Would it be better for us if Orioles sold rights and closed MASN

[NashLumber]

Just now, atomic said:

Search: MLB Streams Reddit.   There will be a post for each day. Under each day a post for each game.  Some of them will be bad links like with a bunch of pop-ups  Once you find a good streamer you can just go their feeds the next day so you don't get people just spamming.  

Anyway it would be easier if MLB TV would just take my  money.  

Thank you. And I agree. It's money they are missing out on. 

[clutch2113]

Why couldn't MASN just negotiate a deal with Sling or another non-cable provider just as they do with the cable companies.  I know Sling's TV lineup is regional.  I live in New Jersey and YES is part of the main package that Sling offers (whereas SNY - METS - is not). 

MASN could either be part of Sling's main package or part of the sports package.

[atomic]

10 minutes ago, clutch2113 said:

Why couldn't MASN just negotiate a deal with Sling or another non-cable provider just as they do with the cable companies.  I know Sling's TV lineup is regional.  I live in New Jersey and YES is part of the main package that Sling offers (whereas SNY - METS - is not). 

MASN could either be part of Sling's main package or part of the sports package.

 

https://tvanswerman.com/2018/03/30/masn-the-cord-cutters-nightmare/

Perhaps most infuriating about what MASN is doing is that the channel will not comment on why it’s doing it.

 

[Aglets]

Pretty sure the answer is that no one is going to know anything until the lawsuit is resolved.   Has there been any movement on that in the past several........months?

[weams]

2 hours ago, DrungoHazewood said:

What is the legality of using a VPN to circumvent MASN and MLB's local blackout restrictions?

I think the MLB.TV terms and conditions say anyone accessing via a VPN to circumvent restrictions may not only forfeit their subscription, but also be subject to legal action.  That may be somewhat unlikely, but...

That is what the law says. It's a Napster kind of argument. 

[atomic]

3 minutes ago, weams said:

That is what the law says. It's a Napster kind of argument. 

And now every musician is on a streaming service.  The Beatles, Prince and Bob Seger I think were the last hold-outs.  But they are all on there now.  Either you can make money from streaming or you can put your head in the sand and  lose money.  

[HowAboutThat]

2 hours ago, Moose Milligan said:

Yeah, I had to switch VPNs last year, it was annoying to figure out which one worked and which didn't.

 

I have no idea what a VPN is

[Moose Milligan]

5 minutes ago, Philip said:

I have no idea what a VPN is

Check it out.

[hoosiers]

The answer is whatever will bring the most revenue to the Orioles.  

With MASN, it is a bit complicated, but end of day, the MASN agreement offers the Os the same rights fees as the (much larger market) Nats - so I would suggest the Os are getting more $ from MASN than they would get under a new agreement with a new provider. 

Selling MASN would enrich its owners (the owners of the Os and Nats), but would likely result in lower TV rights fees long term for the Orioles.

[OsFanSinceThe80s]

3 hours ago, Aglets said:

Pretty sure the answer is that no one is going to know anything until the lawsuit is resolved.   Has there been any movement on that in the past several........months?

I keep forgetting about the lawsuit. So this gets resolved never.  

 

[tntoriole]

3 hours ago, NashLumber said:

If someone has a VPN that works *all year*, do let me know. I tried two last year and none lasted through June. Somehow, MLB (via my web browser, iPhone At Bat app and also on iPad and Apple TV) eventually was able to detect my in-market location, thus blacking me out. And I don't plan to buy a new wifi router to go that route as on a quick glance at prices, that is more expensive than a year of MLB-TV. 

 

3 hours ago, atomic said:

Search: MLB Streams Reddit.   There will be a post for each day. Under each day a post for each game.  Some of them will be bad links like with a bunch of pop-ups  Once you find a good streamer you can just go their feeds the next day so you don't get people just spamming.  

Anyway it would be easier if MLB TV would just take my  money.  

This is the archaic part..The MLB “blackout” rules which date back to when there were 3 channels on TV if you moved your antenna on the roof correctly and I was my father’s remote control before remote controls were invented. 

There is now market advantage to have your entertainment available ON DEMAND, when I want to watch it and how I want to watch it.  Subscription streaming services are what MLB needs to have.  MLB.TV can charge a premium if it wants for TOTAL access wherever you are...after all, we are not Communists...lol.  But they won’t even consider taking my money to let me do it.   

[BohKnowsBmore]

22 hours ago, theocean said:

I'm not sure about the Padres, but yeah - sometimes you hear about the annual payouts from those FOX deals and you have to wonder if MASN is bringing in more bacon than that.

Some quick back of the napkin math...

There are 6MM people in the state of Maryland (ignoring DC and VA for now)
I am going to assume that there are 1MM cable subscribers in the state
I believe the RSN fee is 2.42 per month ($29.04 per year)
That would translate to $29MM per year, start adding in DC and NoVA, I could definitely see $50 - $60MM.  It's possible that SoCal is much larger and has higher fees.
 

[DrungoHazewood]

50 minutes ago, BohKnowsBmore said:

Some quick back of the napkin math...

There are 6MM people in the state of Maryland (ignoring DC and VA for now)
I am going to assume that there are 1MM cable subscribers in the state
I believe the RSN fee is 2.42 per month ($29.04 per year)
That would translate to $29MM per year, start adding in DC and NoVA, I could definitely see $50 - $60MM.  It's possible that SoCal is much larger and has higher fees.
 

According to Neilsen there are about 1M TV households in the Baltimore area.  2.5M in the DC area.  Richmond has about 500k, Salisbury 150k.  I think MASN is standard in Norfolk, which has another 675k TV households. I'm sure there are some other outliers like York or Charlottesville and parts of North Carolina* that will add up to a few hundred thousand more.  In total that might be about 5M people.  If 75% of them have cable or satellite you're still over 4M.  Each paying $29 a year, that's over $100M.  Even it it's only 3M, that's still almost $90M a year.

Plus advertising.  I have no idea how to guess that total.

* You have to love MLB.  The Orioles and Nats are designated as the home teams for the Raleigh-Durham, Chapel Hill and Wilmington, NC areas, thus blacking out the two teams in that area on things like MLB.TV.  And it appears that few cable systems in NC carry MASN because most folks in that area are Braves fans, or otherwise not that connected to teams 5, 6, 7 hours away.

[BohKnowsBmore]

1 hour ago, DrungoHazewood said:

According to Neilsen there are about 1M TV households in the Baltimore area.  2.5M in the DC area.  Richmond has about 500k, Salisbury 150k.  I think MASN is standard in Norfolk, which has another 675k TV households. I'm sure there are some other outliers like York or Charlottesville and parts of North Carolina* that will add up to a few hundred thousand more.  In total that might be about 5M people.  If 75% of them have cable or satellite you're still over 4M.  Each paying $29 a year, that's over $100M.  Even it it's only 3M, that's still almost $90M a year.

Plus advertising.  I have no idea how to guess that total.

* You have to love MLB.  The Orioles and Nats are designated as the home teams for the Raleigh-Durham, Chapel Hill and Wilmington, NC areas, thus blacking out the two teams in that area on things like MLB.TV.  And it appears that few cable systems in NC carry MASN because most folks in that area are Braves fans, or otherwise not that connected to teams 5, 6, 7 hours away.

Looks like I was too conservative in my estimate of cable-subscribing TV HH.

[Bonecrusher52]

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