Tonight (Friday)'s game exclusively on Apple TV

[SteveA]

Eventually these Friday night games they have been having on Apple TV will not be free, you will have to be an Apple+ subscriber.   But for now they are free.

But you still have to be able to get Apple TV.

Apparently it's pretty easy if you have an Apple TV or a Mac, IPhone, or IPad.   Here are some instructions:

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT213099#:~:text=team is playing-,Open the Apple TV app.,that you want to watch.

For the rest of us, if we have a smart TV, we can install the Apple app on our smart TV.   But we still  have to have an Apple ID account, which I don't.   It's free, but you have to sign up for it.  I tried to set one up a few weeks ago to watch a Friday night game on Apple and I couldn't get it to set up properly, the code it sent me didn't work.    I didn't devote much time and effort to figuring out what was wrong, but now if I want to watch the game tomorrow night I have to.

I'm going to try again tonight.   If I can't get it to work, I guess I'll be going radio-only tomorrow night like it was still the dark ages of the 20th century.

We might go through a similar process on Sunday, July 10, when our noon game vs the Angels airs exclusively on Peacock TV.   

[Moose Milligan]

"We want to make sure as many people have access to our games as we possibly can!"

Okay, great.  Where can I watch all of your games?

"We have every game on MLB.TV!"

Wow, really?  Even my local team?  I'm an Orioles fan living in the mid-Atlantic region so I want t make sure before I purchase MLB.TV I can watch my Orioles on there.

"Well, no.  Those games are blacked out."

But I thought you said I could watch all of your games?  

"You can, just not the ones that are local."

Well, alright, I guess.  But I don't have cable, so how can I watch Orioles games?

"DirecTV!  But only the second most expensive package.  The base package won't do."

Okay.

"But some games will be on Apple TV, too!"

So I need that?

"Just as long as you have an Apple TV, iPhone, iMac or iPad.  And the games are free!"

How long are they free for?

"Until we tell you otherwise!"

But those games won't be streamed on DirecTV, right?

"Correct."

I thought you said you wanted to make sure that as many people can have access to MLB games as possible.

"We totally do!"

**** you, MLB.  

[jamalshw]

Yeah...baseball is going in the wrong direction with some of these. Yes, getting into a streaming service is good, but only if you have all the games there. MASN and other regional networks should really work to get one one of the streaming sites as well as cable. 

If MLB isn't careful, it'll go the way of boxing.

[geschinger]

5 hours ago, jamalshw said:

Yeah...baseball is going in the wrong direction with some of these. Yes, getting into a streaming service is good, but only if you have all the games there. MASN and other regional networks should really work to get one one of the streaming sites as well as cable. 

If MLB isn't careful, it'll go the way of boxing.

Unfortunately I think there is little chance of that happening considering not even the Yankees YES network has been able to get on and stay on streaming services.  They were for a while but with the content costs rising so much RSNs seem to be the casualty.  I think MASN like YES is only available on DirecTVs streaming service.

I wish they were available, but I can't blame the streaming services from saying no.  The model of collecting a forced commission on every subscriber regardless of whether ot not they care about or watch sports has to end.

[OsFanSinceThe80s]

6 hours ago, Moose Milligan said:

"We want to make sure as many people have access to our games as we possibly can!"

Okay, great.  Where can I watch all of your games?

"We have every game on MLB.TV!"

Wow, really?  Even my local team?  I'm an Orioles fan living in the mid-Atlantic region so I want t make sure before I purchase MLB.TV I can watch my Orioles on there.

"Well, no.  Those games are blacked out."

But I thought you said I could watch all of your games?  

"You can, just not the ones that are local."

Well, alright, I guess.  But I don't have cable, so how can I watch Orioles games?

"DirecTV!  But only the second most expensive package.  The base package won't do."

Okay.

"But some games will be on Apple TV, too!"

So I need that?

"Just as long as you have an Apple TV, iPhone, iMac or iPad.  And the games are free!"

How long are they free for?

"Until we tell you otherwise!"

But those games won't be streamed on DirecTV, right?

"Correct."

I thought you said you wanted to make sure that as many people can have access to MLB games as possible.

"We totally do!"

**** you, MLB.  

MLB they make it hard to watch games on streaming and are seemingly trying to drive away every potential young fan by making the game unaccessible.  

They do realize when older fans stop watching there isn’t a wave of younger fans ready to pay for cable every month to watch their team. I hate Manfred. 

[SteveA]

Geez what a pain in the ass.   I couldn't download the Apple App to my TV because for some reason my TV couldn't connect to Samsung.com anymore which is where it gets the apps.   Had to go through the whole reset your password thing at Samsung on my PC, then log in on the PC.

Then download the app.   THen I had to create an Apple ID.   The app on the TV told me to go to an activation site and type in a 4 digit code.   I would do that, and I would go through the steps to create an Apple ID but each time it got to the point where they would text me a 6 digit code, the 6 digit code wouldn't work.   I guess a few weeks ago I had gotten to some intermediate point in setting up an Apple ID so it wouldn't give me a new one.   But it gave me security questions I didn't know the answer to (least favorite job -- I don't recall ever setting that one up.   Finally they said they were sending a reset to my emergency backup e-mail, which is an old Yahoo account I only use for my Yahoo fantasy football league so I haven't signed on since December.   I was able to get a code there, then had to reset all my security questions.   Then I was finally able to log into my Apple ID and set a password.   THEN I was able to use the app on the TV to log in on the TV.

Took me at least 45 minutes to get through all this shit.   But I now believe I will be able to watch the Orioles tomorrow.   Unless this is the week they decide to end the free trial and make it only for Apple+ paying users.

[NashLumber]

I would not be surprised *at all* if even with the Apple TV app or on Apple TV channel, the blackout is still in place. I do subscribe to Apple TV (Ted Lasso says "howdy and thanks, Beard") but I may have my VPN on just in case before I fire up the app. 

[PHRESH]

Www.streameast.xyz

That's where I watch mostly 

[Jagwar]

I've also tried multiple VPN apps/services that are supposed to trick the blackout gods on my Firestick, but MLB seems to have figured those out.  

[Moose Milligan]

3 hours ago, Jagwar said:

I've also tried multiple VPN apps/services that are supposed to trick the blackout gods on my Firestick, but MLB seems to have figured those out.  

I screwed around with this for two years, it was annoying.  Sometimes it worked great, other times not so much.  Eventually I caved and got DirecTV, strictly to watch the Orioles.   I hate paying for it, but I also hated screwing around with the VPN for 15-20 minutes before the game started to get it to work, sometimes not getting it to work at all.

[Emory Eagle]

I have a young kid and also enjoy watching the US mens and womens national soccer teams, whose games are impossible to see without bizarre subscriptions, so fortunately (or unfortunately?) already pay a fortune for an endless number of streaming services.  

[NashLumber]

25 minutes ago, Moose Milligan said:

I screwed around with this for two years, it was annoying.  Sometimes it worked great, other times not so much.  Eventually I caved and got DirecTV, strictly to watch the Orioles.   I hate paying for it, but I also hated screwing around with the VPN for 15-20 minutes before the game started to get it to work, sometimes not getting it to work at all.

When I realized about three years ago I was paying DirecTV $1200 a year just to see six months of Orioles games (nothing on MASN after October was worth my money), I ditched the satellite. For me, it was worth the $69 for a two year Private Internet Access VPN subscription and an MLB-TV subscription, ie. about $140 this year. I've only had one game since opening day that had complications (knock on wood) with the VPN. And actually, after checking my wife's connection w/o the VPN, we realized it was an MLB outage, not a VPN issue. 

It has been working so well for me, that I helped JustD and Weams last year get connected in this manner. 

[Moose Milligan]

14 minutes ago, NashLumber said:

When I realized about three years ago I was paying DirecTV $1200 a year just to see six months of Orioles games (nothing on MASN after October was worth my money), I ditched the satellite. For me, it was worth the $69 for a two year Private Internet Access VPN subscription and an MLB-TV subscription, ie. about $140 this year. I've only had one game since opening day that had complications (knock on wood) with the VPN. And actually, after checking my wife's connection w/o the VPN, we realized it was an MLB outage, not a VPN issue. 

It has been working so well for me, that I helped JustD and Weams last year get connected in this manner. 

Man, you had better luck with it than I had, that's for sure.  It would work great for weeks at a time, then I couldn't get it to work for about a week.  Nord VPN was one of the VPNs that I was using, I also used Express VPN, both with varying degrees of success.  

[DrungoHazewood]

32 minutes ago, Emory Eagle said:

I have a young kid and also enjoy watching the US mens and womens national soccer teams, whose games are impossible to see without bizarre subscriptions, so fortunately (or unfortunately?) already pay a fortune for an endless number of streaming services.  

I watch a lot more soccer than baseball these days and I have Hulu (which comes with ESPN+ and Disney), Paramount+, Netfilx, sometimes Apple TV (when Ted Lasso has a new season out), Amazon Prime, probably forgetting one or two others.  I can watch almost every Premier League game, lots and lots of Bundesliga and La Liga and Belgian Jupiler Pro League, tons of MLS matches (including DC United for free on their site without any subscription), Scottish Premier League, and English Championship matches.  I can go to BR.de or sometimes YouTube and watch a fair number of German 3. Liga matches for free.  Hulu and ESPN+ have insane amounts of college sports of all different conferences on, I could have watched the MEAC title game or the Vanderbilt spring football game with no problem.  I can see almost every Virginia Tech football game, and half their basketball games.  I think watching every NFL game would be relatively trivial if I cared to. Recently I've watched some Virginia Tech softball regionals.

What can I not do with all that?  Legally watch the Baltimore Orioles except when one of the Apple TV games coincides with the times I've paid up so I can watch Ted Lasso.  If I really want to watch the Orioles I can fire up my media PC, navigate with the browser over to MASN and then use my late uncle's DirecTV login. But I'd never do that, as it would theoretically deprive the Angelos family of tens of dollars of revenue they're not going to get from me anyway.

[Just Regular]

13 hours ago, SteveA said:

Took me at least 45 minutes to get through all this shit.   But I now believe I will be able to watch the Orioles tomorrow.   Unless this is the week they decide to end the free trial and make it only for Apple+ paying users.

I think the odds are in your favor the monetization tipping point isn't going to be a May Orioles game