Comments on: Baseball Advances

By: Jessica

Jessica — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 13:01:49 +0000

I was reading yesterday that the relaunch of MLB.tv hasn’t gone smoothly, and that many subscribers are having trouble with streaming. So, blackouts, and tech problems … I admit, the service has limitations. And any online racing channel would have similar problems, with NY racing blocked to NY residents, exclusives, broadcast channels owning rights to certain races, etc. Still, it’s not impossible …

By: PTP

PTP — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 17:44:04 +0000

I don’t think this $75M figure is all that scary, when we look at what racing is doing. Day at the Track has a 4 video box that they spent $$ developing. I heard TS is spending millions on their video, and are improving it every day. Youbet has proprietary video. Each website pays for big bandwidth already. And there are many others.

What if each ADW and each racetrack decided that video was more than something to compete with and had everything on one website that they each contribute to? I think it is a possibility and would result in advancement for the medium.

However, there would be TV considerations with TVG, HRTV and HPITV here in Canada I guess. Regardless, this money is already being spent, we just do not hear about it much, and I dont think it is spent in the best way, or as good as it could be (with a plan).

By: o_crunk

o_crunk — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 12:05:02 +0000

I’ve looked into this MLB.tv stuff in my quest to fully divest myself of cable television. We’re *almost* at the point where it’s possible to live life with a television and have good content on demand and live streaming of events without giving one penny to a cable company (but still obviously paying for an internet connection).

But the problem with MLB.tv, similar to the problem that PTP mentions, is that there are local blackouts. As a Met fan in the metro area, I would not be able to watch Met games on MLB.tv.

The tech is there, unfortunately the powers that be are still getting in the way.

By: PTP

PTP — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 04:57:20 +0000

True story: I am at the cottage last year on Derby Day. I have wireless internet access, but no cable or sat TV, so I open my ADW and watch the Churchill card. Five minutes before post the screen goes blank and it tells me to watch it on NBC. I scoured looking for pirated TV via google for two minutes, gave up and called a friend to listen to it.

Another story. Back when I was a kid my cousin lived with us and he bet football. One Sunday he bet the Falcons. There was no TV coverage and scores were not given very often so he called Fulton County Stadium and asked the receptionist to give him the play by play for the last two minutes.

It is strange that I can read a post about MLB live streaming on an Iphone, and in the same breath I can relate a 1979 story and link it to 2009 racing.

Life is pretty wild in our business.

Ok, thankfully I am all storied-out.