5 ms·

Finally! I don't care if it's apple or someone else, but the "no blackouts" thing is big. Nothing drives me more crazy than being unable to stream a game beca

Finally! I don't care if it's apple or someone else, but the "no blackouts" thing is big. Nothing drives me more crazy than being unable to stream a game because I happen to live in the same geographic region as the team home field. This would finally motivate me to cancel the cable TV subscription - the only sport I watch is soccer, and the only reason I keep the cable TV is so I can dig out the remote whenever the dumb blackout rules prevent me from watching it via streaming.

colinmhayes 4y ago
> This would finally motivate me to cancel the cable TV subscription Which is exactly why blackouts exist. Live tv is pretty much solely about sports and 24 hour news channels now. The big four sports leagues all make billions a year off their TV deals. Giving up blackouts would absolutely hamstring them. Hard to believe the other leagues will give up blackouts until they are confident they can run their own streaming service and cash in on that micro gambling revenue. Can you imagine how much money the NFL would make if people were gambling $.10-1 on every play?
- rwc 4y ago
  As I understand it, blackouts primarily exist to ensure local ticket sales for full stadiums. "In most cases, the blackout results when a sports league prohibits an event from being televised locally if the event did not sell out all its tickets." https://www.fcc.gov/consumers/guides/sports-blackouts#:~:text=In%20almost%20all%20circumstances%2C%20the,satellite%20television%20channels%20and%20systems https://www.fcc.gov/consumers/guides/sports-blackouts#:~:tex....)
  - colinmhayes 4y ago
    So I think we're referring to different blackouts. I believe OP was complaining that streaming services such as NBA league pass never show your local team. If you want to watch your team you need a cable subscription. That's different than your local TV station not showing the game because it didn't sell out.
    - porcoda 4y ago
      Correct: I was complaining about the rules that prevent streaming and force you to watch the game on live TV. Has nothing to do with ticket sales.
    - heystefan 4y ago
      Wait, what? Why does this exist again?
      - oplav 4y ago
        Leagues, like the NBA and MLB, sell in-market broadcast rights to regional sports networks (an RSN), which gives the RSN exclusive rights to broadcast that game to in-market users. These RSNs typically only show their broadcast through cable packages, which is why local users would need to subscribe to cable packages that carry the RSN that holds the rights to their local team. However, some RSNs (at least in baseball) are starting to build direct to consumer streaming products. NESN, the RSN that carries the Boston Red Sox, has come out with NESN 360 which allows users to stream Red Sox games without a cable package at a price point of $30/month [1]. Leagues retain out-of-market broadcast rights and serve those to out of market users through their streaming platforms like MLB.tv and NBA League Pass. [1] https://www.cnbc.com/2022/06/01/red-sox-broadcaster-to-offer-streaming-service-outside-of-cable-bundle.html https://www.cnbc.com/2022/06/01/red-sox-broadcaster-to-offer...
      - colinmhayes 4y ago
        Live sports is the only reason tons of people pay $80+ a month for cable. The majority of my close friends have a cable subscription solely to watch basketball and monday night football. If those people could switch to streaming services to see their team cable would be even more fucked than they already are, so broadcast rights with blackouts are worth billions. The leagues don't think they'd be able to make that up with increased streaming revenue.
  - trynewideas 4y ago
    So of course, part of the deal is to give away the subscription to MLS season ticket holders.
  - chiefalchemist 4y ago
    Yes. And that used to be a worthwhile effort. However, given all the choices consumers have today it's saying "go away. We don't want you." The MLB can't afford to lose more top of mind market share, especially to the younger audience.
  - duped 4y ago
    These days blackouts on streaming services are due to exclusive broadcast rights on local networks. Teams aren't (usually) dumb enough to black out the entire region because of bad ticket sales. They learned that it creates a negative feedback loop that kills the local fan base, the Chicago Blackhawks are a good case study.
jayknight 4y ago
MLB next, please. I don't have cable, which means I just don't watch baseball right now. I would 100% sign up for MLB.tv if I could watch my two favorite teams play.
- Petersipoi 4y ago
  Yep. Fortunately I don't live in the same state as my baseball team anymore. So I watch just about all their games through MLB.tv. Would be so frustrating if I lived near my team though.
  - mhinton 4y ago
    I live a good 3 hour drive from my team and I am blacked out all the time. It's infuriating.
    - jayknight 4y ago
      The teams I want to watch are 6 and 4 hours (3 and 2 states) away. Edit: Here is a blackout map to see what teams are blacked out where: https://library.sportingnews.com/2021-08/mlb-blackout-map-embed-031020_nbquebelwu3l1fqbkl0nklu8p.png https://library.sportingnews.com/2021-08/mlb-blackout-map-em...
  - interestica 4y ago
    For the Blue Jays, the blackout applies to the entire country. And there are certain geographic badluck regions in the US where one can get blacked out from several teams despite not being close to them. Especially when it's a national broadcast [1] Also, the marketing at MLB used to be really bad a few years ago -- it seemed to be deliberately targeting home team fans and leaving out the fact that they would not be able to watch their home team. [1] https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/sports/baseball/2021/08/12/mlb-tv-blackouts-commissioner-rob-manfred-field-of-dreams-game-top-priority-major-league-baseball/8111648002/ https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/sports/baseball/2021... "Currently, six MLB teams are blacked out all across Iowa: the Chicago Cubs, St. Louis Cardinals, Chicago White Sox, Minnesota Twins, Kansas City Royals and Milwaukee Brewers. Those teams are not available to watch with an MLB.tv subscription or when they are often aired on national broadcasts. Some of those clubs are not available on Iowa’s main cable packages either." "Additionally, some parts of Iowa are more than 500 miles from several of those blacked-out MLB teams."
mbreese 4y ago
> the dumb blackout rules prevent me from watching it via streaming The blackout MLS rules are really dumb. For example, I het my normal TV through DirecTV stream. My local MLS club (FC Cincinnati) airs their local broadcast on a local over the air channel. This channel is also on my DirecTV subscription. However, because I get my “TV” streamed over the internet and not through a satellite dish or cable, all local MLS games were blacked out for me. I pay for local TV access, but even when the game was broadcast over the air, I would get blacked out because of how I got the TV access. This was just dumb. I specifically got a network OTA tuner just for this purpose, but getting rid of blackout rules entirely would be fantastic.
foogazi 4y ago
> but the "no blackouts" thing is big Wow missed that - very big deal I have the MLB package and blackouts drive me nuts - I’m not even in the Bay Area, but close enough to not be able to watch Giants or A’s home games, Than it’s already starting to fragment: some Friday games on AppleTV, some weekend games on Peacock And MLB.tv doesn’t carry playoff games
- MrMetlHed 4y ago
  It is really annoying that MLB.TV has gone the route with games on other providers. I don't want to create another account or install some other app on my TV or phone for a few games a season. At least the radio broadcasts still work on mlb.com when it happens.
  - duped 4y ago
    It's the teams' faults and not the network. Most franchises that have blackouts have negotiated exclusive broadcast rights in their local markets.
    - foogazi 4y ago
      I think it’s fair to bundle that into “it’s MLB’s fault” MLB has consolidated a lot of the teams’ media properties under its umbrella A long time ago they restricted radio stations from distributing baseball games online for example But they double-dip on TV: - Allow blackouts to increase revenue from local TV - Sell MLB.TV
- Bud 4y ago
  MLB.tv is way way too expensive for any blackouts to even be legal. Kind of an outrage.
al_borland 4y ago
I always thought that was silly. Games sell out, that doesn’t mean local fans still don’t want to watch.
- tablespoon 4y ago
  > I always thought that was silly. Games sell out, that doesn’t mean local fans still don’t want to watch. Do they still do blackouts if the game sells out? I'm not a sports fan, but I thought games would only get blacked out if they didn't sell enough in-person tickets.
  - al_borland 4y ago
    Not sure on that. I just remember living about a mile from a large college stadium that always sells out. I tried to watch the game on TV and got denied. This was a while back, I'm not a huge sports fan, but that stuck with me and made me not want to bother trying to watch any future games.
    - olyjohn 4y ago
      The fact that the game is local, makes it more interesting to me to watch on TV. I'm not a big sports fan, I am highly unlikely to ever go to a game... but they might get my viewership on a live stream, just to see what's going on near by, or to have a get together at my house and have a game on. But my experience pretty much mirrors yours. Any time I might be interested in seeing a game, it's been blacked out on TV. So I never bothered to watch anything else. Why would I give a shit about a team not even near me if I'm not a huge fan to begin with?
  - thakoppno 4y ago
    The NFL stopped that in 2014. I’m unaware of any league that still does blackouts like this. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Football_League_television_blackout_policies https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Football_League_tel...
  - manquer 4y ago
oluwie 4y ago
It's s bit annoying and prob some extra money but i get around this with a VPN service.
- jonahhorowitz 4y ago
  Not sure about MLS, but the MLB is extremely aggressive at blocking most VPN providers.
chiefalchemist 4y ago
Not only no blackouts but afaik, we'll be able to stream all games after the fact. ESPN, MLS' current partner, is mediocre at best. Now if only the PHL Union can replace JP Dellecamera. Somehow he manages to make The Beautiful Game sound ugly.

colinmhayes 4y ago

> This would finally motivate me to cancel the cable TV subscription Which is exactly why blackouts exist. Live tv is pretty much solely about sports and 24 hour news channels now. The big four sports leagues all make billions a year off their TV deals. Giving up blackouts would absolutely hamstring them. Hard to believe the other leagues will give up blackouts until they are confident they can run their own streaming service and cash in on that micro gambling revenue. Can you imagine how much money the NFL would make if people were gambling $.10-1 on every play?

rwc 4y ago
As I understand it, blackouts primarily exist to ensure local ticket sales for full stadiums. "In most cases, the blackout results when a sports league prohibits an event from being televised locally if the event did not sell out all its tickets." https://www.fcc.gov/consumers/guides/sports-blackouts#:~:text=In%20almost%20all%20circumstances%2C%20the,satellite%20television%20channels%20and%20systems https://www.fcc.gov/consumers/guides/sports-blackouts#:~:tex....)
- colinmhayes 4y ago
  So I think we're referring to different blackouts. I believe OP was complaining that streaming services such as NBA league pass never show your local team. If you want to watch your team you need a cable subscription. That's different than your local TV station not showing the game because it didn't sell out.
  - porcoda 4y ago
    Correct: I was complaining about the rules that prevent streaming and force you to watch the game on live TV. Has nothing to do with ticket sales.
  - heystefan 4y ago
    Wait, what? Why does this exist again?
    - oplav 4y ago
      Leagues, like the NBA and MLB, sell in-market broadcast rights to regional sports networks (an RSN), which gives the RSN exclusive rights to broadcast that game to in-market users. These RSNs typically only show their broadcast through cable packages, which is why local users would need to subscribe to cable packages that carry the RSN that holds the rights to their local team. However, some RSNs (at least in baseball) are starting to build direct to consumer streaming products. NESN, the RSN that carries the Boston Red Sox, has come out with NESN 360 which allows users to stream Red Sox games without a cable package at a price point of $30/month [1]. Leagues retain out-of-market broadcast rights and serve those to out of market users through their streaming platforms like MLB.tv and NBA League Pass. [1] https://www.cnbc.com/2022/06/01/red-sox-broadcaster-to-offer-streaming-service-outside-of-cable-bundle.html https://www.cnbc.com/2022/06/01/red-sox-broadcaster-to-offer...
    - colinmhayes 4y ago
      Live sports is the only reason tons of people pay $80+ a month for cable. The majority of my close friends have a cable subscription solely to watch basketball and monday night football. If those people could switch to streaming services to see their team cable would be even more fucked than they already are, so broadcast rights with blackouts are worth billions. The leagues don't think they'd be able to make that up with increased streaming revenue.
- trynewideas 4y ago
  So of course, part of the deal is to give away the subscription to MLS season ticket holders.
- chiefalchemist 4y ago
  Yes. And that used to be a worthwhile effort. However, given all the choices consumers have today it's saying "go away. We don't want you." The MLB can't afford to lose more top of mind market share, especially to the younger audience.
- duped 4y ago
  These days blackouts on streaming services are due to exclusive broadcast rights on local networks. Teams aren't (usually) dumb enough to black out the entire region because of bad ticket sales. They learned that it creates a negative feedback loop that kills the local fan base, the Chicago Blackhawks are a good case study.

jayknight 4y ago

MLB next, please. I don't have cable, which means I just don't watch baseball right now. I would 100% sign up for MLB.tv if I could watch my two favorite teams play.

Petersipoi 4y ago
Yep. Fortunately I don't live in the same state as my baseball team anymore. So I watch just about all their games through MLB.tv. Would be so frustrating if I lived near my team though.
- mhinton 4y ago
  I live a good 3 hour drive from my team and I am blacked out all the time. It's infuriating.
  - jayknight 4y ago
    The teams I want to watch are 6 and 4 hours (3 and 2 states) away. Edit: Here is a blackout map to see what teams are blacked out where: https://library.sportingnews.com/2021-08/mlb-blackout-map-embed-031020_nbquebelwu3l1fqbkl0nklu8p.png https://library.sportingnews.com/2021-08/mlb-blackout-map-em...
- interestica 4y ago
  For the Blue Jays, the blackout applies to the entire country. And there are certain geographic badluck regions in the US where one can get blacked out from several teams despite not being close to them. Especially when it's a national broadcast [1] Also, the marketing at MLB used to be really bad a few years ago -- it seemed to be deliberately targeting home team fans and leaving out the fact that they would not be able to watch their home team. [1] https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/sports/baseball/2021/08/12/mlb-tv-blackouts-commissioner-rob-manfred-field-of-dreams-game-top-priority-major-league-baseball/8111648002/ https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/sports/baseball/2021... "Currently, six MLB teams are blacked out all across Iowa: the Chicago Cubs, St. Louis Cardinals, Chicago White Sox, Minnesota Twins, Kansas City Royals and Milwaukee Brewers. Those teams are not available to watch with an MLB.tv subscription or when they are often aired on national broadcasts. Some of those clubs are not available on Iowa’s main cable packages either." "Additionally, some parts of Iowa are more than 500 miles from several of those blacked-out MLB teams."

mbreese 4y ago

> the dumb blackout rules prevent me from watching it via streaming The blackout MLS rules are really dumb. For example, I het my normal TV through DirecTV stream. My local MLS club (FC Cincinnati) airs their local broadcast on a local over the air channel. This channel is also on my DirecTV subscription. However, because I get my “TV” streamed over the internet and not through a satellite dish or cable, all local MLS games were blacked out for me. I pay for local TV access, but even when the game was broadcast over the air, I would get blacked out because of how I got the TV access. This was just dumb. I specifically got a network OTA tuner just for this purpose, but getting rid of blackout rules entirely would be fantastic.

foogazi 4y ago

> but the "no blackouts" thing is big Wow missed that - very big deal I have the MLB package and blackouts drive me nuts - I’m not even in the Bay Area, but close enough to not be able to watch Giants or A’s home games, Than it’s already starting to fragment: some Friday games on AppleTV, some weekend games on Peacock And MLB.tv doesn’t carry playoff games

MrMetlHed 4y ago
It is really annoying that MLB.TV has gone the route with games on other providers. I don't want to create another account or install some other app on my TV or phone for a few games a season. At least the radio broadcasts still work on mlb.com when it happens.
- duped 4y ago
  It's the teams' faults and not the network. Most franchises that have blackouts have negotiated exclusive broadcast rights in their local markets.
  - foogazi 4y ago
    I think it’s fair to bundle that into “it’s MLB’s fault” MLB has consolidated a lot of the teams’ media properties under its umbrella A long time ago they restricted radio stations from distributing baseball games online for example But they double-dip on TV: - Allow blackouts to increase revenue from local TV - Sell MLB.TV
Bud 4y ago
MLB.tv is way way too expensive for any blackouts to even be legal. Kind of an outrage.

al_borland 4y ago

I always thought that was silly. Games sell out, that doesn’t mean local fans still don’t want to watch.

tablespoon 4y ago
> I always thought that was silly. Games sell out, that doesn’t mean local fans still don’t want to watch. Do they still do blackouts if the game sells out? I'm not a sports fan, but I thought games would only get blacked out if they didn't sell enough in-person tickets.
- al_borland 4y ago
  Not sure on that. I just remember living about a mile from a large college stadium that always sells out. I tried to watch the game on TV and got denied. This was a while back, I'm not a huge sports fan, but that stuck with me and made me not want to bother trying to watch any future games.
  - olyjohn 4y ago
    The fact that the game is local, makes it more interesting to me to watch on TV. I'm not a big sports fan, I am highly unlikely to ever go to a game... but they might get my viewership on a live stream, just to see what's going on near by, or to have a get together at my house and have a game on. But my experience pretty much mirrors yours. Any time I might be interested in seeing a game, it's been blacked out on TV. So I never bothered to watch anything else. Why would I give a shit about a team not even near me if I'm not a huge fan to begin with?
- thakoppno 4y ago
  The NFL stopped that in 2014. I’m unaware of any league that still does blackouts like this. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Football_League_television_blackout_policies https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Football_League_tel...
- manquer 4y ago

oluwie 4y ago

It's s bit annoying and prob some extra money but i get around this with a VPN service.

jonahhorowitz 4y ago
Not sure about MLS, but the MLB is extremely aggressive at blocking most VPN providers.

chiefalchemist 4y ago

Not only no blackouts but afaik, we'll be able to stream all games after the fact. ESPN, MLS' current partner, is mediocre at best. Now if only the PHL Union can replace JP Dellecamera. Somehow he manages to make The Beautiful Game sound ugly.