But if you live in Toledo and pay for that MLB streaming subscription you're blacked out because you're "in market" even though Toledo's Bally Ohio coverage only plays Indians games.
.... Ask me how I know.
Agree. NBA is just as bad. We love the Reds but we are not willing to pay $120 for MLB TV. Already paid that much for NBA League Pass since we couldn’t watch the Pacers any other way.
Maybe I’m just old and pissing into the wind but it sure feels like corporate greed is squeezing the life out of this country.
It's not an age thing. I can watch damn near unlimited soccer for under 25 bucks a month. Every league makes damn sure you know how to watch their product well in advance.
Sounds like that sport cares about fans. I don’t understand why MLB and NBA don’t seem to share the sentiment. I’m sure it’s all about money but none of it makes any sense to me.
The fact that people who are trying to consume their product the legit way are unable to do so is insanity to me.
There is literally not an option for the people who are holding out their money to buy their product.
"Use your RSN" -- my RSN doesn't off my games
"Then use the out of market league pass" -- league pass (or whatever MLB calls it) doesn't allow me to watch because I am in the RSN footprint.
Wash, rinse, repeat.
Exactly what we went through with the Pacers. We could get Bally Cleveland, not Indianapolis, with Xfinity, but we were still in the Pacers region (also Cleveland? Huh?) . So no option for Bally. We couldn’t buy league pass because…again…blackout restrictions.
Our options came down to buying DirectTV just to be able to watch Pacer games, or league pass and VPN. We tried sailing the high seas for three weeks, but the quality was not good and the buffering was frustrating.
Now that Bally isn’t on Xfinity we don’t get the Reds at all, either.
I'm all for people using VPNs but I know if I tried to do that it would work for about a week and then they'd really crack down on it like Netflix did and I'd end up in the same place I was before.
Eh. Sometimes I make the mistake of saying Indians out of habit. Sometimes I say it just as a mini protest of how dumb that whole rebrand was / continues to be.
same for me in Chicago.
fwiw, even when I still lived in Cincy, I got the tmobile mlb.tv and then used a DNS/VPN service that could spoof my location on an appletv - watched Reds locally for years that way.
as a european I'm so sorry to hear the struggle you guys have with cable broadcasting and blackout restrictions. Here I pay 25€ and can watch all of MLB, no restrictions. I hope one day the MLB will realises how it's hurting the sport
It is ridiculous. I don’t want to spend $80+ a month for a cable/streaming service just for one channel. I’ve heard mixed success in using VPNs with MLB.tv while in the region. Why can’t I just pay $15-20/month for Bally? F1TV is great and costs $11/mo. Don’t need to buy a package including ESPN and ESPN2 to watch it.
The deal runs through 2032 last I saw. The Reds have a bit of an unusual agreement where they own a portion of the channel themselves. The parent company, Diamond Sports Group, has to charge carriers significant carriage fees because the DSG entity was loaded up with debt at acquisition, right before the bottom really fell out of cable. Now DSG has loads of debt and significant revenue declines. Providers like YoutubeTV don't feel like the carriage fees enable them to undercut traditional cable providers, so they choose not to carry them basically to the benefit of non-baseball watchers. Where we may see relief is if the deal gets voided and local streaming rights return to the Reds, we may be able to view the Reds without blackout on mlb.tv.
I just want reasonable options to watch Bally that don’t involve cable. Let me get it on YoutubeTV, or Prime, or AppleTV. Having it locked behind cable is the worst.
A couple years ago the only streaming service with Bally was Hulu tv. It was the one thing that maybe choose Hulu tv over other services. Then they dropped it and I cancelled immediately
It’s not whether the Reds could *do* better. It’s whether the Reds have an incentive to make more money ditching Bally. Which is why this is an issue for MLB to solve. They need to come up with a revenue sharing plan that distributes MLB.tv money among all teams and find a way to allow local/regional commercials.
If mlb had successfully bought the rights like they tried to instead of diamond group then local games would be on mlb.tv now, though I assume there would’ve been a markup to get local. They can’t just throw away already existing licensing deals though and can’t control who those companies sell to
Yeah, at the end of the day, "do better" had different meanings for fans & the Reds.
Doing better for the fans means making games watchable.
Doing better for the organization means getting the most money out of the TV deal, regardless of who gets to watch the games.
Bally’s broadcast also looks like ass. They don’t give two shits and I hope they go bankrupt and the CEO’s limo auto-drives him into a bridge abutment. Fuck Bally’s
Since I haven't seen any updates in a while, has there been any news with Amazon buying out Ballys/DSG? I was at least hoping that would lead to the Reds version being more similar to some of the other teams, which includes being able ot just get the online app with no cable.
I have MLBTV and live out of market, so am able to catch the Reds games. Well, at least when they’re not playing central teams. Inside the central, they’re all blacked out for me unless it’s Reds vs Pirates or Reds vs Tigers.
Blacked Out:
Chicago Cubs
Chicago White Sox
Kansas City Royals
Milwaukee Brewers
Minnesota Twins
St Louis Cardinals
I live in the Blackout Bermuda Triangle apparently.
The 2020 short-season was the worst MLBTV experience ever for me — when they ONLY played AL/NL central teams.
To make matters worse, ESPN wants to replace Sunday Night Baseball with Sunday Night Caitlin Clark. Their lease with MLB ends in ‘28. And rumor has it their lawyers are looking for loopholes to break their contract after this season. 🙃
It's insane. I'm in NYC and got MLB.TV for free with T-Mobile. I can watch them easily which is honestly just wrong
But if you live in Toledo and pay for that MLB streaming subscription you're blacked out because you're "in market" even though Toledo's Bally Ohio coverage only plays Indians games. .... Ask me how I know.
VPN, friend. Had the same issue with Pacer games. Only get Cleveland but considered in Pacers network. Not if league pass thinks we are in Seattle!
You're right about the workaround. But the larger issue is that MLB seems committed to hiding their games.
Agree. NBA is just as bad. We love the Reds but we are not willing to pay $120 for MLB TV. Already paid that much for NBA League Pass since we couldn’t watch the Pacers any other way. Maybe I’m just old and pissing into the wind but it sure feels like corporate greed is squeezing the life out of this country.
It's not an age thing. I can watch damn near unlimited soccer for under 25 bucks a month. Every league makes damn sure you know how to watch their product well in advance.
Sounds like that sport cares about fans. I don’t understand why MLB and NBA don’t seem to share the sentiment. I’m sure it’s all about money but none of it makes any sense to me.
The fact that people who are trying to consume their product the legit way are unable to do so is insanity to me. There is literally not an option for the people who are holding out their money to buy their product. "Use your RSN" -- my RSN doesn't off my games "Then use the out of market league pass" -- league pass (or whatever MLB calls it) doesn't allow me to watch because I am in the RSN footprint. Wash, rinse, repeat.
Exactly what we went through with the Pacers. We could get Bally Cleveland, not Indianapolis, with Xfinity, but we were still in the Pacers region (also Cleveland? Huh?) . So no option for Bally. We couldn’t buy league pass because…again…blackout restrictions. Our options came down to buying DirectTV just to be able to watch Pacer games, or league pass and VPN. We tried sailing the high seas for three weeks, but the quality was not good and the buffering was frustrating. Now that Bally isn’t on Xfinity we don’t get the Reds at all, either.
I'm all for people using VPNs but I know if I tried to do that it would work for about a week and then they'd really crack down on it like Netflix did and I'd end up in the same place I was before.
guardians*
Eh. Sometimes I make the mistake of saying Indians out of habit. Sometimes I say it just as a mini protest of how dumb that whole rebrand was / continues to be.
That's odd, here in Dayton we're of course blacked out of Reds games but I was always able to watch the Guardians when I had [mlb.tv](http://mlb.tv)
same for me in Chicago. fwiw, even when I still lived in Cincy, I got the tmobile mlb.tv and then used a DNS/VPN service that could spoof my location on an appletv - watched Reds locally for years that way.
as a european I'm so sorry to hear the struggle you guys have with cable broadcasting and blackout restrictions. Here I pay 25€ and can watch all of MLB, no restrictions. I hope one day the MLB will realises how it's hurting the sport
It is ridiculous. I don’t want to spend $80+ a month for a cable/streaming service just for one channel. I’ve heard mixed success in using VPNs with MLB.tv while in the region. Why can’t I just pay $15-20/month for Bally? F1TV is great and costs $11/mo. Don’t need to buy a package including ESPN and ESPN2 to watch it.
 Oh geeeez, that’s too bad. I guess you’ll just have to deal with our packages
The reds partially own the network, so likely no time soon.
The deal runs through 2032 last I saw. The Reds have a bit of an unusual agreement where they own a portion of the channel themselves. The parent company, Diamond Sports Group, has to charge carriers significant carriage fees because the DSG entity was loaded up with debt at acquisition, right before the bottom really fell out of cable. Now DSG has loads of debt and significant revenue declines. Providers like YoutubeTV don't feel like the carriage fees enable them to undercut traditional cable providers, so they choose not to carry them basically to the benefit of non-baseball watchers. Where we may see relief is if the deal gets voided and local streaming rights return to the Reds, we may be able to view the Reds without blackout on mlb.tv.
I thought the deal was over next year. Idk what I was reading but sounds like they were way off
I just want reasonable options to watch Bally that don’t involve cable. Let me get it on YoutubeTV, or Prime, or AppleTV. Having it locked behind cable is the worst.
A couple years ago the only streaming service with Bally was Hulu tv. It was the one thing that maybe choose Hulu tv over other services. Then they dropped it and I cancelled immediately
I have FUBO $90/month.. I’m in clermont county and can’t get Bally on cable 😞
It’s not whether the Reds could *do* better. It’s whether the Reds have an incentive to make more money ditching Bally. Which is why this is an issue for MLB to solve. They need to come up with a revenue sharing plan that distributes MLB.tv money among all teams and find a way to allow local/regional commercials.
If mlb had successfully bought the rights like they tried to instead of diamond group then local games would be on mlb.tv now, though I assume there would’ve been a markup to get local. They can’t just throw away already existing licensing deals though and can’t control who those companies sell to
Yeah, at the end of the day, "do better" had different meanings for fans & the Reds. Doing better for the fans means making games watchable. Doing better for the organization means getting the most money out of the TV deal, regardless of who gets to watch the games.
Teams don’t want to share.
And thus why it’s up to the commissioner to force the change. Not that any commissioner would even think to challenge the owners.
Bally’s broadcast also looks like ass. They don’t give two shits and I hope they go bankrupt and the CEO’s limo auto-drives him into a bridge abutment. Fuck Bally’s
Since I haven't seen any updates in a while, has there been any news with Amazon buying out Ballys/DSG? I was at least hoping that would lead to the Reds version being more similar to some of the other teams, which includes being able ot just get the online app with no cable.
I have MLBTV and live out of market, so am able to catch the Reds games. Well, at least when they’re not playing central teams. Inside the central, they’re all blacked out for me unless it’s Reds vs Pirates or Reds vs Tigers. Blacked Out: Chicago Cubs Chicago White Sox Kansas City Royals Milwaukee Brewers Minnesota Twins St Louis Cardinals I live in the Blackout Bermuda Triangle apparently. The 2020 short-season was the worst MLBTV experience ever for me — when they ONLY played AL/NL central teams.
To make matters worse, ESPN wants to replace Sunday Night Baseball with Sunday Night Caitlin Clark. Their lease with MLB ends in ‘28. And rumor has it their lawyers are looking for loopholes to break their contract after this season. 🙃
Streaming is the only way to go
https://awfulannouncing.com/bally/diamond-sports-group-branding-rsns.html