Where are My Sports?
Have you noticed how much money cable networks are spending to secure rights to professional sports broadcasts? In major markets like Los Angeles and New York, the deals are into the billions of dollars.
Why so crazy?
One word: commercials.
Live sports are the only way many companies feel they can really reach their audience using the tried and true method of airing commercials. Content providers like Fox Sports and Yes Network realize that, so they are willing to spend lavishly to secure the broadcast rights for their local teams.
In the era of the DVR, people often skip commercials on their recorded shows. But viewers don’t typically record sports. They like to watch them live so they don’t accidentally hear about the score through all the instant info options offered in our connected world. Ever accidentally see a Twitter post that said something like “I can’t believe [insert your favorite team] blew that huge lead and lost!” Kind of makes watching the game pointless, huh? Although, in a case like this, I guess it also would save some aggravation!
For cable cutters, there is a bit of a dilemma since over-the-air stations don’t usually carry your local team’s games other than a few times a season or perhaps when they are on the national broadcast. So if you are a big sports fan who wants to say goodbye to cable or satellite TV payments, it can be scary.
Let’s look at some of the options available.
Major League Baseball
MLB.com offers MLB.TV (around $130 per season or $20 per month), which allows you to watch your favorite out-of-market games on the web, on tablets, and on most of the streaming devices such as Roku and Apple TV. However, your local team’s games will be blacked out during the live broadcast even if they are playing on the road. Therein lies the problem for most fans.
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So what can you do if you want to watch the games live?
Well, if watching your local team’s games live is essential, there are a few “sneaky” options you can use to get around MLB’s restrictions.
Remember earlier when I said I’d mention a few “under the radar” techniques to view what you want if a viable alternative wasn’t available? Well, these would fall into that category.
1) First, there’s the magic of using a Slingbox, if you can talk a friend or relative into setting one up. The plan would be to have them set up the device on a TV that maybe isn’t used very often so that you could use it without interfering with their viewing. If your friend or relative is in your favorite team’s market and pay for cable or satellite TV, you can buy them the Slingbox device (about $200) and have them hook it up at their location. Then you would use the Slingbox software on your computer or tablet to be able to watch their TV as if you were sitting in front of it. So you could not only watch your games but even that occasional show that you might not be able to see first run through other means. The downside is it’s a bit pricey for this option and of course your friend or relative needs to have a fairly fast internet connection for it to work well. A heavy dose of bribery may also be required ;-)
2) There are software tools available to make it appear that your internet connection is coming from somewhere else. These tools use a proxy server to essentially hide your real IP address. Thus, on your computer anyway, you could watch your local team’s games since MLB.TV will “see” your connection as originating outside your local market. Since this is definitely a “black hat” solution, I won’t go into much more detail. A quick search online should give you all the information you need if you wish to go this route.
Neither of these options will let you watch through your television without going through some hoops. Unless, of course, you have a computer hooked up directly to your TV. That’s certainly easy enough to do with the connections available on most modern TVs. On my setup, I have a long HDMI connection that runs to the TV from my desktop computer. So anything I do on the computer can be shown on the TV. I don’t need to use that option much but it’s handy to have nonetheless.
NFL Football
The good news is that your local team’s games are typically available through the usual Fox, CBS and NBC affiliates in your market. Therefore it’s much easier to catch your hometown favorite than with MLB.
However, if you are like me and want to be able to watch all the Sunday games, you can still catch NFL Sunday Ticket from DirecTV without having to subscribe to their service. They have finally opened up, at least a little bit, and since 2011 have offered the package to PlayStation 3 owners. If you are an NFL diehard, this is a fantastic option! You can catch the Thursday and Monday night games at a local sports pub if you don’t have a way to get them at home. I suspect in the not too distant future both the Thursday (on NFL Network) and Monday night games (on ESPN) may offer viewing online.
The price for the PlayStation version is typically the same as the top tier option offered through DirecTV, so plan on about $300 for the season.
NFL Sunday Ticket on PlayStation 3
NBA Basketball
For hoop fans, the NBA offers a broadband League Pass in much the same fashion as its baseball counterpart and there is an NBA TV app available on Roku, Apple TV, and many other devices.
Again, the trick will be whether you have a local market team you want to watch. If you are outside the broadcast area of your favorite team –the NBA blackout rules are nowhere near as draconian as MLB’s – then simply subscribing to the service (in 2012 the price was $189 for a full package or $130 for 5 selected teams) is all you really need. If you are within the blackout restrictions area, however, you will have to follow something similar to what was suggested in the MLB section to catch your local market team.