MLB fans have a huge new development to look forward to this coming season. The league will be introducing single-team packages alongside the complete out-of-market packages next season for fans that just want to watch a single game of their favorite teams rather than the full service.
This allows fans all over the country to specifically select which specific game or series they want to watch and not have to pay for extra games that they are not interested in. Previously, fans had to purchase the full MLB.TV package which came with streaming games for all 30 teams at $130 for the full season.
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Additionally, fans can watch full game archives of every 2015 regular season and Postseason game on their device of choice. They can also watch over 250 select 2016 Spring Training games LIVE with no blackouts as well.
The news of this a la carte offering comes not from MLB itself, but from a lawsuit filing passed along by Nathaniel Grow of FanGraphs. The lawsuit, Garber vs. Office of the Commissioner of Baseball, is challenging various league broadcasting practices under federal antitrust law. MLB has yet to comment on the single-game streaming plans and their price but said that new product news would be provided in February.
The NBA recently went a similar path with their upgrade to single game streaming as well. NBA League Pass is a service that lets fans live-stream games that are not locally or nationally televised. Additionally, NBA League Pass provides fans with a one-step access to live purchasing the streaming broadcast of live single games via Facebook and Twitter “watch” links.
With major sports leagues starting to offer a la carte streaming consumers will rejoice with the new flexibility and freedom to watch their teams. Now we shall see how the broadcasting companies react to this new shift.