MLB.tv decides they don't want viewers
Posted by Alex Tanzilli
Opening day for a new baseball season is a deep-rooted American tradition. It signals the coming of summer, the warming of the weather, and every baseball fan's team is still in first place, if for only a few more hours. As people move about the country, it's more difficult to keep up with your favorite team's live games if you're not in their broadcast range. Major League Baseball's official website for all video, MLB.tv, has a service that allows a fan to pay an amount and watch any games from their computer. The only restriction to what games can be seen is that if a citizen is in a "blackout" area, or an area where the game can be found on television, the game can't be shown.
Opening Day 2010 came upon us a few weeks ago and large numbers of subscribers to the service were told that the game they were trying to view was being blacked out in that area...regardless of where that area was. The ramifications for a business based around the online televising of live baseball games having a massive breakdown on arguably the biggest day of the season are far reaching. For every fan of a team that was excited about opening day, that excitement is now gone. The excitement of opening day can't be recreated, and the amount of potential subscribers lost because of a gaffe like this is substantial.
Read more about the ongoing issue here.