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Cardullo's isn't going to shake Red Sox fans that easily
By adamg on Mon, 09/06/2010 - 11:19pm
If Cardullo's thought removing the large-screen TV from their front window would make their storefront safe for people with money to spend, they thought wrong. Karen Snyder reported from Harvard Square during the Sox/Rays game tonight:
Cardullos took away the TV for the Red Sox games. No problem ... There are 4 guys there with their own chairs and a radio!
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They were there Saturday night too.
In front of Cardullo's first, and 20 minutes later, they had moved across the street in front of Curious George. Not sure if they were shooed away or not.
Is there any such thing as a portable satellite TV?
and if there is, perhaps someone can bring one next time? Better to put it in the Brattle Square plaza instead of in front of someone's private business, though. (Unless it's a bank, which won't be open any time that Red Sox games are on.)
There's an app for that
You're not going to get big screen HD resolution, but you can watch MLB.tv through the MLB app on the iPhone/iPad. The next thing to do would be to get the video signal out to a larger screen.
You can't get Sox games on it
You can't get Sox games on it in Cambridge, though.
Good point
I only ever listen to the games on my iPhone and there's no archaic blackout system there.
I've heard that MLBAM (MLB Advanced Media) is begging and pleading with the head office to undo the restrictions for their *own* product (seriously, how stupid is that?). If it goes through for next year, you'd be able to watch live Sox games within New England without needing to have a way to get NESN.
There's no way that happens.
There's no way that happens. Absolutely no way. NESN is not going to give up the online rights to their games. If NESN wanted to, there's no reason they can't sell you streaming games online. The Yankees do it.
It could
Basically, the MLBAM is raking in money hand-over-fist and actually providing probably the best major sports league experience online for the cash. They're definitely an example of how to do it right (maybe it's the pace of the game or something, but the NFL, NBA, and NHL could learn a lesson from Gameday, At Bat, etc).
I found a blog post of someone who spoke to an MLBAM rep last year at a streaming media conference and they said that there's enough cash flowing around that they could pay off the NESNs who don't have the money or technical capabilities to provide online streams of the games (and MLBAM already is streaming every game..it just turns them off based on your IP/geolocation/etc). At that point, NESN would be happy and more people would sign up for MLB.tv because they'd be able to watch their home team when they're not planted in front of a TV.
In fact, if you just went through an IP anonymizer/proxy somewhere else in the world, you'd be able to watch the Red Sox live on MLB.tv online in Cambridge on any ol' computer. However, I was mentioning the At Bat app for the iPhone/iPad which uses your GPS location...which is not as easy to spoof.
So, it's just a matter of time. It was only a year or two ago that MLB was talking about destroying a lot of the blackout legacy that they're still clinging onto because it just doesn't make as much sense any more given all of the ways people want access to the video. But nothing was done, basically. That's something the other major leagues have done better than MLB on.
Sure, NESN would be happy for
Sure, NESN would be happy for a little while. But then the cable companies would get mad at NESN for taking away one of their biggest draws, and hurting their local ad revenue. When that happened, the cable companies would institute streaming caps, threaten to drop NESN, or god knows what else.
If NESN starts feeling it from the cable companies, they'll have to decide: Do you turn your backs on cable, in favor of MLBAM, or do you not go down this road in the first place and refuse to renegotiate the RSN exclusivity regions that have been in place for years?
It's opening a Pandora's box for the benefit of what, 10,000 nerds that want to quit cable? Plus, NESN could get hurt because it could crack their blackouts of ESPN's non-Sunday night broadcasts. It's not going to happen, period. The only way these deals get renegotiated is for cases like Iowa, where the majority of cable subscribers don't get Twins games, but can't stream them online, either.
Even then, I think it's a hard sell that would really, really piss off DirecTV and Dish, who DO offer blacked-out games on TV in those markets.
10,000 nerds? Hardly
At Bat is one of the most downloaded apps on the iPhone/iPad every year. There are tons more that would use it for watching the games if they could. Everyone who is a baseball fan and an iPhone owner is a potential customer who isn't buying the software just yet.
DirectTV and the major cable companies already have MLB Extra Innings channels for offer, so it's not like they're not already getting their cut of the "watch every game" pie. People who have the choice between watching the game on their smartphone and watching it on the TV are still going to choose the TV every time. This is about expanding to people who will *occasionally* want to watch a game when they're not near a TV...yet, they'll pay for every game anyways...everyone makes twice the money from the same consumer. Nobody loses anything.
Will there be a few holdouts who want to keep the old way? Sure, the MPAA and RIAA exist for just that reason in other industries. But that doesn't keep iTunes from kicking the doors open wider for online content. MLBAM and the MLB will be the ultimate arbiters of how their content (baseball games) are sent out to the awaiting masses. If they can turn a new dollar on new delivery systems, they will. There's a market of people who can't always be in front of a TV with their local "carrier" of the local team during the ball games live. That's money that's just going unspent and not money detracting from NESN or anyone else's bottom line.
Well, if you just want it
Well, if you just want it accessible via At Bat, fine, that might work.
But no way will MLB.tv or Extra Innings get local market games. The 10,000 nerds I was speaking of are the people who want to watch Sox games but don't get NESN, but would still pay $100 a year just to get baseball on the internet.
I agree, though, getting rid of the local blackouts for At Bat might, possibly, almost happen. No way for MLB.tv in general, though.