4/3/18 - Can't find the Phillies on Comcast

jimbomill 2018-04-03 23:30:16 UTC #1

MLB Extra Innings lists the game, but the channel is Blacked out.
Anyone else find it on Comcast?

zambonir 2018-04-03 23:33:46 UTC #2

where do you live?

zambonir 2018-04-03 23:42:59 UTC #3

it's on the MLB Network nationally

jimbomill 2018-04-03 23:49:41 UTC #4

Across from Philly in Cherry Hill

jimbomill 2018-04-03 23:51:46 UTC #5

Channel on Comcast for that?

Eisenreich 2018-04-03 23:55:04 UTC #6

Jimbo is correct. In the local Philly market we have to watch tonight’s game on the NBC Sports streaming app. Tomorrow’s game can only be watched on Facebook! I am really irritated by this stuff. I live in South Jersey, I pay for cable, stop jerking me around MLB!

zambonir 2018-04-04 00:03:29 UTC #7

That decision is on NBC and Comcast I think. Facebook is another story.

jimbomill 2018-04-04 00:42:04 UTC #8

Holy crap - didn't see that one coming

zambonir 2018-04-04 00:58:04 UTC #9

I gather the Sixers and Flyers are both on TV tonight, is the problem. Dunno if they originally though one of them was going to be national or late season hoops and hockey just trump April baseball.

I'm out of market and didn't even think to check MLB Network, I just use MLB.TV anyway. I suppose I'll be able to cast the Facebook broadcast if I'm home for some of it.

julio 2018-04-04 01:08:35 UTC #10

Facebook broadcast has the additional advantage of exposing all your personal data to whatever platform apps on Facebook are currently mining said data. Enjoy.

Which is my way of noting that putting the game on Facebook at this time is a pretty lame PR move. Facebook has security issues. Getting into bed with them, now?

Personally - I deactivated my account. When they figure out how to provide a service that shares grandkids pictures, allows coordination of family events, lets us make contact with high school friends - but does NOT allow people to post malicious, idiotic or just ignorantly wrong information and spread it willy-nilly by "sharing" or "liking it - then maybe I'll reconsider. In the meantime, Facebook is a destructive force; I don't see staying in contact with friends I haven't seen in 40 years as worth the poisoning our our society that the massive spread of wrong, or deceptive or malicious misinformation has caused.

Just my two cents.

LoneStarPhan 2018-04-04 01:14:10 UTC #11

All part of the MLB campaign to drive fans away from baseball.

Sadly, I'm not kidding.

julio 2018-04-04 01:18:51 UTC #12

It's certainly working for me. I haven't bothered to turn on the audio cast tonight. I can see the game thread; I'm not particularly excited about listening to Franzke (who I LIKE) and whichever Kevin is partnering tonight. (Two of the three Kevins, so far, leave me cold.)

zambonir 2018-04-04 01:19:28 UTC #13

I'd say it's the opposite. They are going where the fans are and where the business is going. Just the reality. They need younger fans and advertisers don't care about the sport's core fan base (i.e.people my age, and probably yours). There's no baseball in 10 years if they were just focusing on TV.

No argument about Facebook and they have played an especially pernicious role in all that stuff, but in the end I don't reckon they are significantly worse than Comcast or any other rights-holder I help support with my viewing dollars (most notably, wrt julio's perspective, Fox).

Eisenreich 2018-04-04 02:27:38 UTC #14

If baseball wants to broadcast games on Facebook to draw in new fans, that's fine with me. But technology should be giving us more options, not fewer. Allow me to choose to watch baseball the "old fashioned" way. I have never had a Facebook account since I've always been opposed to their "customer as the product" model. I sure as hell am not going to join now after recent revelations just to watch a few baseball games.

zambonir 2018-04-04 03:35:54 UTC #15

For sure. But the nature of broadcast contracts have always been that way. A company writes a check and they get to dictate the terms, it's neither a democracy nor a public service. MLB cares about money more than fans or players. DirecTV/Dish people still can't watch most Phillies games in Philadelphia! People who don't have cable couldn't watch the Final Four (though I think the stream was free).

Forcing people who don't have Facebook to use it is presumably a small part of the play, just like Comcast wants people to dump their satellite provider, but the bigger play for MLB I suspect is international.

We as consumers should make our own call here of course, but my expectations of MLB and most of its owners are a lot lower.

Jeff05 2018-04-04 15:09:38 UTC #16

Well, as long as the bot is working, all is right with my world.

julio 2018-04-04 15:29:03 UTC #17

MLB didn't agree to broadcast games on Facebook to draw in fans. They agreed to it because Facebook paid them.

But I'm not forced to use Facebook today. Watching a ball game just isn't that important. Declining to support Jeff Zuckerberg's monster is, at least to me.

zambonir 2018-04-05 17:34:01 UTC #18

This is really funny (and also makes the case, at least partially, that a 13 year-old might actually like to watch the game this way. Though as I understand it teenagers don't use Facebook).