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"Sunday Leadoff" MLB Baseball Games Only Available on Peacock Plus ($$ Subscription Required), Even if Games are Usually on Bally or other RSNs

M

Mikey Radio

Our Bally Sports RSN normally airs all our team's MLB team's games...But I noticed that, on that team's Instagram feed, it mentioned that fans could only watch today's game (Sunday) on Peacock Plus, which requires a $4.99 subscription unless you have Comcast or Cox. I then received an e-mail from the team, stating the same. In the FAQs, I saw the following:

Sunday's game will be televised exclusively on Peacock. There are two ways to watch.
  1. Launch the Peacock app and select the game directly from there, or
  2. From the MLB.TV app, tap on the Peacock game to be redirected to the Peacock app (where available).
Pregame coverage begins at 11:30 a.m.
A Peacock Premium subscription is required to view live games. For more information on how to watch, visit MLB.TV/peacock and check out our FAQs below.
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Do I need to have a Peacock account to watch MLB Sunday Leadoff games?

Yes. You need to have a Peacock Premium account. Please visit peacocktv.com to get started.

Can I watch the MLB Sunday Leadoff games with any other existing subscription (e.g., Bally Sports, etc.)?​

No. MLB Sunday Leadoff games are exclusive to Peacock. There will be no out-of-market restrictions (i.e. no local-market black outs) and the games will be nationally available.

Do I need to pay to watch the live MLB Sunday Leadoff games on Peacock?​

Yes. Premium is your key to unlocking everything Peacock has to offer. You’ll get access to live sports and events, plus, full seasons of exclusive Peacock Original series, next-day airings of current NBC & Telemundo hits, and every movie and show available on Peacock – all for $4.99. There is always something new to discover on Peacock Premium.
Peacock Premium is available at no additional cost if you are an eligible Xfinity or Cox customer.
Click to expand...
 
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Correct, in fact of all the so-called "exclusive" deals, this is the only one that's really exclusive. Even if you have a paid plan with MLB.com, you must watch on Peacock. The AppleTV games are also available through the paid MLB.com plan.
 
TheBigA said:
Correct, in fact of all the so-called "exclusive" deals, this is the only one that's really exclusive. Even if you have a paid plan with MLB.com, you must watch on Peacock. The AppleTV games are also available through the paid MLB.com plan.
Click to expand...
ESPN Sunday Night Baseball is also exclusive, as is the Fox Saturday game in your local market, although the other regional Fox games are on MLB.TV.
 
TheBigA said:
The AppleTV games are also available through the paid MLB.com plan.
Click to expand...
No, they are not. If you try to watch an AppleTV game through the MLB.TV platform it will direct you to AppleTV+. However, the Apple games are currently free, so it is sort of immaterial until Apple puts them behind the paywall.
 
PTBoardOp94 said:
No, they are not. If you try to watch an AppleTV game through the MLB.TV platform it will direct you to AppleTV+. However, the Apple games are currently free, so it is sort of immaterial until Apple puts them behind the paywall.
Click to expand...
Probably inevitable, though not this season. If AppleTV lands more sports by the time the 2023 season comes around, chances are it will have enough paying subscribers to put up a paywall without doing too much harm to the participating teams or MLB by shutting the vast majority of fans out of the games. The Peacock deal works because Comcast and Cox are huge. And, at least for Comcast, you don't even need to have its cable TV service to get Peacock Premium. It's included in the internet-only packages.
 
PTBoardOp94 said:
No, they are not. If you try to watch an AppleTV game through the MLB.TV platform it will direct you to AppleTV+. However, the Apple games are currently free, so it is sort of immaterial until Apple puts them behind the paywall.
Click to expand...

That was not my experience. I watch MLB.com through the Amazon Firestick, and I was able to watch the AppleTV broadcast without leaving MLB.
 
Any clue why this is being done? Is it to try and garner more interest in streaming services like AppleTV+ and Peacock Plus, or to condition viewers that streaming games and other content of interest to them may be the way of the future? (as was discussed on this site previously, some college football games this past season were also only available via streaming services). Out of interest, I switched on Bally Sports when today's MLB game would normally be airing there, and they just had a few older reruns of American Ninja Warrior, followed by beach volleyball. I then switched over to Peacock plus to watch a bit of the game. Not bad, they had 1 of the usual announcers from each of the 2 teams doing commentary.

While I realize the older demographic is really of no interest to most media companies and advertisers, they are the ones I feel a bit bad for here. My parents, for instance, watch their local MLB team religiously on their RSN, but they'd have no clue how to stream and if they could, they wouldn't want to watch the game on a small laptop screen and would have no idea how to connect a laptop to their TV to be able to view it there. In other words, the older generation who are some of the most loyal viewers, get left behind when they move to services like Peacock Plus.
 
Mikey Radio said:
Any clue why this is being done? Is it to try and garner more interest in streaming services like AppleTV+ and Peacock Plus, or to condition viewers that streaming games and other content of interest to them may be the way of the future?
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Yes, both. The streamers have lots of cash.
 
How many games for each team are being affected by the Apple+ and Peacock deals this season, out of 2,430 total games? Remember, we're talking about only two games on Friday and one on Sunday, and the Peacock games generally are not prime matchups. Next week's game is Tigers-Royals, 'nuff said. It's not like fans of teams that all play a 162-game schedule are being greatly inconvenienced by missing, I'd imagine, less than five of them.
 
The Apple+ games utilized the local announcing team, while the Peacock games only used the color commentator.

The day before the Peacock game, the local team explained what was happening.
 
CTListener said:
How many games for each team are being affected by the Apple+ and Peacock deals this season, out of 2,430 total games? Remember, we're talking about only two games on Friday and one on Sunday, and the Peacock games generally are not prime matchups. Next week's game is Tigers-Royals, 'nuff said. It's not like fans of teams that all play a 162-game schedule are being greatly inconvenienced by missing, I'd imagine, less than five of them.
Click to expand...
This particular season for this particular league and this particular sport, yes. But it is most likely the way of the future, especially for some college sports or games with a limited appeal that larger networks may not be interested in or cannot justify carrying, financially or otherwise. Again, it's not a bad thing and if people want certain programming in the future, they may simply need to pay a bit to view it. However, it's also a fair statement that those who don't understand the tech or have no interest, will be left out, at least until future tech makes it easier for them. Perhaps not a bit percentage and as mentioned, probably of a demographic that media companies and advertisers have little interest in.
 
I wonder if Apple maybe is doing additional games non-exclusively, just to get their team some reps? Because my StL Cardinals have been on Apple three times this season, and the announcing has been less than stellar.
 
Earlier in this thread I talked about seeing an Apple+ game on MLB. It may have been an Amazon game. Because I'm watching one now on MLB. I don't have Amazon Prime, but I can still see the game. They appear to be using the local announcers.
 
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