MLBTV: The Greatest App Ever

I obviously love baseball, but I am convinced Major League Baseball does not enjoy making money. I already wrote about their poor scheduling on opening day followed by very few games on the next day, a Friday, which was just weird. But now I am here to write about television coverage. A few weeks ago, there was one of those weird travel days for both the NBA and NHL during the finals. Would you believe it that not one single baseball game was on primetime? ESPN was showing a 30 for 30 on American gladiators and an encore of a college softball game. Mind you, the Mets beat the Phillies in a 2 run ball game on MLB Network which is no longer supported by basic cable or elevated sport packages on streaming sites. For a league that is losing fans (the slight uptick this year being abnormal), it’s inexcusable to just throw away these opportunities to attract fans to the game.

I say all of this with a huge positive to follow. MLBTV is truly amazing. MLBTV broadcasts every game from every team minus local blackouts (i.e Cubs and Yankees), thus making it an exact 1 to 1 replica of NFL Sunday Ticket. What that really means is you unlock the ability to watch 162 games for TWENTY NINE TEAMS. That is a total of 4698 games of baseball unlocked for $120 annually. There is just so much baseball to be had. One cool feature is that you can choose which broadcast to listen to. It seems like a silly feature, but you actually learn the unique backstories of the players listening to their local broadcast. You can also set alerts for specific players to see all of their at bats and set up picture in picture to watch multiple games at once. Truly a sweet app. Of course, I have a complaint. MLBTV isn’t marketed at all. Let’s compare it to NFL Sunday Ticket a little further.

There is only one coverage per game. There is the ability to set player/team updates based on your fanhood/ fantasy lineup. But NFL Sunday Ticket also has local blackouts therefore totaling 527 total games for $300 annually. All in all, the apps are pretty similar, but with MLBTV you receive just under 9 times the games for just over 1/3 of the price of Sunday Ticket. It is a steal as a sports fan. The biggest thing to mention is there is just no advertising for MLBTV. I wasn’t allowed to open the Youtube TV app for weeks without declining an NFL Sunday Ticket offer. It was obnoxious. I ask you as the reader, have you EVER seen an advertisement for MLBTV? Why is it not talked about to open every MLB game? It is the best app in the game!!!

In conclusion, I love MLBTV and can’t say enough good things about it. It is far superior to NFL Sunday Ticket. But overall, it just seems like the MLB has a genuine disinterest in fans watching their games on TV. Right now, baseball needs to get the fans interest back via TV and then they will return to the parks so the owners can get their money on concessions, etc.