Comment by jackconsidine

+1. Our kids' experience watching sports on TV is so much more cynical for it.

You'd think it would be relatively easy for the leagues to provide separate streams that omit gambling ads (and maybe sell that ad space to others).

I fully support sports gambling being legal but holy shit, the legalization of sports gambling in the USA had such a terrible effect on sports coverage.

I have not watched the MLB in a while so I don't know specifically what you are talking about but I can imagine.

I'm not saying this isn't happening, the fact that the RSNs are (mostly?) owned by betting companies does not help.

But, anecdotally, my local (Angels) broadcasts don't talk about it at all. I listen to MLB Radio, and their day time shows barely touch on it (I'm pretty sure there's a odds making show on the radio, but not during prime time in the day).

MLB Network on TV, I do not see it in their main shows. MLB Central doesn't (I don't think, I'm honestly not a regular viewer) really touch on it. MLB Now doesn't, nor does MLB Tonight or Quick Pitch (their overnight highlight show).

There's ads, there's ads in the stadium (big BET MGM sign in Yankee stadium, for example).

So, anyway, on the periphery, it's certainly there, but the shows the MLB seems to put their brand on, I'm not seeing that much of it.

The closest I've see is on the Apple TV broadcasts where they might put up a "28% chance to get on base" in the corner for a batter. Interesting, perhaps, statistic, but I don't know that it necessarily encourages betting.

Unfortunately the future of sports media is ownership by parent companies that also own sports betting sites. The yearly revenue of the largest gambling sites in the US rivals the combine revenue of the MLB, NHL, NBA, and NFL, and some major sports coverage media outlets.

Penn entertainment for example acquired Barstool Sports and The Score, and entered into a 10-year deal with ESPN to create ESPN-bet, for cash and a stake in the company. ESPN is now directly invested in the gambling industry.

It's interesting to watch as an international viewer. Sports gambling here has been legal forever and although we get betting company ads during commercial breaks (and some sponsorship stuff) the US has managed to legalise it and make it toxic almost instantly. Commentators and pundits should not be giving odds on air (with rare exceptions). Pundits shouldn't be giving 'their' betting picks. The problem isn't gambling - it's the excess to which it's been implemented.

Root Sports in Seattle started streaming this year at $20 a month. We haven't been watching baseball in recent years because we don't have cable or OTA TV. Root Sports Streaming at $20/mo was a bargain, and it turned out everyone in the family (Mom, Dad, two adult sons) was totally onboard. And of course it was a great year to catch all the games.

And now the Mariners are closing down Root Sports and putting their TV on MLBTV next season. I hope they don't price us right out of baseball again.

Baseball is the perfect sport for our modern screen in hand times. Lots of down time to interact with your phone and any non-routine play will be shown on replay if you don't look up in time.

Football works pretty well for this too. Hockey and Basketball require attention.

Baseball's biggest issue is that their biggest teams are also co-owners of their cable channels (and were trailblazers in this, with the Yankees and the YES Network). They don't care if you go to the game, they want you to get a cable subscription that has your local RSN, ESPN, TBS, your local FOX affiliate, and FS1 so that you can watch your team play. And that's not including games that may wind up on streaming platforms.

The post you replied to included this:

> I read that part of baseball's decline from the premiere American sport was due to its outdated revenue model (strict reliance on ticket sales). The NFL in 80s really embraced TV and reached more fans and here we are. MLB has been recently way ahead of the curve on streaming (MLB.tv, AWS StatCast etc).

I'm _hoping_ (although numbers don't seem to be showing it as a huge success as of yet) is that the Apple-MLS deal works well enough that other leagues are at least open to the idea of a no-blackout, all-inclusive package.

Yeah the out-of-market-only rules of the national sports subscriptions is really goofy. I guess they’re trying to protect the Comcasts of the world who own a lot of those regional sports networks where the baseball games are shown, because they pay a lot for those deals and would probably refuse to pay as much if MLB let MLB.tv have them. But it still sucks.

That's my biggest complaint as well. The MLB streaming service needs to have an everything tier. I understand that teams want to sell rights locally, but figure it out. Charge me whatever you need to charge me and share the revenue with the local team. Just make it easy for me to watch!

I too live in Austin and I watched more Toronto Blue Jays, SF Giants, and LA Dodgers games than Rangers games this year.

MLB.tv with a vpn. Works for the postseason too :)

I'd happily pay ~300/yr for a streaming subscription that gets me all those games though...

If you can get along with audio only, Sirius has a subscription that includes every MLB game.