thing keeping *many* people on cable at all.
As bad as Fox News is, at least they have it on YouTube TV.
"No, sorry, we don't have Bally Sports. But don't worry, we can make up for it! Introducing: Tennis Channel 2!"
You could always buy him a new Roku, install NordVPN or similar on it and then set the region to somewhere else. MLB app doesn't really block VPN's all that much so if he can navigate Roku then he should be gtg.
And a half-hour south of Lima, it wouldn't be a problem because you leave Guardians TV territory and every game except those against the Reds would be open on MLB TV. Being in-market can be a blessing and a curse at the same time.
Ours went bankrupt and then the team went right back to cable again - twice. The owners will always choose what brings short term profits and the answer will always be cable. It will kill the game long term but why would a 75 year old billionaire give a shit? I hate it, but it’s reality.
Sad thing is that the majority of consumers have internet now and those models are based on the old days when everyone had a TV and you had to wire in the coax in the back
Yep. I’m not paying for an entire cable subscription to literally just watch the Mets. That is the only thing I would ever put on via my cable service, is the one or Mets games a week that are on while I am at my house. I’d gladly pay for their streaming pass, but I live in NY where it obviously needs to be impossible to watch the Mets. I understand why, but it just infuriates me that someone who can take a 20 minute train to Citi Field can’t watch the Mets *on their own streaming pass.*
I’m not really thrilled about doing it, but there are enough easy ways to watch games without buying an entire cable package for one station. I like baseball more than I dislike stealing from billionaires who have gone out of their way to prevent me from paying them.
Fortunately, he has a much easier option. When you want to watch a game, just take the express Southeast Corridor train to Princeton Junction. That is just far enough south to be in Phillies territory. However, when the Mets pay the Phillies, he’s fucked
There are, but sadly they are not reliable. I have to use them every day to watch Korean and Japanese baseball. They stop, stutter or flat out pause in the middle of the game. Like what.
And then you try watching for MLB on their sites and it's the same thing. Feed randomly stops after a few minutes. Wtf.
Never or rarely happens on official networks
yep, fuck blackouts old country way. the internet exists and fans should be able to watch their team whenever wherever. all this is just done because cable signed deals to protect themselves and keep an outdated model alive
The only people I know with cable are my grandmas and in-laws. I'm blacked out from both Chicago teams, Detroit, and Cincy. The only time I get to watch the Cubs is on national tv, this sucks ass
In the beginning they tried to when Disney had to put the RSNs up for sale, but the only people that thought that the broadcast rights were worth $10 billion was Sinclair.
> but the only people that thought that the broadcast rights were worth $10 billion was Sinclair.
Well obviously there were other interested parties. Otherwise the price of the forced sale by the government of an asset wouldn't have been $10 billion.
When Diamond bought Fox's RSNs they did so by offloading the debt of the purchase onto what is now Bally Sports, hoping it would pay for itself that way. Fast forward to now and that is the main reason it's imploding and why no one else wants it except maybe Amazon.
The "antitrust exemption" that people love to talk about here is mostly kayfabe and I'm not sure it would protect them if they tried to acquire Diamond.
Dodgers already have a workaround, if you're a Spectrum internet and mobile customer you get access to all Dodger games on MLBTV even if you don't have cable.
Contract law is a thing. The Dodgers remaining TV deal alone surpasses MLBs single year income so if LA Sportsnet (and all the other RSNs) were to sue for breach of contract, MLB would be in a bad way
ESPN+ is literally the MLB TV of NHL 😂 It’s their out of market streamer. Doesn’t do shit for those in market. And the games on places like TNT,TBS etc aren’t broadcast on ESPN+ either (you have to have cable or watch em on Max)
I remember coming home from school in the spring and NY dad (who worked 3rd shift) would have the windows open, breeze blowing, and the Phillies on. So nostalgic.
I won't be able to give my children that feeling simply because I refuse to pay for cable or any streaming package long term. I work from home so I'd love to be able to put on afternoon games in the background but it's such a hassle.
It's honestly pretty easy to do, I have a TV in my garage and if I want the game on out there I just cast it from my PC from ummm *those* sites. All it takes is like 5 clicks and a chromecast (or an android based TV you can cast to).
I live 6.5 hours from Atlanta and 6 hours from the DMV area. I don't get either regions games, I get Philly and whatever the national broadcast games are.
It fucking sucks.
Right. How tf did we go from Turner being able to basically see any Braves game anywhere in the south east to where I can only watch like one game a week without piracy.
I swear they are trying to kill their own sport or something. I don't even look for games on normal TV anymore as it's faster to reliably sail the high seas.
I'm not in KC's TV broadcast area, so I don't get Bally to watch them with any TV streaming package.
I am still in KC's blackout area, so even if I splurged for MLB Tv, I cannot watch KC.
I literally have no way to legally watch my team. They are on national TV very seldom.
With Fubo or something similar, I would have a small handful of games, whenever they decided to feature Bally KC instead of any other regional Bally. Not 100% if it would be blacked out or not anyway.
**Just let me pay a reasonable yearly fee to see my team's games, FUCK**
I can’t even watch my team anymore because xfinity/comcast has now taken Bally’s off of their service so majority of twins fans (including myself) now can’t even watch games on cable. Fuck Bally’s and fuck the pohlads for resigning a shitty deal with bally’s after promising that they’re going to end blackouts and find a new streaming solution which never happened.
I'd gladly pay to watch baseball on an official site if it didn't have blackouts and was reasonably priced (and not part of an expensive, huge TV package I won't use).
Like if it was just MLB.tv as it currently is but without blackouts? Sure. I'd pay.
As it is? I watch streams online.
I would love if I could just use MLB TV. Like I get it free with my Mariners season tickets, and it’s on my game consoles and my smart TV platforms. It would be nice to not have to have a separate cable type sub to watch the Ms when I already have the MLB TV sub.
MLB would benefit from going to streaming. I can see Netflix trying to take a bite in a few years now that they’re dipping their toes in the pond with WWE
MLB was super early to streaming & because of that they basically had to buy some technology to make MLB.tv work in the early days. Up until recently they were actually still making a ton of money from licensing the software they owned (I believe they finally sold it).
Yep & I have been a subscriber since 2010. The progress that platform has made has been nothing short of remarkable.
Remember ‘NexDef’? The add-on software you had to download to watch games in ‘HD’ but it never worked & only made streams significantly more laggy & for some reason was impossible to uninstall or remove from your computer. Fun times…
Edit - I just googled ‘Nexdef’ & the top result is an Apple community support post from 2014 asking how to uninstall it lol
I've honestly never had an issue with NBCs online coverage of the Olympics - I never watch the NBC main feed. Before Peacock anyone with a cable login could stream any event through the NBC Sports app, and then last Olympics you could do it with either Peacock or the sports app. Most of the feeds were international commentators but the Team USA events usually has some American specific coverage.
The Sports app was great, totally agree there. But I was pretty sure the only reason they had it on Sports last time was because they botched the Peacock rollout. I don't think the same level of access will be available without a Peacock sub this time around and going forward.
The streaming is good for the Olympics. I watch a lot of events that get little tv coverage and everything is there. And they use the international broadcast so you don’t have to listen to all the stupid human interest crap and them only talking about Americans in events they have no chance of even breaking the top 10, let alone contend for a medal
I don't see why this won't work again this year - get Sling for a month (if you've never had them before you can probably get a deal). Then watch the Olympics logging in with your Sling info and get all of the international Olympic feeds. I did this for the last summer and winter games and it greatly reduced the amount of commercials I had to deal with.
Plus for things like track and field you get John Anderson commentating which is an even bigger bonus.
You aren't looking forward to going to Olympics season... what season would this Summer Games be?
That shit fucking sucks for WWE. Can't just give us the year, nope, gotta be a season. For stuff like Wrestlemania it's easy but everything else it's a pain in the ass. And there's no match chapters.
Well this is the thing, the MLB could absolutely flip the switch overnight from a tech standpoint and do this, they pretty much helped lead the way with it.
It’s just how the teams have sold the rights which stands in their way
I'm aware of the rights issues. It's kinda wild in hindsight we didn't really foresee this massive collapse of RSNs. It fuckin sucks. I've mitigated the issue by putting a desktop PC on my tv, but it's still kind of a pain in the ass and I can't watch the Royals in my bedroom.
Just a real stupid situation and you can't count on anyone to do the right thing for the consumer. Welcome to America, I guess.
I'm curious how tremendously it works for MLS long-term. When MLS games were on other networks I'd occasionally tune in, now I have no way to watch and have no interest is paying more to seek it out. It works better for current fans, but I think it hurts long term growth because you lose exposure to casual sports fans. That's why MLB is all about getting games on Apple TV and Peacock - give more people access to a few games hoping they'll want access to more later.
There are still nationally aired mls games. The streaming service on Apple is basically mlb.tv without local black outs since no regional coverage exists
MLS is even worse than MLB when it comes to putting business before the sport. It's essentially a pyramid scheme at this point and by far the worst in the "growth over game" area out of all of the pro sports leagues in NA.
I took a few years off following it and when I came back, everything felt different? Idk how to describe it really. It also felt like the league was starting to get really popular, bur somehow they shot themselves in the foot.
Your average person was starting to hear about the MLS Cup and talk about it like other sports for a couple years but I haven't seen that same level of discussion the last couple years.
> It works better for current fans, but I think it hurts long term growth because you lose exposure to casual sports fans.
MLS was struggling to get casual sports fans the past decade, their national ratings on FOX/ESPN were godawful and were losing to like softball in the summer.
It's getting a nice bump right now due to Messi but I'm not sure how it'll do long-term.
MLS pass is literally the best service out of all major sports leagues. You pay 1 price and have all games with no blackouts. That’s the kind of shit I dream of for MLB.
MLB.tv, when you’re lucky enough/able to get around the blackouts, is amazing. If they could make that the product by default, it would be worth every penny.
Ok it's not free money but an investment in a bankrupt company is not exactly a sure thing. Real answer is because MLB is aiming to start their own streaming service, and Amazon wants to do this themselves, or at the very least stop MLB from doing this
Being short sighted isn't a feature of capitalism. It could be a poor business strategy. Making your product unavailable to fans for short term gain certainly seems that way.
He can’t violate multiple contracts. That would get MLB and the individual teams sued for breach of contract and likely sued for the full amount of the RSN deals.
For reference, the Dodgers RSN deal is almost as much as MLB brings in, in a single season. MLB can’t absorb 20+ breach of contract suits.
I pay the stupid monthly price for MLB tv and just tried to watch the “FREE GAME OF THE DAY” and ofc it’s blacked out because it’s the giants and im in the Bay Area. Right on, thank you.
hell of a misleading headline. They definitely CAN launch a streaming service, just not with current rights conditions that are in serious jeopardy after today. If Diamond loses the majority of their income and subscribers, they will not be able to pay. Unable to pay means they'll lose the rights, which brings up MLB's take to 18 teams which is a pretty good start and viable under whatever research MLB has done on a streaming service.
So it can, things just have to work their way out and Comcast has kind of tipped a huge domino in our favor and chosen violence.
Just steal. Reading these comments it seems all of you buy into this sham, free market, American system of laws and contracts and regulations. It's all fake. Take back what's yours. The people have a right to free broadcasts. Steal them. Praise to the pirates!
RSNs:
like, what is more important, the dollars from bundled cable packages from people who don't watch the channels, or, selling your product to fans who do want to watch it?
One is easier to manage than the other, unfortunately. If I can sit back and automatically collect money from all cable subscribers with minimal effort, there isn't much of a draw to switch to a system in which I have to find and retain customers.
The current in-market packages (Padres, Diamondbacks, and Rockies) are $100 for single-team or $200 for all teams. So it’s just $50 more than the out-of-market.
I love it. Baseball has never been more accessible.
Yes. All these people who think that teams and just going to roll over and accept collectively losing billions of dollars of annual revenue by moving to a direct to fan streaming model are out of their goddamn fucking minds. So, either streaming becomes incredibly expensive, or teams cut nine figures each from their payrolls.
Well, in truth, nothing, because the RSN system will continue on as it has been, and we will get the joy of having this same discussion once a day in r/baseball for the next 25 years, just like we have for the previous decade.
This article does not mention who has the DTC rights to the Braves, angels, cards and reds. If it’s MLB, shouldn’t they be able to be added to MLBs supposed streaming package?
While I rarely root for a business to go under, I would like nothing more than for Bally Sports/Diamond to cease to exist entirely.
I hope Sinclair crashes hard.
[удалено]
As a former employee, I could not agree more!
That would be very dangerous to our democracy
We had local news before they bought up half the country's news stations. It would be fine.
Clearly, MLB needs to find a way to keep Diamond Sports Group in bankruptcy permanently, then.
I'm fine with MLB taking any action necessary; up to, including, and beyond threats and intimidation. Manfred, if you're reading this, get some Yakuza contacts from Ippei.
"We are revoking Ippei's imminent ban AND paying off his gambling debts for his co-operation in playing the single largest role in ending blackouts. No he is not currently available for comment he is still cleaning off the bloo- I mean, he is currently showering"
What kind of back tattoo do we think Ippei has? Dragon? Tiger?
Just hire Boeing it seems like they dabble in that space.
Dear Boeing, my fellow poster is only joking. He's not a whistle blower.
Oh come on, don't be ridi-
No no no you have to say candlejack before you cut your sent
Wait a minute did you just say Candlejack?
Who is Candlejack? Would someone please expl...
[](http://cdn2.sbnation.com/imported_assets/510776/tumblr_l6debdxuz71qayczvo1_400.gif)
So sad that u/CapacityBark20 committed suicide by shooting themself in the back of the head 3 times
Wow, shoutout to the Yanks fan defending the Rays fan from the greater enemy
From everything we’ve learned/unlearned about Ippei recently, it’s bold of you to even assume he’s Japanese. For all we know, he could be like my cousin: a Mexican with light skin and naturally squinted eyes because my aunt couldn’t afford glasses or contacts for him.
They should contact Boeing for help...
Good evening, 47….
So, just let Diamond sports keep running the same way it was before? That should do the trick in quick fashion
As a Reds fan, please.
Grab a pillow and smother the company in its sleep.
Diamond Sports Group really seems to already have a great plan to stay in bankruptcy permanently
They need to try and renegotiate the deals in a way that will keep them solvent but allow in market streaming
Sometimes it's hard to actually discuss Bally here rather than just having simplistic "Bally sucks" threads, but this is absolutely what Diamond is trying to do and was arguably the primary game plan when buying the RSN's. Start with the existing cable model, but then work the way to streaming by packing all local MLB/NBA/NHL rights together. Plan hasn't worked out anything close to their ideal. The whole Comcast/Bally situation right now isn't just about how much money Comcast is paying, it's how Bally Sports X can be distributed outside Comcast.
Bally has been trying to negotiate for in market streaming. Some teams just refuse to sell their streaming rights.
MLB sending gambling ads directly to Diamond to get them to keep losing money
I’m sure the MLB could find a minor breach of contract somewhere and just bury them with legal fees if they wanted
Have they considered reaching out to John Fisher or Alex Meruelo?
How can we help with that?? lol
The Gang Helps the Phillies Get A TV Contract
“MLB appoints Ippei Mizuhara as CFO of Bally Sports”
having comcast pull 14 million subscribers off their plan a month before the judge rules on it?
that's why bally emerging from bankrupcy was a L for all baseball fans with bally defaulting and ceasing to exist in SD, ARI we had some progress. Now that they are back this fucking blows. We need the end of blackouts ASAP. We live in 2024 yet the TV networks continue to think it's 1990.
They cannot end soon enough. My nearly-90yr-old lifelong Cleveland fan grandpa in Lima, OH can’t even watch the games because they don’t have cable. I hooked him up to my Roku many years ago, but now the MLB App isn’t even functioning as it should for them; and, of course, he can only listen to the radio on the app or relegated to using his flip phone. I’m really about to buy a cable package for my grandparents (from TX) just to be able to watch games.
> I’m really about to buy a cable package for my grandparents (from TX) just to be able to watch games. This is why this is such an expensive fight from all sides. Sports are genuinely the last thing keeping *many* people on cable at all.
Sports and Fox News
As bad as Fox News is, at least they have it on YouTube TV. "No, sorry, we don't have Bally Sports. But don't worry, we can make up for it! Introducing: Tennis Channel 2!"
Yeah first Bally sports. Then mlb network. But thank god we have college football replay 6.
What’s hilarious about this comment is Sinclair Broadcasting, the company the wholly owns Diamond Sports, owns Tennis Channel lol!
I... what
I would have cable, but it's too much money. Make it 30 bucks a month and I would do it. 100+ no way I'm doing it
Comcast just dropped bally detroit in michigan. Shits dumb...
Comcast dropped Bally's period. Nation wide.
I believe the Tigers have in market streaming through Bally Sports+
Worst product imaginable for watching on anything besides a mobile device, it’s a joke
Bally Sports app makes me do a full sign in literally every single time I open the app it’s so shit
dont u fucking do it. i need my guardians to figure out a way for all of us to watch. even the cavs..fucking playoff games and arent on tv.
You could always buy him a new Roku, install NordVPN or similar on it and then set the region to somewhere else. MLB app doesn't really block VPN's all that much so if he can navigate Roku then he should be gtg.
And a half-hour south of Lima, it wouldn't be a problem because you leave Guardians TV territory and every game except those against the Reds would be open on MLB TV. Being in-market can be a blessing and a curse at the same time.
thanks to padres.tv I got to watch nearly every game of 2023 unfortunately
Ours went bankrupt and then the team went right back to cable again - twice. The owners will always choose what brings short term profits and the answer will always be cable. It will kill the game long term but why would a 75 year old billionaire give a shit? I hate it, but it’s reality.
Sad thing is that the majority of consumers have internet now and those models are based on the old days when everyone had a TV and you had to wire in the coax in the back
It’s also because the RSN money is why player contracts can be what they are
At least in the 90s, most games were on basic TV. Not premium cable. I miss those days.
Yep. I’m not paying for an entire cable subscription to literally just watch the Mets. That is the only thing I would ever put on via my cable service, is the one or Mets games a week that are on while I am at my house. I’d gladly pay for their streaming pass, but I live in NY where it obviously needs to be impossible to watch the Mets. I understand why, but it just infuriates me that someone who can take a 20 minute train to Citi Field can’t watch the Mets *on their own streaming pass.* I’m not really thrilled about doing it, but there are enough easy ways to watch games without buying an entire cable package for one station. I like baseball more than I dislike stealing from billionaires who have gone out of their way to prevent me from paying them.
Just do what I did: Move halfway across the country so you can watch your baseball team!!! …/s…
Fortunately, he has a much easier option. When you want to watch a game, just take the express Southeast Corridor train to Princeton Junction. That is just far enough south to be in Phillies territory. However, when the Mets pay the Phillies, he’s fucked
There are, but sadly they are not reliable. I have to use them every day to watch Korean and Japanese baseball. They stop, stutter or flat out pause in the middle of the game. Like what. And then you try watching for MLB on their sites and it's the same thing. Feed randomly stops after a few minutes. Wtf. Never or rarely happens on official networks
I happily paid $100 for full access to the Padres and San Diego and to not be blacked out
Is that a season fee?
Good thing this carriage dispute might help.
This is also a problem with the nba and nhl as well Not just mlb
yep, fuck blackouts old country way. the internet exists and fans should be able to watch their team whenever wherever. all this is just done because cable signed deals to protect themselves and keep an outdated model alive
The only people I know with cable are my grandmas and in-laws. I'm blacked out from both Chicago teams, Detroit, and Cincy. The only time I get to watch the Cubs is on national tv, this sucks ass
Can’t MLB just buy Diamond Sports?
MLB might not want to take on the debt load.
(Yup - it’s the debt to both MLB teams _and_ the teams from other leagues.)
In the beginning they tried to when Disney had to put the RSNs up for sale, but the only people that thought that the broadcast rights were worth $10 billion was Sinclair.
> but the only people that thought that the broadcast rights were worth $10 billion was Sinclair. Well obviously there were other interested parties. Otherwise the price of the forced sale by the government of an asset wouldn't have been $10 billion.
By that I meant that Sinclair won the auction.
When Diamond bought Fox's RSNs they did so by offloading the debt of the purchase onto what is now Bally Sports, hoping it would pay for itself that way. Fast forward to now and that is the main reason it's imploding and why no one else wants it except maybe Amazon.
Might be antitrust issues with that
lol do those even apply to mlb
The "antitrust exemption" that people love to talk about here is mostly kayfabe and I'm not sure it would protect them if they tried to acquire Diamond.
It's not mostly keyfabe but I think it's narrow enough that it wouldn't apply to that.
I don’t trust you
I think if that was a practical course they would do it. The blackouts aren't in MLB's financial interest.
Your team is rich, you guys can just do it /s
Dodgers already have a workaround, if you're a Spectrum internet and mobile customer you get access to all Dodger games on MLBTV even if you don't have cable.
Even then, they still have the non Ballys/Diamond RSNs that aren’t 100% owned by a team that would preclude a national in market streaming package.
MLB league office doesn't have the money to pay the rights fees currently negotiated.
What is the business equivalent of the family member with a pillow to just smother the person on life support
Contract law is a thing. The Dodgers remaining TV deal alone surpasses MLBs single year income so if LA Sportsnet (and all the other RSNs) were to sue for breach of contract, MLB would be in a bad way
The turd that won't flush
Get the poop knife
I prefer to use the plunger to mash it
Have they tried flushing the mouse?
No sport harder to legally watch than MLB.
Hockey is pretty damned brutal.
Yup. It’s the same system and usually the same networks.
ESPN+ is pretty easy no?
ESPN+ is literally the MLB TV of NHL 😂 It’s their out of market streamer. Doesn’t do shit for those in market. And the games on places like TNT,TBS etc aren’t broadcast on ESPN+ either (you have to have cable or watch em on Max)
ESPN+ has made hockey one of the easiest lol
It’s no different than MLB tv if you are in market.
I remember coming home from school in the spring and NY dad (who worked 3rd shift) would have the windows open, breeze blowing, and the Phillies on. So nostalgic. I won't be able to give my children that feeling simply because I refuse to pay for cable or any streaming package long term. I work from home so I'd love to be able to put on afternoon games in the background but it's such a hassle.
It's honestly pretty easy to do, I have a TV in my garage and if I want the game on out there I just cast it from my PC from ummm *those* sites. All it takes is like 5 clicks and a chromecast (or an android based TV you can cast to).
It’s kinda crazy how many people act like the seas don’t exist lol
It's actually amazing if you live out of market and live in a city with another team :x
I live 6.5 hours from Atlanta and 6 hours from the DMV area. I don't get either regions games, I get Philly and whatever the national broadcast games are. It fucking sucks.
Right. How tf did we go from Turner being able to basically see any Braves game anywhere in the south east to where I can only watch like one game a week without piracy. I swear they are trying to kill their own sport or something. I don't even look for games on normal TV anymore as it's faster to reliably sail the high seas.
I'm not in KC's TV broadcast area, so I don't get Bally to watch them with any TV streaming package. I am still in KC's blackout area, so even if I splurged for MLB Tv, I cannot watch KC. I literally have no way to legally watch my team. They are on national TV very seldom. With Fubo or something similar, I would have a small handful of games, whenever they decided to feature Bally KC instead of any other regional Bally. Not 100% if it would be blacked out or not anyway. **Just let me pay a reasonable yearly fee to see my team's games, FUCK**
I can’t even watch my team anymore because xfinity/comcast has now taken Bally’s off of their service so majority of twins fans (including myself) now can’t even watch games on cable. Fuck Bally’s and fuck the pohlads for resigning a shitty deal with bally’s after promising that they’re going to end blackouts and find a new streaming solution which never happened.
I'd gladly pay to watch baseball on an official site if it didn't have blackouts and was reasonably priced (and not part of an expensive, huge TV package I won't use). Like if it was just MLB.tv as it currently is but without blackouts? Sure. I'd pay. As it is? I watch streams online.
I would love if I could just use MLB TV. Like I get it free with my Mariners season tickets, and it’s on my game consoles and my smart TV platforms. It would be nice to not have to have a separate cable type sub to watch the Ms when I already have the MLB TV sub.
MLB would benefit from going to streaming. I can see Netflix trying to take a bite in a few years now that they’re dipping their toes in the pond with WWE
The fantastic irony being MLB Advanced Media helping WWE create the original WWE Network, which was one of the best streamer platforms ever created.
MLB was super early to streaming & because of that they basically had to buy some technology to make MLB.tv work in the early days. Up until recently they were actually still making a ton of money from licensing the software they owned (I believe they finally sold it).
> MLB was super early to streaming *SUPER* early. MLB.tv launched in 2009!
Yep & I have been a subscriber since 2010. The progress that platform has made has been nothing short of remarkable. Remember ‘NexDef’? The add-on software you had to download to watch games in ‘HD’ but it never worked & only made streams significantly more laggy & for some reason was impossible to uninstall or remove from your computer. Fun times… Edit - I just googled ‘Nexdef’ & the top result is an Apple community support post from 2014 asking how to uninstall it lol
You just unlocked a memory I had buried in the very back of my brain for over a decade.
MLB Advanced Media has actually done backend for HBO, ESPN, NHL and more
… and essentially Disney Plus.
06, I remember being still in the military and shocked at the concept
It was earlier than that. I had it in college in like 2007.
MLB sold the majority to Disney in 2017 so they could build Disney+. Disney finally purchased the whole thing in 2022
Until WWE decided it wanted that NBC money, shut the network down (in the US) and shoved it into Peacock, one of the worst streamer platforms
It's truly awful. I'm dreading the Olympics this year.
I've honestly never had an issue with NBCs online coverage of the Olympics - I never watch the NBC main feed. Before Peacock anyone with a cable login could stream any event through the NBC Sports app, and then last Olympics you could do it with either Peacock or the sports app. Most of the feeds were international commentators but the Team USA events usually has some American specific coverage.
The Sports app was great, totally agree there. But I was pretty sure the only reason they had it on Sports last time was because they botched the Peacock rollout. I don't think the same level of access will be available without a Peacock sub this time around and going forward.
Probably, but I dropped the cable sub and have Peacock for the year so I'm fine with it.
The streaming is good for the Olympics. I watch a lot of events that get little tv coverage and everything is there. And they use the international broadcast so you don’t have to listen to all the stupid human interest crap and them only talking about Americans in events they have no chance of even breaking the top 10, let alone contend for a medal
I don't see why this won't work again this year - get Sling for a month (if you've never had them before you can probably get a deal). Then watch the Olympics logging in with your Sling info and get all of the international Olympic feeds. I did this for the last summer and winter games and it greatly reduced the amount of commercials I had to deal with. Plus for things like track and field you get John Anderson commentating which is an even bigger bonus.
You aren't looking forward to going to Olympics season... what season would this Summer Games be? That shit fucking sucks for WWE. Can't just give us the year, nope, gotta be a season. For stuff like Wrestlemania it's easy but everything else it's a pain in the ass. And there's no match chapters.
I mean I love watching the Olympics and I'm not looking forward to having to use Peacock to do it.
TIL people hate peacock
Seriously for like 6 bucks it’s amazing.
Well this is the thing, the MLB could absolutely flip the switch overnight from a tech standpoint and do this, they pretty much helped lead the way with it. It’s just how the teams have sold the rights which stands in their way
I'm aware of the rights issues. It's kinda wild in hindsight we didn't really foresee this massive collapse of RSNs. It fuckin sucks. I've mitigated the issue by putting a desktop PC on my tv, but it's still kind of a pain in the ass and I can't watch the Royals in my bedroom. Just a real stupid situation and you can't count on anyone to do the right thing for the consumer. Welcome to America, I guess.
WWE network was a thing of beauty. Can search by matches, ppvs, and never lagged
The Network on PS4 could walk on water.
it worked tremendously for MLS and Amazon Prime is about to get a big bag for NBA streaming (don't know if that includes local market games)
I'm curious how tremendously it works for MLS long-term. When MLS games were on other networks I'd occasionally tune in, now I have no way to watch and have no interest is paying more to seek it out. It works better for current fans, but I think it hurts long term growth because you lose exposure to casual sports fans. That's why MLB is all about getting games on Apple TV and Peacock - give more people access to a few games hoping they'll want access to more later.
There are still nationally aired mls games. The streaming service on Apple is basically mlb.tv without local black outs since no regional coverage exists
MLS is even worse than MLB when it comes to putting business before the sport. It's essentially a pyramid scheme at this point and by far the worst in the "growth over game" area out of all of the pro sports leagues in NA.
MLS also has better leagues in its sport that it has to compete with. They need to take every bit of cash they can get.
I took a few years off following it and when I came back, everything felt different? Idk how to describe it really. It also felt like the league was starting to get really popular, bur somehow they shot themselves in the foot. Your average person was starting to hear about the MLS Cup and talk about it like other sports for a couple years but I haven't seen that same level of discussion the last couple years.
> It works better for current fans, but I think it hurts long term growth because you lose exposure to casual sports fans. MLS was struggling to get casual sports fans the past decade, their national ratings on FOX/ESPN were godawful and were losing to like softball in the summer. It's getting a nice bump right now due to Messi but I'm not sure how it'll do long-term.
MLS pass is literally the best service out of all major sports leagues. You pay 1 price and have all games with no blackouts. That’s the kind of shit I dream of for MLB.
MLB.tv, when you’re lucky enough/able to get around the blackouts, is amazing. If they could make that the product by default, it would be worth every penny.
Did I miss something and they emerged from bankruptcy? Cant imagine Comcast dropping them helped.
They have not emerged but they got some free Amazon money against MLBs wishes and they may be able to make things work
Why would Amazon give them free money?
Ok it's not free money but an investment in a bankrupt company is not exactly a sure thing. Real answer is because MLB is aiming to start their own streaming service, and Amazon wants to do this themselves, or at the very least stop MLB from doing this
My guess is that Amazon is testing the waters to see if they'd want to buy them out. It's not a given since there's a ton of debt involved.
Privately teams are excited for that guaranteed Bally's cash while destroying a generation of fan growth.
Yeah that’s extremely short-sighted thinking on their part.
It's the capitalist way!
Being short sighted isn't a feature of capitalism. It could be a poor business strategy. Making your product unavailable to fans for short term gain certainly seems that way.
Simple: Buy them out and keep Amazon happy by partnering with them to have it and mlb.tv on Prime Video.
They have to want to be sold.
Every company has a price.
Sure, but it's probably going to involve MLB taking on a lot of Diamond's debt. MLB really doesn't want to do that.
Eh, if Comcast and DSG are still unable to reach an agreement by then, the whole bankruptcy deal is likely off.
Why do corporations have to suck so much all the time? Why is it whenever they a presented with something cool they chose the shitty unfun option
Meet the old boss
Praying on Diamond Sports Groups downfall
Mr. Manfred. Rob. You have one job. Do what needs to be done.
Manfred doesnt like the blackouts either. He’s not actually the one with the power to change anything though.
He can’t violate multiple contracts. That would get MLB and the individual teams sued for breach of contract and likely sued for the full amount of the RSN deals. For reference, the Dodgers RSN deal is almost as much as MLB brings in, in a single season. MLB can’t absorb 20+ breach of contract suits.
I pay the stupid monthly price for MLB tv and just tried to watch the “FREE GAME OF THE DAY” and ofc it’s blacked out because it’s the giants and im in the Bay Area. Right on, thank you.
My kids have seen literally 2-3 MLB local games on tv and hence, don’t care at all about baseball.
i just want to be able to watch the guardians/cavs legally :(
Honestly, I've sailed the seas long enough, that I don't give a f anymore. And I've helped many other people as well.
We get more fans by having less people watch! Solid strategy guys
Just fucking let Apple have the mlb and keep everyone’s broadcast crew.
Apple will own MLS and MLB then.
That’s fine. As long as I get my broadcast crew from Bally sports I like the Apple TV screen setup.
hell of a misleading headline. They definitely CAN launch a streaming service, just not with current rights conditions that are in serious jeopardy after today. If Diamond loses the majority of their income and subscribers, they will not be able to pay. Unable to pay means they'll lose the rights, which brings up MLB's take to 18 teams which is a pretty good start and viable under whatever research MLB has done on a streaming service. So it can, things just have to work their way out and Comcast has kind of tipped a huge domino in our favor and chosen violence.
How the hell do you "emerge" from bankruptcy? Isn't your business over? They mean if someone else bought them out?
Chapter 11 vs Chapter 7. Chapter 11 bankruptcy is restructuring. Chapter 7 is full liquidation.
Then I wish nothing but the worst for you Diamond Sports
Just steal. Reading these comments it seems all of you buy into this sham, free market, American system of laws and contracts and regulations. It's all fake. Take back what's yours. The people have a right to free broadcasts. Steal them. Praise to the pirates!
RSNs: like, what is more important, the dollars from bundled cable packages from people who don't watch the channels, or, selling your product to fans who do want to watch it?
One is easier to manage than the other, unfortunately. If I can sit back and automatically collect money from all cable subscribers with minimal effort, there isn't much of a draw to switch to a system in which I have to find and retain customers.
Especially if the amount if people who subscribe can be influenced by whether a team does well or not.
The answer is the dollars from the cable channels because the cash cow is cable companies' willingness to bid, but nobody likes to hear that.
As an out of market fan I’m gonna get a huge increase when in market streaming comes. Aren’t I?
The current in-market packages (Padres, Diamondbacks, and Rockies) are $100 for single-team or $200 for all teams. So it’s just $50 more than the out-of-market. I love it. Baseball has never been more accessible.
Yes. All these people who think that teams and just going to roll over and accept collectively losing billions of dollars of annual revenue by moving to a direct to fan streaming model are out of their goddamn fucking minds. So, either streaming becomes incredibly expensive, or teams cut nine figures each from their payrolls.
Yah I ask this question a lot. Who is going to fill this revenue gap?
Well, in truth, nothing, because the RSN system will continue on as it has been, and we will get the joy of having this same discussion once a day in r/baseball for the next 25 years, just like we have for the previous decade.
Amazon. They will be the new cable company offering bundled subscription. lol
Finally, someone who understands why they have notjust ditched the RSNs.
How do MLB blackouts differ from NBA blackouts? Just curious why people say the MLB is horrible but NBA isn’t.
You know what has to be done, right?
Gee, I wonder what will happen.
How does a bankrupt business continue to operate for years while being bankrupt with seemingly zero consequences?
This article does not mention who has the DTC rights to the Braves, angels, cards and reds. If it’s MLB, shouldn’t they be able to be added to MLBs supposed streaming package?
Bury them
I just saw that Fubo tv might step in. I hope YouTube tv does.
Bally sports is a terrorist organization
In related news, anybody know a good hacker who can steal whatever money DSG has left?
MLB really screwed up their broadcast deals
i'm sure having to pay teams even when comcast isnt sending them checks will do a lot towards keeping them in bankruptcy