O's on Apple TV

[Sports Guy]

25 minutes ago, Moose Milligan said:

Right, and we agree.  They need to do anything/everything they can to bring in new audience members.

And missing a game here and there shouldn't ruin anyone's life, we agree on that too.  

But it still strikes me as unnecessary.  Like, there's no good reason that they couldn't put an Apple TV game on MLB.TV.  Apple can cry about having exclusive rights, but if we're hoping that games broadcast on Apple TV are going to bring new fans, maybe broadcasting an Apple TV game on MLB.TV will make some people consider purchasing an Apple TV.  It's cross-marketing and it's not a terrible idea.  

To your point about not bringing many, if any, new fans...I've got HBO Max, they broadcast NBA games and NHL games which is nice since we just cut the cord and got rid of Direct TV.  

I'll watch an NBA game because I have a mild interest in basketball but I have no interest in watching hockey.  I'll find something else to watch or go do something else instead.  

It's because I didn't grow up watching hockey.  I have no interest in it.  Grew up playing baseball and basketball, grew up watching football.  Even played a little soccer in youth leagues, I'll still watch a soccer game occasionally.

If MLB wants to get new fans, they need to get bats and balls into the hands of kids and not hope that a few adults will tune in to an exclusive broadcast on Apple TV.  

Apple TV signed this deal and spent this money because they hope it brings subscribers to them. If the thought is, only Os fans will watch (and the other team of course), then why give it to them for free considering the money we spent?  

It makes sense. 

Now, of course MLB is hoping more than that watches the game but if that’s your likely primary audience, giving it to them for free defeats the purpose.

[24fps]

47 minutes ago, Sports Guy said:

It’s a few games over the course of 162. Missing a few games shouldn’t ruin anyone’s life.

Its extra revenue and its potentially introducing the game to people who may not usually watch it. 
 

If I had to guess, like you said, it probably doesn’t bring many, if any, new fans in but MLB has an national attention problem and doing something like this makes some semblance of sense to try to improve upon that. 
 

There are smarter(or at least other) things that they should be doing but very few things will potentially bring in a national audience.

 

It’s about maximizing revenue. The rest is incidental.

[Moose Milligan]

7 minutes ago, Sports Guy said:

Apple TV signed this deal and spent this money because they hope it brings subscribers to them. If the thought is, only Os fans will watch (and the other team of course), then why give it to them for free considering the money we spent?  

It makes sense. 

Now, of course MLB is hoping more than that watches the game but if that’s your likely primary audience, giving it to them for free defeats the purpose.

Because MLB.TV isn't free.  So MLB whittles out some of the revenue from MLB.TV and gives Apple a kickback.  

Apple might have more success in getting people to sign up for Apple TV if people watching on MLB.TV see how good the quality of the broadcast is.  

In regard to free, Apple had no problem letting people watch for free last summer in order to hook them.  It's not unprecedented.

[Sports Guy]

9 minutes ago, Moose Milligan said:

Because MLB.TV isn't free.  So MLB whittles out some of the revenue from MLB.TV and gives Apple a kickback.  

Apple might have more success in getting people to sign up for Apple TV if people watching on MLB.TV see how good the quality of the broadcast is.  

In regard to free, Apple had no problem letting people watch for free last summer in order to hook them.  It's not unprecedented.

Yea but they watched on Apple TV.  MLB isn’t going to take revenue away from one thing to give to another.

[Just Regular]

1 hour ago, btdart20 said:

It always amazes me the sheer size of the country out west...

I'm in the York, PA area.  An hour+ from OPACY, 2+ from DC, 2+ to Philly, and 4+ to PIT.  All are blacked out.  8 teams out of 30...

Hello, fellow resident of the Eastern North America mega city.   

Pittsburgh is inland but everything up 83 and east is the coast.    I guess that throws Amish country in with us!

[sevastras]

1 hour ago, btdart20 said:

It always amazes me the sheer size of the country out west...

I'm in the York, PA area.  An hour+ from OPACY, 2+ from DC, 2+ to Philly, and 4+ to PIT.  All are blacked out.  8 teams out of 30...

When I lived in that area, I had HTS. You at least have the option of having MASN don’t you?

And I don’t see how you are getting to the stadium in about an hour unless your + is closer to 30-45 minutes

[drjohnnyfever1]

Well, baseball fans should take note of the Peacock deal the NFL did for the Playoff game they got exclusive rights to.  People were all over social media complaining about needing to purchase Peacock for a game that "should" be free.  It was venomous against the NFL - with threatened boycotts and the rest.  We all know what happened....  People folded, bought Peacock, watched the game, and either cancelled afterwards or forgot about it.

The point is that this is going to become the norm.  Just like the networks used to fight for TV rights, now the streaming services want pieces of the action and are willing to pay MLB to do it.  I feel little guilt using a VPN to watch a game out of market on an internet streamer if the desire arises - which isn't often, but MLB and NFL couldn't care less about inconveniencing a fan once in a while, because they control the product we want and they know we will probably wind up paying extra to see it despite our complaints about it.

Is that right?   No, but all complaints are filed in the circular file, so..........

[SemperFi]

21 minutes ago, Moose Milligan said:

Because MLB.TV isn't free.  So MLB whittles out some of the revenue from MLB.TV and gives Apple a kickback.  

Apple might have more success in getting people to sign up for Apple TV if people watching on MLB.TV see how good the quality of the broadcast is.  

In regard to free, Apple had no problem letting people watch for free last summer in order to hook them.  It's not unprecedented.

Apple TV gets sampled but consumers may also subscribe for that content and then neglect to cancel.  The redemption rate of a rebate at Costco is around 25%, I suspect the cancel rate on subscriptions has a similar lag effect from which Peacock, Apple, etc.. benefit.

 

[bobmc]

16 minutes ago, SemperFi said:

Apple TV gets sampled but consumers may also subscribe for that content and then neglect to cancel.  The redemption rate of a rebate at Costco is around 25%, I suspect the cancel rate on subscriptions has a similar lag effect from which Peacock, Apple, etc.. benefit.

 

Earlier last month I saw my Peacock renewed (did not realize I had it) but lucked into Caitlyn Clark’s record breaking performance and Oppenheimer as a serendipitous moment. We were at an Air bnb with friends having a reunion.  Sometimes it works out.

Edited March 8 by bobmc

[nevadaO]

For those that have T-Mobile you can get both MLB.TV and AppleTV for free, if you have the right plan. Just an FYI 

[OsFanSinceThe80s]

[SemperFi]

11 minutes ago, drjohnnyfever1 said:

Well, baseball fans should take note of the Peacock deal the NFL did for the Playoff game they got exclusive rights to.  People were all over social media complaining about needing to purchase Peacock for a game that "should" be free.  It was venomous against the NFL - with MLB and NFL couldn't care less about inconveniencing a fan once in a while, because they control the product we want and they know we will probably wind up paying extra to see it despite our complaints about it.

Dr-good points the other thing I will add is piracy issues.  The NFL has a huge problem in that 35% of their avid fans watch on pirated streams.  I haven't paid to watch the WFT in years largely because I refuse to spend on such a horrible product.  I justify that by viewing on a pirate site. 

MLB has a fine balancing act between revenue and eyeballs/access which is complicated by the demographics of the typical avid/casual fan.  They aren't the NFL, they can't afford to lose a third or even 10% of their avid fan base.  Gender is in play too as streaming subscriptions trend slightly female, some such as Peacock have about a 10% delta which not only allows sample for Peacock but drives subscriptions as males with a 40/60 split are under-represented.

[BRobinsonfan]

12 hours ago, forphase1 said:

This crap angers me.   I hate paying for mlb.tv and then not being able to watch all I pay for. 

But wait.  You don't have Apple TV???  If we didn't need it Apple wouldn't make it for us.  

Sorry... I'm an Apple Fan Boy from way back.  

But seriously, if I didn't have Apple TV anyway it would be frustrating.  I live in Charleston, WV so Baltimore is about a 7 hour drive for me so MLB TV is a must for me. I  probably watched more games on MLBTV last year than I ever have in the past.  I did enjoy the Apple TV coverage as a change of pace.  

[SemperFi]

38 minutes ago, bobmc said:

Earlier last month I saw my Peacock renewed (did not realize I had it) but lucked into Caitlyn Clark’s record breaking performance and Oppenheimer as a serendipitous moment. We were at an Air bnb with friends having a reunion.  Sometimes it works out.

And that I suspect is exactly what they want and budget for.  I'll also bet you haven't cancelled!!

As innocous as it may seem memberships are as if not more important than margins to Costco and Amazon.  Amazon brings in $35b in membership fees alone.  When they raised membership fees in '22 their profit almost doubled. 

[forphase1]

6 minutes ago, BRobinsonfan said:

But wait.  You don't have Apple TV???  If we didn't need it Apple wouldn't make it for us.  

Sorry... I'm an Apple Fan Boy from way back.  

But seriously, if I didn't have Apple TV anyway it would be frustrating.  I live in Charleston, WV so Baltimore is about a 7 hour drive for me so MLB TV is a must for me. I  probably watched more games on MLBTV last year than I ever have in the past.  I did enjoy the Apple TV coverage as a change of pace.  

I despise Apple, and am an Apple Hater from way back.    I don't have it, and I'm certainly NOT going to get it for just a couple of Os games.

But yes, it is frustrating.  I'm in Wayne, WV, and honestly used to go to Baltimore frequently before my Grandparents who lived there passed away.  I too watched a ton of Os games through MLB.TV last year.  Really, it's not the end of the world to miss a game or two here and there, it's just annoying to pay for a service and expect to be able to see almost all the games then to have a bunch of them pulled from the service to put somewhere else that I'm not also going to pay for or have to jump through a tons of hoops to get without subscribing.  And I think as we continue to rise as a team/franchise more and more of our games will be pulled for this crap as we start drawing a bit more national attention as our youth movement continuing becoming stars and more known names.  Not saying we will be NY or Boston, but I can see our games getting more primetime or streaming slots as we continue to improve.