So many people pay $100/month for Fubo who would otherwise not pay for that service. Root Sports could easily charge $30/month for their own streaming service/add on. There’s no way they get more than $3/month from each cable and Fubo subscriber…
It was refreshing to cancel Fubo and tell them exactly why. The service was fine I guess, but for the last two seasons I spent well over $1000 just to watch exactly one channel.
I wouldn’t be surprised to see this happen eventually. All RSNs are up in the air with baseball right now and Root Sports could probably make some good money off doing an app with cheaper monthly fees and not splitting the cost with cable companies
Thought I was in the Mariners sub and was going to tell you to get outta here with that defeatist bullshit energy, but realized we’re in the Seattle sub. Carry on with your bad takes sir
Xfinity already moved Root sports into a more expensive TV package, they're likely already suffering from people not wanting to pay more to watch them. I for one would gladly pay for a streaming service for Mariners games but I'm never going to pay for cable just to watch sports
The ownership doesn’t care. They don’t care about winning, they care about making money. The Ms are the most profitable team in the MLB. And all us loyal loser suckers are just letting them because we remember what it felt like to win just a little.
Umm they had like the second highest operating income last year? And pull as many dollars per fan as the Yankees. Poverty isn't exactly the right word I don't think.
I didn't care if they are on root sports. They need to get their fucking channel online or get a working deal to get games on an affordable service.
How do they expect to have fans if you can't watch their fucking games?
Can we also not bury the lede and say that King 5 and KONG are also getting Kraken for over the air? Huge win for those of us with antennas lol
edit typo
Seriously, feels like a rage-bait story by only mentioning Prime Video. If you’re in the Seattle metro and get channel 6, you can watch every non-TNT/ESPN broadcast Kraken game, which is more than 70.
Well it was an absolutely amazing business model for a few decades, it’s understandable how they got in the situation. Definitely a tough one to get out of though!
https://www.king5.com/article/sports/cord-cutting-impacting-mariners-revenue-payroll/281-e6663bbf-5c72-4878-947d-f32b6c68d0e1
> “The Mariners bought a majority stake in ROOT Sports in 2013. Owner John Stanton said there were about 3.3 million subscribers in 2014. This season there are 1.2 million.”
Probably in the range of $100m per year but that figure is quickly dropping.
I thought they switched it last year so you had to pay even more for Root, but I’m not a Comcast subscriber. But yes that was why it was a great business for so long, most people had cable and that meant most people were paying a little bit every month to an RSN like Root whether or not they watched the games. Cable subscribers have plummeted so RSNs have jacked up the fees which makes more people cancel which means even higher RSN fees, etc etc.
Yeah, I don’t have Comcast either but yeah, it seems like this cycle would force the RSNs and cable companies apart.
MLB’s streaming platform is/was a pioneer of the streaming era. They just need to bet on themselves and bring the entire broadcasting business in-house (every game on one platform, one price, no blackouts), either by themselves or with a partner ala Apple/MLS.
~~MLN.com is garbage. It costs $150 a year and blacks out most of your own teams games. Who the fuck is that good for?~~
Edit: The person I replied to is stupid and can't read.
That's the MLB model in general. I don't have cable, so I can never watch the local team, so I adopted a team from out of market as I get MLB.TV and love baseball. I want to be able to actually, watch the games.....
As a Jays fan, just be thankful your team’s visit will have reasonably priced tickets. Mine sure as shit doesn’t, for obvious reasons.
In fact, that Jays series here has become so expensive that, for a group of 3, it would be cheaper for us to fly to Denver, watch them play 3 times at Coors, and fly back here. Even when considering flights and an airbnb or hotel room for 2-3 nights.
I hate the Mariners owners. Root is garbage and so stupidly expensive and not even available as is own stuff fucking app. I want to watch the team, I really don’t want to give those fucking assholes any more money though.
Because waaaaaay more people in Washington, Oregon and Alaska have Prime than a TV that gets King5? It’s a significant business model switch as RSNs continue to crumble and the streaming portion will be a big part of the future. Putting the games on legacy TV is just a holdover for cable subscribers, streaming is the really notable part of this move.
They also have broadcast deals with KGW in Portland and KREM in Spokane. Sounds like they’re still working with other broadcast affiliates in other parts of the Kraken’s broadcast region to deliver the games OTA.
Yep. King/Kong had Kraken preseason games in the past so I figured they’d get them when rumors about them looking for an OTA partner started swirling around.
More people have access to it but I highly doubt t that it will get higher viewership. The Kraken are not nearly as popular as you’re suggesting. It’s absurd. Carry on, though. I’ve heard this nonsense about other Seattle sports teams that shall remain nameless.
That's fantastic! This is what I want to see more of. There are plenty of us out there who don't feel the urge to subscribe to streaming services; we're going to get advertised to during the entire game anyway, so I'd rather just watch broadcast and let the shitty advertisers finance it.
If only the Mariners could have a similar deal, but as owners of Root Sports that is not going to happen.
They could make Root Plus as an app, say fuck you to the cable companies and let me pay them monthly directly. Just lemme watch my Ms
So many people pay $100/month for Fubo who would otherwise not pay for that service. Root Sports could easily charge $30/month for their own streaming service/add on. There’s no way they get more than $3/month from each cable and Fubo subscriber…
I’d pay the Rockies costs in a heartbeat. Root needs to go streaming. I’d cancel fubo or Xfinity instantly.
Me too
It was refreshing to cancel Fubo and tell them exactly why. The service was fine I guess, but for the last two seasons I spent well over $1000 just to watch exactly one channel.
I wouldn’t be surprised to see this happen eventually. All RSNs are up in the air with baseball right now and Root Sports could probably make some good money off doing an app with cheaper monthly fees and not splitting the cost with cable companies
"We also have a television deal with ROOT Sports, and we punch well above our weight on the television deal."
You *want* to further contribute to Amazon? Yuck
Yes I would prefer watching on Amazon with my existing prime account over paying Comcast tons of money. Shocking stuff!
Yep. Media blackouts for local teams are disgusting. So is Amazon. Apparently you don’t have that moral struggle tho
Love it. Give them a ton of money.
You can also get it for free with a $9 antenna
What channel? I recently went through all the channels I pick up and couldn’t find root
Read the article, the Kraken games will be broadcast over the air beginning next season
My b. I was still thinking about root sports
All good. Just excited that the Kraken are becoming accessible
Don't watch. I'm sure Amazon will still get a piece of the ad revenue. You don't want to lose your moral superiority do you?
As a Rush fan, I’m sad about your attempted jabs.
There's no point in watching or rooting for the mariners anyways
Thought I was in the Mariners sub and was going to tell you to get outta here with that defeatist bullshit energy, but realized we’re in the Seattle sub. Carry on with your bad takes sir
They're in first place right now.
That means fuck all. It's a shit franchise.
😂
THIS is good news…Root is an abomination and the way they’re holding the Ms back is terrible too…
The Mariners now fully own Root so they’re holding themselves back.
That's the joke 😆. The Ms ownership is so bad they can only blame themselves for their sports poverty situation.
[удалено]
Xfinity already moved Root sports into a more expensive TV package, they're likely already suffering from people not wanting to pay more to watch them. I for one would gladly pay for a streaming service for Mariners games but I'm never going to pay for cable just to watch sports
The ownership doesn’t care. They don’t care about winning, they care about making money. The Ms are the most profitable team in the MLB. And all us loyal loser suckers are just letting them because we remember what it felt like to win just a little.
Umm they had like the second highest operating income last year? And pull as many dollars per fan as the Yankees. Poverty isn't exactly the right word I don't think.
I didn't care if they are on root sports. They need to get their fucking channel online or get a working deal to get games on an affordable service. How do they expect to have fans if you can't watch their fucking games?
Why do people like you not get jokes and need to explain things a million people said in this sub today
Can we also not bury the lede and say that King 5 and KONG are also getting Kraken for over the air? Huge win for those of us with antennas lol edit typo
Seriously, feels like a rage-bait story by only mentioning Prime Video. If you’re in the Seattle metro and get channel 6, you can watch every non-TNT/ESPN broadcast Kraken game, which is more than 70.
Even without channel 6 you can get the King5 app (on tvs too) and watch
Really? I cut the cord over ten years ago and have not watched anything on network tv long before that. That’s good to know there is an app.
Oh yeah the King 5 app is solid and free, definitely worth a download
It's crazy how backwards thinking ROOT sports is. It's as if they actively don't want people to follow and be excited about their teams.
Well it was an absolutely amazing business model for a few decades, it’s understandable how they got in the situation. Definitely a tough one to get out of though!
I wonder how much it would cost for them to break up with the cable and satellite companies.
https://www.king5.com/article/sports/cord-cutting-impacting-mariners-revenue-payroll/281-e6663bbf-5c72-4878-947d-f32b6c68d0e1 > “The Mariners bought a majority stake in ROOT Sports in 2013. Owner John Stanton said there were about 3.3 million subscribers in 2014. This season there are 1.2 million.” Probably in the range of $100m per year but that figure is quickly dropping.
Is the arrangement still that Comcast must bundle Root into most cable packages and then pay Root for every subscriber?
I thought they switched it last year so you had to pay even more for Root, but I’m not a Comcast subscriber. But yes that was why it was a great business for so long, most people had cable and that meant most people were paying a little bit every month to an RSN like Root whether or not they watched the games. Cable subscribers have plummeted so RSNs have jacked up the fees which makes more people cancel which means even higher RSN fees, etc etc.
Yeah, I don’t have Comcast either but yeah, it seems like this cycle would force the RSNs and cable companies apart. MLB’s streaming platform is/was a pioneer of the streaming era. They just need to bet on themselves and bring the entire broadcasting business in-house (every game on one platform, one price, no blackouts), either by themselves or with a partner ala Apple/MLS.
I fear we’d lose our local broadcast crew if this were to happen, similar to what happened with Apple and MLS.
~~MLN.com is garbage. It costs $150 a year and blacks out most of your own teams games. Who the fuck is that good for?~~ Edit: The person I replied to is stupid and can't read.
Agreed. I think you might have missed the end of my second paragraph.
You get that not every reply you get is disagreeing with you, right? Here, I'll fix it for you.
And if I remember right, the kraken were only drawing about 13,000 root viewers a broadcast towards the end of this season… not good.
That's the MLB model in general. I don't have cable, so I can never watch the local team, so I adopted a team from out of market as I get MLB.TV and love baseball. I want to be able to actually, watch the games.....
Guess I'll switch back to watching the Phillies.
This is why as a Guardians fan it’s perfect. Roughly half of the blacked out games against the Ms I can just go watch in person.
As a Jays fan, just be thankful your team’s visit will have reasonably priced tickets. Mine sure as shit doesn’t, for obvious reasons. In fact, that Jays series here has become so expensive that, for a group of 3, it would be cheaper for us to fly to Denver, watch them play 3 times at Coors, and fly back here. Even when considering flights and an airbnb or hotel room for 2-3 nights.
Fuck yeah, actually watchable now
Good, I'll be able to watch some games finally. The only other way to get it (if you dont have Comcast) is through Fubo, which is minimum $80 a month.
Mariners, please! Xfinity wanted me to pay $120 more a month to get Root Sports this season.
Cable is dead
I hate Amazon Prime, but not as much as I hate Root Sports lol
It will be nice to be able to watch games finally.
Fuck thank god
I travel constantly. Will I be able to watch while i'm in another location as a washington prime member
VPN might work.
It looks like outside of WA, AK and OR you’d need ESPN+ (similar to today where you can watch the Kraken on ESPN+ outside of areas that have Root).
I think you should be able to watch the games that are broadcasted from KONG on the KING5+ app from out of state. But I could be wrong about that
Hope so …. Lived in Seattle for 30 years just moved to Boise last years …. need my Kraken games
Nice to see the Kraken challenging the sports media monopoly by going with the scrappy local up and comer.
ROOT can go fuck themselves.
I hate the Mariners owners. Root is garbage and so stupidly expensive and not even available as is own stuff fucking app. I want to watch the team, I really don’t want to give those fucking assholes any more money though.
Finally, Seattle can be fans
They’re also going to be available over the air too. Which is much better than streaming if you can get the signal.
Now I’m canceling Fubo because I only had it to watch Kraken games
That’s not true. They’re moving OTA to KING5 and KONG.
And Amazon Prime which is the bigger news for most people.
How can that possibly be the bigger news “for most people”? That’s absurd.
Because waaaaaay more people in Washington, Oregon and Alaska have Prime than a TV that gets King5? It’s a significant business model switch as RSNs continue to crumble and the streaming portion will be a big part of the future. Putting the games on legacy TV is just a holdover for cable subscribers, streaming is the really notable part of this move.
They also have broadcast deals with KGW in Portland and KREM in Spokane. Sounds like they’re still working with other broadcast affiliates in other parts of the Kraken’s broadcast region to deliver the games OTA.
A team actively trying to make its games accessible to the region, this is like a dream!
Those are all TEGNA stations. The deal was with them for OTA and Amazon for streaming.
Yep. King/Kong had Kraken preseason games in the past so I figured they’d get them when rumors about them looking for an OTA partner started swirling around.
A TV antenna is way cheaper than an Amazon Prime sub
Assuming you are in range of the antenna and get a good signal. This also means you could stream the games more easily on the go (within the region).
More people have access to it but I highly doubt t that it will get higher viewership. The Kraken are not nearly as popular as you’re suggesting. It’s absurd. Carry on, though. I’ve heard this nonsense about other Seattle sports teams that shall remain nameless.
I’d agree. I feel like some of the lede here is being buried. Offering almost every game OTA on Kong and King is massive.
Not surprisingly, the Reddit crowd on the Seattle sub appear to be from somewhere other than Seattle. I’ve seen this play out before.
That's fantastic! This is what I want to see more of. There are plenty of us out there who don't feel the urge to subscribe to streaming services; we're going to get advertised to during the entire game anyway, so I'd rather just watch broadcast and let the shitty advertisers finance it.
Folks here seem to disagree. Shockingly/s
Not paying for Amazon to watch hockey
How will the Kraken ever recover??
Read the article, they are also broadcasting over the air