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Boy, oh boy…I miss the NBC Saturday Game of the Week. It’s not just baseball. Television in general is one colossal rip-off that is inspired by genuine greed. The more channels there are, the less there is that is worth even taking a glance at.
1964, according to what I read, Prime subscribers in the Yankees area did not have to pay extra to see the 20 games.
As a current subscriber to Amazon Prime Video, I would be ok with games streaming on their platform.
But whatever happens, the biggest thing that needs to come from this is for blackouts to end.Same here on both counts. We cut cable in 2017 and have not looked back. We use Roku and have an Amazon Prime subscription, but no other premium streaming services. When we told cable to take a hike I bought an old school antenna at Target, put it up in the rafters in the garage, re-routed the cable to the antenna and directly to the TV’s and we get a lot of free over-the-air stations, including the four major networks. It is similar to cable though in that out of some 50 free over-the-air stations, you find 3 or 4 that are worth watching.
But with that and Prime, plus a zillion free streaming channels through Roku we have more than enough television available.
It would be great if you could get all Cardinal games broadcast by Bally as part of the Amazon package at no added cost.
The more channels there are, the less there is that is worth even taking a glance at.
True for me, too. I watch sports, which is pretty much down to just tennis and MLB/mostly StL games these days, so not too much. I stay away from all news networks nowadays (stay informed via the web). Mostly what I “watch” on TV is music.
Anyway, I hope all these lack of “TV” access issues will improve for MLB fans. Even if the archaic blackout rules in place still show some sort of $$$ benefit to MLB, it’s got to be short term. Long term, it can’t be building the necessary goodwill with their would-be future fan base to maximize the enterprise.
This article has important clarifying information. Bally only holds digital rights to five teams, not the Cardinals.
Diamond is said to currently only carry the digital rights to five of those teams: the Tigers, Royals, Marlins, Brewers and Rays.
Therefore, even if Diamond and Amazon do wind up with a court-approved arrangement, Diamond could not stream games via Amazon for any of its other MLB teams beyond those five. Of course, other teams and MLB could negotiate with Diamond for expanded digital rights access, but MLB and Diamond have not seen eye to eye on the worth of MLB’s streaming rights.
What the Amazon-Diamond potential marriage could mean for MLB viewers (hint: Diamond only has streaming rights to 5 MLB teams): https://t.co/nwcdphw8Pz
— Evan Drellich (@EvanDrellich) December 19, 2023
The way I understand it is Amazon would invest in Diamond to be able to stream some games but Diamond would still keep their relationships with the cable outlets. It wouldn’t be an either/or situation.
It sounds like the NFL is pushing some fans over the edge with spltting things up behind multiple pay walls and services.
This is typical of several expessions of frustration I’m seeing in news and blog reports.
“”F— the @NFL Pay for the Sunday ticket. Then pay for prime to watch Thursday games. Then pay for Peacock to watch this dumb a– Saturday game,”
But they pay for a lot of it, and some probably pay for all of it. MLB is going to figure baseball fans probably will too. Somebody is going to cover those whopping payrolls, and it is not going to come out of owners’ pockets, that isn’t how business works. All of the money comes from customers one way or another.
The model with a regional broadcaster on cable covering most of it, with occasional streamed games on Apple TV or whatever will be out for us after 2024. What will it be instead? I’m glad I cut the cord already.
Unfortunately, cutting the cord won’t get you the games you want to see, but at least you won’t be robbed by excessively high cable charges.
Right now I am trying to figure out who is robbing me of what. It is a quagmire. I recently found out that we were getting HBO Max via having it somehow bundled onto my wife’s Amazon Prime account. So I got that cancelled. Then over Christmas, we were watching something, and I discovered we were waching it on HBO Max, which it turns out we still have because it is also bundled onto our ATT internet service. We unbundled and cancelled ATT cable last summer. but I think we were paying for HBO Max twice. Maybe when we had cable we were paying for it three times. I don’t want any of this shit and its sticking to me like I’m velcro.
I think people may want to warm up to the fact that no matter if you live on a coast or in cardinal territory. You are going to end up paying to watch them. If you live local and don’t want to pay then you have the Radio as an option.
For me I don’t have a dog in it any longer. I cut out cable after I moved on my own in San Diego. I used to get the birds on mlbtv and happily paid for it. Would get home after rush hour and was able to take in a few innings a night and then get a west coast game. Quit paying for it after 2019. We all know what happened in the 2020 season.
I work 2nd shift and would get off early Friday and be able to catch a few innings and the weekend games if they weren’t on too early. Now with the pace of play changes it’s pretty much has me a casual fan. Catch highlights and maybe a game on the weekend and maybe some west coast innings at a bar.
Brian, I have heard the same complaints about the NFL from friends and National Radio Program hosts. The frustration is real. MLB sold their 2023 playoff package to ESPN, Fox, FS1, and TBS … I wonder what market coverage they got with that deal or if the dollars obtained matter more. Gaining access to and watching games (baseball or football) is not as simple or inexpensive as it used to be for sure. IMO, this is an issue that MLB needs to address to retain fan interest … especially younger fans.
I know people who have not had access to Fox for almost two years (Cable provider and Network cannot agree on price) and Cub fans that have stopped watching their games on TV as they do not want to pay for the Marquee Network. I am a firm believer that improved fan access to games at a reasonable price will provide long-term benefits to MLB. I hope MLB can successfully find their way thru these issues in what appears to be a window of opportunity with the Diamond Sports debacle.
I wonder how much they care about the long term. The focus seems to be on revenue and profit this year. (This is not unique to MLB in today’s world…)
Brian, understand the point you raise and cannot disagree with your sentiment. However, I hope and pray someone in charge would recognize the importance of striking a balance between short- and long-term focus when making decisions.
Diamond Sports Group Announces Restructuring Deal Featuring Investment From Amazon https://t.co/8W1zAdLMfv pic.twitter.com/0Md7EpBOvG
— MLB Trade Rumors (@mlbtraderumors) January 17, 2024
Television rating for Cardinals home opener lowest in more than 2 decades https://t.co/S82oaEstxB
— STL Cardinals News (@STLCardsNews) April 8, 2024
Not a stunner to me! I am not surprised at all that ratings were the lowest in two decades …
– Fans disappointed with last season’s performance and underwhelmed with offseason moves
– Televison Broadcast access issues not resolvedWould love to know what options Cardinal management has available or are considering to address this situation. It is hard to believe we have done from being able to view Cardinal games on television almost every night for a reasonable price versus what we face today.
I have to wonder how MLB is going to attract and retain younger fans when many do not have access to even view the games. Ugh!
Hopefully, the Bally channels on Comcast won’t go black tomorrow…
BREAKING: Diamond Sports has a deal in principle with DirecTV. It's a multi-year deal for all the Bally Sports-branded regional sports networks.
Comcast is next up for Diamond. Its deal ends tomorrow.
Full details in @PuckNews' The Varsity tonight.
— John Ourand (@Ourand_Puck) April 29, 2024
Saw this article regarding the Pittsburgh Pirates & Penguins approach to streaming that I found interesting.
MLB cannot launch a national in-market streaming package in 2025, even one with half the teams, if Diamond Sports Group emerges from bankruptcy https://t.co/7E9geDH8N4
— Evan Drellich (@EvanDrellich) May 2, 2024
I wish this was a viewing option for a whole game
Apple TV broadcasters went silent for two batters, allowing viewers to just take in the ballpark noise pic.twitter.com/4ld12DPfSI
— Jomboy Media (@JomboyMedia) May 4, 2024
This season, Cardinals TV ratings are down 25% from last year (and 2023 was their poorest rating since 1990), but the P-D attributes it to “distribution problems”. After all, it can’t be the product because they have MLB’s best record since Mother’s Day! It seems the prior year and a half never happened.
The emperor has no clothes!
Cardinals’ TV ratings on record-low pace amid continuing distribution problems: Media Views https://t.co/lPNq5BLRwV
— STL Pinch Hits (@STLPinchHits) July 19, 2024
Distribution is a part of the decrease of course but as you pointed out the team’s record plays a bigger part.
I would say the fan base has been eroding since 2016. Slowly at first but gaining momentum as the Cardinals have stacked average at best seasons one on top of the other – the 2019 NLCS appearance outlier notwithstanding.
Occasionally winning a crappy division only to be exposed in the playoffs doesn’t fool Cardinal fans.
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