Sports Media

[andyb]

This is what happens when you play fast and loose with actual facts. I am sure the defense will be absence of malice (as in they had no idea if it was true or not so that makes it OK). Lots of political podcasts could get hit with stuff like this though it is OK to lie about politicians generally in the eyes of the law. A college freshman should draw more sympathy however, especially from a jury.

ESPN’s Pat McAfee and others amplified a false rumor. A teenager’s life was...

[zambonir]

Every media person mentioned in that story - but most notably McAfee given his compensation and employer - is garbage, and not in the journalism business at all.

[andyb]

Looks like we are national TV the next two days. Fox national at 4 PM on Saturday then ESPN Sunday night.

[EastFallowfield]

And on MLB Network yesterday (if they stuck with it after the rain delay) which to me is national TV since I'm out of market and get that channel

[VoteForKalas]

Phillies.TV available for fans in the Phillies territory with no blackouts. Starting at $25/month.

https://www.mlb.com/news/phillies-tv-available-in-phillies-territory

[EastFallowfield]

It does say subject to national exclusivities in fairly large 'fine print', but don't see why they don't phrase it somehow in the headline to say that there will be games you won't get with this (ESPN Sunday Nights, AppleTV, whatever else I'm forgetting)

It's like if they sold you a Sunday home games season ticket saying "See every Sunday home game in the seats!" and then underneath said 'except a few'.

[andyb]

I think Fox has an exclusive Saturday window in addition to the ESPN Sunday and Apple Friday games. Not sure about Roku. The other Fox, FS1 and TBS games are not exclusive generally plus anything on ESPN not on a Sunday.

[zambonir]

It's always been thus, it's just that the media world is so different now. Like, I'm not sure it's ever been possible to subscribe to NBC Sports Phllly as a cable customer and not also have ESPN and TBS and FS1 (though the reverse has often been true), so if a game is national you just change the channel. But in the a la carte streaming world this is how it goes.

I wonder if Comcast actually gets a credit on its annual TV rights payment based on how many games are taken from them for national broadcasts, or if that's just part of the deal, as it basically is here for anyone buying this product (and always has been for regular MLB.TV too).

[zambonir]

ESPN will call its forthcoming flagship streaming app simply 'ESPN,' sources say

[andyb]

Fox announcing their Fox One streaming service also this week.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/12/business/media/fox-streaming-fox-one.html

The ESPN name is probably a good choice versus something new, but they are kind of hoping that it won't cause confusion out there. I can see lots of people with Disney+ seeing the ESPN tile and wondering why they don't get all of ESPN.

Guessing in a few years these will all be bundled together. Like cable!

[andyb]

And the official ESPN announcement. $30 standalone. $36 for the Disney bundle with ads. $45 without ads ($18 more than current).

ESPN Reveals Name And Price Of Forthcoming Stand-Alone Streaming Outlet

Definitely at a price point where I might drop Youtube TV if some of the other services (Fox One, Peacock, Paramount+, Max, RSNs) could be bundled for a discount. Guessing it will be closer to the Fall whenever we learn that. I just hate having to figure out 6 apps to watch sports. I love the Youtube TV multiview (up to 4 games where you cursor around the screen to change which audio plays). I guess one can't have everything.

[HopeSpringsEternal]

Has anyone here experienced erroneously blackout messages with the MLB TV app on a Samsung TV? I've used this app in previous years with no issues, but this year I started getting blacked out for New York Mets & Yankees games (I live in the Washington DC metro area). After a couple of emails/phone calls with the MLB support group, they "fixed" the problem. But now I'm being blacked out for all Philadelphia games. During my latest call with the MLB support group, they suggested that I request a static IP address from my Internet service provider. That seems absurd - this blackout problem doesn't occur when I use my iPad or iPhone to watch a game on one of those devices. I think the previous "fix" was to put my dynamically assigned IP address into their database with the proper ZIP code. But I guess I've got a new IP address right now that has caused the problem to reoccur (with a different location being blacked out).

[zambonir]

And you can still get Select (formerly ESPN+) for $11.99. But for what? (second-tier college sports, I know. And I guess that's still the NHL package for non-national games?)

[BaseballCat]

I have not noticed that but I would never watch the Mets and the Yankees! Hope the Phils games get fixed. Really the main reason I have mlbtv.

[andyb]

I am in the DC area too but my 5G Wifi thinks my router is in Baltimore somewhere. Agree it is absurd to need a static IP address. Every 3 months I have to correct my Youtube TV location with my phone to prove that I am in DC. There is just no easy fix for this.

[zambonir]

Surprised and pleased to see that the Athletic has added a new Phillies writer. When they launched they had three, and then for a while two.

Bryce Harper reaches 1,000 RBIs as he and Phillies stay patient, grind out a win

Editor’s note: We are excited to introduce new Phillies writer Charlotte Varnes, who joins Matt Gelb on the beat. Charlotte previously worked at the Indianapolis Star, where she was named a finalist for the Billie Jean King Award for Excellence in Women’s Sports Coverage. This is one of her first stories for The Athletic.

[andyb]

One has to think Gelb is going somewhere else (new job, new beat). Here in the DC area we have not had a Nationals or an Orioles beat writer in the last several years. No Capitals writer either. They are really pivoting away from local beat writers to the point where I thought they might evolve into something like division beat writers.

[zambonir]

Yeah I would agree that seems possible but you'd think they'd just go ahead and start it immediately if so. A big tell might be if we start seeing one of them on more road trips. Last one, they sent Gelb to Allentown.

They have two Mets and two Cubs writers. Nats ain't the Phillies.

[andyb]

But the Orioles have been sort of good the past few years. The whole Baltimore vertical has one Ravens writer. Dan Connolly used to do baseball and was really good. But he is long gone. Soccer guy in DC Pablo Maurer is now gone too.

[zambonir]

I'm sure it is driven by subscriber and readership data to some extent. Philly is also a pretty big market by itself (still the sixth-biggest city in America, sure doesn't feel like it to me living here again). They ditched Sixers coverage hard when PHLY started, but replaced the NHL and NFL beats immediately.

I assume it will just become more of a mix between beat stuff and feature stuff. It's pretty amazing the Inquirer has two baseball writers. When Alex Coffey moved to features they actually replaced her (and Lauber's still there).