14 minutes ago, The Beast said:

How did people stream the games without paying for them in the past?

Currently?  Free yearly MLB.TV through T-Mobile along with VPN.

In the past, I used to find various live MLB streams on Reddit.  But there are also websites out there that work.  I sent you a PM.

34 minutes ago, WhiteSox2023 said:

Currently?  Free yearly MLB.TV through T-Mobile along with VPN.

In the past, I used to find various live MLB streams on Reddit.  But there are also websites out there that work.  I sent you a PM.

Thanks I appreciate that! I’ll check it out!

It's honestly absolutely amazing that what all of these networks and sports teams are doing is .....encouraging their customers and fanbase to pirate their product. Outstanding business acumen.

On 6/10/2025 at 9:19 PM, The Beast said:

How did people stream the games without paying for them in the past?

MLB Streams.

On 6/10/2025 at 4:08 PM, WhiteSox2023 said:

Yep, and why would Xfinity agree to a deal if they could lose the local Chicagoland market to a $10 dollar antenna?  It makes sense, but the timing just sucks.  Chicago fans had free sports for several months.

Back to free T-Mobile MLB.TV and VPN for me…

I don't think it makes much sense, actually.

You can watch NFL, NBA, and MLB games for free OTA all the time. The NBA Finals game last night was OTA as it always is and I used my antenna to watch it since i cancelled my live-TV packages.

OTA increases your overall audience allowing you to sell more ad's and gain more of an audience and following. Comcast are just assholes.

"That leaves an untold number of fans who may have purchased an indoor antenna, a new receiver or even clambered up onto a roof to hook up an outdoor antenna, with a bunch of wires and a blank TV screen. About 15% of the 3.46 million homes in the Chicago market watch TV using an antenna."

https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/Articles/2025/06/10/chsns-move-to-comcast-leaves-fans-without-free-viewing-antenna-option/&sa=U&ved=2ahUKEwiqj-i06euNAxXWMEQIHckUNiUQFnoECAQQAg&usg=AOvVaw3umaHfGGw2PJTFat6flO7b

Edited June 12, 2025Jun 12 by caulfield12

46 minutes ago, Look at Ray Ray Run said:

I don't think it makes much sense, actually.

You can watch NFL, NBA, and MLB games for free OTA all the time. The NBA Finals game last night was OTA as it always is and I used my antenna to watch it since i cancelled my live-TV packages.

OTA increases your overall audience allowing you to sell more ad's and gain more of an audience and following. Comcast are just assholes.

I don’t disagree with this.  I didn’t care about OTA, I didn’t want it, I just wanted CHSN to be a part of my programming again and knew that your closing sentence was true, and they were gonna pull the rug.  I have Comcast because I need the internet for work and I get my cable for an extra hundred twenty or so.  I’m fine with what I have but I understand Comcast doesn’t work for everyone.  My entire gripe about the entire scenario was the Reinsdorfs and Wirtz went into the venture like a naive puppy and expected everyone to just give them what they wanted, and weren’t ready when NBC Sports went off the air.  And none of this even addresses how bad two of the three teams (and the mediocrity of the 3rd) were lol

Also noticed recently that mlb is no longer allowing Audacy to broadcast the cubs games on the score (and Sox games over espn.com) over the app due to broadcasting blackout rules which for some reason weren’t being enforced last month and last year.  Some weird stuff going on with that 

This is unrelated but I do wonder about it a lot. I feel like baseball and most professional sports have gotten out of brand building and have been in pure exploitation. It's worked getting more money out of their core fans who were addicted...but how many others are becoming addicted?

When will the fact that a teenager in the suburbs no longer thinks about a baseball game as something they could do on a random evening in summer. Baseball is a 'premium' event you'd need your parents to pay for.

And baseball is no longer just the background of summer, always on. I need to go to my specific app.

I need to opt-in to baseball. It's not just everywhere.

I am coaching baseball now, the kids all love to play. None of them watch it save for a few who have diehard parents as fans (mostly out of town teams).

At some point baseball won't have their hardcore fans to exploit. When does the switch flip back to growing the game? It's more than making some tiktoks.

I don't think live sports have a perpetual future as a luxury product. It needs to be part of life, mixed in and around it. Not broadway.

3 hours ago, Look at Ray Ray Run said:

I don't think it makes much sense, actually.

You can watch NFL, NBA, and MLB games for free OTA all the time. The NBA Finals game last night was OTA as it always is and I used my antenna to watch it since i cancelled my live-TV packages.

OTA increases your overall audience allowing you to sell more ad's and gain more of an audience and following. Comcast are just assholes.

What doesn't make sense?  Xfinity and all cable companies are losing customers at an accelerated rate.  One of the biggest reasons remaining customers keep their cable is for live sports.  If the customers can just get it for free over the air, there is no reason to keep or sign up for their service and cable will die even sooner.  

The NBA finals were over the air because they are the NBA Finals.  The World Series will be over the air as well.  CBS, NBC, ABC, Fox aren't airing random regular season NBA or MLB games on a weekday night.  

2 hours ago, Kyyle23 said:

Also noticed recently that mlb is no longer allowing Audacy to broadcast the cubs games on the score (and Sox games over espn.com) over the app due to broadcasting blackout rules which for some reason weren’t being enforced last month and last year.  Some weird stuff going on with that 

Back in the day, they always blacked out the internet feed during games and you had to buy the radio version of mlb.tv (mlb at bat?).  I noticed a year or two ago they just began airing the games on the feed.  Interesting that they are choosing to enforce that again.

9 minutes ago, bmags said:

This is unrelated but I do wonder about it a lot. I feel like baseball and most professional sports have gotten out of brand building and have been in pure exploitation. It's worked getting more money out of their core fans who were addicted...but how many others are becoming addicted?

When will the fact that a teenager in the suburbs no longer thinks about a baseball game as something they could do on a random evening in summer. Baseball is a 'premium' event you'd need your parents to pay for.

And baseball is no longer just the background of summer, always on. I need to go to my specific app.

I need to opt-in to baseball. It's not just everywhere.

I am coaching baseball now, the kids all love to play. None of them watch it save for a few who have diehard parents as fans (mostly out of town teams).

At some point baseball won't have their hardcore fans to exploit. When does the switch flip back to growing the game? It's more than making some tiktoks.

I don't think live sports have a perpetual future as a luxury product. It needs to be part of life, mixed in and around it. Not broadway.

Good post.  I wonder what the long-term solution is.  I bet those kids you coach don't watch cable tv either.  A few years ago I asked my nieces in high school and jr high if they ever watch MTV and they looked at me confused.  

Outside of a few things like the NFL, there's no more monoculture and everything is becoming its own niche.  

15 minutes ago, Nardiwashere said:

What doesn't make sense?  Xfinity and all cable companies are losing customers at an accelerated rate.  One of the biggest reasons remaining customers keep their cable is for live sports.  If the customers can just get it for free over the air, there is no reason to keep or sign up for their service and cable will die even sooner.  

The NBA finals were over the air because they are the NBA Finals.  The World Series will be over the air as well.  CBS, NBC, ABC, Fox aren't airing random regular season NBA or MLB games on a weekday night.  

Back in the day, they always blacked out the internet feed during games and you had to buy the radio version of mlb.tv (mlb at bat?).  I noticed a year or two ago they just began airing the games on the feed.  Interesting that they are choosing to enforce that again.

I listened to the Sox just two weeks ago through the espn1000 streaming page when I was driving home.  This weekend I tried it and got the espn1000 “this game is blacked out in your area” recording.  Checked audacy during a cubs day game and it was the same thing.  It really sucks 

1 hour ago, Nardiwashere said:

What doesn't make sense?  Xfinity and all cable companies are losing customers at an accelerated rate.  One of the biggest reasons remaining customers keep their cable is for live sports.  If the customers can just get it for free over the air, there is no reason to keep or sign up for their service and cable will die even sooner.  

The NBA finals were over the air because they are the NBA Finals.  The World Series will be over the air as well.  CBS, NBC, ABC, Fox aren't airing random regular season NBA or MLB games on a weekday night.  

Back in the day, they always blacked out the internet feed during games and you had to buy the radio version of mlb.tv (mlb at bat?).  I noticed a year or two ago they just began airing the games on the feed.  Interesting that they are choosing to enforce that again.

Your argument is short sighted. Eyeballs and viewers are what generate ad dollars. The more eyes, the more you can charge and it doesn't matter whether its OTA or a part of the cable package. 

There's a reason ESPN pays a fortune for the NBA finals and then broadcasts it OTA AND on cable. It increases exposure which will increase eyes in the future. Antennas aren't a great full time solution so that Sox fan with the antenna may by a Comcast package when they move out of range or when they get tired of cloudy days ruining their picture.

As bmags said, sports are about exposure and by limiting exposure you limit growth which reduces eye balls and advertising dollars. Comcast should want MORE viewers in the Chicago area, not less, regardless of whether or not those viewers directly finance them or not. 

" Antennas aren't a great full time solution so that Sox fan with the antenna may by a Comcast package when they move out of range or when they get tired of cloudy days ruining their picture. "

 

Cloudy days, rainy days, snow,  do not interfere with OTA broadcasts.  OTA was around for a long time before cable and everyone had an antenna.   Reinsdorf and Wirtz have a long history of pulling free OTA broadcast coverage  so I did not expect anything more from those two. 

 

33 minutes ago, tray said:

" Antennas aren't a great full time solution so that Sox fan with the antenna may by a Comcast package when they move out of range or when they get tired of cloudy days ruining their picture. "

 

Cloudy days, rainy days, snow,  do not interfere with OTA broadcasts.  OTA was around for a long time before cable and everyone had an antenna.   Reinsdorf and Wirtz have a long history of pulling free OTA broadcast coverage  so I did not expect anything more from those two. 

 

Well, I have an antenna and when the weather was bad my signal was in and out or lesser quality... so

15 minutes ago, Look at Ray Ray Run said:

Well, I have an antenna and when the weather was bad my signal was in and out or lesser quality... so

I have a read a lot of crazy things on Soxtalk before, but that was a new one.

God damnit, I bought an antenna for this s%*#

25 minutes ago, Look at Ray Ray Run said:

Well, I have an antenna and when the weather was bad my signal was in and out or lesser quality... so

Are you in the city? My signal was always pristine from Lakeview. Can't recall if it was ever raining or cloudy when I watched, but I never had issues. 

1 hour ago, tray said:

" Antennas aren't a great full time solution so that Sox fan with the antenna may by a Comcast package when they move out of range or when they get tired of cloudy days ruining their picture. "

 

Cloudy days, rainy days, snow,  do not interfere with OTA broadcasts.  OTA was around for a long time before cable and everyone had an antenna.   Reinsdorf and Wirtz have a long history of pulling free OTA broadcast coverage  so I did not expect anything more from those two. 

 

Tray: Just like with home satellites if there is bad weather or excessive cloud cover they can disrupt the signal. 

47 minutes ago, Look at Ray Ray Run said:

Well, I have an antenna and when the weather was bad my signal was in and out or lesser quality... so

I have DirecTV. They had this channel from the get go. When the weather is bad, the signal goes, but recently they did something where it will switch to an internet connection, but not on this channel.

34 minutes ago, Lip Man 1 said:

Tray: Just like with home satellites if there is bad weather or excessive cloud cover they can disrupt the signal. 

Yes, I thought weather only affected satellite.  When I had awful DirecTV it was in and out all the time when there was a storm.

13 minutes ago, WhiteSox2023 said:

Yes, I thought weather only affected satellite.  When I had awful DirecTV it was in and out all the time when there was a storm.

Before direct merged with ATT they really were fixing that issue, my signal really needed a bad storm to lose the signal, but once that merger happened everything got worse and more expensive almost overnight

1 hour ago, ron883 said:

Are you in the city? My signal was always pristine from Lakeview. Can't recall if it was ever raining or cloudy when I watched, but I never had issues. 

Live in Park Ridge.

26 minutes ago, Look at Ray Ray Run said:

Live in Park Ridge.

Beer on the Wall!  🍻 ❤️ 

Edited June 12, 2025Jun 12 by WhiteSox2023

4 hours ago, Look at Ray Ray Run said:

Your argument is short sighted. Eyeballs and viewers are what generate ad dollars. The more eyes, the more you can charge and it doesn't matter whether its OTA or a part of the cable package. 

There's a reason ESPN pays a fortune for the NBA finals and then broadcasts it OTA AND on cable. It increases exposure which will increase eyes in the future. Antennas aren't a great full time solution so that Sox fan with the antenna may by a Comcast package when they move out of range or when they get tired of cloudy days ruining their picture.

As bmags said, sports are about exposure and by limiting exposure you limit growth which reduces eye balls and advertising dollars. Comcast should want MORE viewers in the Chicago area, not less, regardless of whether or not those viewers directly finance them or not. 

Ok.  I understand.  You meant from the perspective of the Teams/Owners of the station?  

Yeah, ideally you would be on everything.  The problem is that Xfinity doesn't want that and most people still watch their tv through cable.  The numbers for antenna users were probably miniscule.  In 2025, if you are on OTA and not the largest cable provider in the area, you have limited exposure.

10 minutes ago, Nardiwashere said:

Ok.  I understand.  You meant from the perspective of the Teams/Owners of the station?  

Yeah, ideally you would be on everything.  The problem is that Xfinity doesn't want that and most people still watch their tv through cable.  The numbers for antenna users were probably miniscule.  In 2025, if you are on OTA and not the largest cable provider in the area, you have limited exposure.

15% of the market

450-475,000 homes