YouTube TV Drops Fox Sports Regional Networks

[Diesel]

Does MLB and its TV affiliates (mostly Fox Sports channels) realize how idiotic they are being by not being available to be watched on major providers? YouTube TV just cancelled FSN on their platform, Dish Network has not had that channel for nearly a year now, and many other services do not play the baseball games on the platform anymore. I personally don’t do it, but it’s pretty easy to find these games online illegally. Shouldn’t MLB want people to be able to watch the games? MLB also blacks out games for people within a specific area around a team under their own subscription, meaning Iowa and Las Vegas can’t watch several teams, and all of Canada can’t watch the Blue Jays unless they have that specific cable channel. Even when games are on national channels, it seems like the Yankees/Red Sox/Cubs get the majority of games, with elite small market teams like the Rays, Twins, and Athletics barely get mentioned by the east coast.

[mhanson93]

Yeah, I just got the email stating YouTube TV was dropping all the FOX Regional Sports Networks.  I had just switched to it after PS Vue folded. Grrrr.  I guess Hulu+ still has them, but I wonder for how long.  Sling TV recently dropped them too.  You would think Sinclair Broadcasting would not want to see their subscriber numbers drop for the RSN's...

[AdoreAdorno]

Try being a Twins fan in the "Twins Territory" of Iowa. MLB owners have traded lucrative short term financial windfalls with archaic regional sports networks and it only cost them the alienation of two, going on three generations of American baseball fans. 

 

 

  

[Parker Hageman]

if you are cord cutter like me, you've probably entered into an agreement with YouTube TV, mainly because they were one of the few options that carried Fox Sports North. 

 

News came today that Youtube TV and Sinclair Broadcasting could not come to a deal and will be dropping Fox Sports North on February 29th.

 

 

This leaves fewer options outside of returning to cable. Hulu Live is one of the last subscription-based dealers that will carry Fox Sports North this coming season. 

 

Might have to settle for the Twins Radio Network in 2020. 

[Doctor Gast]

Thanks for the heads up. A real bummer

[Brock Beauchamp]

And I was just about to renew YouTube TV for the season.

 

Blech, as Hulu isn't a great alternative, seeing how they don't carry MLBN.

[Brock Beauchamp]

Anyway, while I despise Amazon for a multitude of reasons, this is why I wanted to see them gobble up the FSN regional brands when they went on the block.

 

Amazon would actively work to destroy the regional model blackout system, which would be a win for consumers. It's 2020, there's no effing reason for this kind of nonsense to exist anymore. Why would FSN care if someone from Colorado wanted to give them money to watch baseball, basketball, and hockey?

 

Frankly, the entire system is idiotic.

[woolywoolhouse]

T-Mobile just announced that they would again be giving their subscribers free access to MLB.TV this season. There's browsers with built-in VPNs that will help with that.

[jkcarew]

So, where does that leave us?...service providers unwilling to pay increasing prices for the content...and networks themselves treating MLB as second-tier content. Oh...and average game attendance slightly below where it was in 1993.

 

You know what this calls for, right?

 

Expansion.

[Yoke]

I just switched from Sling back to cable, since it ended up being about the same price to get cable and internet vs. Sling and internet (plus a better channel lineup).

 

I don't get why the RSN's are such a pain in the ass, but the streaming services just aren't as great as they once were, IMO. When I first got Vue, it was cheaper and had all the channels someone would want. Then they got rid of 10 channels and raised the prices. Switched to Sling and they raised the prices, then got rid of FSN.

[Thrylos]

21st Century Fox was bought by Disney that sold the Fox sports networks to Sinclair Broadcasting Group.  Sinclair has been in the red last quarter and they are trying to increase prices to reverse that.  YouTube aka google aka alphabet made a profit of $35 billion last year.  They can afford it, esp. if they lose customers.

[Gernzy]

 

  On 2/27/2020 at 8:00 PM, Yoke said:

I just switched from Sling back to cable, since it ended up being about the same price to get cable and internet vs. Sling and internet (plus a better channel lineup).

 

I don't get why the RSN's are such a pain in the ass, but the streaming services just aren't as great as they once were, IMO. When I first got Vue, it was cheaper and had all the channels someone would want. Then they got rid of 10 channels and raised the prices. Switched to Sling and they raised the prices, then got rid of FSN.

 

This is exactly why I still have Comcast. I've thought about switching to Sling or Hulu but the cost is not much less when you add everything up. I mostly just watch local sports too. It sucks that there are barely any options left to view them.

[Brock Beauchamp]

  On 2/27/2020 at 8:57 PM, Thrylos said:

21st Century Fox was bought by Disney that sold the Fox sports networks to Sinclair Broadcasting Group.  Sinclair has been in the red last quarter and they are trying to increase prices to reverse that.  YouTube aka google aka alphabet made a profit of $35 billion last year.  They can afford it, esp. if they lose customers.

I have no love for Disney but they were forced to sell the regional sports stations to get regulatory approval to buy the rest of Fox.

 

Which is too bad, as Sinclair is just awful.

[scottz]

Well, poop.

[Rutjers]

So what are the options now to see the Twins game if you don't have cable? I have YouTube TV. Are there just two choices: switch to HULU or go back to cable? Are there other options? I appear to be int he MLB.TV blackout area. Is there any other way to subscribe to FSN North online? Is there any direct subscription to FSN North? Fox Sports Go only seems to work if you subscribe to cable, then you can watch games on a laptop, tablet, etc. Is that all Fox Sports Go is?

[theBOMisthebomb]

  On 2/27/2020 at 6:35 PM, AdoreAdorno said:

Try being a Twins fan in the "Twins Territory" of Iowa. MLB owners have traded lucrative short term financial windfalls with archaic regional sports networks and it only cost them the alienation of two, going on three generations of American baseball fans.

 

 

Iowa is not Twins Territory. Maybe Mason City.

[bobs]

Guess I won't be adding YouTube TV.  Dropped Hulu b/c price jumped $15/month and you have limited times you can switch your location.  Could be getting to know Provus and Dazzle better again...

[bobs]

...to make matter worse, we live in a blackout area for Twins games, so mlb.tv isn't an option.  Any ideas guys?

[CharlieDee]

I dropped Dish because I could no longer watch the Twins. Switched to Youtube tv and now they're dropping FSN?   WTF!!!!

[Shaitan]

Given how many providers are dropping Fox, I'm thinking the issue lies on Fox and not the other way around.

 

I didn't realize YouTube TV comes via Sinclair...which is interesting in its own confusing multimedia way.

[Rich]

If you have MLB.TV and are in a blackout area, consider watching the game the next day after work. The blackout games are available as archived games approximately 90 minutes after the conclusion of the game. 

[Mr. Brooks]

  On 2/28/2020 at 1:16 AM, Shaitan said:

Given how many providers are dropping Fox, I'm thinking the issue lies on Fox and not the other way around.

 

I didn't realize YouTube TV comes via Sinclair...which is interesting in its own confusing multimedia way.

YouTube TV doesn't come via Sinclair.

Sinclair owns the Fox Sports channels.

[IndianaTwin]

 

  On 2/28/2020 at 1:34 AM, Rich said:

If you have MLB.TV and are in a blackout area, consider watching the game the next day after work. The blackout games are available as archived games approximately 90 minutes after the conclusion of the game. 

 

And miss the Game Thread? You’ve got to be kidding!

[Otto von Ballpark]

I use a site called suppose.tv to compare TV providers. You just enter your location in the top left, select what channels you want below that, and it shows you what providers offer that in your location and how much they cost.

 

https://www.suppose.tv/tv?m=15&f=1l15l160l250l100l1l0lll1&r=BJKPJZU4U

 

YouTube TV was indeed the best deal ($50) for Fox Sports North before this mess. Now it is Hulu Live TV ($55). Another, more expensive streaming option is AT&T TV Now (formerly DirecTV Now, $80).

 

They also show satellite providers, but those usually come with a contract. At least streaming providers are just month to month and can be picked up or dropped at any time.

[Otto von Ballpark]

  On 2/28/2020 at 2:28 AM, IndianaTwin said:

And miss the Game Thread? You’ve got to be kidding!

Maybe he is also in the Twins Daily blackout area.

[Tom Froemming]

 

  On 2/27/2020 at 8:00 PM, Yoke said:

I just switched from Sling back to cable, since it ended up being about the same price to get cable and internet vs. Sling and internet (plus a better channel lineup).

 

I don't get why the RSN's are such a pain in the ass, but the streaming services just aren't as great as they once were, IMO. When I first got Vue, it was cheaper and had all the channels someone would want. Then they got rid of 10 channels and raised the prices. Switched to Sling and they raised the prices, then got rid of FSN.

If cable would let me go month-to-month like the streaming services do, I'd go back. My fear is the instant I sign up for Comcast I'm gonna get a notification that they've also dropped FSN. At that point, it'd be worthless to me.

 

All I want is the Twins games, nothing else. This shouldn't be so difficult.

[Tom Froemming]

Maybe Victory Sports One wasn't such a bad idea ...

[Riverbrian]

Baseball is currently contractually obligated to choke off it's supply lines. 

 

How many customers and how much does each customer spend is a pretty simplistic formula but it sums it up revenue generation nicely. 

 

Failing to reach new customers requires getting the existing customers to spend more. However, by forcing them to spend more... it naturally reduces them further. That's the slippery slope.

 

Baseball needs to go the opposite direction. It needs to charge less per customer in an effort to gain a bigger more diverse customer base. 10 People paying 10 bucks is $100. 100 people playing 1 buck is the same revenue. You can raise the price on a 100 people you can't on 10.

 

However, Baseball can't do this because it has become reliant upon the revenue produced by selling the broadcast rights to entities that are also knee deep in the process of charging more to cover for having less to charge from. 

 

Cable is losing numbers, radio is losing numbers, newspapers are losing numbers and baseball is along for the ride because they signed the contracts. 

 

Baseball needs to be everywhere and they need to be everywhere yesterday. Broadcast rights, exclusivity, blackout rules all stand in the way. 

 

A large contingent of already roped in baseball fans like to call Manfred an idiot because he suggesting changes to Grandpa's game. Pace of play, Increasing the number of playoff teams is probably screaming off the pages of his research. Yet, the roped in baseball fan contingent dismiss it out of hand while they still think it's Ok to bean a guy in the back for showing emotion. The old school fan has become an additional roadblock for Manfred to navigate.  

 

Trevor Bauer was right about what baseball needs to do but he fails to suggest how to extricate itself from the current situation which is caused by the owners, players union and broadcast partners fighting over our money. 

[AdoreAdorno]

 

  On 2/27/2020 at 11:52 PM, theBOMisthebomb said:

Iowa is not Twins Territory. Maybe Mason City.

 

 

Seriously? Not that "Twins Territory" is a well defined concept, but I would bet their marketing people would include Iowa. If you go by radio stations, you can get the Twins out of Mason City, Spencer, Iowa Falls, Cedar Rapids, and Des Moines. That's a lot of Iowa. The fan base has also most certainly been on the rise here in eastern Iowa. First because of the Twin's recent awesomeness, but also because the single A Cedar Rapids Kernels, which the Twins took over in 2013 and are a very successful minor league operation. Prior to that there was no Twins radio in most of eastern Iowa. Mason City may well have been the only signal. Most TV packages in Eastern Iowa carry Chicago regional sports networks, but my sense is that Twins fans rival Cubs fans from Iowa City northward.  

[beckmt]

YOu will have to find a way around  it.  Start with using Fire sticks rather than Roku (they are programmable).  From there it is easy, but my wife is not techy enough to do this, so I do must of the hard work after a friend (for a price, programmed the stick for me).  My son says he has several of those friend, but you might have to be out of the blackout area.  I am currently in Florida for the winter.