As a person who follows Minor League Baseball for a living, I have for many years subscribed to its offering for game telecasts, MiLB.TV. Sadly, I have never been a satisfied customer. This has reached a new low in 2019 as a new, unannounced change made the app incompatible with my phone.
The background
MiLB.TV has long been Major League Baseball’s red-haired stepchild in terms of its technology delivered to viewers, but even so, one ultimately has to accept that it is better than the alternative – which is listening to audio only.
It took years after being introduced on MLB.TV for MiLB.TV to be supported on iPhones and even longer for Android devices. Amazingly, here in 2019, there is still not support for the full spectrum of wildly-popular set top boxes that most of us rely upon, including PlayStation, Xbox, Roku, Apple TV and the others.*
Why is MLB.TV supported on all of the above and MiLB.TV is not?
It is simple. It is because they don’t care to make the push to make it happen. MLB.TV has competitors, albeit other packages from which MLB also secures its huge share of the revenue pie. On the other hand, for subscribers, it is MiLB.TV or bust. Take it or leave it. That is your choice.
(* Update: Poster “White Beard” shares that by using the Microsoft Edge app, one can view MiLB games via Xbox. Too bad the MiLB.TV FAQs do not acknowledge this. I’ve been waiting for Roku support for a decade.)
My situation
Forced to keep my expectations low through years of disappointment, my frustration still has reached a new low point in 2019.
After receiving my annual MiLB.TV subscription renewal notice for the new season in March. I settled in on Thursday, April 4, expecting to watch multiple games on Minor League Opening Night as usual on my phone.
Unfortunately, that was not to be. The app would only access 2018. I could not get it to update for 2019, so I removed it from my phone to re-install. Imagine my disappointment when the app would not load. The message indicated my device was not supported. Absolutely no details were provided.
I was confused since MiLB.TV had worked fine in 2018 and prior years, and just a few minutes before, I had watched a major league game on big step-brother MLB.TV.
I went to the Frequently Asked Questions section of their website, which clearly states in two separate locations the required minimum operating system levels for MiLB.TV:
iOS 10 or higher
Android 4.0 or higher
My phone was current, on Android 4.4.4, so that clearly was not the problem. Then what was it?
The email approach – April 4
Being it was Opening Night, it was not surprising that MiLB.TV’s telephone support was inundated with callers. Instead, I emailed their published support account with all of my pertinent details.
Based on social media comments from others, many subscribers were frustrated with matters that ranged from frozen video streams to being unable to view a basic box score, instead shackled to the bloated GameDay function. In a number of posts, users were sharing their creative workarounds with others.
Of course, I had no direct experience with this because I no longer could access any of it.
It took nine long days until I received a reply to my email. The response was completely worthless, consisting of a form message, which made it clear my detailed explanation was not even read.
Here are the steps I was asked to follow:
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Log out of the application
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Uninstall the app
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Restart your device
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Reinstall the app
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Log in with the same credentials and try again
If you continue to have trouble, please contact Customer Service at 1-866-800-1275.
Well, like I explained, I had tried all of that, but the app would not reinstall.
The call approach – April 13
At that point, on April 13, I called MiLB support again. This time, I spoke with a customer service representative who was as polite and sympathetic as she was ineffective. Though sheer persistence, I did extract some information at least.
After having been put on hold numerous times after asking questions for which the rep did not know the answers, I was finally informed that MiLB.TV now requires Android 8. After investigation on the side, I learned this is a level not supported on my phone.
Initially, the support rep tried to blame the change and lack of communication about it on the Google Play Store, which I knew was total B.S. and I told her so (in a more polite fashion). Back on hold I went.
I posed several follow-on questions, none of which were answered to my satisfaction.
Q: Even MLB.TV – which is superior in every aspect to MiLB.TV – does not require Android 8. Why MiLB and why now?
A: I don’t know. This is what I was told.
Q: Why were customers not informed of this significant change – especially before their subscriptions were renewed for 2019?
A: I don’t know.
Q: Why do your own FAQs not state this new requirement?
A: It can take a while for our website to be updated.
Q: This is your excuse?
At that point, I asked to speak to a supervisor. I was put on hold once again. When the rep came back, she explained that all of the managers were busy (likely with other unhappy customers). Note that this was no longer Opening Day – we were nine days into the minor league season.
Instead, I was instructed to email them (again).
When I protested over being put in what felt like was a support loop, I was assured that this time would be different. The rep provided a special email address that sounded very official – mlbexecutiverelations@website.mlb.com – and said this was the fast path to receive executive management attention.
I asked for and received the case numbers from both my April 4 email and that long phone call on April 13 so I could include them in my communication.
Email to MLB Executive Relations – April 13
That same evening, I composed another email, covering my story to that point. Here is its close:
My issues include:
1) No customer notification of a major change in support level required for MiLB.TV in 2019. (Had I been informed in advance, I could have worked on an alternative or considered not renewing.)
2) No mention of this change on your website. No clarity at Google Play Store of the issue, either.
3) Glacially slow and totally ineffective MiLB.TV support via email that was more insulting than anything.
4) No MiLB.TV support of set top devices such as Roku, which if supported could give me another viewing option. I was told tonight, I can only use my laptop or I have to get a new phone.
This lack of concern for your customer is maddening. If you had competition, I know you would have to be more responsive to survive.
MLB Executive Relations response
It is eight days later, April 21, (and 17 days since my first email) and there has been no response. I had provided both my email and phone contact information.
In return, I received nothing. Nada.
From this, I can draw two possible explanations, neither of which are positive. Either they are so swamped with complaints that they cannot handle them in a timely manner, or they are tone-deaf to their customer concerns. Pick your favorite poison.
The reluctant work-around
Even though I did not need a new phone, to watch games, I was forced to get one. I realized that even if I heard back from MiLB/MLB, they would not offer any satisfaction whatsoever. So, I could either wait for more nothingness or take my own corrective action to watch games again. It’s only more money, right?
The reality
I know that reading about my troubles isn’t going to deter you from wanting to watch Minor League Baseball games on your various devices. I understand completely, and I support you 100 percent.
The maddening part is that MiLB/MLB make it obvious that they do not care about our troubles – because they don’t have to. They know they have me right where they want me. Same with you and every other subscriber – but that just isn’t right.
Thanks for reading. If you want to share your MiLB.TV frustrations, stop by The Cardinal Nation’s free forum.
On a side point, a number of former posters from the now-discontinued MLB Cardinals forum have made the TCN community their new home for intelligent Cardinals-related major and minor league talk. Join them!
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