Facebook gets exclusive rights to 25 MLB games this season

donutogre

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https://www.engadget.com/2018/03/09/facebook-has-exclusive-rights-to-25-mlb-games-this-season/

Good news is that these are largely Wednesday day games -- probably among the least-viewed games on the entire MLB schedule.

Bad news is that if you were hoping to tune in on MLB.TV, I just confirmed that these games will be blacked out. No TV, no MLB.TV -- the only place to watch them is on Facebook. 25 games isn't much over the course of the season, but the idea of more MLB games going exclusive to Facebook in the future.. sure is an unpleasant one.
 

Snodgrass'Muff

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This is a good step. Ideally, they'd have one in market game streaming for free for every market once a week or so. And not just on Facebook, but on Twitter, Twitch, Youtube, etc.
 

mauf

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Why is it an unpleasant idea?

Seems to me that whether Facebook broadcasting games is good or bad for fans depends almost entirely on the quality of Facebook’s coverage, which for now is a complete unknown. (Edit: And Snod makes a good point about any move back to freely available games being a good thing, all other things equal.)
 

donutogre

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I can get into the idea of a game being able to be seen by anyone online, I just don't like it being tied to Facebook specifically. And I think it's kind of crap to pull it away from MLB.TV subscribers. Mostly because I don't know many people that get Facebook to their TV easily, and I'd much rather watch a game there than on Facebook..

I'm not terribly worried about the presentation, because it sounds like MLB network is handling that end of things.

But yeah, put these games across multiple streaming platforms and you definitely won't hear me complain.
 

Snodgrass'Muff

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I can get into the idea of a game being able to be seen by anyone online, I just don't like it being tied to Facebook specifically. And I think it's kind of crap to pull it away from MLB.TV subscribers. Mostly because I don't know many people that get Facebook to their TV easily, and I'd much rather watch a game there than on Facebook..

I'm not terribly worried about the presentation, because it sounds like MLB network is handling that end of things.

But yeah, put these games across multiple streaming platforms and you definitely won't hear me complain.
Regarding the bold, this isn't marketed at you. It's an effort to bring in new viewers, who are less likely to care about getting the game onto an actual TV, or who probably have the tech know-how to do it if they want. And yes, it's a little shitty that these game's are 100% exclusive to Facebook, but that's the price you pay to try an experiment like this. If this opens the door to wider use of streaming platforms outside of MLB.TV, exclusivity won't continue to be a part of the equation for terribly long.
 

donutogre

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Fair point. And in the grand scheme of things this is very, very small potatoes. 25 games out of a positively huge number. I just get easily rankled by exclusivity.
 

SumnerH

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Mostly because I don't know many people that get Facebook to their TV easily, and I'd much rather watch a game there than on Facebook..
It's 2018. If you don't know how to display your computer on the big screen easily, you need to get with the times.
 

John Marzano Olympic Hero

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From what I gather, Facebook isn't that popular with kids any more. They tend to see it as the social media platform of their parents and grandparents. So on one hand, good for MLB for branching out into a different market. But on the other, this new market still skews old and ten years ago.
 

brs3

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As I hope blackouts in general are ended, that's the only reason I don't like this. If I'm home on a Wednesday and can watch a game, I'd rather watch it on TV than on Facebook. Sure, I can set up Facebook to my TV, but it's a hassle. I'm complaining about a really small number of games, but it ties to the bigger issue of exclusivity and blackouts.
 

SydneySox

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From what I gather, Facebook isn't that popular with kids any more. They tend to see it as the social media platform of their parents and grandparents. So on one hand, good for MLB for branching out into a different market. But on the other, this new market still skews old and ten years ago.
Yep. This is marketing at ourselves.
 

santadevil

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I agree with the exclusivity issue. Even if it is a small number, I'm being blacked out of a service I paid for and like to use.

If there was no blackout, there would be no issue.
 

Captaincoop

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It's 2018. If you don't know how to display your computer on the big screen easily, you need to get with the times.
I know how to set up Facebook to show on my TV, but I have no faith that the broadcast will be seamless and clear. I pay for MLB.TV, and have the app on my smart TV that works perfectly and doesn't require any downloading, chromecasting, or whatever.

This is weak.
 

SumnerH

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I know how to set up Facebook to show on my TV, but I have no faith that the broadcast will be seamless and clear. I pay for MLB.TV, and have the app on my smart TV that works perfectly and doesn't require any downloading, chromecasting, or whatever.
That's fine, but it has nothing to do with the concern we were talking about.
 

Bergs

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Jul 22, 2005
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I agree with the exclusivity issue. Even if it is a small number, I'm being blacked out of a service I paid for and like to use.

If there was no blackout, there would be no issue.
Agree 100%.
 

Cesar Crespo

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It's 2018. If you don't know how to display your computer on the big screen easily, you need to get with the times.
Anytime I have company over, they are amazed I have dual monitors hooked up to my computer and this technology is ancient. A lot of people are still intimidated by computers and are afraid they are going to break it.
 

uncannymanny

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These will be on Facebook Watch, which has an app on many platforms. If you're already using AppleTV or something you're just going to use a different app. You shouldn't have to hook your computer up to your TV unless you already need to do that for MLBTV.
 

donutogre

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These will be on Facebook Watch, which has an app on many platforms. If you're already using AppleTV or something you're just going to use a different app. You shouldn't have to hook your computer up to your TV unless you already need to do that for MLBTV.
That's a very good point that I completely forgot about.

Also, to the condescending poster saying that people who don't know how to get their computers hooked up to their TVs "need to get with the times," I know it's not a concern for the majority of the people posting here, who are nerdy enough to spend time on an internet message board in 2018. However, I don't want to think about my parents trying to do this, or even some of my peers who don't spend much time thinking about technology.
 

Couperin47

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If you're at all technically savvy all this BS of trying to control how and where you have to go and pay (or not) is going to have only 1 result. If even paying MLB for a subscription doesn't let you get to see the game you want on their dubiously stable platform (I'm sorry in your state on even numbered Wednesdays that game is blacked out...because we can and ARE fucking with you)...the result will be ... the pirate feeds which are at least as stable as MLB from the comments I see in here. It takes all of 2 minutes to find them, there are several quite stable and long term sites that carry EVERYTHING (the members here who piteously beg for a feed every day clearly need to be taught what a bookmark is for...and are pathetic) and once you know the 2 simple rules:

Install a good AdBlocker (uBlock Origin preferrably)
Never install any 'required browser" or "Flash upgrade" or anything else these sites claim you need

you stop being herded around like dumb animals by the endless stupidity and greed of the old farts (and I'm one of those) who market this sport.

Currently https://streamwoop.tv/ is the answer to all these questions.