Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred says he wants to eliminate broadcast blackouts -- the mechanism that prevents fans from streaming games in their own market.
\"What I\'d like to see happen over time is, we do our national deals, that we convert some of that local inventory into national inventory. It increases our reach and at the same time, when you think about it, we own the out-of-market rights already, if we control local rights as well, we can sell anything anywhere,\" Manfred said during an appearance on John Ourand\'s The Varsity podcast for Puck.
\"You don\'t have to just sell in your market. And I\'d like to get into a mode, where if it\'s not in a national package, the consumer has the ability to go in, buy what he wants to watch, wherever he is, and we get rid of that really questionable business concept of the blackout, meaning not letting people who want to watch, watch.\"
Ending all blackouts will be a lengthy process. There are existent broadcast contracts that have and will continue to stipulate such matters.
Via Awful Announcing