Diamond Sports Group Expected to File Bankruptcy Impacting Bally Sports Which has Rights to MLB, Soccer, etc.

Parent company Diamond Sports Group, which owns Bally Sports, is expected to file for bankruptcy next week (see article from Sportico). As you can imagine, there are all kinds of rumors about what this means for sports streaming with rants about losing viewing of all sports to some services (such as MLB) going to providing all of their games on MLB.TV but charging $300 - $400 per year. All rumors at this point as no one knows what will happen.

I hope this opens up the ability for providers, such as YouTube TV, to be able to provide local sports once again. Again, rumors are flowing that the company going bankrupt means YouTube TV, and others, would not be in the market to provide the sports streams at all. It might be a bit early to figure out what will happen with sports streaming after the dust settles, but I have to think it will be a better arrangement for the fan.

Time will tell if this will help or hinder fans from watching their teams. I am hopeful this will help and there is the possibility that leagues could take over their broadcasts meaning no more blackouts. I cannot help but wonder if part of the reason Bally Sports is failing is because of how limited they were in their reach for customers. Bally Sports was available as a pay service which I am not sure many people purchased. Others had the Bally Sports network through their provider such as Cox, Direct Stream, or recently fuboTV. I know many others who simply did not watch as it was too much of a hassle to get their channels as they were not available on their selected platform or they did not want to pay extra for Bally Sports. Many others that acquired the broadcasts through other means. Make it difficult to watch sports and people will find other ways or stop watching entirely.

To early to tell how the upcoming bankruptcy will impact streaming, but have to believe it will have impact on this season that is fast approaching for MLB. What exactly will be impacted is rumor and guessing, but I expect we will hear something impacting Bally Sports in the near future. I will continue to hope for improvement to the current structure to make it easier and better for fans to watch sports.

Until next time, have a great week! I am prepping for the Super Bowl later this evening. I cannot wait! Go Chiefs!

Bally Sports+ Planned Release in Second Quarter for MLB, Soccer, etc. Streaming with a Subscription Required

Bally Sports has finally confirmed that they will be releasing Bally Sports+ here in the second quarter according to an article from The Streamable. How many more things can we have created that are called “+”? This is an aside, but maybe you are wondering the cost to sign up for Bally Sports+. The soft launch will be $19.99 a month or $189.99 a year. Holy crap! $189.99 a year for streaming of sports. This seems rather high to me and not worth the money.

 

I am already using Bally Sports to watch the Royals allbeit from my Mom’s account who lives in Lawrence. I have YouTube TV which does not have Bally Sports because of contract disagreements, but Sling and Dish Network customers are in the same boat where only Direct TV Stream has Bally Sports. I wil note that the Bally Sports app on my Roku, iPad, and iPhone have worked really well since the start of the season, but lately, the app on Roku does not work at all. On my iPhone and iPad, I can watch for a few minutes and then it locks up and has to be restarted. When I read the announcement from The Streamable regarding Bally Sports+ being released soon, that made me wonder if this is on purpose to force us over to the paid subscription.

 

On Roku the Bally Sports app starts, I can go to go to Teams and then the Royals, but if I try to play a recorded or live game, the app shuts down and returns to the main Roku window. This has been happening for three or four weeks now. However, if I open the Bally Sports app on Apple TV, the app works fine and I can watch games. Annoying though that the app is broken on Roku.

 

Just as annoying is that the Bally Sports app on iPad or iPhone simply stops playing video. I have to go out to the main screen of the app and start the feed again. Before long, less than five minutes, it will stop playing stating there is an error. 

 

If Bally Sports decides to make changes so that I can no longer watch Royals through their app from my a TV provider that subscribes to Bally Sports, like Midco in Lawrence, then I will not be paying for their add-on service to simply watch the Royals. I will rely on video clips from YouTube and listen to the radio broadcast. Paying $20 a month to watch the my team is not worth it let alone paying almost $200 a year to be able to watch. Instead, Bally Sports should re-work their deals with YouTube TV, Sling, Dish, Hulu, etc. so that other streaming options are available and likely do it much better than Bally Sports.

 

The season for the Royals has not gone very well thus far. Friday night was our first win in what seemed like many weeks… We had won games on Wednesday and Sunday the past week, but still, it seemed like a long time. We are 11 - 20 or 6.5 games out of first in the AL Central. We have not seen production from some we were expecting and some we would like to leave the team. The way social media is discussing, a complete management replacement is needed. I love my Royals and it makes it difficult to watch when we are struggling, but us Royals fans are used to this too. I just hope that I can continue to watch the Royals even if they are not very good, but hoping that turns around too. 

 

Decided to Add MLB.TV to YouTube TV Again for the Season #MLB #YTTV #YouTubeTV

I changed my mind from when I posted back on March 20 (see post) where I said I was not going to purchase MLB.TV this year. After hearing some updates from other YouTube TV subscribers to MLB.TV with the main change from last year being that you can now link your MLB account to your YTTV subscription. Game changer! This means I can log in and watch games through the MLB.TV app on my iOS devices, TV, or watch on the computer. Last year, the initial rollout of MLB.TV on YouTube TV, I could only watch games (out-of-market) through the YouTube TV site which also means I could record games too. While that was nice last year, it is also a perk to be able to access through the MLB.TV site for condensed games, highlights, etc. that were not available when doing the subscription last year.

It is still the case that while I subscribe to MLB.TV through YouTube TV, blackouts still exist or at least they will once the regular season starts. Yesterday, I watched the Royals through the app on my phone. Worked great! For the past week or so, MLB.TV has been offering free preview of many of the spring training games. That free preview ended yesterday, so that helped me in making my decision to proceed with the purchase again this year.

Who is ready for the season to start? I have two fantasy baseball leagues to draft before the season starts, so working to get things figured out on those leagues. Ready to have some fun and looking forward to a fun season. Enjoy the season!

Rumor of Apple Possibly Streaming MLB Games for 2022… Yes Please and no Blackouts!

Recent rumors about Apple being involved in MLB streaming (see NY Post) has a lot of buzz happening the past few weeks. Apparently following ESPN losing the contract for weeknight games, Apple might take over the chance to get into the sports world and stream games. I am interested to see what happens with this news. I was happy that YouTube TV added MLB TV to their line up as an add-on option, but with blackouts it really did not do a whole lot for me this past season. I had to watch all of the games this past season through my Mom’s account in Lawrence through her streaming service. It worked, but it would be nice to have a streaming service where I could watch the game with my own account.

With ESPN losing regular Monday and Wednesday games, it does open up a potential for another streaming service to take those spots. As rumored through news releases of Bally Sports with their possibly released streaming service, I like the Apple angle much more. Bally Sports has been rumored to be trying to spin off their own streaming service with a subscription fee separate from providing their feed to services. If they go this direction, I do not plan to by a subscription to Bally Sports. In the same manner, I do not intend to renew my MLB TV subscription through YouTube TV as I could not watch the games live. Yes, I did enjoy watching other games and catching up on games or following out-of-market teams, but I am not sure that is enough for me to spend $100+ this next season.

The price point Apple decides to do for the games if they get the contract will be interesting. I would hope it would be $4.99 or less if only looking at Monday/Wednesday games.

I hold out a hope that MLB will return to YouTube TV, but I know that is far fetched unless Bally Sports changes their model or works with companies such as YouTube TV, Sling, or Dish for a contract that those companies can accept and not impact heavily their customers.

YouTube TV App on Short Leash for Roku with Contract Disputes Between Google and Roku #Roku #YouTubeTV #Google

Earlier this week I woke to find an email from Roku regarding YouTube TV possibly being pulled from the Roku services. This lit up a firestorm of complaints via Twitter and Reddit of people complaining. Roku says it is Google (owner of YouTube TV) not acting fairly which is why Google is pulling YouTube TV from the Roku service. Effective Friday, April 30, YouTube TV is no longer on the Roku to add for new customers or if you happen to remove the app it is not longer in the Roku store to add it back to the account. Until Roku and Google come to terms, it appears from the message received from Roku that streaming will continue, but do not remove the app from your Roku device as you will not be able to add it again.

An update for our members: Unfortunately, despite our best efforts, we have been unable to reach an agreement with Roku. We continue to offer Roku the opportunity to renew the YouTube TV deal under the existing reasonable terms.

— YouTube TV (@YouTubeTV) April 30, 2021

 

I appreciate the fact that Roku is going to keep the YouTube TV as long as Google does not pull it from their services (per the email from Roku), but it is frustrating that no matter the service provider, these disputes occur and have a huge impact on us the customer. I get it that the companies are doing this to make a profit but it seems like they lose sight of why they are in business... that is for us the customer.

Later in the day on Friday, April 30, I received a message from YouTube TV covering their tracks and placing blame back on Roku. Ah, the fun of contract disputes!

If Google does pull the YouTube TV app from the Roku service, Carrie and I will be lucky as we have Apple TV in our family room we will be able to use to watch YouTube TV. The rest of our house, we have three other Roku devices and if Google pulls the app, we would lose the ability to watch YouTube TV in those other rooms. Frustrating! Hopefully it does not come to this but I would not be surprised if this were to occur. 

 Read Message from YouTube to Roku Customers via YouTube Blog.

Are you impacted by Google, Roku, and YouTube TV decisions? Or, is another company contract dispute impacting you and your ability to view your favorite shows, sports, or other entertainment?

MLB, Streaming Services for Television, Blackouts, Fox Sports Midwest, RSN, and Contract Disputes -- Time for a Change by MLB for Live Game Viewing

Background on Blackouts, Streaming Services, and MLB

As of today, it will not be possible to watch Kansas City Royals baseball when it starts later this year on a variety of streaming services which currently includes YouTubeTV, Sling, Hulu+, and Dish to name a few. It is important to note that Sling is owned by Dish, but all of this has to do with the contracts, or lack thereof; these television viewing services have not been able to agree to contracts with Sinclair Broadcast Group for Fox Sports Midwest to play Royals games but many other events too. The companies in contract disputes means that not only do their viewers (i.e. ME) are not able to watch Royals games but we do not get the channels at all. They were completely removed from YouTubeTV, Sling, Hulu+, and Dish.

A recent article (Sports Networks Are Losing Their Grip on Your Television) from The Motely Fool  provides a detailed background on how the contracts are done with viewing services, why this happened, and possibly the future of how this will work.

It is important to note that this is not only affecting the fans of Kansas City Royals, but other markets too that want to watch their favorites teams whether that is baseball or hockey. Recently, I have been reading a lot of customers complaining regarding not being able to watch their local hockey team because their Fox Sports Network is gone. All of which is because the provider and Sinclair have not been able to come to agreement on a contract.

Typical cable providers such as AT&T or ComCast (note Xfinity bought ComCast) keep the contracts because they are large and that’s how it has been for years, but it is the streaming services that have lost out. I recall when we were a Dish customer that it seemed that almost every year it would be threatened that we would lose our ability to view games. Sometimes the channel would go out for a few days while they were making negotiations and suddenly the channel would be back. Then they started to lose the channel out of season of the sport such as baseball. Now it is gone completely from all these services with no end game for when or if it will return.

Meanwhile, there is a Major League Baseball app (MLB) that is available to listen or watch games that are out of market. Sounds great, right? Well, with the MLB local games are blacked out so you can only watch them after they finish. The radio option is available to listen to the game live, but sometimes it is nice to be able to relax on a weekend, drink a beer, and watch my local sports team.

The process of blackouts has never made sense going back to when I was a Cox customer years ago and there would be two channels with one broadcast out of Topeka and the other from Kansas City. One channel would blackout during different times of the day as they wanted us to watch it on the other local channel. What? That made no sense then... Today, I understand why MLB blacked out local games years ago, but why does it still happen? 

Request for Change by MLB

Let us be fans. Let us watch the games. My request is directed to MLB and their agreements with various providers to ask if we are fans to be able to watch and not have blackouts for live games. Especially if we are paying MLB to be able to watch the games we should be able to watch them no matter in market or not. The whole process seems to be antiquated and out of touch from what is happening in the streaming service industry. We are paying you for the access to your app and we should be able to watch live games through the app whether in market or not.

The whole idea of having blackouts reminds me of having an old TV sitting in a field and not being able to watch the TV because there is no power. Here we are with the power but the games are blacked out because of agreements between MLB, major television providers, and local affiliates. 

The reasons for the blackouts is simple and twofold: the first reason is cable providers' desire for exclusive broadcasting rights in their local networks. The second, is MLB's desire to get fans into the stadium for attendance purposes. -- from SportingNews

This is an old practice dating back to agreements with cable providers and the desire to get people into games. Having a blackout in my view does not make me attend the games. Instead, I will either listen to the game or not pay attention at all. When we pay for a service we should be able to watch the live games and not have to watch the game after the live event has ended.

MLB , please change the process and lift the antiquated process of blackouts!

What Happens Next?

Even though YouTubeTV has increased their prices, we are happy with their service. DVR options are awesome! I am hopeful that Sinclair Broadcast Group and YouTubeTV can come to an agreement so that when baseball starts later this year, I can watch the games. However, I am not holding my breath as it has been an ongoing battle for a few years as mentioned earlier. What if nothing happens and no live television baseball for me in the spring or through the summer? Well, I will try to bum access from friends who have DirectTV so I can use their service to watch the games. Or, simply, I will listen to my $2.99 a month MLB Audio so I can listen to the games will be how I will follow my team. I have no plans to change television service because of a contract dispute. I will be frustrated and blame MLB and Sinclair Broadcast Group.

Spring training is right around the corner. How are you doing to follow your team?

Viewing Recent Released Movies and Problems with DVDs that are Scratched

I have been a Netflix customer for a number of years.  Primarily for the streaming service, but every once in a while there is that movie that I cannot get through the Netflix stream and then only have a few options on obtaining that recent released movie.

1. Add the DVD option for Netflix.
2. Go to the local video store.
3. Pay to watch the recent release for 24 hours through Dish, iTunes, Amazon, etc.
4. Go to the not so legal side of sites to watch the movies.

To this point, I have primarily targeted options one, two, and three above.  We have actually used option three a number of times through the past few years.  It is easy and quick to get that recent release and watch it when we want.  The problem is that usually just for that one movie it is easily $5.99 (or more) to rent that movie.  Paying for the convenience and so that whomever is selling it to you can give it to you is why they are so expensive.  

So, every now and then I get the idea to pay for DVD delivered to the home from Netflix.  Or, sometimes we get the idea to go to our local video store and pick up a DVD.  Sure, the prices are cheap to go to the local video store, but usually the recent movies are picked over.  Netflix has a descent selection of movies, but even those you have to wait for to get if they were just released.

OK, so why the post?  Yes, I was wondering the same thing about this point.  My point is why do we still have DVD or BlueRay discs?  Nothing is more frustrating than to get that perfect movie for movie night, pop it in the player, press PLAY, and 30 seconds into the movie it pauses... or it just stops playing... or jumps to the end of the movie.  Seriously?  We have a old DVD player and have not given any thought to buying a BlueRay device.  Why would we when it is frustrating to watch movies that pause, jump, or stop playing and get the same problems with BlueRay too?

So the discs are easy to produce and easy to use.  Easy for the stores (video store, Netflix, etc.) to be able to distribute to their customers.  Bottom line is that the discs are easy to track.  It seems that other than going to the illegal area of streaming that it would be possible to distribute a code that would change each time the "disc" is rented to someone new that would allow that person to watch the video through a streaming service.  Thinking of Netflix, it seems this could be done with a code that is sent through email and entered on streaming device to watch the new release.  A one-time code that would allow access to the movie.

I have read numerous articles regarding Netflix and that they still have millions of customers that subscribe to their DVD service.  I understand that there are a lot of people that do not have Internet or only have means to watch movies on their physical player requiring a disc.  Or, maybe those individuals just like the old school way of watching movies. 

Netflix DVD membership has dropped to 5.3 million subscribers (see 4 Reasons Netflix DVD Rental Isn't Going Away) and that number will likely continue to drop.  I have not read anything about a new model of delivering new content from Netflix or other services other than what some are already doing with paying $5.99 or more to rent the movie.

For now, I will go back to streaming only from Netflix and it will likely be a while before I get another DVD from a store either.  I will continue to rent recent releases from iTunes, Amazon, or Dish. I will be interested to see how Netflix will work into their service to be able to watch those new releases without having to get DVDs.

I would love to hear your comments regarding your experiences with streaming new movies or trying to watch DVD or BlueRay movies.

Enjoy your streaming shows and movies....