MLB To Show Games Online, Blacking Out Local Teams
from the disaster-waiting-to-happen? dept
As was rumored for the last few months, Major League Baseball has announced that they're going to broadcast complete games online this season. In the past the two excuses for not doing so were that the technology wasn't good enough and that they didn't want to cut into local TV station revenue. Now, they believe the technology has advanced enough and enough people have broadband access that it will work. Furthermore, they're using some IP-location-tracking software to (try to) determine your location, and black out games of local teams, forcing people to watch them on TV. MLB believes that enough fans live outside the hometown of their favorite team, and will be willing to pay for the service. I'm not convinced. They're also charging $15/month to view the video on a tiny screen. Having experienced the problems MLB had offering audio, I'm not sure people will be happy paying $15/month to see a blank screen and the message "the game you want is currently not on", even when they know it is. Clearly, this is targeted at a tiny audience: only the most hardcore of fans who happen to not live in the same town as they're favorit team. This is a mistake for baseball. As they're losing fans to other sports, it seems fairly shortsighted to only target your products at the fans you've already got hooked. Being the first major sport in the US to show games online could be a great opportunity to win new fans. Instead, all MLB can do is think of ways to suck more money out of their biggest fans. I am definitely in the target audience they're aiming for, and even I don't think it's worth $15/month to watch choppy video of a game on a tiny screen.
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
No Subject Given
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: No Subject Given
I'm going to test out their free broadcasts of spring training games, but I doubt it will change my mind.
If I really wanted video, I'd pay about the same rate for a DirecTV subscription to MLB so I could watch on my TV.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Spectator Sports Syndrome
If an uninitiated adult asks questions about these things, the usual response is loud ridicule. At best, sports fans will ignore the uninitiated and shout across their ear to someone else in the room. The demographics of spectator sports is weighted toward working class men, with the attendant xenophobia.
Not surprisingly, spectator sports are becoming less popular. Those who aspire to join higher classes keep their distance from beer-swilling chums. In the old days before professionalism took over sports, athletes were expected to behave like gentlemen and were regarded as models of civility, virtue, and eminence; today's athletes are basically a bunch of thugs. We're becoming a world where personality worship is out, people who win fights are regarded as losers anyway. Spectator sports is likely to continue its downward slide as an outlet for lower classes.
[ link to this | view in thread ]