‘Networkless’ Sports Gets To First Base With Postseason.TV

Posted by Jonathan in TELEVISION on 10-29-10    No Comments


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With the Cablevision and News Corp continuing their ridiculous carriage feud into a simply numbing second week, it is remarkable how much alternative sports content I am finding as I seek to work around the traditional multi-channel cable and satellite packages.

And for a change, we’re not talking about stolen bit torrents or gray market uStream feeds, but legit first-quality game footage, available online from the league at great prices.

Case in point, check out Postseason.TV, the $9.95 extended content service from MLB.com.

Postseason.TV is simple: For $10 you get an impressive four-stream view of the game, choices of up to eight camera angles, very nice stat and on-demand packages and a pretty slick At Bat 2010 integration, which tosses the game to the iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch — which looked tremendous with the new Retina display, by the way. Now, of course this is based on the Fox network feed, and for those of us in New York, being held hostage by Cablevision and News Corp, just getting to see the games is nice. But this view is pretty impressive for the fan. You really do get a much more immersive feel for the event. But even better, it not only lets users get around the petty News Corp-Cablevision dust up, it really trashes the entire cable TV business.

I can see this without having to pay for a full bucket of programing I don’t want. And MLB.com has priced the service just right. Considering that a lot of traditional cable packages now run $800 or $900 a year — while the broadband connection that I need to connect to MLB.com can be had for about $480 a year — I can spend $300 or $400 a year on a la carte content and still be ahead of the game.

As you are going to hear me say now and for the foreseeable future, sports is a public trust that content creators and broadcasters share with fans. If they cannot be responsible enough to deliver on that trust, there is no room for them anymore. Hey, our friends in the print journalism business are having a tough time these days because the Internet changed the way people get their news. Looks like the same type of shakeout could be on the way for cable companies.

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  5. As the streaming world turns: MLB finds its place on the Web


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