#MLB TV TV#
Which Streaming TV Customers Are Affected? And you can use your login credentials for those services to stream games on phone and tablet apps. The games are still available on cable and satellite services that have agreements with regional sports networks. And there has been no agreement to rectify the situation in time for the 2021 baseball season.Īnd to further complicate matters, it recently was revealed that Sling TV no longer will carry MASN or the NBC Sports regional networks. This has already affected NBA and NHL fans trying to watch local teams via live stream. In the latter half of 2020, the Sinclair-owned sports networks (usually branded as “Fox Sports” networks) were removed from services such as YouTube TV after Sinclair failed to reach a new contract agreement with the popular live streaming service. Sinclair is responsible for broadcasting local telecasts of 14 MLB teams, 17 NBA teams and 13 NHL teams. If you’re missing out on your local games for the first time this season, it may be because you subscribe to a streaming service that no longer airs them.Īnd in many cases, that’s because those games air on a regional sports network that is owned by Sinclair Broadcasting Group.
Why Many Fans Won’t Have Access to Local Baseball Games in 2021 The idea, from a broadcast contract perspective, is that you either watch the local team on your regional sports network or you don’t watch it at all. If a Braves game is broadcast nationally on a platform such as ESPN, it will be “blacked out,” that is, not aired, in that regional sports network’s local TV market. This includes nationally-televised games for the local team. People living inside the coverage area of a regional sports network have to subscribe to a cable or streaming service that carries the network in order to watch their team’s games.
In our Braves example, the regional sports network has been Fox Sports South for many years.
These are referred to as “regional sports networks.” When you’re physically located in a team’s local television market, the only way you’re supposed to be able to watch games is through regional television affiliates that have contracts with Major League Baseball. Major League Baseball teams have regions of the country that are considered their “local television markets.”įor example, people who live in Georgia (and parts of other nearby states) are in the Atlanta Braves’ local television market.
#MLB TV HOW TO#
#MLB TV PASSWORD#
Borrow a Cable Password From a Family Member Change Your Streaming Subscription to DIRECTV STREAM Some Potential Solutions To Watch Local Baseball Games in 2021.Which Streaming TV Customers Are Affected?.Why Many Fans Won’t Have Access to Local Baseball Games in 2021.
How Local Broadcasts for MLB Games Work.