While we cord cutters may still have access to plenty of football and basketball on our OTA stations, two sports that suffer greatly are hockey and baseball. Since we're just beginning the new baseball season we thought it would be prudent to discuss how fans of the game can take in some of our national pastime while sticking to our cord cutting ways.
We'll be blunt, the television contracts for MLB are pretty tough for the cord cutter. As you can see at this link that lists all the nationally televised games, only a small percentage of games are broadcast on the local FOX affiliates. Even if you consider the number to be higher the fact that baseball is very weather sensitive means that if the game is delayed there is a good chance it will be postponed and thus not shown on our local stations.
However there is a great option if you have a Roku device. You can download the MLB.tv app in the Roku app store and there are daily free games shown. Now these games do have their own caveats, most notably the fact that locally shown games would be blacked out, you can catch a lot of baseball this way. For example as we begin the draft of this post on 4/4 the Brewers and Giants are going at it and we're streaming it just wonderfully. Remember that baseball has a very dynamic schedule and the free game will float around. On 4/4 the free game was at 2:05, on 4/5 at 8ish, and today 4/6 the game is on at 3:40. It's possible that this option will work on other devices, we've only tried it on the Roku.
Expanding beyond the majors, some minor league clubs area will broadcast their games on OTA stations. We spent many a Saturday evening last season taking in Knights games, and Sunday afternoons watching the Dash in Winston-Salem. Speaking of the Dash they confirmed they will again air Sunday afternoon home games OTA on MY48 out of the W-S TV market. Keep in mind that these productions are fairly barebones, you're not assured HD and fancy graphics, but if you can look past that these are great ways to supplement in between those free MLB match ups.
Lastly, while they aren't the free methods we've described above, multiple online streaming subscription based products do exist for watching a ball game. The first that many casual fans might be able to justify the cost of is Sling TV. The basic level subscription will get you access to ESPN and ESPN2 which broadcast many games during the season. From there you could move onto the services from MLB and MILB. Obviously before purchasing any of these products make sure you read into any potential blackout rules that may apply. For example the closest big league club is the Atlanta Braves. Dollars to doughnuts that buying the MLB.TV service will blackout the bulk if not all of the Braves games here in Charlotte. These television contracts with various sports leagues can get very convoluted in who can show games where so again be sure to read the fine print before laying down any cash.
However you slice it sports television is easily the most notable thing to vanish with cancellation of the cable/satellite subscription, but hopefully we've showed you that not all hope is lost for baseball fans. From the daily free game streamed online, to the occasional MLB game on FOX there should be enough to keep the casual fan satisfied.
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