Couple questions about that though.go birds wrote: ↑January 30 23, 8:43 amMLB Extra Innings, a couple years back, incorporated the MLB.TV feed via the channel lineup on comcast and directv. It was a weird setup, but it worked almost as good as old Extra Innings with little issue.AWvsCBsteeeerike3 wrote: ↑January 28 23, 8:57 amOkay, old men yelling at clouds.mikechamp wrote: ↑January 27 23, 5:58 pmI'm with you on this. Unless the feed is strong/consistent, the buffering is maddening. It might drive me back to radio and just watching highlights on my phone in the middle of the night when it won't buffer because traffic is low.go birds wrote: ↑January 27 23, 12:08 pmi hate the idea of streaming sports in general so this sucks.
the feed is behind and there's a good chance of buffering--never fails. It's cool to have the access when on the go and watch on an iPad or something, but I'm usually trying to watch on my big screen at home and there's 100% chance the feed will be interrupted at some point.
first world problems i know, but the future of watching live sports is not looking good (see NFL Sunday ticket).
No one is forcing you to stream or taking away cable.
however with Bally going into the [expletive] (who could have possibly seen this bubble popping?!), there will be a streaming company that will buy the rights and there will be all kinds of bells and whistles like homerun probability on a 1-1 count while the announcer casually talks about WRC+ while a betting ad scrolls on the bottom ribbon and while all that is ok, you won't even be able to watch the game uninterrupted because it will be lagging behind and/or buffering.
That's 100% going to happen.
Its about to happen with the NFL since they are going to youtubetv.
so, yes, my hand will be forced here
First, the out of market stuff isn't changing necessarily, right? Ballys has the rights (both cable subscription and streaming) in the blackout areas. They're in bankruptcy but can still operate. Whoever owns the rights to out of market still owns the rights to the out of market (presumably MLB but I have no idea). I've heard Ballys is looking at doing their own streaming or partnering with someone to provide streaming. In either case, they only own the rights in the areas already determined. It's highly unlikely they, while in bankruptcy, also purchase the rights to out of market games.
Given that, I only see a couple ways this plays out in order of decreasing probability:
1. Ballys continues operating their traditional cable package/broadcasts that are already in place and partner with a streaming service ala Disney/Apple/Amazon/YouTube. The partner uses their infrastructure to stream the games for a fee and the fee is divided amongst the service and Ballys. Blackout rules remain in place. No change to out of market subscribers.
2. Ballys continues operating their traditional cable package/broadcasts that are already in place and sells the digital rights to all or a majority of blackout areas to whoever holds the out of market rights currently. I don't see how this would impact out of market subscribers.
3. Ballys continues operating their traditional cable package/broadcasts that are already in place and sells digital subscriptions themselves. Blackout rules remain in place. No change to out of market subscribers.
4. Ballys folds and all rights revert to MLB/teams and it's on them to figure out the mess...this would kind of be the Armageddon scenario, especially if it happens later in the offseason. In this case, mlb/teams would have to figure out how to broadcast games or an existing streaming service would need to come in and do it.
I'm far from an expert here, and this ignores ownership stakes in Ballys and all sorts of nuances. But, from a user perspective, I don't see many other ways this plays out.