How to watch the Guardians on TV

[macbdog]

I believe MLB.tv is on the fire stick as well.

Looks like the route I need to go. Or steal my kids playroom TV from them. 'Sorry kids, no more PJ Masks, daddy has to watch the slow game that needs a clock now after 170 years.'.

 

[inliner311]

MLB to stream games for free amid looming Diamond Sports bankruptcy: sources

Major League Baseball plans to step up to the plate to broadcast games of roughly a half-dozen teams from a bankruptcy-bound regional sports network provider so that fans don’t miss a single pitch,…

nypost.com

MLB should take this chance to revamp their model away from regional sports networks. With people cutting the cord, the current model is going to fail for all teams at some point. They should really be looking to sell packages of games to broadcast tv networks and get better advertisement revenue vs trying to get people to pay to watch regional teams.

 

[Mott the Hoople]

MLB Will Stream Diamondbacks, Reds, Guardians, Padres Games for Free After Diamond Sports Rejects Contracts​

MAR 13, 2023, 6:50 AM PDT – David Satin

Deadlines always seem to force action, and such is the case once again in the Bally Sports regional sports network (RSN) debacle. The New York Post is reporting that Major League Baseball will stream the games of four teams for free on MLB.TV this season after Diamond Sports Group (DSG) — which owns and operates Bally Sports RSNs — rejected its contracts with those teams in the midst of bankruptcy court proceedings.
7-Day Free Trial
$24.99+ / monthvia amazon.com

The four affected teams are the Arizona Diamondbacks, Cincinnati Reds, Cleveland Guardians, and San Diego Padres. DSG’s contracts with these teams force the company to pay out more to the clubs than it earns back from cable contracts and advertising. Apparently, it would rather let them go than continue losing money on them or attempt to head back to the negotiating table, especially considering how little leverage the company has.
The four teams now leaving Bally Sports will still charge users to stream their games outside their respective local markets. MLB.TV is an out-of-market games package normally, so the league will have to renegotiate with cable providers to determine how it will make in-market customers pay to watch games. Until then, however, users in the Arizona, Cincinnati, San Diego, and Cleveland markets will enjoy the ability to stream them for free. This means that Bally Sports Arizona, Bally Sports Great Lakes, Bally Sports Ohio, and Bally Sports San Diego will no longer offer MLB games.
It was reported last week that DSG had already missed a broadcasting rights payment to the Diamondbacks, but that it was still under a grace period during which it could pay that money without a penalty. Rejecting the contract with the four franchises could be DSG’s way of sidestepping an ultimatum issued by MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred in February.
In a press conference last month, Manfred stated frankly that MLB would terminate all of its contracts with DSG if it missed the rights payment window for even one team. It’s unclear if DSG rejecting these teams’ contracts instead of missing payments creates the same termination right for MLB, but the company isn’t ready to send all its MLB broadcast rights back to the league yet. MLB recently asked DSG if it could reacquire all its rights according to the Post, but the sports vertical said “No.”
Despite this latest stumbling block for DSG, it plans to continue broadcasting NBA and NHL games for the rest of the 2022-23 season as planned. The NBA recently renewed its rights deals with DSG for the 16 teams in the company’s portfolio, as the league is hoping the company can gut it out through the end of the 2024-25 season. That’s when the NBA’s national broadcasting rights go up for sale once again.

But there’s a huge obstacle looming for DSG before that can happen: the expiration of its carriage deals with Comcast and DIRECTV this fall. It’s highly likely that those companies will try to force Bally Sports RSNs to broadcast for a lower carriage fee, if they’re interested in negotiating at all. If Comcast and DIRECTV decide to walk away from RSNs, it could be the final death knell for DSG.
Until then, the company still says it is resolute on broadcasting games as scheduled. Bally Sports now holds the broadcast rights to 10 MLB teams, 16 NBA teams, and 12 NHL teams.
https://thestreamable.com/video-streaming/mlb-tv/buy

 

[macbdog]

Get ready for either a drop in payroll next year, a fire sale at the deadline, or both.

 

[sportscoach]

Get ready for either a drop in payroll next year, a fire sale at the deadline, or both.

How about for once... We actually look forward to a jump in payroll!

 

[inliner311]

MLB Will Stream Diamondbacks, Reds, Guardians, Padres Games for Free After Diamond Sports Rejects Contracts​

MAR 13, 2023, 6:50 AM PDT – David Satin

Deadlines always seem to force action, and such is the case once again in the Bally Sports regional sports network (RSN) debacle. The New York Post is reporting that Major League Baseball will stream the games of four teams for free on MLB.TV this season after Diamond Sports Group (DSG) — which owns and operates Bally Sports RSNs — rejected its contracts with those teams in the midst of bankruptcy court proceedings.
7-Day Free Trial
$24.99+ / monthvia amazon.com

The four affected teams are the Arizona Diamondbacks, Cincinnati Reds, Cleveland Guardians, and San Diego Padres. DSG’s contracts with these teams force the company to pay out more to the clubs than it earns back from cable contracts and advertising. Apparently, it would rather let them go than continue losing money on them or attempt to head back to the negotiating table, especially considering how little leverage the company has.
The four teams now leaving Bally Sports will still charge users to stream their games outside their respective local markets. MLB.TV is an out-of-market games package normally, so the league will have to renegotiate with cable providers to determine how it will make in-market customers pay to watch games. Until then, however, users in the Arizona, Cincinnati, San Diego, and Cleveland markets will enjoy the ability to stream them for free. This means that Bally Sports Arizona, Bally Sports Great Lakes, Bally Sports Ohio, and Bally Sports San Diego will no longer offer MLB games.
It was reported last week that DSG had already missed a broadcasting rights payment to the Diamondbacks, but that it was still under a grace period during which it could pay that money without a penalty. Rejecting the contract with the four franchises could be DSG’s way of sidestepping an ultimatum issued by MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred in February.
In a press conference last month, Manfred stated frankly that MLB would terminate all of its contracts with DSG if it missed the rights payment window for even one team. It’s unclear if DSG rejecting these teams’ contracts instead of missing payments creates the same termination right for MLB, but the company isn’t ready to send all its MLB broadcast rights back to the league yet. MLB recently asked DSG if it could reacquire all its rights according to the Post, but the sports vertical said “No.”
Despite this latest stumbling block for DSG, it plans to continue broadcasting NBA and NHL games for the rest of the 2022-23 season as planned. The NBA recently renewed its rights deals with DSG for the 16 teams in the company’s portfolio, as the league is hoping the company can gut it out through the end of the 2024-25 season. That’s when the NBA’s national broadcasting rights go up for sale once again.

But there’s a huge obstacle looming for DSG before that can happen: the expiration of its carriage deals with Comcast and DIRECTV this fall. It’s highly likely that those companies will try to force Bally Sports RSNs to broadcast for a lower carriage fee, if they’re interested in negotiating at all. If Comcast and DIRECTV decide to walk away from RSNs, it could be the final death knell for DSG.
Until then, the company still says it is resolute on broadcasting games as scheduled. Bally Sports now holds the broadcast rights to 10 MLB teams, 16 NBA teams, and 12 NHL teams.
https://thestreamable.com/video-streaming/mlb-tv/buy

The NBA part of this is interesting. It seems like Bally sports isn't part of the NBA's long term plans. Maybe regional sports networks in general aren't part of the NBA plans at all.

I think both the NBA and MLB could create stricter schedules where they sell packages of regional games for certain nights of the week. I think the NBA will have an easier time with this but MLB will can sell day games packages since they play a lot in the summer. That would help them pick up new younger viewers if try to target summer day games packages to free tv.

I hope this is kind of a wake up call to both the NBA and MLB to take a more long term approach to building fandom in all age groups. They just can't target the more hardcore fans and try to pull all their revenue from the people who will pay to watch every game especially in an non-packaged streaming service.

There is a reason why regional sports has the same low rent ads, it's because they don't pull in prime demographics for ad targeting. The MLB and NBA really need to re-envision their models for the 21st century.

 

[AZ_]

Feels like a great time to cancel my MLB account if I'm simply able to get the games for free.

 

[shoes22]

Feels like a great time to cancel my MLB account if I'm simply able to get the games for free.

Temporarily, but yes.

 

[Hurl Bruce]

I put this in the other thread, but TMobile customers get MLB.TV for free. Evidently, local games are blacked out though.

If you're in another state/market like me, though, it works out well.

 

[Juice is Loose]

Question - if someone signs up for MLB.tv through TMobile, are you allowed to password share?

I have family in Ohio, they sign up and provide me with login info in AZ. Can I still get G’s games?

 

[DCTribefan]

The NBA part of this is interesting. It seems like Bally sports isn't part of the NBA's long term plans. Maybe regional sports networks in general aren't part of the NBA plans at all.

I think both the NBA and MLB could create stricter schedules where they sell packages of regional games for certain nights of the week. I think the NBA will have an easier time with this but MLB will can sell day games packages since they play a lot in the summer. That would help them pick up new younger viewers if try to target summer day games packages to free tv.

I hope this is kind of a wake up call to both the NBA and MLB to take a more long term approach to building fandom in all age groups. They just can't target the more hardcore fans and try to pull all their revenue from the people who will pay to watch every game especially in an non-packaged streaming service.

There is a reason why regional sports has the same low rent ads, it's because they don't pull in prime demographics for ad targeting. The MLB and NBA really need to re-envision their models for the 21st century.

Not starting major MLB events at 8:20 pm or later would be a good start.

 

[inliner311]

Not starting major MLB events at 8:20 pm or later would be a good start.

8pm is sometime a compromise so you get east coast in primetime and west coast at least gets it after people get off work. Stuff ending late for the east coast is the trade off.

I was more thinking that they can't just have random day game mid week. 1pm games don't get much viewership and if they are randomly put throughout the week, it will be really hard to sell a package to a network to air them. If you move it at least back to 3pm you get kids home to watch it and if it's on a certain day each week, networks can schedule around it. It also allows them to order one less of another group of shows per week.

The model to hold up RSNs is dying or basically died. RSNs basically only exist because cable companies packaged it into basic cable. The vast majority of people were watching them but had no choice to subscribe. Dish network was the first to find out they got little push back when they drop them. Other cable companies also realize it didn't accelerate people switching when they dropped them.

With how little people watch RSNs and no automatic packaging of them, they don't generate the revenue needed to exist. The ads that they get are low rent because they only bring in such a small audience. 60k people watch each Cavs games on Bally's in a good year. My guess is Guardians games are even lower.

 

[BimboColesHair]

8pm is sometime a compromise so you get east coast in primetime and west coast at least gets it after people get off work. Stuff ending late for the east coast is the trade off.

I was more thinking that they can't just have random day game mid week. 1pm games don't get much viewership and if they are randomly put throughout the week, it will be really hard to sell a package to a network to air them. If you move it at least back to 3pm you get kids home to watch it and if it's on a certain day each week, networks can schedule around it. It also allows them to order one less of another group of shows per week.

The model to hold up RSNs is dying or basically died. RSNs basically only exist because cable companies packaged it into basic cable. The vast majority of people were watching them but had no choice to subscribe. Dish network was the first to find out they got little push back when they drop them. Other cable companies also realize it didn't accelerate people switching when they dropped them.

With how little people watch RSNs and no automatic packaging of them, they don't generate the revenue needed to exist. The ads that they get are low rent because they only bring in such a small audience. 60k people watch each Cavs games on Bally's in a good year. My guess is Guardians games are even lower.

Baseball TV ratings in Cleveland have ranged anywhere from 4 to 7.5 since 2018.

A 7.5 TV rating in Cleveland’s market is 116,000 TVs. A 4 is 62,000 TVs.

And that is only the Cleveland-Akron-Canton market. Not factoring in Youngstown, Columbus, Dayton, etc.

Can promise you well over 60K people are watching Guardians games.

 

[CDAV45]

I’m not buying anymore subscriptions to watch this team. This is ridiculous and MLB needs to focus on the fans for once and resolve this issue promptly.

 

[inliner311]

Baseball TV ratings in Cleveland have ranged anywhere from 4 to 7.5 since 2018.

A 7.5 TV rating in Cleveland’s market is 116,000 TVs. A 4 is 62,000 TVs.

And that is only the Cleveland-Akron-Canton market. Not factoring in Youngstown, Columbus, Dayton, etc.

Can promise you well over 60K people are watching Guardians games.

The average local ratings for Guardians games that I can find is 3.66-3.78 in July of last year and those were increases for previous months.

Attendance and interest up for the Cleveland Guardians from 2021

There are some commentators arguing in bad faith that the Cleveland Guardians name change hurt the team, that's anything but the truth.

factoryofsadness.co

Are Cleveland Guardians TV ratings really down 30%?

Also, how do Progressive Field concession prices stack up across MLB?

www.crainscleveland.com

Guardians mailbag: Postseason chatter, bullpen's strength, Tito's future, TV ratings

Six weeks ago, the Guardians sat 4.5 games behind the Twins in the AL Central. Now, they hold a four-game edge over the Twins and White Sox.

theathletic.com