Man, baseball is just stupidly hard to watch in some (most) places. It’s based on an outdated model and needs to change fast if baseball wants to keep and attract fans
The problem was entirely Diamond/Sinclair. They kept jacking up the price for their channel and playing hardball with anyone who didn’t want to pay the exorbitant price. The traditional cable providers such as Dish and DirecTV kept paying because it was basically what many people subbed to cable for, which was basically all Sinclair’s leverage in any deals. When the streaming providers came along and people started cutting the cord en masse, Sinclair tried the same BS with them, but the streaming providers called their bluff, and Sinclair was left holding the bag of a product that was only available in a format that was rapidly losing viewers, which then makes it far less appealing to advertisers looking to buy air time, taking that revenue source away for them too. The moment YouTubeTV and Hulu Live dropped them the bankruptcy was inevitable. Meanwhile I can imagine MLB is sitting there chomping at the bit to expand their streaming business by lifting blackouts from MLB.TV but they previously couldn’t because Sinclair made the other boneheaded move (for viewers and the league but not for themselves) of insisting on those blackouts. Fortunately the league holds all the cards now and we can hope that at least the no blackout deal carries through for any teams dealing with Diamond/Sinclair right now.
Man, baseball is just stupidly hard to watch in some (most) places. It’s based on an outdated model and needs to change fast if baseball wants to keep and attract fans
The problem was entirely Diamond/Sinclair. They kept jacking up the price for their channel and playing hardball with anyone who didn’t want to pay the exorbitant price. The traditional cable providers such as Dish and DirecTV kept paying because it was basically what many people subbed to cable for, which was basically all Sinclair’s leverage in any deals. When the streaming providers came along and people started cutting the cord en masse, Sinclair tried the same BS with them, but the streaming providers called their bluff, and Sinclair was left holding the bag of a product that was only available in a format that was rapidly losing viewers, which then makes it far less appealing to advertisers looking to buy air time, taking that revenue source away for them too. The moment YouTubeTV and Hulu Live dropped them the bankruptcy was inevitable. Meanwhile I can imagine MLB is sitting there chomping at the bit to expand their streaming business by lifting blackouts from MLB.TV but they previously couldn’t because Sinclair made the other boneheaded move (for viewers and the league but not for themselves) of insisting on those blackouts. Fortunately the league holds all the cards now and we can hope that at least the no blackout deal carries through for any teams dealing with Diamond/Sinclair right now.