Question about MLB blackouts

Most of Extra Innings is just a remap of your RSN in the 600s so you're seeing the same feed you would see if you turned on your RSN.

 

Different contracts. MLB.tv is out of market only except for archived games. Extra Innings allows home broadcasts only, but only if you would get the game without Extra Innings (the remap as posted above).

The new commissioner has been meeting to try to get local games on MLB.tv live but probably won't happen until 2016.

 

You just answered your own question. The cable/satellite companies agreed to pay $$$ for the rights to carry the RSNs in the local markets. If local fans can watch the games without subscribing, those rights are worth much less and they will want to be compensated. That would take money out of the pockets of RSNs, and they would turn to the teams for compensation.

Obviously this all depends on how the various contracts are written, but unless mlb.tv added enough revenue from dropping the blackouts to compensate the teams so they could compensate the RSNs so they could compensate the providers and keep everyone happy, lawsuits are the guaranteed result.

 

And are rsns even allowed to stream their own games in market?

 

I think as a first step, MLB is trying to come up with a system where those who subscribe to local RSNs through cable/satellite can get the games online. There shouldn't be too much disagreement over this goal. (They may disagree through what platform this takes place.)

The issue of allowing those who don't subscribe to cable/satellite to watch the local team's games is a much bigger deal with a high degree of controversy. One factor that may impact this will be the prevalence of IP hiding for MLB.TV subscribers. The more this becomes popular, MLB and other leagues may have to do something, and the RSNs may even agree to something.

 

For a while YES had a service that cost $70 per season, but it was only available to Cablevision subscribers and it was discontinued last year. Right now the only team offering in market streams is the Blue Jays via SportsNet Now, but that's comparing apples and oranges because Canada is a different country with a different MLB TV contract and all of the Blue Jays games are broadcast nationally.

Some RSNs have TV Everywhere streams for in market NBA games that you can get as part of your subscription. DirecTV's deal with Fox didn't include RSNs so we don't have access to their RSNs yet, but in market viewers can get NBA games via CSN New England (Celtics), CSN California (Kings), CSN Bay Area (Warriors), CSN Chicago (Bulls), CSN Mid Atlantic (Wizards) and TWC SportsNet (Lakers).

 

Since there are no commercials on MLB.tv, the RSNs are actually the losers. They lose the advertisers.

I'm not sure who owns the rights to local streaming. That is who they need to get to agree. MLB owns national streaming rights as well as satellite radio rights. The latter specifically is market agnostic, the streaming does not seem to be.

Other sports handle rights differently, so you cannot compare NBA, NHL, etc.

According to this article (http://nypost.com/2014/07/15/mlb-regional-networks-far-apart-in-talks-for-local-streaming-rights/), MLB is trying to acquire the right to put the local games on MLB.tv just like any other provider would (satellite, cable) from the RSNs.

 

I see ads for streaming the Celtics on CSN New England, do the CSN's with baseball carry it in-market?

 

There are commercials on MLB.tv, although it seems to vary by platform whether or not you'll get them. I always get commercials when watching through my computer, but when watching through Apple TV, it seems to vary from game to game.

 

I have never seen a commercial on MLB.tv on my iPhone, iPad, roku, PC or smart tv. I see "Commercial in Progress." I've been watching for years.

 

If they would just put the same RSN feed that you see on the cable or satellite channel with commercials and pregame/postgame shows and compensated the advertisers, I don't see how this would be an issue. The only restriction would be that you would have to watch the feed of the in-market team. So for me, I would have to watch the Mariners Root Sports feed and not the other team's broadcast via MLB.tv. This shouldn't be that hard to pull off.

 

Either you're lucky or I'm unlucky, I guess. Here is a Domino's ad on MLB.tv, as seen on my MacBook Air (I switched around until I found a game that was between innings and this ad started playing within about 2 seconds).

 

Those are ads inserted by MLB.tv, it's not the same ads you would see if you saw the game on TV via the RSN