Streaming Local Games at $20 per Month a Reality for Some
For some time now, Major League Baseball teams have depended on major revenues from local regional sports networks (RSNs), entities which themselves have depended on cable providers paying high per-subscriber fees to put those networks on the standard-cable tier. This relationship has long prevented fans from watching their local team without paying for a bulky and often expensive cable subscription. MLB.TV blacks out local games to accommodate the relationship and the revenue that comes with it. While it is not full-scale a la carte, Sling TV’s recent announcement that they will carry FOX Sports RSNs on their new offering for $20 per month is a major win for consumers and a way for MLB to keep their product relevant to those who do not subscribe to traditional cable — frequently a younger demographic that MLB desires.
MLB.TV is a very good product that streams out-of-market games. The announcement last fall that in-market streaming would be available to cable subscribers represented a small step for fans who increasingly consume the game digitally. What was missing, however — and has been missing for years — is a digital option to watch local games without also having to subscribe to a local cable provider. We’re certainly not all the way there, but the newest offering from Sling TV is a big step in the right direction, and a very good compromise for those who do not want to pay for traditional cable.
Sling TV, owned by DISH Network, began several years ago offering a skinny streaming bundle. If you had an internet connection and a smart device like a Roku, Chromecast, or Amazon Fire, you could stream a handful of television networks for $20 per month. Sling’s current package includes networks like AMC, TNT, TBS, and — importantly for sports fans — ESPN and ESPN2. What that package did not include were any RSNs, and as a result, no local baseball games.
Sling is now offering a separate package for $20 per month that still includes AMC, TNT, and TBS, but adds multiple FOX channels, including FOX, FS1, and importantly FOX RSNs, including the Yankees YES network. Half of MLB teams have games aired on FOX RSNs, which means that roughly half of MLB fans can now stream local baseball games with an internet connection and $20 per month. For teams of the following fans, this is a really big step forward:
| Team | Network |
| Arizona Diamondbacks | FOX Sports Arizona |
| Atlanta Braves | FOX Sports South/FOX Sports Southeast |
| Cincinnati Reds | FOX Sports Cincinnati |
| Cleveland Indians | Sports Time Ohio |
| Detroit Tigers | FOX Sports Detroit |
| Kansas City Royals | FOX Sports Midwest |
| Los Angeles Angels | FOX Sports West |
| Miami Marlins | FOX Sports Florida |
| Milwaukee Brewers | FOX Sports Wisconsin |
| Minnesota Twins | FOX Sports North |
| New York Yankees | YES |
| San Diego Padres | FOX Sports San Diego |
| St. Louis Cardinals | FOX Sports Midwest |
| Tampa Bay Rays | FOX Sports Sun |
| Texas Rangers | FOX Sports Southwest |
This product reaches baseball fans whom a combination of blackout rules and the current cable model have prevented from watching their favorite teams. As young people drop cable or refuse ever to acquire it in the first place, MLB is in danger of losing those local fans unwilling to pay more than $100 per month to get internet and cable. Internet is likely still a necessity for most, but this product has the opportunity to reach those who might be willing to pay a smaller amount for cable channels, including those which broadcast their local MLB games. Subscribers will also soon be able to access streaming games via the FOX Sports Go app as well.
While the paragraphs above amount to a glowing review of Sling TV’s recent announcement, it’s important to note that there are negatives to this product, as well. For those fans of multiple sports hoping for one product to meet all their viewing needs, this is not the answer. While ESPN is offered by Sling, it’s available only as part of a separate $20 package. For those who want a streaming package outside of those made available by standard cable providers, PlayStation’s Vue has multiple offerings for around $40-$50 per month that include channels like ESPN as well as many RSNs not owned by FOX . At this point, we move away from our a la carte desires and closer to the cable bundle that has been ruling television for years.
While most of the channels in Sling’s two packages are the same, one features a handful of Disney channels, including ESPN, while the other features FOX-owned channels. ESPN’s package is a single-stream package, meaning consumers can watch only on one device at a time, while the FOX package offers multi-stream possibility, where more than one device can watch at a time. While ESPN might be considered the linchpin to the single-stream package, Disney has fears that this model could grow and cut into the standard cable packages. As a result, if Sling goes over 2 million subscribers, Disney can opt out, per the Wall Street Journal. The FOX package, which allows streaming on multiple devices, contains no such provision. As of February, the Wall Street Journal reported Sling TV had roughly 600,000 subscribers.
As should be expected, given the price and campaign toward those who are dissatisfied with cable, the channel lineup is far from complete. If you want local channels, you should use an antenna. FOX will appear on the multi-stream option in some markets. For ABC, consumers would have to buy the single-stream package and pay another five dollars for ABC. Other networks like CBS and NBC are not available.
Noticeably absent from any of the Sling packages are sports channels owned by Comcast, DIRECTV, or Time Warner Cable. The Sling TV package threatens to cut into their business as providers, so each of that threesome have a disincentive to become a part of any skinny bundle like this one or the one offered by Verizon. The timing of this product, as well as the prevalence of the YES Network in its advertising, is not coincidental. YES and Comcast are in a carriage dispute in the New York area covering close to 1 million homes. Sling is offering a cheap alternative so that fans of the Yankees can still watch the team even if they choose not to drop Comcast. Getting half of MLB teams in a cheaper package is great news, but we cannot expect the rest of the teams to follow suit any time soon. This will not help the Dodgers fans, for example, who are currently caught between Time Warner Cable and the local cable providers in Los Angeles.
It’s possible this news will not receive the same type of coverage that the in-market streaming received in November. Rob Manfred has not made an announcement about this agreement like he did last fall, but the Sling TV announcement is a much bigger deal. For $20 per month, fans of half the teams in baseball can receive in-market streaming without a standard cable subscription. Yes, this is still technically a cable bundle, but for many fans, getting the broadcasts of their favorite team might be worth $20 per month, especially with other standard cable channels. This is not a la carte programming, per se, but it’s closer than we have been in a really long time, and some recognition that the gigantic cable bundle is not the be all end all for baseball fans.
Craig Edwards can be found on twitter @craigjedwards.
If Trump wins and you suddenly feel the urge to move to Canada, no blackouts on MLB.TV is just an added bonus!
Haha so true! I don’t have any blackout issues, but I suppose if I lived closer to Toronto they would black out Jays games.
Nope, there hasn’t been blackouts of Blue Jays games in Canada for 3 years now. Rogers waived it and now everyone in Canada can watch the Jays on MLB.TV. Some in B.C. are blacked out from Mariners games but I think everyone else in Canada is blackout free for all 30 teams.
The Mariners have shared territorial rights in Alberta & BC, the Twins in Manitoba & Saskatchewan and the Red Sox in the Maritimes (NB, NS & PEI). I believe those are the only restrictions in Canada.
I had no idea about this – thanks for the heads up. Had signed up for sling for College Football – will likely be signing up again for Royals baseball.
I wish there was a rule that prevent cable companies from being content owners. It creates an inherent conflict of interest that Net Neutrality will never be able to overcome.
You would also have to prevent exclusive contracts, which achieve exactly the same thing, and I’m really not sure how that could happen (or even necessarily that it should).
Over the long run, I really don’t expect people to save money with the move to different bundles, especially when people feel like they have to subscribe to multiple bundles (Netflix, Amazon Prime, HBO, Sling) in order to get all of their “must see” content.
One thing that’s interesting to me is that this makes it very reasonable for Comcast customers who are big Yankee fans to stay with Comcast. That’s a lot of potential new subscribers that DISH is not doing their damndest to bring to their core product.
So this could be especially a huge deal for people who are in-market but whose local cable provider doesn’t subscribe to the channels, notably Atlanta Braves fans in eastern North Carolina. (Nationals and Orioles fans still out of luck.)
Or perhaps since the Braves not longer have that area as “territory,” subscribing to Fox Sports South will not be an option? (Even though I think some MVPDs like satellite offer it.) Lots of Braves fans in that area get blocked out because of all the Nationals in division games even if they get Extra Innings.
you can plug in your zip code and it will tell you which RSN you will get.
Hmm, it’s based on billing zip code, rather than the sort of IP/DNS locator stuff that Extra Innings and MLB.tv use. Good for traveling, and also good for people who have moved who can use an address belonging to relatives back home.
Eastern NC I get the option of Fox Sports South. (Putting in a SC option I get both Fox Sports South and Fox Sports Southeast.)
What makes that odd is that none of this lists Fox Sports Carolinas, which got split off of Fox Sports South as a separate sub-feed but doesn’t carry the Braves games nearly as much (or perhaps at all). Perhaps emailing Sling is in order.
Is there any particular reason for lack of reference to the PlayStation Vue service, given its similarity to Sling? Vue is to Sling as Lyft is to Uber, essentially. It’s a digital streaming service that is the primary competitor to Sling, also offers RSNs and you could even argue that it’s the more comprehensive of the two services.
I’m dumb.
I was quite interested in Vue myself, since they offer ABC/Disney/ESPN and FOX networks under the same package for less than Sling.
Vue is not transparent about which FS Regionals you get until after you sign up for the free trial, which I did last night. I’m in the Chattanooga, TN market, which should (and does) get me both FS South and FS Southeast, and thus all the Braves games, my main concern. I can watch the Braves just fine now through Vue, as long as I’m on my home wireless network (this is an actual restriction of Vue). Bring on 120 losses, Vue!
You can also sign in to the Fox Sports Go app through Vue, but for now it is not giving me access to the Braves through the app. This could be important because they restrict mobile streaming of those FS networks, and I am in the blackout area for the Braves on MLB.TV. If I sign in through DirecTV, I do get the Braves on FS Go.
However, I can probably live with that limitation for the gigantic savings Vue will represent, compared to DirecTV.
So now is it better/cheaper to be in market or out of market? Take Phoenix (the market I live in but now the one I root for) for example. They have MLB, NHL, and NBA on one Fox RSN. If you are from there and have moved the cheapest way to follow all of your teams would be with single team packages through the respective streaming services. That would cost about $300 per year and come with limited post season access.
Now an in market person with Sling can watch all those teams, with all of the MLB playoffs and some of the NBA playoffs, for $240 a year. Not bad in my opinion.
*but NOT the one I root for
Out of market.
Remember, Sling is live streaming, mostly.
MLBTV also archives games and offers team-specific stuff you won’t get from Sling. The preferred solution is still for MLBTV to do away with blackouts but Sling is a decent enough fallback.
This is a great point. I do enjoy watching games whenever I please. I don’t Have experiance with SlingTV or Vue so I don’t know if they have archives or recording ability. But seeing as I don’t have cable I will almost certainly do this to watch the Divisional and Championship series in the playoffs so I will probably find out then
Sling has a DVR function but it varies by channel. And their on-demand features are also inconsistent. Basically it is up to the network. Some let you replay content up to 8 days back, others don’t allow it at all.
MLBTV on-demand lets you go back to watch any archived game. Missed a perfect game? Just pick the game.
Missed the start? Play it from the beginning, fast forward past the ad breaks and catch up.
All games are on demand.
Live streaming games is valuable.
But MLBTV is all baseball all the time and it has more features. Other than the end of blackouts the only thing I would wish for is livestreaming of their cable channel and their funky shows. Especially in the off-season.
Why is this so goddamn complicated. I mean, super “first world problems” right? One hundred years ago, the only live games were in person. Then there was radio. You had to get the next day’s paper to read about the game.
These days, yeah, I can get a twitter alert any time Oakland hits a homer or whatnot. I can search out highlights. Things are AMAZING.
But, and I don’t care how whiny it sounds, I am sick of how COMPLICATED figuring out how to watch a game is. There are a dozen TV packages with all sorts of weird bundles. I can stream from MLB directly for a hefty fee. Or now there’s Sling / Vue. Except when a team is blacked out, and you need a PhD to figure out blackout logic. Hours upon hours of my life each season are lost to the effort of choosing HOW I want to watch baseball.
I’m romanticizing it, but at least back in the day it was just go to the park and read the daily paper and that’s all the thought you’d need to put in to it.
Blackout rules are the bane of my existence. I was a bit excited when I moved out of Michigan to Iowa that I thought I could get the MLBTV package and see most Tigers games. But there are 6 teams blacked out here, so 59 of the 162 Tigers games are blacked out (KCR, STL, MIN, MIL, CHW, and CHC). Even if I got the single team package, those same 59 games would still be blacked out. It’s a similar situation in Hawaii, where all 6 coastal teams are blacked out.
So while this is good news, that I can shore up 4 of those teams that are blacked out here, the last thing I want to do is support them, and keep up the ridiculousness.
Yep, another Iowan here…
This is insane. I’m blacked out from six teams, but I’m still not located somewhere with a regional sports network on Sling or Vue. To get those six teams, I need to give DirecTV $145/month.
I’m either in-market or out-of-market! I just want to give you some (no all of) my money!