MLB Extra Innings-"Free" Preview

[vibe]

I wish I'd posted this earlier sports fans but I happened to scroll the digital stations just for the hell of it. All of a sudden we had a ton of "free" hockey and baseball games.
I thought the cable company had made a mistake. A serviceman had just been over the week before.
After watching the games for free for several nights I saw a message at the bottom of the screen that the MLB portion was "only" $159 for the season and to call.
Pretty creative marketing but wouldn't more creative marketing provide the first month for $25-29 with an option to renew??
Assuming you are a huge baseball fan/junkie is the package worth $159?
If not, what IS it worth?
I enjoy baseball but watch a lot of games live in summer. I'm afraid I could get hooked if I got the package but to me, it's worth maybe $99-129 at most. I won't have to till the garden. I could simply harvest a bushel of potatos here on the couch!
But I'll watch again tonite (if it's free and still available).

 

[KeithE4]

Cox Cable is offering it for $39.25 a month for 4 months, tacked onto your bill. Being a White Sox fan in Phoenix and only having 30 games on WGN and a small handful on ESPN, it's worth it to me.

Unfortunately, most of today's games won't be televised due to the Saturday afternoon Fox blackout rule - they're exclusive until 6 PM ET/3 PM PT whether they're televising at the time or not. The Fox network games are at 3:30 ET/12:30 PT today, but AFAIK the rule still applies to early-afternoon games. Games can be televised in the teams' home markets but not elsewhere.

 

[vibe]

but isn't the baseball season approx 6 months??

 

[KeithE4]

but isn't the baseball season approx 6 months??

Yes, but you pay either once ($159) or in four installments. And one slight correction: It's $39.75, not $39.25 per installment, plus any taxes.

 

[ansky212]

I know a lot of people outside the NY area that subscribe to watch the Yankees. If I lived outside NY I would subscribe too. If you want to follow 1 out of market team it's worth it. But I wouldn't subscribe to watch the other games...just don't have time.

 

[MarcB]

Yep. I have a friend who subscribes to MLB because she's a Yankees fan living in West Virginia. She says she wishes she could just pay a fee to be able to get YES NETWORK down there rather than getting every other game as well.

 

[ShawnHill1]

As far as the hockey games, the NHL is wrapping its regular season within the next couple of days, and they (whether it be InDemand, which provides the MLB, NHL, NBA, MLS, and college packages to digital cable, or the satellite operators) usually offer the last week of the season for free, in the clear. Since most cable operators assigned the MLB and NHL games on the same section of channels, there's another reason why you get the NHL games in the clear right now.

 

[sandiegoinexile]

I wish I'd posted this earlier sports fans but I happened to scroll the digital stations just for the hell of it. All of a sudden we had a ton of "free" hockey and baseball games..... I saw a message at the bottom of the screen that the MLB portion was "only" $159 for the season.....Assuming you are a huge baseball fan/junkie is the package worth $159?

I think most cable companies have been doing this for 5-6 years now. I know that both Cox and TimeWarner have always done it. In 2007, DirecTV won exclusivity and only a last-minute agreement made "Extra Innings" available to cable subscribers. DishNetwork customers cannot subscribe until the Dish folks "match" the $$$ deal that DirecTV made with MLB.

I subscribed in 2003 and loved watching all the STL Cardinal games while living in Phoenix. I didn't renew, simply because I found I watched TOO MANY games. It was baseball, baseball, baseball every day for 6 months. I dropped the package and decided to enjoy the 20-25 games that make it each year to ESPN, WGN, and the AZ-STL games.

Usually I got 6 STL games a week. The Saturday games were usually blocked by Evil Fox.

MLB and NHL share channels on most cable systems.

There is also generally a FREE PREVIEW in the week AFTER both ALLSTAR games (MLB and NHL). The price is reduced (a bit), but you basically can pay nothing and get at least four weeks of broadcasts.

1. First Week of MLB Season (often overlaps with last week of NHL season)
2. Week After MLB All-Star Game
3. First Week of NHL Season (often overlaps with last week of MLB season)
4. Week After NHL All-Star Game

As soon as the schedules come out, I usually mark my calendar to enjoy the Free Preview.

 

[DToTheJ]

I've noticed that, according to the InDemand schedule, they're starting to carry more and more Phillies games carried by Comcast SportsNet Philadelphia. Previously, none if any of their games made it into these packages because their signal was not digital, thus excluded from satellite carriage. But on their website, there's about a handful of Phils games via "CSN-P" this month alone.

 

[smaug07]

Yep. I have a friend who subscribes to MLB because she's a Yankees fan living in West Virginia. She says she wishes she could just pay a fee to be able to get YES NETWORK down there rather than getting every other game as well.

DirecTV now offers dual feeds of games on MLB Extra Innings, so if it is possible for her to set up a dish, I would recommend it. I am a Yankee fan in New England, have subscribed for almost ten years and love it. And this year I'll be able to get almost all the games from the YES network (only games vs. the Red Sox will be blacked out, and I'll have to watch them on NESN), thanks to the dual feeds, and almost all in HD! DirecTV is offering anywhere from 50 to 60 games a week in HD, which is incredible, considering cable can only offer about 10 games per week.

 

[vibe]

well the preview is over; it is a pretty good service if you enjoy baseball. As a consumer I'd consider it for the last several months of the season when the games really matter. Yeah, a game in April is worth the same as in Sept...

 

[DToTheJ]

And to think us cable subscribers wouldn't be receiving this service if it wasn't for John Kerry... ;D

 

[Studio20]

Wish it had gone another week or so. I didnt' get to hear Vin Scully, THE baseball voice. For some reason, the Dodgers-Padres game on Channel 9 never made Sundays ppv.

As far as the Yankees go, all you need is basic cable. All the Yanks vs Red Sox games this week will either be on ESPN or Fox.

<yawn>

There are other teams in the league..arent there?

 

[vibe]

I think the cable company cut the cord here at 11pm (EST) which affected watching any west coast games last nite.

 

[DToTheJ]

Wish it had gone another week or so. I didnt' get to hear Vin Scully, THE baseball voice. For some reason, the Dodgers-Padres game on Channel 9 never made Sundays ppv.

Usually, baseball games that air on OTA stations (as opposed to RSN's) rarely make it into the Extra Innings package. Maybe a few Twins games via WFTC might sneak in, but that's about it.

 

[ansky212]

As far as the Yankees go, all you need is basic cable. All the Yanks vs Red Sox games this week will either be on ESPN or Fox.

The Friday night game isn't, as far as I can tell.

 

[JeeperOne]

Hi everyone:

As far as the hockey games, the NHL is wrapping its regular season within the next couple of days, and they (whether it be InDemand, which provides the MLB, NHL, NBA, MLS, and college packages to digital cable, or the satellite operators) usually offer the last week of the season for free, in the clear. Since most cable operators assigned the MLB and NHL games on the same section of channels, there's another reason why you get the NHL games in the clear right now.

And since the NHL (And now the NBA in areas where cable operators have assigned it with MLB) really gives a you-know-what at this point because it really isn't worth charging fans for only a small handful of games while the NBA & NHL wrap up their seasons (In fact if anything, they likely figure it HURTS them more than it HELPS them in the Image Department).

In these cases, they likely foot the bill to the cable companies who gladly pay it because they know that fans get league packages such MLB Extra Innings via their service.

That's why you get NHL (And again in some places NBA) games in the clear along with MLB games.

Hope that helps explains things

Cheers

 

[JeeperOne]

Hi everyone:

I think most cable companies have been doing this for 5-6 years now. I know that both Cox and TimeWarner have always done it. In 2007, DirecTV won exclusivity and only a last-minute agreement made "Extra Innings" available to cable subscribers. DishNetwork customers cannot subscribe until the Dish folks "match" the $$$ deal that DirecTV made with MLB.

You should see the Baseball Mix channel (Channel 720) and StrikeZone Channel (Channel 721) that DirecTV has.

Watching the Mix channel is like having your very own control room (In fact, they're all like that. That's THE ONLY way I can watch CBS College Sports right now). The StrikeZone Channel was like watching continuous updates of every game COMPLETE WITH LIVE LOOK-INS. that's something you don't get very much of on ESPN unless something really exciting is happening (Such as a pitcher being only an out away from a no-hitter or perfect game). THEN they will go live EVEN IF THE ONLY FEEDS AVAILABLE ARE BOTH FROM FOX SPORTS NET They'll take it if it's better than nothing at all.

That said, I think ESPN would much prefer to go to the non-FSN channels such as Altitude and STO if at all possible for bonus coverage of live events.

I subscribed in 2003 and loved watching all the STL Cardinal games while living in Phoenix. I didn't renew, simply because I found I watched TOO MANY games. It was baseball, baseball, baseball every day for 6 months. I dropped the package and decided to enjoy the 20-25 games that make it each year to ESPN, WGN, and the AZ-STL games.

Usually I got 6 STL games a week. The Saturday games were usually blocked by Evil Fox.

You're forgetting feature any games on the main FOX network featuring the Diamondbacks and/or Padres playing the Cardinals. Don't forget those.

Cheers