Q: I still need some clarification on the Rockies. For us cord cutters, I see no rational reason — or a business reason — why Sling or DirecTV Now (especially since they are AT&T) would not carry SportsNet Rocky Mountain channel. You would have to agree the immediate increase in subscribers would have to be in the thousands, if not more — even if there were a price increase. Yes, you can go the SportsNet website and stream, IF you have an account with Dish or DirecTV satellite service. Certainly, not worth it. Likewise, MLB TV is not an option because of being located in the “home” area. So, is it a licensing issue with MLB? If so, how stupid are they to limit baseball exposure in an era of sports TV competition and the NFL losing viewers. Perhaps, it is a numbers game and those of us without access to cable TV are not cost effective to serve. ~ Don Morse
Tech+ Apparently, it’s not as simple as it could be. AT&T, which owns DirecTV and AT&T SportsNet (formerly Root Sports), would not elaborate why not. But Suzanne Trantow, a spokeswoman for AT&T’s Rocky Mountain region, shared this comment: “We continue to have conversations with providers and hope to add additional providers soon.”
And in SportsNet’s case, it gets even more frustrating if you’re a Comcast or Dish Network customer who subscribes to SportsNet. While Comcast and Dish offer SportsNet to their traditional TV customers, they’re not part of the streaming feature. So those folks can forget about accessing the “free” SportsNet streams online. DirecTV is the only major TV service whose customers can — and DirecTV is owned by AT&T.
AT&T won’t comment on this, but refers customers to its FAQ section that says, “if you are not able to stream our games, please contact your TV provider directly and ask that they provide you access to stream your favorite home team on AT&T SportsNet.”
The company is currently in a quiet mode as it seeks to buy Time Warner Inc. Knowing how the pay-TV industry operates, it’s mostly about money and various rights. Live sports is one of the few events that still attracts viewers and advertisers on a must-see-now basis. There’s lots of money to be made though, apparently, not very quickly.
Dish Network, which owns Sling TV, has given the public insight into some of what is going on behind the scenes. The Douglas County company has had more than its fair share of blackouts when negotiations went awry and a channel pulled the broadcast. Usually it was over money, as Dish CEO Charlie Ergen said after briefly losing CNN. “We know how many minutes people watch CNN and we know how many minutes they watched five years ago. And it’s hard for us when someone wants a double-digit price increase when they have half the viewership from before. It doesn’t make any sense,” Ergen said.
And sports networks are eyeing their own potential to sell streaming services straight to customers. HBO has done that successfully, charging $15 a month for HBO Now, a standalone service that has doubled subscribers in a year to 5 million, Bloomberg reported in February.
ESPN is the latest to jump in. The company said it will launch ESPN+, its standalone streaming service, on April 12, starting at $4.99 a month. Details are still skimpy but in a statement, the company said the service will give fans “thousands of live sports events” including more than 180 MLB games each day throughout the baseball season.
Traditional pay TV companies — and networks — have been very slow to morph with the streaming evolution and offer more customized options to people willing to throw money at them. Hence, the rise of streaming companies like Fubu TV, Hulu and even Youtube. However, the organizations holding the key card — including MLB and the NFL — don’t seem concerned enough to move faster on this.
That said, for the Rockies, here are some online options for watching Colorado’s favorite baseball team this season (I’ll update when I hear more):
- AT&T SportsNet app: Available for Apple and Android devices, the SportsNet app offers all regular games, except those that are blacked out by the league. Caveat: You must also be a paying subscriber of certain regular TV services, such as DirecTV. Comcast and Dish customers do not qualify.
- Watch online at attsportsnet.com. Caveat: Same as above.
- MLB.TV: Offers access to a single team, for $89.99/year, or all teams, at $24.99/month. Caveat: Only out-of-market regular season games live or on demand are included. Throwing fans a bone, the app allows subscribers to listen to in-market games via Gameday Audio — which separately is $19.99/year.
- Lite: Register for a free account at MLB.com and get streaming access to the Free Game of the Day.
- Twitter: For the 2018 season, Twitter is streaming one MLB game per week at live.twitter.com/MLB. A complete schedule has not been posted yet except for April. And no, the Rockies are not in the April lineup.
- Facebook: Paid for the rights to stream 25 games free to its users at facebook.com/MLBLiveGames (available to mobile or smart TV/PC users). A schedule of games through May 30 is available here: dpo.st/fbmlb (No Rockies games yet).
- Sling TV, FUBU TV, Youtube TV, Hulu Live, DirecTV Now, Playstation Vue: Games broadcast on ESPN and Fox Sports are available, including the April 30 Rockies at Chicago game. Local blackouts apply. A limited 2018 schedule provided by Sling TV is at dpo.st/slingmlb
- There are probably services I’ve missed. Please share in the comments. And also check out the earlier post on streaming sports at “With internet TV options changing every week, it could pay to relook at what’s available today“
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