No WJZ games this year

[Aglets]

1 minute ago, MDtransplant757 said:

I'm not shocked. WJZ probably didn't want to pay up, hence why there are no games there. People forget that MASN and the O's are a multi million dollar corporation. 

Actually, according to the Sun's reporting, WJZ wanted to keep doing it but MASN said no.  It kind of implies that MASN wants to have a tighter monopoly on all the O's and Nats TV broadcasts.

[Bonecrusher52]

Seems this will affect Nats fan in DC too.

[MDtransplant757]

Just now, Aglets said:

Well this is kind of stating the obvious right?   The main question is why now in 2018 when it's been happening for decades previously.

It has to be a money thing. That's the only reason why I can think they stopped doing it. 

[MurphDogg]

I don't understand why they would want to throw away a revenue stream. I can't imagine this convinces anybody to sign up for cable that wasn't already signed up. Even if the Orioles offered paid local streaming, I don't think it would make sense, but it certainly doesn't make sense without it.

[MDtransplant757]

32 minutes ago, MurphDogg said:

I don't understand why they would want to throw away a revenue stream. I can't imagine this convinces anybody to sign up for cable that wasn't already signed up. Even if the Orioles offered paid local streaming, I don't think it would make sense, but it certainly doesn't make sense without it.

I don't think it made the O's a whole lot of money. 

[SteveA]

Another reason it's shortsighted is that it could affect the growth of future fans.

The hard core fans like us are going to pay for cable, or pay for some other way to get the sports we need.

But there are people out there that don't get cable, they just use over the air antenna.   Maybe they can't afford cable; maybe they are like my sister and brother-in-law and just aren't that big on TV, and they would rather spend money on Netflix.   Maybe they are cord cutters and they pay for what they want via another method than cable, such as Netflix/Amazon/Hulu or whatever.

There are kids growing up in those households that might have watched some Orioles games occasionally.   Now those kids will NEVER be exposed to the Orioles.   And ten to twenty years from now when they have entertainment money to spend, it might not even occur to them to be interested in baseball.

Spectator sports across the board are dealing with the possibility of losing attendance due to a variety of factors.   One is that the in-home viewing experience is so good.   Another is cost of attendance.   But another is that we have a younger generation that didn't grow up watching the sports regularly.  The percent of young people that follow any particular traditional sport really closely is lower now than it ever has been.  They have so many other options.

Taking away an option that allowed lots of people, especially young people, to occasionally be exposed to the Orioles for free and maybe form a connection, is just plain stupid longterm thinking

[MDtransplant757]

19 minutes ago, SteveA said:

Another reason it's shortsighted is that it could affect the growth of future fans.

The hard core fans like us are going to pay for cable, or pay for some other way to get the sports we need.

But there are people out there that don't get cable, they just use over the air antenna.   Maybe they can't afford cable; maybe they are like my sister and brother-in-law and just aren't that big on TV, and they would rather spend money on Netflix.   Maybe they are cord cutters and they pay for what they want via another method than cable, such as Netflix/Amazon/Hulu or whatever.

There are kids growing up in those households that might have watched some Orioles games occasionally.   Now those kids will NEVER be exposed to the Orioles.   And ten to twenty years from now when they have entertainment money to spend, it might not even occur to them to be interested in baseball.

Spectator sports across the board are dealing with the possibility of losing attendance due to a variety of factors.   One is that the in-home viewing experience is so good.   Another is cost of attendance.   But another is that we have a younger generation that didn't grow up watching the sports regularly.  The percent of young people that follow any particular traditional sport really closely is lower now than it ever has been.  They have so many other options.

Taking away an option that allowed lots of people, especially young people, to occasionally be exposed to the Orioles for free and maybe form a connection, is just plain stupid longterm thinking

A lot of young people grew up watching sports, but grew up playing video games as well. Hence why E sports are growing massively. Say what you will about Counterstrike not being a sport, but CS:GO leagues are making over $100 million worldwide and showing exponential growth. Overwatch leagues are making tons of money, and that's something I regularly watch while doing HW. A lot of people are attracted to this because you can always play Overwatch at a competitive level as long as your hands can use a controller/keyboard and mouse, but there are rise and decline cycles in traditional sports. 

[Aglets]

I've seen reports that 20-25% of households now in the US do not pay for traditional cable.  That number is only going to keep rising.   I'll be honest, I'm an O's superfan and MASN is one of the only reasons why I haven't done it yet.

But there are far fewer people in the MASN broadcast area like me I bet............so I have to think that this is kind of a sinking ship in terms of a revenue stream for the team.  Eliminating all WJZ broadcast games is probably not a huge issue in the grand scheme of things......but it probably is only a negative.  I can't see people saying "oh darn now I can't watch the 13 WJZ games for free with my antenna, guess I'll spend $50-70 / month for cable now to see all the games!"

[MDtransplant757]

2 minutes ago, Aglets said:

I've seen reports that 20-25% of households now in the US do not pay for traditional cable.  That number is only going to keep rising.   I'll be honest, I'm an O's superfan and MASN is one of the only reasons why I haven't done it yet.

But there are far fewer people in the MASN broadcast area than like me I bet............so I have to think that this is kind of a sinking ship in terms of a revenue stream for the team.  Eliminating all WJZ broadcast games is probably not a huge issue in the grand scheme of things......but it probably is only a negative.  I can't see people saying "oh darn now I can't watch the 13 WJZ games for free with my antenna, guess I'll spend $50-70 / month for cable now to see all the games!"

I still have cable because of living with my grandmother. Honestly, if MASN offered up in market streaming, I'd push for getting rid of cable and teach her how to use netflix, hulu and whatever streaming service she would use to get new episodes of NCIS. 

[TouchemAll]

15 hours ago, neveradoubt said:

I am lucky. I live in Central Pa. and Comcast gives me the Orioles-Nationals-Phillies- Pirates standard Ch.

Yup same here on Verizon right now

[jamalshw]

Maybe it's good to be a misplaced Orioles' fan. I'm down in Florida so I only have issues with the Birds are playing Tampa. Otherwise, MLB.tv is my go-to. I'll be going through VPN or some other option this year to try and grab the Rays/Orioles games, too. Cable is just too pricey. We have Netflix, Hulu and Amazon Prime (along with MLB.tv) and it's still cheaper than cable (with more content we want).

[FanSince88]

8 hours ago, NattyO's said:

How can you do that since the MLB.TV app uses GPS? How do you get around that on an Android phone? Turn of the GPS? idk

I think there are jailbreaks you can do on an Android phone (google it) if you're so inclined and willing to risk screwing it up royally.  But from my understanding the VPN thing will work on regular old laptops or desktops, since those devices don't have the GPS connection.  Haven't yet tried it myself, though.  

[VaBird1]

2 hours ago, MurphDogg said:

I don't understand why they would want to throw away a revenue stream. I can't imagine this convinces anybody to sign up for cable that wasn't already signed up. Even if the Orioles offered paid local streaming, I don't think it would make sense, but it certainly doesn't make sense without it.

It looks like they had to pay wjz to show the Birds and channel 9 to show the Gnats.

[gtman55]

MASN is quick to make changes to negatively impact some of the O's fanbase (me lol) but MLB is a bit slow to get the news...

Quote

Viewers in Baltimore will be able to watch select over-the-air games via "MASN on WJZ." WJZ-TV in Baltimore will serve as MASN's Baltimore affiliate and will simulcast these select games.

https://www.mlb.com/orioles/schedule/broadcast-affiliates

 

 

[MCO'sFan]

2 hours ago, FanSince88 said:

I think there are jailbreaks you can do on an Android phone (google it) if you're so inclined and willing to risk screwing it up royally.  But from my understanding the VPN thing will work on regular old laptops or desktops, since those devices don't have the GPS connection.  Haven't yet tried it myself, though.  

I cut the cable cord about 5 months ago. Right after the O's season ended. I am saving $175 each month. I purchased MLB.TV and I am using Unlocator to work around the "geo-blocks". It is just $5 a month and it works great. It's not a VPN it works through DNS. It also has a smart VPN when I am at hotels etc... have not tried that yet though. I would much rather pay MASN for a streaming service or they could be like most RSN and allow MLB.TV to remove the blackout restrictions. Last time I checked it was only MASN and the Dodgers RSN that doesn't permit MLB.TV to do so.