Over the last two years, one of the few benefits of being a Colorado Rockies fan was having access to Rockies.TV, a reasonably priced and portable streaming plan.
Sure, the Rockies weren’t a very good baseball team, but at least you could watch pretty much every game from wherever you happened to be for a reasonable price.
On a personal note, I was glad for the change because I had wearied of writing about MLB blackouts. Finally, it seemed, Major League Baseball had seen the light: More access for fans
was a good thing!
Reader, I regret to inform you that I have — reticently — returned to my soapbox.
Last week, The Athletic reported on an emerging deal between MLB and ESPN, which recently announced its new streaming service.
Although nothing is official, here’s what we know, according to Andrew Marchand.
The agreement would give ESPN exclusive digital rights for all out-0f-market regular season games in addition to in-market games for the following teams: Arizona Diamondbacks, Cleveland Guardians, San Diego Padres, Minnesota Twins, and — you guessed it — Colorado Rockies.
These are organizations with their TV broadcast rights controlled by MLB. “Fans would likely need to subscribe to ESPN either directly or through an operator, and then, for an added price, they would be able to receive their local teams’ games,” Marchand writes.
If that’s the case, let’s take a minute to do some math.
As I understand it, Rockies fans would need to pay that $29.99/month ESPN subscription fee in addition to an MLB.TV subscription as well, which is $149.99. Would Rockies fans also have to pay the $99.99 fee for Rockies.TV? I’m not sure. But either way, this marks a significant price increase for fans.
(Another question I have as someone still watching cable — don’t @ me — is how this would work with my existing cable package, which includes ESPN.)
That said, the deal looks to be a cash cow for MLB.
“The exact amount that ESPN will pay is not known,” Marchand writes, ”but it is substantial.“
So if nothing else, MLB and their extraordinarily wealthy owners are getting paid.
Anything that reduces fan access is bad, but for the Rockies, this strikes me as an especially short-sighted decision.
Think back.
We know that prior to the decision to close down AT&T SportsNet, the Rockies could count on $57 million in television revenue. We know, too, that the money was essential to the team’s operations. We also know that the Rockies did not have significant viewer numbers as of 2022. According to Nick Groke:
In 2022, Rockies broadcasts carried the third-lowest ratings in the majors, ahead of only the Oakland A’s and Miami Marlins, according to Nielsen Media viewership numbers. The Rockies on AT&T SportsNet Rocky Mountain regularly rank among the bottom of the league in TV ratings.
Groke also reported that the Rockies averaged 15,000 viewers/game — and that was in the relatively good days of 2022 when the Rockies finished 68-94.
The ESPN deal probably helps Dick Monfort’s bottom line in that he will get a share that approaches or exceeds that $57 million he earned in the previous deal.
But at what cost?
The Rockies are a bad baseball team. Raising prices on a marginal product only discourages viewers. If the Rockies were, say, the Los Angeles Dodgers, something like this might make sense. But a move like this one provides another obstacle to fan access.
And I suspect the MLB folks are forgetting that Denver-area fans became experts at pirating back during those six years when it was challenging to watch the Colorado Avalanche and Denver Nuggets. Fans worked around blackouts then, and they will again.
What happens to MiLB broadcasts that are currently readily available to MLB.TV subscribers? Who knows? Perhaps MiLB will charge extra for that package.
You think MLB has worked out its access issues, and then the overwhelming greed kicks in, and something like this happens.
We won’t have the details until next month, but based on what we know now, this is a terrible deal for baseball fans in general and an even worse one for those who hope to watch the Rockies.
This week on the internet
It’s official: The Rockies have been eliminated from playoff contention.
If nothing else, it promises to be an interesting offseason at 20th and Blake.
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