Brewers/Cubs Series

[blazza18]

Boxberger is an incredible name.

[StickeeFingaz]

So Cain bailed out Counsell.

[M-C-G]

Gritty start to the season.

[dbrodz7]

How can I stream the game now that Fox Sports is donezo? I have U-verse and I used to just login on Fox Sports Go, but it says the channel no longer exists if I try that now and I cannot find anything for Bally Sports streaming. Anyone know where I'm suppose to go now that they've switched?

The game shows up on http://foxsportsgo.com/ when I go there.

Yeah it should up for me too, then I clicked it and logged in and it said this channel no longer exists in your cable package and it refreshed it disappeared.

[WeekapaugGroove]

Read on Twitter

Ok, after hearing that I get making the switch.

Sent from my SM-G986U using RealGM mobile app

[humanrefutation]

It's always nice to win a series in Chicago.

[UWM_Brew_Buck]

How can I stream the game now that Fox Sports is donezo? I have U-verse and I used to just login on Fox Sports Go, but it says the channel no longer exists if I try that now and I cannot find anything for Bally Sports streaming. Anyone know where I'm suppose to go now that they've switched?

The game shows up on http://foxsportsgo.com/ when I go there.

Yeah it should up for me too, then I clicked it and logged in and it said this channel no longer exists in your cable package and it refreshed it disappeared.

Same thing happened to me yesterday. Looks like uverse doesn’t get games anymore.

[ReasonablySober]

The game shows up on http://foxsportsgo.com/ when I go there.

Yeah it should up for me too, then I clicked it and logged in and it said this channel no longer exists in your cable package and it refreshed it disappeared.

Same thing happened to me yesterday. Looks like uverse doesn’t get games anymore.

Yea, I have spectrum.

[WeekapaugGroove]

I don't live in WI so I get the MLBTV package but this whole nonsense with the regional FSNs is ridiculous. The ONLY way to get them in AZ is with traditional cable. I've been just finding streams for suns games.

Sinclair needs to figure this **** out or the sports leagues need to make a change. It's absurd not having access to your local teams.

Sent from my SM-G986U using RealGM mobile app

[MickeyDavis]

I don't live in WI so I get the MLBTV package but this whole nonsense with the regional FSNs is ridiculous. The ONLY way to get them in AZ is with traditional cable. I've been just finding streams for suns games.

Sinclair needs to figure this **** out or the sports leagues need to make a change. It's absurd not having access to your local teams.

Sent from my SM-G986U using RealGM mobile app

Daniel Kaplan had a good write-up.

Baseball’s Opening Day is beloved for generating hope, reviving seasonal rhythms and reminding those in colder climates that spring is just around the corner. Historically, it has also served as the inflection date for disputes between cable companies and regional sports channels to come to an end, another happy byproduct.

The thinking went that baseball is a must-have for both sides. That paradigm has been upturned in the advent of the streaming era. Sinclair’s 21 regional sports channels, branded under the moniker Bally Sports Regional Networks, have yet to cut broad deals with Sling, Hulu, YouTube TV and Fubo a week into the season. Throw in satellite carrier Dish, which has no deal with Sinclair, and that’s about 10 million homes.

“It’s become pretty clear that there just aren’t that many subscribers who will leave over the lack of an RSN,” media analyst Craig Moffett, of MoffettNathanson, wrote in an email. “The days of putting every RSN on the basic tier and forcing every non-fan to pay for them are over. And there’s strength in numbers. As more and more distributors decide to go ‘RSN-naked,’ it becomes easier for the next one to follow the same path.”

That is obviously an ominous picture for the RSN world. Still, Sinclair’s RSN’s are in about 60 million homes through more traditional cable providers like Comcast. And the company believes in the model, having in recent months signed long-term extensions with the Milwaukee Brewers and Miami Marlins. (One source pegged the Marlins’ rights fee at $50 million annually, a big leap from the $20 million Sinclair had previously been paying.)

Sinclair did not reply to a request for comment. In a statement to WVXU in Cincinnati last month on the dispute with two of the streamers, the company — referring to the channels by their old name, Fox — said: “Sinclair remains committed to reaching a fair agreement with both Hulu and YouTube TV to carry the Fox RSNs. At no time have we demanded exorbitant fees for these channels. Instead, we have consistently offered both pay-TV providers extremely fair deals in line with what hundreds of other TV services have agreed to and continue to agree to.”

Sinclair’s stock price has fallen 6 percent since the start of the year, compared to a 10 percent increase in the S&P 500 index, underscoring investor concern about the RSNs’ reach.

The bottom line for fans is that those who have cut the cord are not guaranteed to see their ballclubs play. That could actually spark a migration back to cable, one media expert said.

Cutting the cord was portrayed, said media analyst Patrick Crakes, as “low prices, everything’s going to be great, we’re sticking it to the cable company.” But that isn’t panning out.

“I will tell you that looking at research that’s been done on the under-30 cohorts about this, because of the price increases on the digital side, which had to happen,” Crakes said, “you’re now seeing this demographic switching back to traditional (operators) who don’t look traditional anymore because they also have their own digital component.”

FuboTV recently struck a deal to carry the Chicago Cubs’ new network, Marquee, launched with Sinclair, but none of the other RSNs. That, Crakes said, may portend something even more complex for fans: the streamers, and ultimately the cable operators, only carrying certain of the RSNs.

“Overall, though, I’d say we’re entering an era where not every distributor is going to have all channels,” he said. “In the case of RSNs, you see all the strategics (the large cable and satellite operators) making deals with RSNs across the board pretty much. The MASN deal with Comcast and DirecTV just being this week’s example. I can also see a world where Sinclair, Comcast and Charter don’t see all their RSNs carried by all distributors. For example, this summer we may see Dish re-up the Sinclair stations and 10 of the RSNs. It’s the next phase of evolution.”

Rich Greenfield of Lightshed is a noted Sinclair skeptic and thinks the whole model might collapse.

“The math doesn’t work,” the media analyst wrote in an email. “Look at Fubo. Had to raise prices in Chicago by $6 on every sub just to get a Marquee that has tiny viewership. I think over time, all cable/satellite and streamers will drop the RSNs.”

That ignores the fact that on any given night during the baseball season, an MLB game on an RSN is among the top-rated programs in the whole cable system. There is still strong regional demand. And it seems unlikely the teams could stream directly to consumers. There is just not enough money from such a project to come close to an RSN rights fee.

Perhaps some hybrid is in the offing among all the players. In the scenario outlined below, the cable operator is in the streaming mix along with the team and RSN.

“Also learned last night about some conversations between Sinclair and (cable operator) Charter about allowing broadband customers to pay a large fee to get their local RSNs,” said one source. “This is the only type of direct-to-consumer that can work. A system where … distributors, channels, teams work together to figure something out. … My guess is something like that could happen in a few years, but probably too early (now).”

Meanwhile, what is the hope for Bally Sports to be viewed anytime soon on Hulu or Sling or the other streamers? Crakes expects by August there may be some deals as the baseball season heats up. But even he shares the concerns of Moffett and Greenfield, whose pessimistic takes are that RSNs are overvalued already.

“By August, if the Sinclair RSNs don’t reappear,” Crakes said, “maybe they’re not coming.”