From
Richard Sandomir:Yankees fans will soon be the first in baseball to buy games streamed on broadband to computers and wireless devices within the team’s local market, according to executives briefed on the pending deal but not authorized to speak publicly about it.
The agreement between the Yankees’ YES Network and Major League Baseball ends a logjam that has prevented teams from making their games available on the Internet within their designated markets. Some teams have wanted to do it, but financial arrangements between them and baseball could not be reached.
Teams stand to gain a new source of revenue, from the millions of broadband users around the country who are not sitting in front of their televisions but are in offices and other locations with a laptop or a wireless device.
The agreement between the Yankees’ YES Network and Major League Baseball Advanced Media, which controls the Internet rights of all 30 teams, will let fans inside the New York market buy a subscription to Yankees games. They will be able to watch on computers, laptops and other devices, giving the games a portability they have not had.
The first carrier to sign up is Cablevision, which will share revenue with YES and M.L.B.A.M. Fans can buy the in-market Yankee games only if they already subscribe to the expanded basic service on Cablevision that includes YES. The Yankees’ cable network is pursuing similar deals with other local cable operators, like Time Warner, and telecommunications services, like Verizon.
With the Yankees deal complete, other teams are expected to follow.
The Yankees’ service is supposed to start sometime this season and follows quickly on Cablevison’s recent renewal of its YES contract. A price was not available.
This is very good idea and it's going to be great for fans. I'd be surprised to see the other cable not jump at this opportunity, hopefully they pick this up soon. I'm talking to you Time Warner.
9 Comments:
Gah! This deal sounds like it sucks.
only if they already subscribe to the expanded basic service on Cablevision that includes YES
So I have to already pay to see the games and then I can spend even more to watch it smaller on a shitting broadband stream? Wha?
The thing that surprises me in this deal is yes makes the offering available through cable companies instead of just bypassing them and going direct to customers. Perhaps this is something in their contract with the cable cos, or they figure its a better way to sell thei cable pkg. I do believe long term we'll eventually see all these services be indepent offerings bypassing the cable cos - espn already does. So this is just a delaying of the inevitable and basically sucks for fans who are basically going to have to pay twice.
Excellent posting, Greg.
This streaming thing isn't a perfect solution, but it's a start.
Here's an interesting twist to this-- I live within the area served by Cablevision-Monmouth, so I get my Yankees games on the YES channel. However, I live OUTSIDE the Yankees' home area, as I found out when I attempted to switch to DirecTv (remember when YES and Cablevision had their 'argument' a few years back?). Cable works by their individual coverage area, everything else works by zip codes. This deal sounds like I would be ok, but these things can be quirky.
I use slingbox. I can watch any channel on my tv anywhere and I don't have to pay anything extra per month. But I only use it when I'm outside my home where there is no tv or yes network.
There are always initial problems that will have to be ironed out.
Slingbox sounds pretty cool, I'll have to look into it.
Well this sucks. I live in northeastern PA (Bloomsburg, PA) about three hours from NYC. The Phillies are freaking closer and I can watch every single one of their stupid games on Comcast for free. But somehow we are in the NYC market so all broadcast games not on MY9 are blacked out. My cable company cannot even get YES network due to contract issues. This doesn't help me at all.
Rosh,
Can you see Yankees game on the MLB.tv package?
Greg, I've looked into slingbox and the concept is pure genius. However I have heard complaints from people whose computers don't handle the streaming well. You need a real fast processor, the most RAM you can get, a topnotch video card (the video card is most important)& at least an above-average sound card. And using it with a cable system typically works better than Verizon, unless you have Verizon's fiber optic service.
I use it with no complaints. My older laptop had 512mb of ram with a 2ghz celeron processor and it ran fine. I'm using an intel core2 duo with 1gb of ram and still runs fine. I don't have a good graphics card or sound card either. The only time it doesn't stream well is if your internet connection is really weak. But yea the concept is genius especially if you are away from home for a while but the catch is you always need a broadband connection wherever you go.
Greg, I linked to this article, gave you a 'hat-tip' over at POTY.
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