Game 2 MLB Network

[South Side Hit Men]

3 hours ago, FoxForce2 said:

I'm zooming and still not seeing a legend through Firefox. Whatever...
The entire notion of blacking out non-soldout games is a futile attempt at drawing attendance. I'd argue that maximizing media coverage will *increase* attendance over the long term.

They black it games in an mostly futile attempt to pressure additional cable and internet companies to add their RSN beyond their current market. Folks in Mobile Alabama are not a captive audience to drive to any of the three teams which control their TV market. They also aren't likely to want to pay extra to carry any of the three.  Same with fans in Iowa, Vegas, Hawaii, Montana, Buffalo NY or other places with fans with at hundreds of miles between them and the nearest game.

These territorial rights were written at the inception of television in the 1950s/1960s. Owners aren't willing to give up these rights, regardless of whether they will make anything on them. It's not just fans which get screwed. The Baltimore Orioles are able to screw over the Washington Nationals since Baltimore owns the rights to the entire area, the Nationals own no rights beyond what they are able to negotiate with the Orioles, with a portion of Nationals broadcast revenue owned by the Orioles in perpetuity.

[poppysox]

18 hours ago, HoosierSox said:

I have Hulu w/live TV. Looks like I'll be looking for a stream. 

Hulu w/live TV now is showing all the games being available.  Don't know what took so long but calamity averted.

[CentralChamps21]

5 hours ago, South Side Hit Men said:

They black it games in an mostly futile attempt to pressure additional cable and internet companies to add their RSN beyond their current market. Folks in Mobile Alabama are not a captive audience to drive to any of the three teams which control their TV market. They also aren't likely to want to pay extra to carry any of the three.  Same with fans in Iowa, Vegas, Hawaii, Montana, Buffalo NY or other places with fans with at hundreds of miles between them and the nearest game.

To use a more local example. Indianapolis is part of the Chicago blackout area. You can't watch Sox games on mlb.tv because MLB wants you to watch on NBCSC. Nobody in Indy carries NBCSC. There just isn't the demand for it. Even if there were a demand for it, how much value does NBCSC getting their commercials for local businesses in Chicago seen by people in Indy? It's just stupid.

I get blacking out Sox games on mlb.tv in the Chicago metro. Maybe even Rockford/Peoria/Champaign/South Bend. But no farther.

[Squirmin' for Yermin]

2 hours ago, poppysox said:

Hulu w/live TV now is showing all the games being available.  Don't know what took so long but calamity averted.

Hulu Live has game 2 now?

 

[wegner]

Haha, meanwhile my ad banner on the top of Soxtalk features the Sunday Night Football matchup of Bills vs Chiefs.....sorry but I'm busy then. 

[poppysox]

25 minutes ago, Squirmin' for Yermin said:

Hulu Live has game 2 now?

 

Looks like it.  FS1.  Back in my good graces for now.

Edited October 6, 2021 by poppysox

[ChiSox59]

19 minutes ago, poppysox said:

Looks like it.  FS1.  Back in my good graces for now.

So both FS1 and MLBN will be carrying the Friday game?  Or just on HULU? 

[poppysox]

7 minutes ago, ChiSox59 said:

So both FS1 and MLBN will be carrying the Friday game?  Or just on HULU? 

[XplodingScorbord]

22 hours ago, South Side Hit Men said:

It is completely asinine that in 2021, a fan can’t go on MLB.com, type in a credit card number, and have an option to watch any damn game they please, either a la carte, for a whole season for any team, or all teams. Period.

You want to know why football and basketball have left you in the dust decades ago? It’s asinine game stewardship like MLB broadcast policy that shuts out fans willing to pay.

Live in Vegas or Iowa or other places, you’re blacked out for up to six teams (though you can at least go to a Sportsbook in Vegas).

Before you go extolling the NFL’s virtues in this regard, I rarely get to see Bears games in Texas. Other than subscribing to DirecTV and getting Sunday ticket, I know of no way to see Sunday day games for the team of your choice wherever you are. I’ll happily be enlightened if someone has a workaround. 

[South Side Hit Men]

1 hour ago, XplodingScorbord said:

Before you go extolling the NFL’s virtues in this regard, I rarely get to see Bears games in Texas. Other than subscribing to DirecTV and getting Sunday ticket, I know of no way to see Sunday day games for the team of your choice wherever you are. I’ll happily be enlightened if someone has a workaround. 

You have the option to subscribe or not, but you can watch any game if you do choose to subscribe. You are not blacked out of Dallas or Houston games if you live in El Paso, or Oklahoma City, or Montana, or Guam. The league makes it available to all. You don't have the ridiculous map you see in the quoted post (NBA has a similar blackout policy, but not as egregious).  https://nflst.directv.com/

[Kyyle23]

On 10/5/2021 at 2:26 PM, South Side Hit Men said:

It is completely asinine that in 2021, a fan can’t go on MLB.com, type in a credit card number, and have an option to watch any damn game they please, either a la carte, for a whole season for any team, or all teams. Period.

You want to know why football and basketball have left you in the dust decades ago? It’s asinine game stewardship like MLB broadcast policy that shuts out fans willing to pay.

Live in Vegas or Iowa or other places, you’re blacked out for up to six teams (though you can at least go to a Sportsbook in Vegas).

Last year I commented on a mlb tweet about how MLB needs to rescind blackout rules, and what I believe was an MLB employee started telling me that all people need to do is call their cable provider to access the RSN that you want, super condescending about it and just kept repeating that is all you have to do.  It was mind boggling 

[South Side Hit Men]

Just now, Kyyle23 said:

Last year I commented on a mlb tweet about how MLB needs to rescind blackout rules, and what I believe was an MLB employee started telling me that all people need to do is call their cable provider to access the RSN that you want, super condescending about it and just kept repeating that is all you have to do.  It was mind boggling 

As if a RSN in Hawaii is going to add Oakland and the corresponding $5-$10 per month to a cable package in Hawaii, or the Cleveland Guardians in Buffalo NY, based on a small subset of subscriber phone calls.

The teams own the RSNs and don't share this revenue (or equity value) when negotiating with the MLBPA. They care more about their RSNs than growing the game or even keeping current fans vested with access. Same with the auxiliary revenue (Sports Books, Ricketts Hotels, etc.),  revenue that is "off the books" in terms of what owners have included in negotiations with players.

I get why they do it, but they still should have a price point where you can satisfy both the cable systems and fans, to compensate the cable systems by-passed with a direct subscription paid to MLB. I don't expect anything to change, the cable companies and to a lessor extent MLB is in a death spiral, and they will suck out as much of the current setup as possible, at least until cable companies / providers are finally extinct. MLB is fine continuing to shrink the fan base, as long as they can extract more revenue per person from those who remain.

[South Side Hit Men]

This may have been posted before, but figured it could help folks here.

 

[Kyyle23]

38 minutes ago, South Side Hit Men said:

As if a RSN in Hawaii is going to add Oakland and the corresponding $5-$10 per month to a cable package in Hawaii, or the Cleveland Guardians in Buffalo NY, based on a small subset of subscriber phone calls.

The teams own the RSNs and don't share this revenue (or equity value) when negotiating with the MLBPA. They care more about their RSNs than growing the game or even keeping current fans vested with access. Same with the auxiliary revenue (Sports Books, Ricketts Hotels, etc.),  revenue that is "off the books" in terms of what owners have included in negotiations with players.

I get why they do it, but they still should have a price point where you can satisfy both the cable systems and fans, to compensate the cable systems by-passed with a direct subscription paid to MLB. I don't expect anything to change, the cable companies and to a lessor extent MLB is in a death spiral, and they will suck out as much of the current setup as possible, at least until cable companies / providers are finally extinct. MLB is fine continuing to shrink the fan base, as long as they can extract more revenue per person from those who remain.

I wish I bookmarked it, there were more than a few people in Iowa that were like "dude I can't just ask them for the Twins RSN, it's blacked out" and he just kept repeating that you need to ask the cable companies to do it.  Like the onus is explicitly on them 

[T R U]

12 hours ago, WhiteSoxFan1993 said:

To use a more local example. Indianapolis is part of the Chicago blackout area. You can't watch Sox games on mlb.tv because MLB wants you to watch on NBCSC. Nobody in Indy carries NBCSC. There just isn't the demand for it. Even if there were a demand for it, how much value does NBCSC getting their commercials for local businesses in Chicago seen by people in Indy? It's just stupid.

I get blacking out Sox games on mlb.tv in the Chicago metro. Maybe even Rockford/Peoria/Champaign/South Bend. But no farther.

I live in Houston, when the Sox play the rangers 450 miles away it’s blacked out on MLBtv. It’s a joke. 

[CaliSoxFanViaSWside]

13 hours ago, ChiSox59 said:

So both FS1 and MLBN will be carrying the Friday game?  Or just on HULU? 

This is the kind of stuff that no fan should be asking. It's just idiotic to have to figure out how to watch a playoff game of your favorite team especially if you watched games all season out of market on MLB.TV. You're a fan all season , your team makes the playoffs 2 seasons in a row for the 1st time in it's 120 yr. history and it's like now the cord cutters have to scramble around trying to figure out what else they might have to temporarily pay or which streaming service I have to get a free trial with and remember to cancel it  and which service is carrying the games I want to see and if it will stay the same through every round.

I got a nice 50" 4K TV and I'm reduced to watching games on my computer with a 21" monitor in SD.

[CaliSoxFanViaSWside]

10 hours ago, XplodingScorbord said:

Before you go extolling the NFL’s virtues in this regard, I rarely get to see Bears games in Texas. Other than subscribing to DirecTV and getting Sunday ticket, I know of no way to see Sunday day games for the team of your choice wherever you are. I’ll happily be enlightened if someone has a workaround. 

Get a really big nice monitor for your computer and use the reddit streams on bilasports.net . I'm in the L.A. Market and just watched the TBS feed and the whole Dodger/Cards game. I don't do it often so I'm no expert and if I am going to do it more often I'll need a bigger better monitor and just when I do that someone will figure out a way to stop those streams from happening . Use adblockplus on your computer and keep it on there and x out the chat box.