{"id":3935,"date":"2013-04-09T00:00:15","date_gmt":"2013-04-09T04:00:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/adam-jackson.net\/blog\/?p=3935"},"modified":"2013-04-09T00:00:15","modified_gmt":"2013-04-09T04:00:15","slug":"mlb-everywhere-in-2013still-impossible-but-better-than-the-rest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/2013\/04\/09\/mlb-everywhere-in-2013still-impossible-but-better-than-the-rest\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2605 MLB Everywhere in 2013\u2026still impossible but better than the rest"},"content":{"rendered":"

Everything I wrote a year ago still applies<\/a>. A year later, my situation is worse. Watching or listening to every SF Giants game in 2013 will not cost $119. It’ll cost me $570. At an average price of $27.21 per ticket (source<\/a>), I could go to nearly 21 home games in San Francisco..well, assuming I lived there. Also, if I lived in SF I couldn’t get MLB.TV because I’d be in the Giants’ blackout region<\/a>. So, why is watching one team play baseball costing almost 5 times as much a year later?<\/p>\n

I moved to a new house.<\/p>\n

My drive to work and the drive I make every 2 weeks to northern Vermont\u00a0lacks\u00a0reliable cell phone service and my new house, despite being 15 miles from an Ivy league college has a maximum Internet speed of 3 megabits. No cable provider, just DSL and 3mbps is the best I can do. My last setup allowed me to watch SF Giants games at home via a ton of devices but mostly, I watched all of these games on my AppleTV in HD streaming. The Apple devices all share one common theme, they don’t allow MLB to inject advertisements into their stream. Using an MLB application for Android or within a web browse and you will have advertisements during commercial breaks. The Apple devices don’t have those on the video streams. If you’re streaming audio, you’re tuning into the local AM station (KNBR in SF) which does have ads on their broadcast.\u00a0<\/p>\n

I tried watching Spring Training games on the AppleTV and iPad on my new home Internet. It doesn’t work. Not even in SD can I watch these games. The same goes for Netflix and even YouTube. My home Internet won’t allow me to watch streaming content. I literally am going to video stores to rent videos.\u00a0<\/p>\n

So, what do I do?<\/p>\n

I add a sports package to my DirecTV service that includes my hometown sports station from when I lived in SF, CSN Bay Area. For the last few days, I watched every SF Giants game, it was great and worked great! I watched \/ listened to games at work on my iPad for the day games and I watched games at home. Tonight, I go to watch the 10:15 PM game of SF Giants versus the Rockies\u2026”You are not subscribed” is the message I saw. The Sports package I paid $20 a month for suddenly doesn’t get CSN BA. I called DirecTV. They informed me CSN BA was not in my region therefore I couldn’t watch it. I told them it was working yesterday and now I discover that was a trial to MLB’s TV Package, a $55 a month package that allows me to watch every baseball game this season.<\/p>\n

All in all, the package’s cost is $240. It says $199 online but that’s only for new subscribers. But I’ve already paid $130 for MLB.TV\u2026too bad, so sad.\u00a0<\/p>\n

IT seems like the scenario so far is $130 will get me radio stream (where I have cell service) to my car via Bluetooth of games while I’m on the road and it allows me to watch 11AM \/ noon (PST) games on my iPad in my cubicle which is nice and helps those last 2 hours of the day go by much faster. Then, for games that start at 3, 4 or 7PM, I can watch them on DirecTV via this new package. I”m in for $370 so far which would have been avoided had my \u00a0home Internet been faster than 3 megabits.\u00a0<\/p>\n

So the other $200? Well, that’s the price of getting Sirius at $20 a month and getting MLB games in my car. Last year, my only complaint about the service was that I couldn’t listen to games while driving to and from work or around Vermont on beer runs. Well, I think the $20 a month for games on the road is just going to be outside of my price range. While it’s nice to have games in great quality and always on via Sirius, I’m just not in my car enough during those hours to shoot for it..and, when my iPhone gets a cell signal, I can stream the games via Bluetooth it’s just that Vermont isn’t known for reliable cell service.<\/p>\n

While the MLB experience sucks in 2013, it’s still the best out there among the sports leagues and franchises. The MLB.TV package at $130 for the year for new users is still riddled with blackout and game restrictions (all Saturday games are blacked out) but, with a great Internet connection, you can watch games on your iOS and Android devices, PC and on your television. Samsung TVs even have the MLB app built in now. You need the Internet. Without MLB, well there’s your TV cable \/ satellite provider who will charge you about $250 for a season of games, also blackout restrictions apply. Finally, Satellite radio has you set for about $200 for the programing as a part of the deluxe package( Not an extra $20 a month but included in the $20 a month package)<\/p>\n

The NFL, MLS and NHL leagues don’t have this sort of flexibility so, MLB is doing a good job but I don’t think it’s enough. We really need a one time fee that allows he end user to select what games they want, what features and where they want to watch or listen to those games. If I want only SF Giants games on my TV, iPad and in my car, that should be one price.\u00a0<\/p>\n

So yeah, I spend $370 so far to be able to watch SF Giants games but there are over 160 of them and I never miss a game. It’s almost a full year of entertainment for that price. It’s just a shame that it costs so much and is so confusing. Most people don’t take the time to go through all of the fine print. Luckily, if your Internet is better than 3 megabits down, MLB.TV is probably the best option especially if you don’t have cable, it could be the only option.\u00a0<\/p>\n

*apologies, wrote this at midnight and didn’t proofread*<\/p>\n