Unless I'm reading The Athletic story wrong, current MLB dot customers, who pay $149.99 a year for the service, will next year have to pay around that same amount PLUS a $30/month subscription to ESPN's streaming service. That's a 239% increase to watch games.
They've done a HORRIBLE job rolling this out, but my understanding was you pay for ESPN+ (or whatever the new name will be) and if you have an existing cable subscription of some kind you don't pay anything extra.
it's like they don't want people who enjoy baseball or even casual fans to watch
So what I’m hoping what they were actually trying to say, and failing to, is the opposite—that an ESPN streaming service subscription alone will not get you access to MLBtv—that you do still have to separately subscribe to MLBtv—and not that MLBtv subscribers will have to subscribe to ESPN.
Okay—just read the article. I’m not seeing anything saying that the $29.99 (or less) would be *on top of* the $149.99 people already pay. My read was that it was just one payment. Which would still be a bit more, assuming it stays at $29.99 a month, but not nearly that much more.
I read this is "you have to pay for MLBTV, which is $149.99/year or $29.99 a month, and you have to buy the ESPN service on top of that."
Ah, yeah, that is clunky. The way I read that is that it’s saying MLBtv probably won’t be available as a standalone subscription anymore and current subscribers will have to get ESPN DTC instead, which will either still cost $29.99 or potentially slightly less.
And I very well could be wrong. It is not worded well at all!
How is that different
Damn tariffs.
I’m more than willing give up MLB dot TV for that price hike.
I'd imagine this also effs over the hundreds of thousands of people who get their MLB via T-Mobile perks? Yeesh.
Hope thay isnt how it will work for those of us who subscribe from abroad and wouldn't even get anything out of ESPN.
I cannot believe that is accurate. YouTubeTV lets you get just Sunday Ticket. I believe NHL is included in ESPN+. I am not paying $400/year to watch baseball broadcasts that have become very dense with ads.
If you subscribe to one of the five local MLB dot TV teams -- Guardians, Padres, Twins, Diamondbacks, or Rockies -- you will pay $119.99 + the $360 for ESPN, meaning a 300% increase. Am I wrong here? Manfred and the owners get a windfall and baseball fans get gouged, yes?
All of that is assuming that ESPN keeps the baseball streaming prices steady, which is no guarantee.
All this to get blacked out against Cleveland, Cincinnati, AND Pittsburgh(!) as a Tigers fan in Columbus.
In Oklahoma, I got blacked out of 4 teams, none of which were within 5 hours drive of me and none of their regional TV networks were available in my cable packages
It’s like they hate fans
Like I said: maybe I'm wrong about that. Maybe they're not going to make us double dip. But The Athletic story specifically says "fans are likely to need an ESPN direct-to-consumer subscription to go along with MLB.TV." I do not read that as "baseball games now included on ESPN's streaming service."
That sure makes it sound like the Athletic doesn't have any idea what the pricing will be. It may end up more expensive, but I'm more than willing to bet the numbers you're suggesting are incorrect. I'm willing to bet the cost of the service is a tiered offering on ESPN+.
Not unlike how the MLS package is a tiered offering on AppleTV+. So yes, the base ESPN subscription, plus the MLB subscription. But I sincerely doubt it will be the cost of the current MLB dot TV plus the current cost of ESPN+.
And even if it is -- even if all you need is the ESPN streaming service -- we'll be going from a service that now costs $149.99 a year to one that costs $360 a year, no?
My immediate fear when I heard that ESPN was buying it, I won't panic until we have actual pricing but....yeah
ESPN+ costs 11.99/month. I think THAT is the ESPN service you'll have to subscribe to. Not the ESPN direct to consumer service.
If that's the case than The Athletic is wrong, but at present they are reporting that it's the direct-to-consumer service.
I would just personally be surprised if that’s the case. Like I get ESPN thru DirecTV stream. And I also subscribe to ESPN+ already. I’m not going to be able to get MLB’s package without also buying ESPN DTC from ESPN? No chance of that IMO. I don’t think the Athletic’s reporting feels concrete.
Seems like MLB is trying to reach people who will subscribe to ESPN DTC but not MLBtv, while hoping core fans will just suck it up. Unless subscribers will have to pay an add on fee for MLB. In that case, MLB is going to lose viewers in exchange for up front cash. Not a good way to grow the game.
My hope is MLBtv is included in ESPN DTC ($30/m) but there will still be an option for MLBtv only ($149.99). Maybe they do it for a year, but a price increase is definitely coming.
And if the UI is anything like ESPN+, blech. Vastly prefer MLB TV.
I guess $180 if it's just for the 6 months of the regular season (or $210 to include spring training), but yeah more details will be the key
*I* will be going to $0.
My hope, but it's a small one is that they either leave it as a separate thing. No way in hell I'm paying $30/month or more just to watch Padre games. I really don't care about anything else they offer. Though if they made a ESPNSD channel that hosted G league, NLL, & NWSL, i could be talked into it
I've got a feeling T-MOBILE will no longer be giving their subscribers MLB TV for free now that ESPN in the mix.
I don't understand why MLB did this. Controlling the long term money here is way more profitable. Plus, they really don't want us to watch....
It may be similar to what ESPN did with the NHL version of the same service, where it is bundled into the single subscription fee. I wouldn’t bet on that though, and I am positive Manfred doesn’t care at all beyond making sure the check clears.
Imagine watching a Royals/White Sox matchup, followed by a "Thor: The Dark World", and finishing it off with season 37 of "Keeping Up With the Kardashians" all on one app. Truly a Paradise...Lost.
Damn, KC out here catching strays 😂
Switch to T-Mobile, mlb tv is free
That deal is supposed to run through the 2028 season, but I am not sure how this agreement impacts that. At a minimum, I assume it won't be extended past that.
Hey 3 more seasons of mlb tv is 3 more I don’t have to pay for
Hopefully 🤞
Not for long
Ain't happening
“Baseball is dying” MLB: Cool, how can we expedite it?
and what about international subscribers, especially in places where there is no ESPN?
They’re really working overtime to make the dying sport even less accessible
Also they need to stop referring to it as "direct to consumer" because it is pretty clearly not a DTC version of ESPN but rather a separate streaming service from the one ESPN already offers (ESPN+)
There is zero chance Manfred likes baseball.
I bet season ticket holders will no longer get mlb.tv for free.
Baseball is now for the 1%
I get mlb tv free through my phone for now. Wonder if that’ll change.
Yeah, I'm already assuming this is the last year to get it through T-Mobile. Sucks.
I think that contract runs through 2028
DirecTV, Fubo, and Spectrum customers currently get the DTC for free if they authenticate, and agreements with other major providers is expected by the end of the year
By "authenticate" do you mean via showing you have cable? Because the whole point of MLB dot TV is that you don't need cable now.
Yes
IPTV
And if you support a different NL West or AL Central team you can kiss 20-35% of your games goodbye.
I mean, not a major difference and certainly not the point, but wouldn't it be $180 for ESPN? Six months x $30?
Think of this as the final “fuck you” to consumers by Disney and the league, which started with Disney buying BAMTech
This would be my situation but I won’t pay for ESPN not only because it’s too much money but because it’s a horrible company owned by a terrible corporation. I would effectively be done watching Twins games as a lifelong Twins fan.
To say nothing about the horrible programming and production values
I pay the single team rate right now, and I’m blacked out if they are on Apple TV, or Roku, or whatever shit app they choose to show a game on, IN ADDITION to being blacked out because MLB tv considers me to be in market for NY…can’t see Phils play Mets ever. I also don’t get SNY, only Mets channel.
I can't imagine there's a lot of Twins fans champing at the bit to drop $500 to watch a broke boy team and help enrich the Pohlads.
I'm not sure whether or not your numbers are correct but the plan smells like bullshit
Fffffffffffff
I think a lot of folks are about to change how they feel about out of market baseball games.
What a spectacular way to ruin a service I've gladly paid for in the past but certainly can live without.
Baseball IS great on the radio.
That's true. Seattle fan here. Rick Rizz is still going since I was kid.
If you're listening to Jon Miller or one of the other great radio pbp guys. If not...
MLB audio is $30 for the entire season, every game, home or away call. I’ve subscribed since 2010, so 15 yrs of baseball for about $3k less than the avg American spends on cable and streaming TV per year.
I listen to more games on that than I watch on TV
Me too
how will this impact international subscribers? i can’t read the athletic and i haven’t seen anyone mention that ☹️
I'm not sure, but if MLB is getting out of the streaming business I don't see what options you would have.
This - as an international fan who doesn’t have ESPN I paid over $250 this year with the conversion for an all teams subscription. How much higher can they go?!
oh wow. i knew canceling if the sale went through was going to be an easy choice, but i didn’t know they were going to make it even easier for me.
Craig, do you owners not understand the impacts of making the game prohibitively annoying/expensive to watch, or do they not care?
MLB team owners, famously in touch with the common fan.
Whelp, that would be an "I'm out" situation, for sure. Not gonna happen. And that is from the core of what is left of their demographic for what still feels like a slow dying spiral (55 year old white dude who feels the tug of nostalgia thanks to being old enough to remember when the Reds were good)
Has there been anything about the At Bat app? I need my Dave and Suzyn!
Let's hope the MLBPAA discount stays in place, that will sting a little less.
do you have a link to this story? I'm having trouble finding it
I thought the same earlier today. It *could* be only for those six or seven teams that MLB produces the broadcasts -- which would still be a shitty deal. If it's for everyone, then I'm probably not renewing.
The Athletic article makes it sound like it's all of them, out of market and the five teams for which MLB broadcasts everything.
Ugh. If that’s not the case, it should be written clearer. The whole passage is confusing.
What do you think will happen with Extra Innings on cable/satellite that has MLBTV included in their plan. It costs a little more overall I think.
No idea. But I feel like if I'm ESPN and I'm buying MLBTV I'm not giving it away free to people who buy a service for which I get nothing. Same with the T-mobile package and the free MLBTV for season ticket holders that some teams do.
God, I love the radio.
I signed up for Sirius radio when it first came out around 2003 and bought a lifetime subscription for like $400 I think. No monthly payments and I get play by play for all the sports plus tons of other stuff. I don’t use it a ton, but it’s always there and has paid for itself.
Smart move - I think the best deal I can get is $4 a month.
I remember as a kid I used to listen to Dodger games in Utah at night. With Vin Scully doing the play by play.
I thought they mentioned that they might lower the monthly price slightly, which could mean they lower the annual price for people who opt to do that. Sadly, I'm probably going to spring for it regardless as Giants fan that lives in Minnesota.
To watch games, except your local team.
I understood that it’s only for those teams who MLB is streaming because they don’t have their own network. I hope I’m right because otherwise 🤮.
No, I think they're selling the out-of-market games which MLB dot TV has always had as well.
Well in that case 🤮🤮🤮
Great reminder to make sure auto-renew is off.
I’ve been sticking with T-Mobile just for just for the free mlb.tv every year 😬
What MLS does with their Apple TV+ deal is you can buy the MLS package separately from Apple TV+ and without access to the rest of that, or you can pay for Apple TV+ and get a discount on the MLS package. I would hope that’s what we’re seeing here.
These kinds of reasons are why I stopped watching years ago, after being a fan since childhood (a long time ago!). My prediction: without course changes, a continually smaller - but richer! - fan base, leading to short term financial gains and long term extinction.
This year I paid for MLB.TV and another $120 for the season to see the Mets (only SNY games, no PIX or exclusives). Next year I'm willing to pay less or none, so I suppose I won't be watching any games.
Do you mean to subscribe and watch just MLB dot TV out of market games? I do not believe ESPN’s over the top networks subscription would be required - you could just subscribe to MLB TV and access it in the app/site separate from ESPN/ESPN2/ESPN+ content
The Athletic article says you'd need both an MLB subscription and ESPN's streaming service. Maybe that's wrong or muddled, but that's what it currently says.
Yeah, I guess ESPN wants to license MLBTV to draw in fans already used to paying to stream sports to their new service, and MLB was more than happy to screw over those fans to get paid for that license.
I assumed that meant if they want to watch national ESPN broadcasts in addition to out of market games (if they don’t have ESPN through cable/sat/stream bundle) they’ll need ESPN Unlimited ($30 a month)
I believe if you have some sort of cable/streaming package (comcast, YouTube.tv, etc) espn super extra will be no additional cost. (Per stratechery). That said, when ESPN bought NHL and PGA rights, no additional sub fee was required beyond the espn+. Clear as mud.
I subscribed to the new ESPN app using my YouTubeTV ID/password as credentials at no additional cost. Doubtful that today's MLBTV package will be magically included with the ESPN app next season. Logic says that there will be an add'l cost for MLBTV in 2026 in the ESPN app.
I found it odd that the article mentioned it seemingly in passing, as if it wasn’t the most noteworthy element of the story. Perhaps it was just articulated poorly, and this is not the case…? 🤷🏻♂️
I read it the same way and do not see how we're not reading it wrong (or the Athletic wrote it wrong) because it's such a colossal gouge. It's sort of impossible to believe they would do that... but also completely on brand for Manfred & co
When ESPN bought the NHL streaming rights you no longer had to pay the NHL anymore, you just subscribed to ESPN. I assumed this would be the same?
Maybe, but ESPN is still double the price of an MLB dot TV subscription ($360/year vs. $149.99/year)
Yeah, the ESpn price increase is a new wrinkle that sucks. It was like $15 a year very recently.
There is still something called the ESPN Select plan that’s basically just ESPN+ and, unless there’s a change this season, that’s where NHL out of market lives. $12 a month
Wonder how much that will cost for @t-mobileus.bsky.social customers who get @mlb.com for free, currently? I mean, I like watching regular season games on the App but I ain't gonna pay 300 bucks for it all season. Pirating looks like an interesting alternative right about now. 🏴☠️
Ugh. If this is true, I'm out. I love the Brewers, but I'm not giving more money to Disney.
I have used Uzzu tv for the past 4-5 seasons. It’s about $130 per year but you can access every game in all sports without blackouts. Home feed for any team plus MLB network, NFL network, red zone, etc.
Interesting... Thanks! I'll look into it!
I *think* it’s saying that is two different products and you need it if you want both their in network stuff and the traditional MLBtv product. Basically no different than now except who gets paid. If I’m right or wrong, I’ll bet the TMobile free access to MLBtv is axed though.
We’ve been talking this over in Joe’s slack and woof.
ESPN’s service will come with regular cable. So if you already pay for ESPN, you get this service gratis. ESPN+ purchased the NHL.tv rights, so if you pay for E+, you get that service included. It looks like ESPN and MLB are still working out how this will go? I’d *assume* MLB.tv is folded in.
The appeal of MLB dot TV is that it allows you to cut the cord, so the authentication thing is not a great deal. And I hope you're right about it being included like NHL is, but the Athletic article says you'd need both.
MLB dot tv isn't to allow you to cut the cord (unless you're cutting the cord from Extra Innings), it's to give you out-of-market games
Oh I would miss my NHL out of market standalone if not for my need to pay for E+ for Premier League stuff. I can’t even get Prem matches that broadcast on USA Network without a full cable subscription. (??!?) We’re getting squeezed from all angles, Craig! Hope this works out better for you
I don’t see the point of ESPN paying to be another login gatekeeper. They also recently bought WWE PLEs. That is not an extra charge. You get this new ESPN service and voila, you get WWE events. I would assume this means MLB.tv as a standalone would be killed, like nhl.tv was.
I would hope. But even then, baseball-only fans pay $150 a year for all out of market games. Having to sign up for ESPN to replicate that would more than double the outlay.
Living in Southern Wisconsin means I am blacked out from ten percent of the league as well. Lol they are never getting my money.
