WGN No More?

[rok]

If they can negotiate a deal with Comcast, then that line of reasoning is correct (for the near future). Longer term, and possibly even in the short-term if no deal is reached, it's terrible for local fans.

[Kid]

I'm not guaranteeing opening day, but this is going to get resolved (other than for Dish Network, which has basically adopted a policy of not paying for RSNs).  There is the Dodgers situation, but that is an extreme because nobody in the Dodgers' example has a huge incentive to make the deal.  The Dodgers' money is guaranteed regardless.  They sold their rights to Spectrum (then Time Warner) which is the largest cable operator in the region.  While obviously Spectrum would like the cash of selling the network to other providers, the counterpoint is that Spectrum ends up with effective exclusive rights to Dodgers games so that Spectrum can sell their cable service as the only ones in the area with access to Dodgers games.  The other providers would obviously like the Dodgers games, but the counterpoint is that they can hurt a competitor by making the Dodgers' rights a big money-loser for Spectrum.

 

The same isn't the case with Marquee.  Everyone has an incentive to make a deal.  Yes, there's a sticking point of finding a price everyone can live with, and it's obviously a real one.  But there's not the factors present in LA against getting a deal done.

[rok]

I'm discouraged by the fact that Comcast held out on adding the Big Ten Network when it first launched for more than 1 year, and that was back in 2007 when the cord-cutting trend hadn't really taken hold yet. I know the Cubs are a much bigger local draw, but you also have the Comcast-owned NBC Sports Chicago relaunching without the Cubs (and marketing the team on the other side of town), and I'm sure there is some uneasiness from the perspective of Comcast, which already bumped up their RSN fees this year by $4/month to absorb another $5-6/month price hike.

[Kid]

For anyone who has T-Mobile, they will be offering MLB.TV for free again this year on March 24 only.

[funkster]

Looks like they've reached a deal with Wow.

[Kid]

Excuse me, that's WOW!

[rok]

So that covers 0.3% of the local market.

[Kid]

So that covers 0.3% of the local market.

 

WOW!

[jstraw]

Sham WOW!

[rok]

That would be a NO from YouTube TV.



https://twitter.com/youtubetv/status/123...5525634048

[funkster]

Really sucks.  I have a shared account with a buddy, was hoping they'd hop on.

[rok]

Yeah, was hoping they would come to an agreement. Looks like I'll be switching to Hulu once my Comcast contract expires in April.

[Kid]

For those unfamiliar, meet MLBStreams on Reddit.

[funkster]

I always used when I couldn't find it on my various apps, but someone told me they had zapped reddit streams so I wasn't confident for the upcoming season.

[Kid]

They've banned some subreddits for other sports, but not MLB yet.  Unclear why.  But even so, if you go on there now, you can find what sites are working and just save them for the season without even going to Reddit first.