Fret not dear New Englanders, hope may be around the corner. In continuing to report on the process of Cutting the Cord to Cable and relying on lower cost options, Brian Mahony, in searching for local news and sports, has hit a roadblock:
"Watching my beloved Sox may prove to be a bit trickier. There are only a few games broadcast on network TV which I might get OTA, like Fox’s game of the week. But I still haven’t found a reliable answer to watch the Red Sox online. NESN, the network owned by the Red Sox, only carries game clips. MLB.tv has all the games, but they are subject to blackout in your home television market (so my brother Tom in Sacramento can watch the Sox online but not me). I went to several other networks sites and all had the local blackout limit. Strangely, I did find tonight’s Red Sox-Angels game being streamed live on ESPN360, so I will have to tune in to see if I can really watch it. Ideally, I would like to watch the Red Sox using MLB.tv’s Gameday Premium, which is a $20 per year subscription service that gives you access to the game along with exclusive statistics such as batter vs. pitcher scouting reports, pitch speed, location, etc. There is some discussion about whether Major League Baseball will open up local market games to some form of online video subscription service, but the timing and details are still murky. “Maybe next year?” (funny, we Boston fans used to say that EVERY year, until our recent emergence into sports glory)."
OTT Video Adventures Part 5: Cutting the Cable Cord on Pay TV Sports and News – Trender Research™
Just to add to the Age Old Rivalry, the NY Yankees started offering a comparable service to what Mr. Mahony wants. While not entirely OTT local access, with an existing subscription to the Cablevision or FIOS version of the YES Network and an additional fee, Yankees games may be viewed online, in market.
ESPN’s 360 option may be better, provided his ISP is in their walled garden network. Long Island is serviced by newcomers FIOS and AT&T. The more prevalent Cablevision does not offer it, so be warned.
On the other end of the spectrum, his wife is expressing concern on the prospect of not channel surfing after putting the children to bed at the end of a long day. She may be happy to find quite a number of full episodes on HGTV.com, but only clips of Divine Design.
Howto is a popular category of online video. In 2007, educational was 4th on Pew Internet’s study. No doubt that included how to videos and that number surely has grown since that time.
There are a good number of stations out there using the web as their video on demand portal with some degree of success. As the Mahony family paves the way, more and more will go to an OTT model. Hopefully closer to HGTV rather than the YES model.
With all those children, you’d think they’d be more worried about getting something like Nickelodeon, no?
After the Transition 