When you're not being blacked out from watching, what's your favorite baseball rivalry to watch? Here's a deep dive on ours: ua-cam.com/video/1l8PQRKv71Y/v-deo.html
I paid for NHL streaming but found myself pirating half the games due to blackouts. Following year I just pirated because it wasn't worth the money for half the games
Very true. They want kids to become interested in the World Series but every year the game seems to start and end later on school nights,so young kids never watch.
The game, on it's face is SUCH A GREAT GAME. But once every few years the powers that be,.... the commissioner, the RSNs, the unions etc, will BEG me to stop watching.
@@stephaniegormley9982 I hear ya. I haven't been to a MLB game since 2017. Why? Same reasons you mention. Previously I went to 15-20 games a year, multiple parks/fields.
I fully believe the reason the viewer numbers are down is because of the blackouts. No other major sport gives viewers this many problems. Fix it or lose all the viewers is their only choice.
NBA has the same blackout problem. I can’t watch the majority of Lakers games because RSN Spectrum Sportsnet carries the games. The same company that carries the Dodger games. If MLB and NBA really cared about its fans, especially the younger fans, they would drop the RSN contracts.
umm all major sports give us these problems, I pay for mlbtv, espn+ for nhl youtubetv for espn etc and they all have blackouts and require VPN or other methods to watch what we paid for so I don't see that being the issue. Cost of streaming services and the amount of ads/commercials bombarded with is more likely the scenario. Mlb tv costs 3 times as much as other services and shoves more ads down our throats than anyone else. I'm fine with the price IF I can watch MY team and they should have a ad free tier like most other services. luckily with mlb the blackout team I could care less about, but all other sports my teams are full blackout. The ads don't bother me that much having grown up in the 80s'90s where commercials were normal part of life lol aka snack and restroom breaks. People have just gotten spoiled with youtube red and such and find commercials obtrusive now and have the shortest attention spans I've seen in my entire life. It's not just mlb, its just everything, costs going up and games being shortened. Which I can go on a tirade on that alone, people want to complain about how expensive tickets are, then want to pay more for less game... makes no sense. Same with leaving a game early, you paid good money for it, enjoy the time out, a lot of us can't even afford to or have a game to go to nearby or even in state live in. MLB viewership was fine last year they were reporting an uptick over 6% and, only when world series ended up being texas and arizona did the viewership drop, and that's not because of mlb popularity but reality of most people don't care about either team unless a major fan (go rangers!) and a lot of butthurt braves, dodgers, houston, phillies etc fans. Go a step further and honestly I think the biggest reason playoffs and world series viewership was down is because you can't stream it. We pay to watch regular season of sports on dedicated apps, then comes playoffs and they start going to networks like espn, tnt, tbs,cbs, fox and if you don't have cable or fubo/youtube tv then you aren't going to be able to watch. I didn't watch as I had no access to fox to watch the games, but after seeing texas beat houston, then I had to pay ridiculous fubo tv with sports add on just to watch 5 WS games. It's like Netflix, they keep raising prices and raising and people bitch like crazy about it but don't actually do anything, aka cancel sub. If everyone in the US collectively cancelled netflix, and held fast on it for even just a couple months I guarantee the prices would drop and others would follow because they would be losing millions/billions in that short time. They are all just following netflix lead and know that people will continue to pay and watch regardless how bad situation is, because guess what we don't have another option currently. Its deal with it or don't get to watch it. I'm all for a PPV model to pay for every single game you want to watch, no blackouts, no restrictions. If you want to complain about it, then do something about it that has an actual effect, not just words on youtube/reddit. Not saying you or anyone in particular just in general. We still line their pockets with cash paying for their streams, so why should they change what they doing its working just fine for them. People don't seem to realize that on business side, streaming is not viable, as mlb is already seeing and talking about that with talks of handling the games themselves with the ballys bankrutpcy. Look at Disney + and peacock. $11 billion loss yet they still offering the streaming services.
@@MartyGlenn72 Nope! It's a channel in its own cable package. Funnily enough, I got WGN Chicago growing up, so despite not being able to watch Mariners games, I got the Cubs and White Sox.
To steal Winston Churchill's line on America, "You can always count on Major League Baseball to make the right decisions after they have exhausted all other options".
nothing winston churchill did mattered to americans especially in 21st century. for foreigners think about america is fully irrelevant. those who come from shit nations dont have anything to say about their new nations nor do they even deserve to be there
Excellent breakdown. Blackouts make no sense even for the areas close to the stadiums. If the team is good, watching it on TV makes many want to attend in person. It's an incentive not a disincentive.
Can confirm I live a quarter mile from the Orioles and have been a lifelong fan but I watch LESS than when I'm away. I also go to games pretty regularly and it kills my hype I can't watch except for highlights
I think that is somewhat true. But not absolutely. I don't think the analogy is perfect, but movie theaters are going extinct; in no small part to the quality of home TVs, and the movies that we can all find using just our remotes. Baseballs' (and most sports) fear of entering a death spiral where people stop attending games, so people stop watching on TV, and more stop attending... is a genuine risk. I am not stating that blackouts are the correct solution, but simply that the risk is real.
@@craigduncan7010 Attending a sporting event like a baseball game is a communal event. TV doesn't provide that. In contrast I prefer seeing movies in an empty theater free of distraction.
@@OkonkwoBigYams Good time to be an Orioles fan. I'm a Dbacks fan, was hoping last year's WS would be AZ-Baltimore. We're struggling but the O's are hanging with NY despite the pitching staff injuries. I would be happy to see them win the AL and they have a great shot. What a farm system. And finally Angelos sold.
In addition to the blackouts, what bothers me is it apparently isn't enough to buy the MLB package. MLB now broadcasts every week to outlets like Apple TV and Amazon Prime. And they stopped telecasting games on You Tube, which was available to everyone online. Now they try to make you pay these streaming services. Well, bleach to that. There is no way I am going to give them even more $.
Agreed, we payed 80/month to watch the Phillies (and jeopardy to be honest). But even still if it was broadcast on Apple TV, we couldn’t see it. To go off on a tangent, we once purchased NHL tv to watch the penguins but the joke was on us because even though A) we were considered “in market” because Pittsburgh is 5 hours away and b)the Pittsburgh sports were not carried by our “in market” sports channels. So the are blackout “holes” where you cannot get it at all.
I remember going to college in Alva. I am a ranger fan. Blacked out. Royals? Blacked out. Cardinals? Blacked out. Astros? Blacked out. Rockies? Blacked out. Ridiculous.
Little Rock, AR. Blacked out of Houston Astros, Texas Rangers, St. Louis Cardinals and Kansas City Royals. All games home and away. None of these places are less than 8 hours drive away. Thanks for fucking nothing MLB.
Yep, I’m in Tulsa, even if you buy the Bally Sports Plus you still can’t get Cardinals or Rangers to stream cause they don’t have the streaming rights it’s so stupid.
Tulsa here too. Been a fan of the Astros since 2004 (I followed Clemens’ career but settled on them since my son was born during this short tenure) and struggled to find a fellow Astros mostly because baseball isn’t big in Oklahoma but among those who are, they liked Rangers or Cards. Prior to 2017, about the only people wearing Astros hats were me and a few Hoover gang members. After 2017 came all of the bandwagoners who suspiciously fell off by 2020.
you raise good points. I remember in the late 70's early 80's when the NFL did blackouts. Most people just stopped watching and in my family they just stopped watching and didn't look back
The NFL was keeping the TV stations in many of its markets (plus official secondary markets) from getting more ad revenues with all those blackouts. I think the NFL should've ended its blackout policy in the aughts, when people could get around blackouts without having to go somewhere far away.
@@marcus813 I remember in the 1970's in Erie, PA. Whenever the Buffalo Bills (90 miles to the NE) didn't sell out a prime-time game (which would be the only NFL game played that night.), many people in Erie would drive 40 miles to the SW to Ashtabula, OH, rent a motel room, and watch the Cleveland network-affiliate's broadcast.
I cut my Cable & I don't even own aTV. Baseball has so many games it doesn't matter much. How many games do the Season ticket holder normally attend ? I can see the highlights on the teams websites.
@@robertadams6606 Not only that, but with the expanded playoff format, each regular season game has less meaning. Recently, the Dodgers won 115 games in their regular season, but were eliminated in a 5-game playoff series against the wild-card Padres. Last season's World Series TV ratings were a dud because it featured wild-card teams from DFW and Phoenix---two metro markets with scant national fan bases and not rich in baseball tradition.
Yep, and now I could not care less about that team. Wouldn't recognize one players name. They come and go every year. Telemundo used to broadcast local team,
And that during the Curse Of The Goat years too. Cubbies are my Cardinals biggest rivals but I respect the Cubs fans for staying loyal through all that.
Back in the day the Cubs and the Braves were both broadcast on super stations. That is how they were able to draw nationwide fans. As of 2024 both of those superstations no longer exist.
@@miker6570TBS still exists, albeit without the Superstation on its logo. And still ran it’s games in TBS till 2007. WGN still exists as a local channel, but WGN America (the channel which simulcasted those games from the local channel feed) was rebranded as NewsNation in 2021.
I figured this out when I was kid in HS twenty plus years ago. One thing I could quibble with you about is that moving games from public TV to Cable (RSNS) still allowed most people to watch games. A huge amount of any market doesn't and didn't have cable. Moving baseball from over the air tv to cable tv was definitely going to eventually squeeze interest out of the game. RSNS weren't about making the product better they were about extracting more money out of the customer to view the product. The Cubs were the cubs largely in part because they were national broadcast, same with the Braves. Every day they were on TV for free. Currently in Seattle you can pay for cable and STILL not be able to watch M's games. They want an additional twenty or month or something. Its crazy and no one is paying for that except bars.
Viewers are down because everyone is cutting cable. I haven’t been able to watch the orioles in 5 years because I got rid of cable. All I get to watch are UA-cam highlights and the occasional Apple TV game.
The crazy thing to me is that the pirate streams I see due to blackouts have substantial viewership. While pirate streams will always be a thing, if you give people like me and so many others a chance to watch their in market team without having to pay for a crazy expensive cable package, baseball would be just fine
I'm a Diamondbacks fan living in Northern Utah, a 12+ hour drive from Phoenix, or a 2 hour drive to SLC Airport with a 2 hour flight. And I'm still blacked out from Dbacks (and Rockies) games. So stupid.
Not true. I live in Orlando, and every single Sunday that rolls around, I am wondering whether or not I will actually get to watch the Buccaneers games. I literally stopped making plans around watching the game with people, because we have gotten together so many times to watch the game, only to get the middle finger from the NFL.
Where I live (Orange County, CA), we have two teams (Rams and Chargers) and can watch them with no problems. Now that I have IPTV I might use that to find out of market games since my parents may want to watch the Patriots. I just wish it that easy to watch the Dodgers and Angels.
I have NFL+ and I can damn near watch every game. Even playoffs. Sometimes I can’t watch the Seahawks or Bengals or teams like that due to being out of market.
As someone who works in an RSN, we know that even though that streaming is up and coming, the biggest issue that they have as of right now is attracting new fans - not the ones who have been watching for sometime. Could this change? Sure, but what the league wants are multiple bidders for those broadcasting rights.
I think MLB should work with a streaming provider with really deep pockets to buy out all the local RSN righs. Alas, only one company has that type of money: Apple.
Whoever is in charge of marketing and sales at MLB is a moron, at every turn they making terrible decisions. I don’t think I can name three current MLB players, shows what a great job they’re doing.
I'm a Cubs fan...started as a kid in the 70s...why? Not because of their stellar play back then, that's for sure....no, it was because I got to watch 162 games a year (if I chose to)....on free TV through WGN. That changed later to 1/2 on WGN and 1/2 on Cable (Comcast Sportsnet)..... thankfully I got to see my Cubs win the World Series (finally).... because here we are in 2024 and now if I want to watch the Cubs I need to pay $20/month for Marquee Network....but at least they don't "blackout" any games.
I’ve been screaming this for years. When I was a kid I was a huge Cubs and Braves fan, because I could watch every game. Now I have four different streaming services and never see a game
I live in WV where the regional team is the Pirates. I get the MLB ticket every year to watch my O’s, but I do pull for the Bucs and would like to see them play, but I can’t because I stream. It’s aggravating and dumb. The NFL got rid of blackouts a long time ago and MLB should do the same.
completely different blackout policy. The NFL blackout policy required stadiums to be sold out. The NFL broadcasts the vast majority of there games on over the air television.
@@johnsamoilis6379 It's even better than that! The NFL broadcasts EVERY game on over the air television somewhere. If your team is on ESPN, that game is simulcast on a local over-the-air channel so that fans can see it no matter what. It's a brilliant strategy to ensure maximum viewing. A team can still enforce a blackout if the stadium isn't sold out, but that's only within a 50-mile radius or so of the stadium.
Blackouts go as far back as the 50’s or so I believe. Back then they may have made a certain amount of sense to give local affiliates games to air. It’s possible that we didn’t truly see how outdated blackouts were until the past decade or so.
Totally right all around with history and not noticing. When people started cord-cutting is when this became a real noticeable issue, as more and more of us don't have cable. Thanks for the comment!
@@fortynights1513 On this channel show we split between Rays, Yankees, Royals and Brewers! But we've both been to Wrigley and Cubs have a special place in my heart for sure!
When looking at blackouts to live games you should look at Iowa. The entire state corner to corner is blackout to live games of 6 teams Twins, Royals, Cards, Cubs, White Sox, Brewers.
Weekend games use to be on channel 6 out of Providence. So at least you could watch them over the air sometimes, but not anymore. I just gave up on Baseball after following for 30+ years
Absolutely ridiculous how even in this day and age, blackouts are still a thing for ANY sport They absolutely shouldn’t exist, but yet somehow they do I really feel for y’all who are somewhere like Tulsa, Vegas, or anywhere that has more than 1 team blacked out, especially in a case like Tulsa where they don’t even have their own MLB team to begin with As much as he’s hated, if he does go through on his plan to come up with some direct to consumer streaming platform and that will finally end blackouts once and for all, then I will have some kind of respect for Manfred
In Iowa, we suffer from blackouts for 6 MLB teams-Chicago Cubs, Chicago White Sox, Milwaukee Brewers, Minnesota Twins, Kansas City Royals, and St Louis Cardinals. All of those ballparks are a 4-5 hour drive (so not as bad as Tulsa), but it’s far enough that it means an overnight stay and taking time off work to go to a game.
I'd pay for a streaming service in a heartbeat, but my favorite team (Seattle Mariners) are blacked out in my area despite their field being 500 miles from my house.
Big debate in the UK at the moment as the Premier League wrestles a similar conundrum. Traditionally games are played at 3pm on a Saturday, but to encourage fans to go to games (Premier League or lower level) all games at this time are blacked out in the UK, while the rest of the world can watch freely. But broadcasters pay so much money for TV rights they have a say in how the games are scheduled. So we end up with teams playing at silly times on silly days in silly locations all so the broadcasters can get around this 3pm Saturday black out. Also fans in the UK hate it because someone from Canada might be able to watch all games for $20 a month, whereas we have to pay £100 a month for the privilege of a small selection of games.
The blackout rules there are nuts... Here in Brazil we used to have blackouts for the cities in which the game was played, when the game was broadcasted free to air (we have a free to air broadcaster in our league. A nationwide broadcast pretty much every wednesday evening and three games broadcasted on sunday, with some regional locks but no blackouts to the area where the game is being played), but that stopped some years ago. If you consider the paid options, you can easily get every game of the league. And we get every game of the Premier League, either through cable or streaming.
Great video! Unfortunately I don't see anything changing until people start losing money. As long as they get paid they have no reason to make things better for the fan. I'm a Dodgers fan in the Chicago market and while I only miss a handful of games a year it's still ridiculous.
I’m a New York Yankees fan but I live near Houston Texas so I’ll only be able to watch less than 15 games this entire season and they’re probably losing a lot of money because of the blackouts Edit: great video by the way
Are the Yankees blacked out in Houston? Yikes I usually have MLB audio since am more likely to listen to a game than watch it. And Rickie Ricardo on the Yankees Spanish broadcast is one of the best along with the Mets
I live in Alaska, making us in the region for the Seattle Mariners and Seattle Kraken. Root sports, which is the RSN they are on, is legitimately not available on cable or streaming packages. The ways to watch a game is spend $400 or more on airfare not including places to stay to watch these games or pirate the games or use a VPN. Blackouts are stupid and dumb
I live on the gulf coast and 5 teams are blacked out to me. The closest team to me is Atlanta which is 5 hours away. Screw them. I dropped the regional sports package and stopped my MLB subscription.
Six teams are blacked out in Vegas? That’s terrible. I can see Dodgers and Angels, but A’s and Giants? The Bay Area is almost 600 miles away from Vegas.
@StealingHomeShow I am. My favorite team is also in the AL West, so it'll be great to see them live two or three times a year. The only problem is that the stadium is going to be built right in the middle of the Vegas Strip, so it's going to be organized chaos getting in and out.
It would make sense if the blacked out MLB-TV games were on local Tv. I understand they want us watching local commercials , but baseball is never on here.
It used to be that you could use a VPN to get around it, but now MLB is cracking down on VPNs. There's a notice that will say that it detected a VPN, and to disable the VPN to continue. There's a work-around apparently but it seems like a huge hassle.
I've lost interest in Baseball due to blackouts on the MLB streaming service . They expect me to drive 12 hours round trip , incur the expense of motels, restaurants and overpriced tickets to watch a ballgame . The straw that broke the camel's back was MLB taking my money then telling me I couldn't stream the game because Apple TV or Amazon pays them more money so basically we'll take your money but screw you Fan . Now the only Baseball I watch is the 15 minute UA-cam game highlights . I've lost interest to the point of not being able to watch the free game of the day on MLB , I just don't care to spend 3 hours out of my life to watch Baseball anymore. I have two grown sons who also have lost all interest in Baseball.
WGN and TBS were all I needed as a kid. Now I have the MLB package on DirecTV and the Braves are blacked out. I'm not driving four hours to see them every home game !
Im a hockey fan now living in The states. Ive tried paying for services that allow me to follow hockey only to be affected by blackouts whenever i Im interested in a matchup. And then playoffs come and i cant watch anything. Eventually I had to find ways to PIRATE THE STREAM I WAS ACTUALLY PAYING FOR. Eventually i stopped paying. And over time stopped watching all together. If me a hardcore hockey fan has had enough how do you expect to grow the sport amongst casuals? This video sums up very well what Ive been feeling for years with regards to sports viewing. Eventually when advertisers fail to get their messages to eyeballs because no one is watching things may change.
I'm deeply in love with the sport of baseball for so many reasons. I go to as many games as I can. One week I was able to pull off 5 games. For those 2 other games, I missed out on everything because of the blackout. I understand trying to promote going to more games, but I feel like it's doing more harm than good. It also limits exposure to newer fans like kids becaue they can't even watch their home team AT HOME.
Great video! Here’s what’s crazy to me - rsns complained about losing to cord cutting but they owned the rights to go direct to consumer and cut out the negotiations with the cable companies (not to mention the revenue share) seems like they should love cord cutting!
I was born in the 70’s..I can remember when baseball home games were almost never shown except for Sunday’s..Feels like the Stone Age now but it did make it really special to go to the home games since they weren’t broadcasted
I grew up in the New York area and now live in Indianapolis after graduating Indiana university. I've always been a Yankee fan, however, with MLB TV they want you to pay $169 a year and you have no idea how many games will be blacked out because they're being broadcast on Apple TV, prime video and even though I have a prime account, I can't watch games that are on Prime Video, games where the Yankees play the White Sox who are nowhere near Indianapolis. There's also Sunday night games that are blocked out. MLB needs to get their act together and stop trying to be greedy and losing customers. If they had one national contract like the NFL everyone would benefit, including MLB I have no problem paying for MLB TV. The blackouts are intolerable.
I totally agree with your video because these damn blackouts are super annoying and it’s a rip off even you pay the subscription you still can’t see your hometown team so these year I decided not to subscribe and just see the free games when available 😡
As a fan in the PNW this is an excellent breakdown of why the sport is dying. If I want to watch the mariners my 4 options are; 1) pirate a stream and risk malware or a virus, 2) get mlb TV and use a VPN and hunch over my laptop, 3) pay almost $100 per month for fubo (which has random glitches and constant lag/144p moments, or 4) get a cable subscription for almost $150 forced to pay for 1,000 channels I have no interest in. Something has to change or this sport is going to die. Great video again, earned my sub.
I got back into baseball (since 2004) this year and when I tried to figure out how to watch my local (if you can call it that, its 3.5 hours away by car) I learned about blackouts and how much of an absolute hassle it would be to try to watch. I just pirate a game or two if I can and otherwise don't watch when I would have paid if there was a reasonable way.
As a kid, born in '64, i could watch either the Cubs or White Sox for free. Most of my adult life baseball was free ... Nowadays, it sucks. No pre game, no post game and just ads for MLB.
Don’t forget how the product has been diminished. And the decision to insert intrusive, annoying ads during the inning that break up the mood of broadcast. If the booth announcer reads an ad that is fine, but when the broadcast is interrupted by a loud, studio produced ad with music or a honking horn or a baby crying just because the catcher went to the mound, that completely takes the viewer out of the ballgame.
It's telling when finding an illegal stream is easier than figuring out how to pay for and watch your team's games. People are completely willing to pay and the MLB makes giving them money difficult. It would be hilarious, if it weren't so infuriating. My grandfather needed to purchase satalite TV to get the YES network, because cable didn't carry YES where he lived. When cable eventually did start carrying it, the provider couldn't get it to work in his area. He could purchase the channel but was never able to view it. Even so, he still needed regular cable for the odd game here and there. Oh, and many of those odd games on cable were against the Red Sox. Even with all that, you might need Amazon Prime and/or Apple TV nowadays to add further to the mess. It is a complete joke.
As a lifelong baseball fan, the Manfred era has killed my enjoyment of the greatest sport ever invented. First nail was sabermetrics and the final nail was universal DH. American League Baseball has always been boring. National League was where the action was.
Lucky for me, I’m a Phillies fan living in New Jersey, where Phillies games are televised on Comcast owned NBC Sports Regional, which doesn’t seem to have been affected by the whole RSN bankruptcy disaster. I couldn’t imagine not being able to watch the Phils regularly, or at all. I really feel for those who want to watch certain games but can’t because of this BS.
As a newer fan of baseball I can’t tell you how confused I was as to why I couldn’t watch my favorite team play or even where to go to be able too. Having to settle for highlights or waiting for recap games on Amazon prime is not only annoying but downright off putting. How is anyone supposed to get excited about the sport when you won’t let them watch it…
Xfinity lost Bally Sports. So now millions of homes will not have the Atlanta Braves on TV according to our Blackout Area. I think it's just DirecTV that's left.
I'm preparing to cancel my Marquee sports subscription because this weekend has been a disappointment: the Friday game was rained out, the Saturday game is on ESPN, and the Sunday game is on Fox. Despite paying a monthly fee to watch the Cubs, I won't get to see any games this weekend.
I liked this! But I think there needs to be an MLB team in the Carolinas. It's about a 4.5 hour drive (and over 200 miles away) from Charlotte to Atlanta (where the nearest MLB team is) (and I used Charlotte because the NFL and NBA teams are located there) - And I know there's even a radio station in Charlotte that airs the Atlanta Braves games, as someone that lives there.
OMG when you dropped that bomb about the Pirates payroll being equal to what they were paid from their RSN, I legit got goosebumps. I’m sure you know about all the contraction happening in the minor leagues. I feel like baseball has always been a brutally honest reflection of the American Zeitgeist. What does that say about our future when the people who control the game, and therefore should have the most stake in, seem to have no regard for the future success of the game.
Really well presented video. Not a big baseball watcher myself (just occasional games), but RSNs and Blackouts are a huge pain in basically anything but the NFL (though I believe they do select blackouts, within local regions if stadium isn't 100% sold out).
I'm a Mets fan living in Northern Indiana. If the Mets play any team in Ohio, Michigan, or Illinois, I'm blacked out. 5 teams I believe. Combine this with MLbs great idea that every team plays every other team every year, the blackouts are piling up.
As a Lead in a Video Support call center for one of the top 5 cable providers, I assure you, blackouts are a common source of frustration for all involved and a driver for many escalated calls.
Baseballs problem is there regionality approach. The mlb has little power over broadcast rights. The bears on the other hand have no TV deal, the NFL has the TV deal so they can make big changes. MLB really needs something like that to be successful. The problem of course is if you share TV revenue you need a salary cap too.
Mets games jump around to multiple stations so much i gave up Looking for them and now watch high lights only! I cut the cord and refuse to pay for streaming!
When did subscription services become the only way to see games? I know at least some teams (like the Giants) used to have agreements with broadcast television stations that anyone (in the local market) could get over the air.
I was born in Detroit in 1974, grew up and still live about 15 minutes south of the city. I have been a diehard tigers fan since I was probably six, and this is the first season and all of my 50 years that I cannot watch my beloved Detroit Tigers. Someone in charge let Bally sports by up a ton of these regional sports networks, including here in Michigan. Now they are bankrupt and fighting with cable providers over money so they’re being dropped. Xfinity drop them this season so I have no access to the tigers
Here in DFW we have the problem of Bally Sports Southwest not being available on most cable and live TV platforms because Bally priced themselves out of those platforms. A lot of fans can't watch the Rangers because of it and many of them missed out on the World Series championship regular season. Luckily I get MLB TV for free through t-mobile and are able to watch the team's games, but for those who don't have that option they have limited avenues to watch the games. The Rangers will be in the market for a new broadcasting deal after this season, so hopefully MLB can get them for MLB TV or whatever service they're going to offer starting in 2025.
With the current long-term demographic trajectory of the MLB, I see them having two options: A) Try to wring every last dollar they can from their aging albeit wealthy core fan right now, but hurt future growth by doing so. B) Sacrifice some current revenue, but increase access to the game by lowering costs and/or increasing access to content. Based on their recent actions I'd say they're choosing option A, but I guess one can hold out hope they'll eventually shift to B. Launching a MLS Season Pass equivalent would be a step in the right direction, but I lack hope owners will put their team's short-term financial interests aside for long-term growth potential.
I'm not a baseball fan, but I'm wondering that along with "local" blackouts, the disincentive to watch a game in-person is also the cost of attending, not only of the tickets themselves but also concessions, parking, the time to/from the stadium, etc. What point is there to sit in the baking sun for 3 hours watching something you just paid (let's say, ballpark figure (heh)) $100 for, when you can do so from home for a fraction of the price?
I live in Massachusetts. I'm about 120 mi from Boston. I'm about 120 mi from New York City. I'm a Yankees fan. I get to watch all the Yankees games except for the games that they play against the Red Sox that are blacked out. I don't have cable where I live. My only option is streaming and NESN isn't available because in Berkshire county, the TV comes out of Albany on HULU or UA-cam TV. So, I use a VPN and sign into my friends YES account who lives in Connecticut.
If you live in Iowa you can’t watch 6 teams home games. Milwaukee Brewers, Minnesota Twins, St. Louis Cardinals, Kansas City Royals, Chicago White Sox and Chicago Cubs
Really well done video. Great summary. I am concerned about the health of the sport because of this. The difficulty in watching hockey is what killed that sport for me. Mlb definitely has a big problem. The pirates just signed a new long term deal, so if MLB is going to buy out all these RSN contracts it's going to be expensive.
Those dang blackouts are the worst, especially if you were making plans to watch the game... I listen to the radio, it's cheaper + it's great as background noise
When you're not being blacked out from watching, what's your favorite baseball rivalry to watch?
Here's a deep dive on ours: ua-cam.com/video/1l8PQRKv71Y/v-deo.html
Blackouts - in any sport - are truly unacceptable in this age of sports media. Just makes pirate streaming more and more appealing.
Hard agree. Thanks for the comment!
Geoblocking is the most egregious form of greed in that regard.
I paid for NHL streaming but found myself pirating half the games due to blackouts. Following year I just pirated because it wasn't worth the money for half the games
@user-pq9ji7kt4l a birdie told me that DD12 has NASCAR content
yes i know how to watch any game, any time, MLB, NBA, NHL, and NFL, so i dont pay for shit
MLB is its own worst enemy.
@@ITotallyGetThat Thanks! One of these days I will get that right!! Haha.
Very true. They want kids to become interested in the World Series but every year the game seems to start and end later on school nights,so young kids never watch.
The game, on it's face is SUCH A GREAT GAME. But once every few years the powers that be,.... the commissioner, the RSNs, the unions etc, will BEG me to stop watching.
@@stephaniegormley9982 I hear ya. I haven't been to a MLB game since 2017. Why? Same reasons you mention. Previously I went to 15-20 games a year, multiple parks/fields.
@@camberwellerNBA and Cup Finals start at 8 or 830. Nobody complains about that.
I fully believe the reason the viewer numbers are down is because of the blackouts. No other major sport gives viewers this many problems. Fix it or lose all the viewers is their only choice.
Totally agree. And you see it in the way views keep dropping for baseball. Huge loss unless MLB can fix this.
Nba does the same thing. The Pacers had a playoff game that was blacked out this year.
NBA has the same blackout problem. I can’t watch the majority of Lakers games because RSN Spectrum Sportsnet carries the games. The same company that carries the Dodger games. If MLB and NBA really cared about its fans, especially the younger fans, they would drop the RSN contracts.
@billyquesenberry9857 I remember seeing that. There should be no blackouts during the post-season.
umm all major sports give us these problems, I pay for mlbtv, espn+ for nhl youtubetv for espn etc and they all have blackouts and require VPN or other methods to watch what we paid for so I don't see that being the issue. Cost of streaming services and the amount of ads/commercials bombarded with is more likely the scenario. Mlb tv costs 3 times as much as other services and shoves more ads down our throats than anyone else. I'm fine with the price IF I can watch MY team and they should have a ad free tier like most other services. luckily with mlb the blackout team I could care less about, but all other sports my teams are full blackout. The ads don't bother me that much having grown up in the 80s'90s where commercials were normal part of life lol aka snack and restroom breaks. People have just gotten spoiled with youtube red and such and find commercials obtrusive now and have the shortest attention spans I've seen in my entire life. It's not just mlb, its just everything, costs going up and games being shortened. Which I can go on a tirade on that alone, people want to complain about how expensive tickets are, then want to pay more for less game... makes no sense. Same with leaving a game early, you paid good money for it, enjoy the time out, a lot of us can't even afford to or have a game to go to nearby or even in state live in. MLB viewership was fine last year they were reporting an uptick over 6% and, only when world series ended up being texas and arizona did the viewership drop, and that's not because of mlb popularity but reality of most people don't care about either team unless a major fan (go rangers!) and a lot of butthurt braves, dodgers, houston, phillies etc fans.
Go a step further and honestly I think the biggest reason playoffs and world series viewership was down is because you can't stream it. We pay to watch regular season of sports on dedicated apps, then comes playoffs and they start going to networks like espn, tnt, tbs,cbs, fox and if you don't have cable or fubo/youtube tv then you aren't going to be able to watch. I didn't watch as I had no access to fox to watch the games, but after seeing texas beat houston, then I had to pay ridiculous fubo tv with sports add on just to watch 5 WS games. It's like Netflix, they keep raising prices and raising and people bitch like crazy about it but don't actually do anything, aka cancel sub. If everyone in the US collectively cancelled netflix, and held fast on it for even just a couple months I guarantee the prices would drop and others would follow because they would be losing millions/billions in that short time. They are all just following netflix lead and know that people will continue to pay and watch regardless how bad situation is, because guess what we don't have another option currently. Its deal with it or don't get to watch it. I'm all for a PPV model to pay for every single game you want to watch, no blackouts, no restrictions. If you want to complain about it, then do something about it that has an actual effect, not just words on youtube/reddit. Not saying you or anyone in particular just in general. We still line their pockets with cash paying for their streams, so why should they change what they doing its working just fine for them. People don't seem to realize that on business side, streaming is not viable, as mlb is already seeing and talking about that with talks of handling the games themselves with the ballys bankrutpcy. Look at Disney + and peacock. $11 billion loss yet they still offering the streaming services.
I live in Alaska and we are blacked out for the Seattle Mariners. 38 hour drive. 2264 miles.
Are the Mariners games available on an RSN in your area?
That is TARFU
Cmon man. Don't be lazy. You can make the drive if you really wanted to watch a game.
@@MartyGlenn72 Nope! It's a channel in its own cable package. Funnily enough, I got WGN Chicago growing up, so despite not being able to watch Mariners games, I got the Cubs and White Sox.
Root sports northwest owners also own the mariner’s and root sucks.
To steal Winston Churchill's line on America,
"You can always count on Major League Baseball to make the right decisions after they have exhausted all other options".
Maybe most underrated comment here haha
How ironic...
nothing winston churchill did mattered to americans especially in 21st century. for foreigners think about america is fully irrelevant. those who come from shit nations dont have anything to say about their new nations nor do they even deserve to be there
Excellent breakdown.
Blackouts make no sense even for the areas close to the stadiums. If the team is good, watching it on TV makes many want to attend in person. It's an incentive not a disincentive.
Can confirm I live a quarter mile from the Orioles and have been a lifelong fan but I watch LESS than when I'm away. I also go to games pretty regularly and it kills my hype I can't watch except for highlights
I think that is somewhat true. But not absolutely. I don't think the analogy is perfect, but movie theaters are going extinct; in no small part to the quality of home TVs, and the movies that we can all find using just our remotes. Baseballs' (and most sports) fear of entering a death spiral where people stop attending games, so people stop watching on TV, and more stop attending... is a genuine risk. I am not stating that blackouts are the correct solution, but simply that the risk is real.
@@craigduncan7010 I can't afford the ticket prices anymore, unless I want to sit in the bleachers
@@craigduncan7010 Attending a sporting event like a baseball game is a communal event. TV doesn't provide that.
In contrast I prefer seeing movies in an empty theater free of distraction.
@@OkonkwoBigYams Good time to be an Orioles fan.
I'm a Dbacks fan, was hoping last year's WS would be AZ-Baltimore. We're struggling but the O's are hanging with NY despite the pitching staff injuries.
I would be happy to see them win the AL and they have a great shot. What a farm system. And finally Angelos sold.
In addition to the blackouts, what bothers me is it apparently isn't enough to buy the MLB package. MLB now broadcasts every week to outlets like Apple TV and Amazon Prime. And they stopped telecasting games on You Tube, which was available to everyone online. Now they try to make you pay these streaming services. Well, bleach to that. There is no way I am going to give them even more $.
Agreed, we payed 80/month to watch the Phillies (and jeopardy to be honest). But even still if it was broadcast on Apple TV, we couldn’t see it. To go off on a tangent, we once purchased NHL tv to watch the penguins but the joke was on us because even though A) we were considered “in market” because Pittsburgh is 5 hours away and b)the Pittsburgh sports were not carried by our “in market” sports channels. So the are blackout “holes” where you cannot get it at all.
TBF, It looks like the Sunday Morning Leadoff games are moving to Roku which is FREE.
Literally watching from Tulsa. It’s an 8 hour drive to Houston and an 8 hour drive to St. Louis, and can confirm-blacked out.
We found the Tulsa fan! So sorry, thanks for confirming :(
I remember going to college in Alva. I am a ranger fan. Blacked out.
Royals? Blacked out.
Cardinals? Blacked out.
Astros? Blacked out.
Rockies? Blacked out.
Ridiculous.
Little Rock, AR. Blacked out of Houston Astros, Texas Rangers, St. Louis Cardinals and Kansas City Royals. All games home and away. None of these places are less than 8 hours drive away. Thanks for fucking nothing MLB.
Yep, I’m in Tulsa, even if you buy the Bally Sports Plus you still can’t get Cardinals or Rangers to stream cause they don’t have the streaming rights it’s so stupid.
Tulsa here too. Been a fan of the Astros since 2004 (I followed Clemens’ career but settled on them since my son was born during this short tenure) and struggled to find a fellow Astros mostly because baseball isn’t big in Oklahoma but among those who are, they liked Rangers or Cards. Prior to 2017, about the only people wearing Astros hats were me and a few Hoover gang members. After 2017 came all of the bandwagoners who suspiciously fell off by 2020.
you raise good points. I remember in the late 70's early 80's when the NFL did blackouts. Most people just stopped watching and in my family they just stopped watching and didn't look back
The NFL was keeping the TV stations in many of its markets (plus official secondary markets) from getting more ad revenues with all those blackouts. I think the NFL should've ended its blackout policy in the aughts, when people could get around blackouts without having to go somewhere far away.
@@marcus813 I remember in the 1970's in Erie, PA. Whenever the Buffalo Bills (90 miles to the NE) didn't sell out a prime-time game (which would be the only NFL game played that night.), many people in Erie would drive 40 miles to the SW to Ashtabula, OH, rent a motel room, and watch the Cleveland network-affiliate's broadcast.
I cut my Cable & I don't even own aTV. Baseball has so many games it doesn't matter much. How many games do the Season ticket holder normally attend ? I can see the highlights on the teams websites.
@@robertadams6606 Not only that, but with the expanded playoff format, each regular season game has less meaning.
Recently, the Dodgers won 115 games in their regular season, but were eliminated in a 5-game playoff series against the wild-card Padres.
Last season's World Series TV ratings were a dud because it featured wild-card teams from DFW and Phoenix---two metro markets with scant national fan bases and not rich in baseball tradition.
I missed it when home games were on local over the air channels.
Yep, and now I could not care less about that team. Wouldn't recognize one players name. They come and go every year. Telemundo used to broadcast local team,
The Chicago Cubs were shown on WGN television for 30 years and they built a nationwide following. The still filled their ballpark every game.
And that during the Curse Of The Goat years too. Cubbies are my Cardinals biggest rivals but I respect the Cubs fans for staying loyal through all that.
So did the Braves with TBS.
Back in the day the Cubs and the Braves were both broadcast on super stations. That is how they were able to draw nationwide fans. As of 2024 both of those superstations no longer exist.
@@miker6570TBS still exists, albeit without the Superstation on its logo. And still ran it’s games in TBS till 2007. WGN still exists as a local channel, but WGN America (the channel which simulcasted those games from the local channel feed) was rebranded as NewsNation in 2021.
I figured this out when I was kid in HS twenty plus years ago. One thing I could quibble with you about is that moving games from public TV to Cable (RSNS) still allowed most people to watch games. A huge amount of any market doesn't and didn't have cable. Moving baseball from over the air tv to cable tv was definitely going to eventually squeeze interest out of the game. RSNS weren't about making the product better they were about extracting more money out of the customer to view the product.
The Cubs were the cubs largely in part because they were national broadcast, same with the Braves. Every day they were on TV for free. Currently in Seattle you can pay for cable and STILL not be able to watch M's games. They want an additional twenty or month or something. Its crazy and no one is paying for that except bars.
Blackouts are the #1 stopping me from getting MLB TV. I cut the cord years ago and I'm not going back just to watch local baseball.
@@too1leasy exactly. a lot more than years ago
streameast.
your welcome
Viewers are down because everyone is cutting cable. I haven’t been able to watch the orioles in 5 years because I got rid of cable. All I get to watch are UA-cam highlights and the occasional Apple TV game.
I route for the same team and am in the same blacked out situation. Go O’s!
At least for NHL I get most games with only a relatively cheap ESPN+ sub. And all the UFC Fight Night cards are included too.
The whole Bally Diamond Sports fiasco with Comcast now has it where Braves fans can't even watch their own team.
Same thing with the tigers right now
It's just going to keep getting worse for Diamond/Bally, too. We need a fix.
@@fjskaff6462 I think it is Braves, Tigers, and Twins, maybe one or two more.
Comcast/Xfinity is giving proactive monthly credits to customers for the loss of Bally.
The Vegas Golden Knights and Arizona Coyotes went to local TV when this happened. Worked out better. Phoenix Suns too.
The crazy thing to me is that the pirate streams I see due to blackouts have substantial viewership. While pirate streams will always be a thing, if you give people like me and so many others a chance to watch their in market team without having to pay for a crazy expensive cable package, baseball would be just fine
I'm a Diamondbacks fan living in Northern Utah, a 12+ hour drive from Phoenix, or a 2 hour drive to SLC Airport with a 2 hour flight. And I'm still blacked out from Dbacks (and Rockies) games.
So stupid.
Wow, what a breakdown. I knew this phenomenon was pissing me off lol when I try to watch games but this really helped me understand it
So glad to hear that! It’s complicated, but put simply… it sucks haha. Thanks for watching!
The nfl has done the opposite of mlb. They have eliminated almost all blackout restrictions on nfl games.
Not true. I live in Orlando, and every single Sunday that rolls around, I am wondering whether or not I will actually get to watch the Buccaneers games. I literally stopped making plans around watching the game with people, because we have gotten together so many times to watch the game, only to get the middle finger from the NFL.
Where I live (Orange County, CA), we have two teams (Rams and Chargers) and can watch them with no problems. Now that I have IPTV I might use that to find out of market games since my parents may want to watch the Patriots.
I just wish it that easy to watch the Dodgers and Angels.
I have NFL+ and I can damn near watch every game. Even playoffs. Sometimes I can’t watch the Seahawks or Bengals or teams like that due to being out of market.
And the NFL is the most popular sport in the country. Crazy.
@@Welcometomyworld4754 If you know where to look you can watch any game.
As someone who works in an RSN, we know that even though that streaming is up and coming, the biggest issue that they have as of right now is attracting new fans - not the ones who have been watching for sometime. Could this change? Sure, but what the league wants are multiple bidders for those broadcasting rights.
If there are no fans, there will be no bidders.
I think it's telling that NFL is the most popular sport in America and it's the only sport where most of the games aren't paywalled.
I think MLB should work with a streaming provider with really deep pockets to buy out all the local RSN righs. Alas, only one company has that type of money: Apple.
Whoever is in charge of marketing and sales at MLB is a moron, at every turn they making terrible decisions. I don’t think I can name three current MLB players, shows what a great job they’re doing.
don't worry, you're not missing much
friend tried legally following the reds but cant because of blackouts, came to me and I turned him into a swashbuckler
Grrrrrrr....ahoy matie
I'm a Cubs fan...started as a kid in the 70s...why? Not because of their stellar play back then, that's for sure....no, it was because I got to watch 162 games a year (if I chose to)....on free TV through WGN. That changed later to 1/2 on WGN and 1/2 on Cable (Comcast Sportsnet)..... thankfully I got to see my Cubs win the World Series (finally).... because here we are in 2024 and now if I want to watch the Cubs I need to pay $20/month for Marquee Network....but at least they don't "blackout" any games.
I’ve been screaming this for years. When I was a kid I was a huge Cubs and Braves fan, because I could watch every game. Now I have four different streaming services and never see a game
I live in WV where the regional team is the Pirates. I get the MLB ticket every year to watch my O’s, but I do pull for the Bucs and would like to see them play, but I can’t because I stream. It’s aggravating and dumb. The NFL got rid of blackouts a long time ago and MLB should do the same.
completely different blackout policy. The NFL blackout policy required stadiums to be sold out. The NFL broadcasts the vast majority of there games on over the air television.
@@johnsamoilis6379 It's even better than that! The NFL broadcasts EVERY game on over the air television somewhere. If your team is on ESPN, that game is simulcast on a local over-the-air channel so that fans can see it no matter what. It's a brilliant strategy to ensure maximum viewing. A team can still enforce a blackout if the stadium isn't sold out, but that's only within a 50-mile radius or so of the stadium.
Blackouts go as far back as the 50’s or so I believe. Back then they may have made a certain amount of sense to give local affiliates games to air.
It’s possible that we didn’t truly see how outdated blackouts were until the past decade or so.
Totally right all around with history and not noticing. When people started cord-cutting is when this became a real noticeable issue, as more and more of us don't have cable. Thanks for the comment!
@@StealingHomeShowYou’re welcome!
What teams do you root for out of curiosity (Mariners and Cubs are mine?)
@@fortynights1513 On this channel show we split between Rays, Yankees, Royals and Brewers! But we've both been to Wrigley and Cubs have a special place in my heart for sure!
The MLB is a leader in strangling its own product for the sake of tv deals and uncharges
When looking at blackouts to live games you should look at Iowa. The entire state corner to corner is blackout to live games of 6 teams Twins, Royals, Cards, Cubs, White Sox, Brewers.
Almost included Iowa, but ultimately wanted to show there are TONS of places with multi-team blackouts across the country. It's awful.
NESN costs $30 a month to watch the Red Sox! Absolutely absurd!
Weekend games use to be on channel 6 out of Providence. So at least you could watch them over the air sometimes, but not anymore. I just gave up on Baseball after following for 30+ years
My blackout is DC and Baltimore, I live in NC 10 hours away
Absolutely ridiculous how even in this day and age, blackouts are still a thing for ANY sport
They absolutely shouldn’t exist, but yet somehow they do
I really feel for y’all who are somewhere like Tulsa, Vegas, or anywhere that has more than 1 team blacked out, especially in a case like Tulsa where they don’t even have their own MLB team to begin with
As much as he’s hated, if he does go through on his plan to come up with some direct to consumer streaming platform and that will finally end blackouts once and for all, then I will have some kind of respect for Manfred
In Iowa, we suffer from blackouts for 6 MLB teams-Chicago Cubs, Chicago White Sox, Milwaukee Brewers, Minnesota Twins, Kansas City Royals, and St Louis Cardinals. All of those ballparks are a 4-5 hour drive (so not as bad as Tulsa), but it’s far enough that it means an overnight stay and taking time off work to go to a game.
I’m in a suburb of Dallas. We cannot get the Texas Ranger games.
I'd pay for a streaming service in a heartbeat, but my favorite team (Seattle Mariners) are blacked out in my area despite their field being 500 miles from my house.
Big debate in the UK at the moment as the Premier League wrestles a similar conundrum.
Traditionally games are played at 3pm on a Saturday, but to encourage fans to go to games (Premier League or lower level) all games at this time are blacked out in the UK, while the rest of the world can watch freely.
But broadcasters pay so much money for TV rights they have a say in how the games are scheduled. So we end up with teams playing at silly times on silly days in silly locations all so the broadcasters can get around this 3pm Saturday black out.
Also fans in the UK hate it because someone from Canada might be able to watch all games for $20 a month, whereas we have to pay £100 a month for the privilege of a small selection of games.
The blackout rules there are nuts... Here in Brazil we used to have blackouts for the cities in which the game was played, when the game was broadcasted free to air (we have a free to air broadcaster in our league. A nationwide broadcast pretty much every wednesday evening and three games broadcasted on sunday, with some regional locks but no blackouts to the area where the game is being played), but that stopped some years ago. If you consider the paid options, you can easily get every game of the league.
And we get every game of the Premier League, either through cable or streaming.
Great video! Unfortunately I don't see anything changing until people start losing money. As long as they get paid they have no reason to make things better for the fan. I'm a Dodgers fan in the Chicago market and while I only miss a handful of games a year it's still ridiculous.
I’m a New York Yankees fan but I live near Houston Texas so I’ll only be able to watch less than 15 games this entire season and they’re probably losing a lot of money because of the blackouts
Edit: great video by the way
Are the Yankees blacked out in Houston? Yikes
I usually have MLB audio since am more likely to listen to a game than watch it. And Rickie Ricardo on the Yankees Spanish broadcast is one of the best along with the Mets
@@stereomois I haven’t been able to watch it
If you have MLB TV and a VPN then the blackouts become moot.
Glad to hear you ranting about this.
I live in Alaska, making us in the region for the Seattle Mariners and Seattle Kraken. Root sports, which is the RSN they are on, is legitimately not available on cable or streaming packages. The ways to watch a game is spend $400 or more on airfare not including places to stay to watch these games or pirate the games or use a VPN. Blackouts are stupid and dumb
None of the cable companies up there have it on their systems, not even GCI?
How could any major team be blacked out in Alaska? It's not like you can get your car and drive to a game.
I live on the gulf coast and 5 teams are blacked out to me. The closest team to me is Atlanta which is 5 hours away. Screw them. I dropped the regional sports package and stopped my MLB subscription.
I live in Las Vegas, where the A's will hopefully be moving in 2028. But I can't watch the A's on TV. Not even if I buy MLB TV. WTF?
Just as well. The A's are painful to watch. SELL THE TEAM!
I live in Las Vegas, and six teams (Dodgers, Padres, A's, Giants, Angels, Diamondbacks) are all blacked out.
Six teams are blacked out in Vegas? That’s terrible. I can see Dodgers and Angels, but A’s and Giants? The Bay Area is almost 600 miles away from Vegas.
Same thing if live iowa. Several teams ( cubs, white Sox, twins, brewers, royals, cardinals, and rockies)have thier games black out in iowa
Are you excited to be getting a team in Vegas soon?
@StealingHomeShow I am. My favorite team is also in the AL West, so it'll be great to see them live two or three times a year. The only problem is that the stadium is going to be built right in the middle of the Vegas Strip, so it's going to be organized chaos getting in and out.
MLB business model. SNAFU as usual, driving the fan away likely to never return
It would make sense if the blacked out MLB-TV games were on local Tv. I understand they want us watching local commercials , but baseball is never on here.
It used to be that you could use a VPN to get around it, but now MLB is cracking down on VPNs. There's a notice that will say that it detected a VPN, and to disable the VPN to continue. There's a work-around apparently but it seems like a huge hassle.
They haven't been able to detect my VPN at least not yet lol
i know in southern il, some areas cant get sox or cubs games, because its too close to st louis, so they are part of the cards tv area
I've lost interest in Baseball due to blackouts on the MLB streaming service . They expect me to drive 12 hours round trip , incur the expense of motels, restaurants and overpriced tickets to watch a ballgame . The straw that broke the camel's back was MLB taking my money then telling me I couldn't stream the game because Apple TV or Amazon pays them more money so basically we'll take your money but screw you Fan . Now the only Baseball I watch is the 15 minute UA-cam game highlights . I've lost interest to the point of not being able to watch the free game of the day on MLB , I just don't care to spend 3 hours out of my life to watch Baseball anymore. I have two grown sons who also have lost all interest in Baseball.
Nice video! Glad I got here. Subbed:)
Thank you! Glad you liked it and welcome :)
WGN and TBS were all I needed as a kid. Now I have the MLB package on DirecTV and the Braves are blacked out. I'm not driving four hours to see them every home game !
Im a hockey fan now living in The states. Ive tried paying for services that allow me to follow hockey only to be affected by blackouts whenever i Im interested in a matchup. And then playoffs come and i cant watch anything.
Eventually I had to find ways to PIRATE THE STREAM I WAS ACTUALLY PAYING FOR. Eventually i stopped paying. And over time stopped watching all together.
If me a hardcore hockey fan has had enough how do you expect to grow the sport amongst casuals?
This video sums up very well what Ive been feeling for years with regards to sports viewing.
Eventually when advertisers fail to get their messages to eyeballs because no one is watching things may change.
We’re going to watch it. Nothing is blacked out.
I'm deeply in love with the sport of baseball for so many reasons. I go to as many games as I can. One week I was able to pull off 5 games. For those 2 other games, I missed out on everything because of the blackout. I understand trying to promote going to more games, but I feel like it's doing more harm than good. It also limits exposure to newer fans like kids becaue they can't even watch their home team AT HOME.
Great video! Here’s what’s crazy to me - rsns complained about losing to cord cutting but they owned the rights to go direct to consumer and cut out the negotiations with the cable companies (not to mention the revenue share) seems like they should love cord cutting!
I was born in the 70’s..I can remember when baseball home games were almost never shown except for Sunday’s..Feels like the Stone Age now but it did make it really special to go to the home games since they weren’t broadcasted
I grew up in the New York area and now live in Indianapolis after graduating Indiana university. I've always been a Yankee fan, however, with MLB TV they want you to pay $169 a year and you have no idea how many games will be blacked out because they're being broadcast on Apple TV, prime video and even though I have a prime account, I can't watch games that are on Prime Video, games where the Yankees play the White Sox who are nowhere near Indianapolis. There's also Sunday night games that are blocked out. MLB needs to get their act together and stop trying to be greedy and losing customers. If they had one national contract like the NFL everyone would benefit, including MLB I have no problem paying for MLB TV. The blackouts are intolerable.
I totally agree with your video because these damn blackouts are super annoying and it’s a rip off even you pay the subscription you still can’t see your hometown team so these year I decided not to subscribe and just see the free games when available 😡
As a fan in the PNW this is an excellent breakdown of why the sport is dying. If I want to watch the mariners my 4 options are; 1) pirate a stream and risk malware or a virus, 2) get mlb TV and use a VPN and hunch over my laptop, 3) pay almost $100 per month for fubo (which has random glitches and constant lag/144p moments, or 4) get a cable subscription for almost $150 forced to pay for 1,000 channels I have no interest in.
Something has to change or this sport is going to die.
Great video again, earned my sub.
This video was exceptionally researched and reported. Thank you!
I got back into baseball (since 2004) this year and when I tried to figure out how to watch my local (if you can call it that, its 3.5 hours away by car) I learned about blackouts and how much of an absolute hassle it would be to try to watch. I just pirate a game or two if I can and otherwise don't watch when I would have paid if there was a reasonable way.
As a kid, born in '64, i could watch either the Cubs or White Sox for free. Most of my adult life baseball was free ... Nowadays, it sucks. No pre game, no post game and just ads for MLB.
Don’t forget how the product has been diminished. And the decision to insert intrusive, annoying ads during the inning that break up the mood of broadcast. If the booth announcer reads an ad that is fine, but when the broadcast is interrupted by a loud, studio produced ad with music or a honking horn or a baby crying just because the catcher went to the mound, that completely takes the viewer out of the ballgame.
It's telling when finding an illegal stream is easier than figuring out how to pay for and watch your team's games.
People are completely willing to pay and the MLB makes giving them money difficult. It would be hilarious, if it weren't so infuriating.
My grandfather needed to purchase satalite TV to get the YES network, because cable didn't carry YES where he lived. When cable eventually did start carrying it, the provider couldn't get it to work in his area. He could purchase the channel but was never able to view it. Even so, he still needed regular cable for the odd game here and there. Oh, and many of those odd games on cable were against the Red Sox. Even with all that, you might need Amazon Prime and/or Apple TV nowadays to add further to the mess. It is a complete joke.
As a lifelong baseball fan, the Manfred era has killed my enjoyment of the greatest sport ever invented. First nail was sabermetrics and the final nail was universal DH. American League Baseball has always been boring. National League was where the action was.
Fantastic job. Subbing this channel without hesitation!
Lucky for me, I’m a Phillies fan living in New Jersey, where Phillies games are televised on Comcast owned NBC Sports Regional, which doesn’t seem to have been affected by the whole RSN bankruptcy disaster. I couldn’t imagine not being able to watch the Phils regularly, or at all. I really feel for those who want to watch certain games but can’t because of this BS.
As a newer fan of baseball I can’t tell you how confused I was as to why I couldn’t watch my favorite team play or even where to go to be able too. Having to settle for highlights or waiting for recap games on Amazon prime is not only annoying but downright off putting. How is anyone supposed to get excited about the sport when you won’t let them watch it…
Xfinity lost Bally Sports. So now millions of homes will not have the Atlanta Braves on TV according to our Blackout Area. I think it's just DirecTV that's left.
Atlanta Sports TV Rights were together in Harmony on FOX Sports South & Southeast until Bally Sports attacked. Since 2022 has gotten worse.
Please do a similar video about audio broadcast/streaming. I miss the days I could listen to any game from my office laptop at MLB website.
Another factor in the disappointment of fans in watching MLB is the controlling of the games by baseball umpires like Angel Hernandez.
I'm preparing to cancel my Marquee sports subscription because this weekend has been a disappointment: the Friday game was rained out, the Saturday game is on ESPN, and the Sunday game is on Fox. Despite paying a monthly fee to watch the Cubs, I won't get to see any games this weekend.
I liked this! But I think there needs to be an MLB team in the Carolinas. It's about a 4.5 hour drive (and over 200 miles away) from Charlotte to Atlanta (where the nearest MLB team is) (and I used Charlotte because the NFL and NBA teams are located there) - And I know there's even a radio station in Charlotte that airs the Atlanta Braves games, as someone that lives there.
OMG when you dropped that bomb about the Pirates payroll being equal to what they were paid from their RSN, I legit got goosebumps.
I’m sure you know about all the contraction happening in the minor leagues. I feel like baseball has always been a brutally honest reflection of the American Zeitgeist. What does that say about our future when the people who control the game, and therefore should have the most stake in, seem to have no regard for the future success of the game.
Thursday night football on Amazon Prime/Twitch isn't that bad, but the Friday baseball on Apple TV is effed.
Really well presented video. Not a big baseball watcher myself (just occasional games), but RSNs and Blackouts are a huge pain in basically anything but the NFL (though I believe they do select blackouts, within local regions if stadium isn't 100% sold out).
Great video 🎉
Thank you! :)
I'm a Mets fan living in Northern Indiana. If the Mets play any team in Ohio, Michigan, or Illinois, I'm blacked out. 5 teams I believe. Combine this with MLbs great idea that every team plays every other team every year, the blackouts are piling up.
Good video. Informative. But the music was blaring and drowning out the voice especially in the 3rd chapter.
We’re still new, so thanks for the feedback! Glad you enjoyed the content and hope you stick around!
As a Lead in a Video Support call center for one of the top 5 cable providers, I assure you, blackouts are a common source of frustration for all involved and a driver for many escalated calls.
Baseballs problem is there regionality approach. The mlb has little power over broadcast rights. The bears on the other hand have no TV deal, the NFL has the TV deal so they can make big changes. MLB really needs something like that to be successful. The problem of course is if you share TV revenue you need a salary cap too.
Excellent video, and channel. I just subbed. 👍
Mets games jump around to multiple stations so much i gave up Looking for them and now watch high lights only! I cut the cord and refuse to pay for streaming!
Met's fan. Blacked out, eight hours away. The geniuses are in charge.
When did subscription services become the only way to see games? I know at least some teams (like the Giants) used to have agreements with broadcast television stations that anyone (in the local market) could get over the air.
I was born in Detroit in 1974, grew up and still live about 15 minutes south of the city. I have been a diehard tigers fan since I was probably six, and this is the first season and all of my 50 years that I cannot watch my beloved Detroit Tigers. Someone in charge let Bally sports by up a ton of these regional sports networks, including here in Michigan. Now they are bankrupt and fighting with cable providers over money so they’re being dropped. Xfinity drop them this season so I have no access to the tigers
I wanted to say this was a well thought out and well done video. Kudos for making such wonderful content.
Here in DFW we have the problem of Bally Sports Southwest not being available on most cable and live TV platforms because Bally priced themselves out of those platforms. A lot of fans can't watch the Rangers because of it and many of them missed out on the World Series championship regular season. Luckily I get MLB TV for free through t-mobile and are able to watch the team's games, but for those who don't have that option they have limited avenues to watch the games. The Rangers will be in the market for a new broadcasting deal after this season, so hopefully MLB can get them for MLB TV or whatever service they're going to offer starting in 2025.
With the current long-term demographic trajectory of the MLB, I see them having two options:
A) Try to wring every last dollar they can from their aging albeit wealthy core fan right now, but hurt future growth by doing so.
B) Sacrifice some current revenue, but increase access to the game by lowering costs and/or increasing access to content.
Based on their recent actions I'd say they're choosing option A, but I guess one can hold out hope they'll eventually shift to B. Launching a MLS Season Pass equivalent would be a step in the right direction, but I lack hope owners will put their team's short-term financial interests aside for long-term growth potential.
I'm not a baseball fan, but I'm wondering that along with "local" blackouts, the disincentive to watch a game in-person is also the cost of attending, not only of the tickets themselves but also concessions, parking, the time to/from the stadium, etc.
What point is there to sit in the baking sun for 3 hours watching something you just paid (let's say, ballpark figure (heh)) $100 for, when you can do so from home for a fraction of the price?
I live in Massachusetts. I'm about 120 mi from Boston. I'm about 120 mi from New York City. I'm a Yankees fan. I get to watch all the Yankees games except for the games that they play against the Red Sox that are blacked out. I don't have cable where I live. My only option is streaming and NESN isn't available because in Berkshire county, the TV comes out of Albany on HULU or UA-cam TV. So, I use a VPN and sign into my friends YES account who lives in Connecticut.
In the UK a large percentage of PL games are not allowed to be show on UK TV. Whereas people in other countries are allowed to watch all of the games.
A lot of Premier League games are on local TV, starting at 0430 on weekends and 1130-1200 weekdays from USA west coast (8hr difference)
If you live in Iowa you can’t watch 6 teams home games. Milwaukee Brewers, Minnesota Twins, St. Louis Cardinals, Kansas City Royals, Chicago White Sox and Chicago Cubs
Literally bought a radio to listen to guardians games in Columbus because there was no way for me to get Bally sports outside of direct TV
I live in Las Vegas. I can’t watch Dodgers, Giants, A’s, Padres, or Diamondbacks games.
Really well done video. Great summary.
I am concerned about the health of the sport because of this. The difficulty in watching hockey is what killed that sport for me.
Mlb definitely has a big problem. The pirates just signed a new long term deal, so if MLB is going to buy out all these RSN contracts it's going to be expensive.
the NBA and NFL had standalone networks on basic cable packages years before MLB did, MLB TV was the last of its kind, not the first
I grew up in Chicago and NYC. We always had the Cubs on WGN and the Mets on WOR. It was EZPZ.
Those dang blackouts are the worst, especially if you were making plans to watch the game... I listen to the radio, it's cheaper + it's great as background noise