Report: MLB.TV Blackouts Will Now Affect In-Person Games

No baseball for you

No baseball for you!

By Ryan David

NEW YORK - On Sunday, Major League Baseball announced that MLB.TV “blackouts”  — an oft-reviled policy that prevents fans from watching out-of-network games  —  will expand to in-person matchups.

Previously, blackouts prevented local providers and MLB.TV from airing games whose exclusive broadcast rights were owned by another network, like FOX. 

With the new rules, ballparks will now turn away fans for out-of-network games, a decision many are saying will add to the already convoluted streaming process. 

“I need AppleTV to watch the Buccos lose twenty-one to nothing?” said Pittsburgh Pirates fan Jay Goff. “Am I supposed to get ‘blackout’ drunk at home too? This sucks.”

Hoping to curb disappointment amidst its troubled efforts to connect with a younger fan base, MLB is implementing measures that capture sights, sounds, and experiences of in-person baseball for at-home consumption. 

Viewers will still be cut off from alcohol after the seventh inning, forced to pay exorbitant food and drink prices, and for an added monthly fee, able to have inebriated fans virtually scream obscenities at their families. 

“Games have never been so accessible,” cheerily remarked Commissioner Rob Manfred. “AppleTV has Monday Night Baseball; ESPN+ gets Thursday games; Saturday afternoons are on YouTube TV; Hulu Sports airs Sunday morning contests; and The Food Network carries Sunday afternoon doubleheaders on dates ending in prime numbers. Is that so hard to remember?”

One of the other glaring drawbacks of the new rule, unfortunately, cannot be mitigated. Concession workers, ticket attendants, and ballpark personnel won’t be paid for blacked-out games, though Major League Baseball has vowed to offer free three-month trials of Disney+ as compensation.

“It was either this or more commercials,” Manfred added. “Just kidding. We’re doing that too.”

End of the Bench will have more on this story as soon as we figure out what channel we’re on.

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