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MLB Blackouts Ruin Opening Day
Help me pick a team to support.
Today is Major League Baseball’s Opening Day. Every year I celebrate by watching as many games on TV as possible while eating my weight in hot dogs. In years past I’d spend the afternoon flipping between WGN, ESPN, Sun Sports, MLB Network, and any other random cable channel I could find. Now I live in the future and my baseball fix comes from an MLB.TV Premium subscription.
At least, I thought it was the future.
The blackout restrictions of the past marred my dreams of future baseball games. I live in Florida yet cannot watch any of Tampa or Miami’s games (both home and away). I also cannot watch any “nationally televised” games (ESPN’s game of the week, the All StarGame, etc.) because, well, tv contracts or something.
So I have to ask, why sell a premium subscription streaming service when part of the content is excluded.
Netflix wouldn’t sell subscriptions and then blackout Stranger Things in Georgia, where the show is filmed. This seems ridiculous to even entertain the thought, yet that’s what MLB — and the other major sports leagues — are doing with their antiquated blackout restrictions.
It’s time for a change.
