Another baseball season is upon us. Some thought it would never get here. While baseball claims to have fixed many of its problems, there is still one area where the sport lags behind the others. Baseball still can’t find a way to service its passionate fans when it comes to streaming games.
For many years, it was the blackout of ‘local’ games on the MLB.tv platform. So, if the Phillies are playing the Mets, and you’re a Phillies fan in New York, you won’t be able to watch it on MLB.TV, because it’s on SNY. It means if you’re a ‘cord cutter’ in Chicago, there’s no way for you to watch the Cubs or the White Sox when you’re at home. As if this isn’t bad enough for fans, now, through a new exclusive deal with Apple TV Plus, it will be more of a total blackout for local audiences.
Apple agreed to pay Major League Baseball 85-million dollars a year, over the next seven seasons. In return, Apple gets a Friday Night doubleheader that airs exclusively on the company’s streaming service.
Exclusively, meaning, no local RSN or local broadcast. None.
Now, let’s review who or whom this is good for. MLB and Apple. Try to explain this scenario to a baseball fan, like let’s say a Mets’ fan. Max Scherzer was scheduled to make his Big Apple debut on Apple and not SNY. Good luck in selling that to a fan that has no idea what Apple TV Plus is and just gets frustrated and listens to the game on radio. For someone who did play-by-play for a number of years on radio, bring that on!
Because, if the fans are interested in taking the chance and dipping into the technology-based world it’s going to cost them. In addition to what they are already paying for cable and the associated fees for their local RSN, they’ll need to buy a subscription for the service, that’s priced at just over 100 dollars for the year.
“We have a next generation of fans that may be ‘cord-nevers,’ and you’ve got people that are no longer inside the bundle,” says Noah Garden, MLB’s chief revenue officer, in an interview with Variety, referring to the cable and satellite operators who have for years delivered many live sports broadcasts. “The most important thing for us right now is reach.”
Major League Baseball will produce the games airing on Apple TV Plus, along with pregame and postgame shows. There is supposed to be other baseball-related programming as well. MLB Big Inning will be a live show featuring highlights and will be available every weeknight during the regular season. Apple TV Plus will also feature game replays, highlights, and classic games. There will be on-demand programming too.
But will there be a demand for it? I’m skeptical. So is Chris “Mad Dog” Russo.
The host of ‘Mad Dog Unleashed’, went off on MLB’s decision to use this type of model in trying to grow its product. He’s one of many angry fans that may miss something from their team due to the stream, like the originally scheduled Scherzer start.
“I guarantee you right now if you put on local radio station WFAN, that’s their whole show,” said Russo last week on his SiriusXM show, Mad Dog Unleashed.
“Their whole show today is listening to the angry old man call up the radio station, ‘get off my lawn,’ all ticked off that he can’t see Scherzer’s first start because God help him, he doesn’t know how to figure out Apple TV. And he isn’t the only one.
“That’s baseball fooling around. I tell you, that’s dangerous,” Russo added. “We’re going to work our rear ends off to find the football games on Thursday night. We’re gonna work hard for those games. We’ll find ’em. It’s NFL football. We bet ’em. Plus, the local game in your market’s gonna be on over-the-air channels anyway. The Mets game is not over-the-air.”
He isn’t wrong. NFL games are once a week and usually presented as an event. Fans will work harder to find a game that’s say 1/17th of a schedule as opposed to 1/162nd of a season slate, especially if they have money on it. The fact is that many of the fans of baseball are of an older generation. That’s not to say someone in their mid 50’s, can’t figure out technology, because, plenty can. Other’s though, can’t.
“I am not gadget-oriented,” the 62-year-old Russo admitted. “I am not gadget-savvy and this is all about gadgets. And I’m gonna be sitting there one night at 9 o’clock and something’s gonna happen to my Amazon Prime watching Judge hit against Tampa in a big spot and the TV’s gonna go out. I guarantee it! And I’m gonna raise hell. But I’m gonna be barking at the moon! At the moon.
“The teams and the sport don’t care! They got 85-million from Apple and they got 30-million from Peacock and try to watch the games on Peacock down the road because THAT I KNOW you’re gonna have to pay for!”
These new deals probably will not attract a ton of new people to the game. In the case of Apple, likely the price will drive some away and the sheer panic of technology will scare others away.
It’s not just Apple TV Plus by the way. The Yankees have gotten into bed with Amazon and the league has a strange deal with NBC’s Peacock service. This package will air Sunday games with start times as early as 11:30 AM Eastern. That is crazy talk.
Imagine those teams that play a Saturday night game that either goes into extra innings or has rain delays. Maybe they are finished at 10 or 10:30 pm, then the teams have to be at the park to start at 11:30 AM the next day? Of course, it’s money-driven, like most decisions are these days. Forget about those that have to actually play the game, or broadcast it, as long as the check clears, who cares right?
To me, it’s just another case of baseball stepping on its own foot and not really understanding the marketplace. An older fan base will not go through the trouble of adding all of these streaming services to keep up with their team. It’s the fact that you have to work for it, then pay for it, on TOP of what you’re already spending.
Attendance and interest are waning in the sport as it is already, so why make it more difficult on fans?
Andy Masur is a columnist for BSM and works for WGN Radio as an anchor and play-by-play announcer. He also teaches broadcasting at the Illinois Media School. During his career he has called games for the Chicago Cubs, San Diego Padres and Chicago White Sox. He can be found on Twitter @Andy_Masur1 or you can reach him by email at Andy@Andy-Masur.com.
