Jimbo's Drinker Posted February 6, 2007 Share Posted February 6, 2007 QUOTE(southsider2k5 @ Feb 6, 2007 -> 08:24 AM) Baseball really is the dumbest sport around. They have an anti-trust exemption which allows them to get away with murder, yet they seem to try to do everything possible to piss off the wrong people. I really think we will see a review of their status given the mess from the Steroid stuff and now this. Baseball is lucky it has such loyal fans. They do everything to make their product more venemous. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FlaSoxxJim Posted February 6, 2007 Share Posted February 6, 2007 QUOTE(Jimbo @ Feb 6, 2007 -> 09:48 AM) Baseball is lucky it has such loyal fans. They do everything to make their product more venemous. Agreed. A lot of us are going to have to jump through hoops for the privelege of forking over yet more money to upgrade our tech gadgets to tune in to the games. Silly me, I was thinking ratings were down and they'd like to have the potential to get into 100 million homes rather than 15 million. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hangar18 Posted February 6, 2007 Share Posted February 6, 2007 QUOTE(joeynach @ Jan 23, 2007 -> 12:54 PM) It boggles my mind why they think limiting their broadcasts to Directv only subscribers which is only like 5 or 10 million out of 300 Mil in this country anyway is a good thing. Yes they will get a lump sum of cash but they are making it more difficult to view MLB games for tens of millions across the country, why would they want to do that. Why would they want to limit their exposure to so many fans. Any common sense will tell you this would hurt them in the long run. The League of Extraordinarily Dumb Gentleman hard at work again I see ......... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cerbaho-WG Posted February 6, 2007 Share Posted February 6, 2007 QUOTE(Chisoxfn @ Feb 5, 2007 -> 07:53 PM) What was the current stream? 350 kbps. It's a perfect tradeoff! Thankfully I'll only be home for three weeks this summer, so the DirecTV thing won't affect me much. But it blows for a lot of people, namely my parents who will probably miss all the Sox games now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wysiwyg Posted February 8, 2007 Share Posted February 8, 2007 I emailed Dish Network and this was there reply: Thank you for your email. On behalf of our company, we do apologize for the inconvenience. At this point we are unsure of the MLB¿s intentions, but subscribers are welcome to voice their concerns directly to the MLB at the number or address below. Please contact: The Office of the Commissioner of Baseball Allan H. (Bud) Selig, Commissioner 245 Park Avenue, 31st Floor New York, NY 10167 Phone: (212) 931-7800 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
southsider2k5 Posted February 8, 2007 Share Posted February 8, 2007 I like how they put Bud's phone number in there Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jimbo's Drinker Posted February 8, 2007 Share Posted February 8, 2007 I called the number and this is how it went thru. Hello and thank you for calling the Yankees, America's American Pie....... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Texsox Posted February 9, 2007 Share Posted February 9, 2007 QUOTE(Jimbo @ Feb 8, 2007 -> 09:03 AM) I called the number and this is how it went thru. Hello and thank you for calling the Yankees, America's American Pie....... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kalapse Posted February 9, 2007 Share Posted February 9, 2007 Uh, this actually makes total sense, Major League Baseball will be making money hand over fist if this goes through. It's so damn simple. http://biz.yahoo.com/indie/070209/620_id.html?.v=1 Making Noise: Batter Up! Is Major League Baseball Prepping for an Interactive IPO? Friday February 9, 10:38 am ET By Ben Silverman, FindProfit.com Addition By Subtraction: There's a lot of talk these days about Major League Baseball striking a seven-year, $100 million per year deal to sell exclusive rights to its Extra Innings package of out-of-market games to DirecTV (NYSE: DTV - News). No deal has actually been announced, and DirecTV's chief executive officer, Chase Carey, told analysts earlier this week that reports about such a transaction have been "mostly speculation." ADVERTISEMENT Nonetheless, numerous media outlets have reported that a deal is close to being announced, and a cable industry insider I spoke to this week was openly lamenting the loss of Extra Innings. Giving DirecTV exclusive rights to Extra Innings would shut out customers of Time Warner (NYSE: TWX - News), Comcast (Nasdaq: CMCSA - News), Cablevision (NYSE: CVC - News), Mediacom (Nasdaq: MCCC - News) and EchoStar's (Nasdaq: DISH - News) Dish Network, among other providers. Fans like myself, a transported Washingtonian living in New York, would be stuck watching only Yankees and Mets games on most nights instead of Nationals contests (yes, I realize it's not an even trade-off). According to Variety, MLB was unhappy with the fact that cable operators would not agree to put The Baseball Network ("TBN"), a 24-hour per day channel dedicated to all things baseball scheduled for launch in 2009, on the basic cable tier. About 95% of cable subscribers would get TBN if it was available on basic cable, meaning that MLB could garner a bigger audience and more ad dollars. I don't buy into that theory as the main reason for baseball going exclusively with DirecTV. After all, the National Football League ran into the same issue last fall when it launched its own network, and the gridiron guys command a lot more power than the diamond dudes. With that said, the big question that baseball fans are asking is why would MLB move Extra Innings from cable, where it has the ability to reach 65.5 million homes, to DirecTV, where it could reach just 16 million homes? While "greed" is an easy answer, I think it's more complicated than that ($100 million split among 30 teams gets each a utility infielder or serviceable middle reliever every season). I think the answer can be found in two places: online and on Wall Street. Major League Baseball Advanced Media ("MLBAM"), the online arm of MLB, has been wildly successful. The unit has built the most compelling online offering of any professional sports league; integrating video, audio, blogs, real-time scores, stats, and reams of other content. MLB.TV, which offers a more robust package of games than Extra Innings, is a hit (1.3 million subscribers in 2005, according to New York Magazine), and last year, over 20 million tickets to baseball games were sold via MLB.com and team websites. It's not just baseball that MLBAM is involved with. MLBAM's back- and front-end technology helps powers websites and streaming technology for organizations ranging from Major League Soccer and CBS Sportsline, to the City of New York and rock band Guns N' Roses. MLB can't guarantee a steroid-free game, by they'll keep your streaming video up and running! If MLB has done nothing else right in the past 50 years - and let's be honest, the only other thing they've done right in the past 60 years was integrating the game - they've done the Web right. Late in 2005, MLB scrapped the idea of taking Major League Baseball Advanced Media public. The reason, according to published reports, was that team owners did not want chests full of cash on their doorsteps as they were in the midst of negotiating a new labor contract. That excuse is no longer valid because MLB and the Major League Baseball Players Association reached a new five-year agreement last October. With the labor contract out of the way, MLB can now focus on taking Major League Baseball Advanced Media public. One of the key assets of the company is, of course, its MLB.TV product. See where I'm going? By shifting the Extra Innings package to DirecTV, MLB has now vastly expanded the market for its own offering. Fans like myself who have cable and no interest in switching to satellite television, are left with only one alternative to watch out-of-market games: MLB.TV. Thus, by contracting the market for Extra Innings, MLB would be expanding the market for its MLB.TV. It's addition by subtraction. It should be noted that MLB only has about 300,000 Extra Innings subscribers who get the service through cable or Dish Network, compared to about 270,000 already on DirecTV. If MLB can win these customers back, they'll do so at a higher margin (one reason Extra Innings costs more than MLB.TV is that the cable companies had to pay rights, something MLB obviously doesn't have to worry about). To MLB's credit as a business organization, they know that fans like myself are suckers. I complain to no end about how MLB treats its customers, but every year I'm buying the Extra Innings package, going to games at two or three stadiums, buying merchandise, and renewing my subscription to XM Satellite Radio (Nasdaq: XMSR - News), the exclusive carrier of every MLB game. I'm a baseball fan, what else can I do? If MLB does indeed grant DirecTV exclusive rights to Extra Innings, I won't be switching to satellite television. I'll listen to the games on XM and watch them online, via MLB.TV, of course. More importantly, I'll be keeping an eye out for MLB Advanced Media's IPO, because that's where I think this is heading. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ExpatNYC Posted February 15, 2007 Share Posted February 15, 2007 (edited) Looks like MLB.TV has added a "premium" package for $120 for the season or $20 a month. They have a demo of the new 700k stream right here. According to the product comparison page, only the premium package allows for 700k streaming. But the non-premium MLB.TV page claims the streams will be at 400k, then directly below that that they will reach 700k. Do you think they could get their act together? Edited February 15, 2007 by ExpatNYC Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Harry Chappas Posted February 15, 2007 Share Posted February 15, 2007 Bud was on ESPN radio this morning and said he can not really talk about the issue as it is not final but would come on when it is resolved. He did say that the move affects very few people as if nobody that has cable orders it according to their sources. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DABearSoX Posted April 10, 2007 Share Posted April 10, 2007 So i was going to make a reminder for myself that the game is on WGN tomorrow, (I have comcast) so i clicked on the find more of this program. So i found MLB Gameday is on comcast still and its still there free preview time period.....so looks like I get to watch the game tonight.....does anyone know what is goin on here? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Linnwood Posted April 10, 2007 Share Posted April 10, 2007 QUOTE(DABearSoX @ Apr 9, 2007 -> 07:01 PM) does anyone know what is goin on here? See here: http://www.soxtalk.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=57111 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chisoxfn Posted April 10, 2007 Share Posted April 10, 2007 QUOTE(DABearSoX @ Apr 9, 2007 -> 06:01 PM) So i was going to make a reminder for myself that the game is on WGN tomorrow, (I have comcast) so i clicked on the find more of this program. So i found MLB Gameday is on comcast still and its still there free preview time period.....so looks like I get to watch the game tonight.....does anyone know what is goin on here? Ya, the free preview was extened so it ends a little later on this week. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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