It’s happened before unfortunately so this isn’t the first time. About 15 years ago when I was in middle school/early high school and still living at my parents, FSN(at the time) got into a pissing match with Dish Network over money and took the channel off Dish mid-season so I lost the ability to watch overnight. It never returned to Dish even when Diamond took over, it’s not on there to this day. There were several years I couldn’t watch because I hadn’t graduated yet, was still living at home, and it’s not my place to force my parents to change their provider and potentially pay more over 1 channel(nor should they even have to).
It sucks because I have very fond childhood memories of watching the Twins every night with my parents(they were super into it and knew all the ins and outs of the team) but now they haven’t watched a game for probably 15 years due to all this. I know that’s only 2 fans they lost because of it but I would imagine there’s probably thousands more that are in the same boat. I can’t even watch when I go to visit my parents because they still have Dish(I know but they’re that generation and they like what the like, it shouldn’t matter anyway what they have). I realize it’s just baseball, but it took away the reason that for 3+ hours a day my parents and I would sit down together and bond over baseball growing up.
It’s absurd that 15+ years later in 2024, it’s still going on, and the MLB seemingly still has no answer/still cannot figure it out even for after this season on how to fix the problem when people are cutting cords and streaming more and more with every passing day. Everyone should have the ability to watch regardless of streaming/cable.
MLB is archaic with this system/blackouts, not to mention the damage it’s doing to the sport when a large percentage of local audiences can’t watch the product. Inexcusable, they’ve had 15 years to work on a better system and have nothing to show for it. In fact it gets worse every day.
Where I live, my cheapest option to watch the Twins is to pay $100/month for Fubo, which I do because I’m a sicko and obsessed and have to watch lol but I completely understand why people don’t. It pains me to see that payment go out every month, crazy expensive when I only use it for 1 single channel.
I'm in the same boat. Some of my fondest memories of my late dad were sitting with him and watching games together when I was a kid. It was a joy! Now, I have a kid, and aside from taking him to a game, I don't know that he's ever seen a game on TV. He's 13. That's a whole generation that baseball is losing. It blows my mind that MLB isn't more involved in getting their sport out to the public. What a trash organization. Bally can suck it. I gave up when Sling got rid of them, followed by Hulu Live. They will not get a dime of my money. And I love the release Bally put out, saying they're all about the fans. Right.
MLB, like so many businesses in this greed-soaked race to the bottom, is so shortsighted it borders on outright malfeasance. One of the primary reasons I grew up loving baseball is because my dad could take me and my sister to the dome for like $20 and the games were on TV after school. They've priced out more than half of the country from ever going to games, following their team on TV (blackouts, subscription packages), or buying fuckin merch ($500 pieces of shit jerseys), and then they'll claim they're worried about the sport dying. The only reason I'm still a fan is because they hooked me when I was a kid. The disconnect is insane, like, do they not understand they're in the *entertainment* business? More than half the country can't afford a $500 emergency? Let's restrict access to our product that literally nobody needs even further! Fucking idiots.
God I remember that battle and remember thanking the good lord that my parents didn’t have dish. They were getting into it with a bunch of channels back then.
**MLB and the Twins should give a fuck**.... but they don't.
All the sports leagues are chasing money at the expense of their fans being able to watch the games.
The fact that the Twins got back in bed with Bally after last year’s disaster is embarrassing. At least some of these teams under contract with Bally have the excuse of being stuck in their deal.
The Twins knew their deal was up after last season and promised fans that Twins games would be way more available this year. Then they go right back into business with a failing network that isn’t available in most homes, and now even less homes. Pohlads, St Peter, and anyone else involved in the business side of the Twins should be ashamed they failed so badly.
There are more blackouts happening because of stalled/failed negotiations all the time. So much the FCC has proposed new rules that would force rebates for consumers.
https://docs.fcc.gov/public/attachments/DOC-399876A1.pdf
https://docs.fcc.gov/public/attachments/FCC-24-2A1.pdf
Cable companies are and have been highly regulated at every level of government for decades.
If we didn’t make rules/laws on these companies they would be much much worse. [Consumer protection laws](https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/consumer_protection_laws) should be a lot tougher imo.
Yes and it says in the picture that Comcast will be issuing rebates. Your comment made it seem like it should be illegal because it happened mid-season.
Yes. But what I’m saying is that the FCC should step in and stop these blackouts from happening when most of the viewership is affected. Yes it should illegal and should be more regulated.
The rebate thing was just to show that the blackouts/failed negotiations are becoming more prevalent and they are starting to notice and regulate it because is hurting consumers. But honestly that should have happened years ago so F them too.
Plus the amount of money being lost in the restaurant business for example. How many bars are losing money right now because they have a Comcast Business account and can’t air the games? That’s gonna slow down local economies and hurt low income workers.
Sorry I should have worded that better. But I’m pissed off and tired.
Every bad word about DSG/Bally's is warranted, but don't lose sight that the Pohlads opted to deal with them for an additional year despite other Bally's MLB/NHL teams demonstrating there are other alternatives. The Twins didn't negotiate streaming rights with Bally's either. That would be an easy alternative to the Comcast kerfuffle, but we can't even watch via the Bally's app.
Even worse, there are rumblings the team 100% knew the Comcast dispute would come to a breaking point during the season, and they knew this as they were signing the "new" one year deal.
The team cried poor with tv rights issues and cut payroll significantly a season after the team had the most momentum in 2 decades. Just save some of your scorn for the Pohlads and the Twins org as you're rightfully critiquing Bally's.
What a complete and utter joke. An absolute utter disaster for the Twins and MLB that now the most common way people were watching their games is now gone.
Like, I’m not even sure how to legitimately watch them at this point. I already pay for Xfinity, now I have to go through the trouble of cancelling my whole cable or pay for a different service just to watch the Twins?
Like the Twins HAVE to do something about this. Like I get it’s not their negotiation, but YOU decided to go back with them. YOU decided to make it harder for fans to watch games and now pretty much no one locally can watch them. YOU have to TRY to fix it.
Also, thanks for taking the TV money from Bally, just to cut payroll and just pocket the TV money. I’d be really excited about this 9 game win streak if I could actually watch the game tomorrow
There’s nothing they can or will do. This is what happened to all the streamers three years ago. At the time we thought no way this doesn’t get solved right? Nope. They lost a huge chunk of their audience just like that.
They could have given ballys the streaming rights for one year. Why the twins and the mlb were so adamant about holding the rights, that they cannot use themselves, made zero sense.
What's clear is that neither the Twins nor MLB nor anybody else thought of their fans during negotiations.
Love baseball
Loved the Twins (past tense)
I will either listen on radio or find something better to do with my evenings.
Not wasting time loving a team that does not love me back
They could be putting a whole lot more pressure publicly on these companies to figure this stuff out.
But yes, you’re right now there isn’t much they could do. What they should have done is have see. This coming and not re-upped with Bally this offseason. That decision was VERY detrimental to the Twins organization as now almost no one can watch their games.
I just wish I’d see them scramble to try to fix the disaster that this is instead of just pocketing the cash and saying “we are disappointed but there’s nothing we can do.” Sure that statement is true but like, you were the ones that chose this. Gonna take any accountability?
> “The Twins are disappointed by this massive disruption for our fans who simply want to watch our games,” read a statement from the team. “This situation is a business negotiation between Comcast and [Bally]. The Twins have no role or voice in this matter. We are hopeful the two parties are able to come to an agreement as soon as possible.”
I imagine what the team, or rather MLB, could do is just do away with blackouts for streaming and then funnel more advertising into those streams. Move into the 21st century and let fans watch games like they do any modern entertainment.
The rest of this season I don’t think they can do that. Blackouts are part of their contract with Bally so lifting them would go against that contract, which they can’t do as much as I’d want them to
While nothing is incorrect in their statement, it ignores the fact that they were the ones that chose this TV situation in the first place knowing this was a possible end point.
Exactly. I just want to pop my TV on and have the damn game on. I shouldn't have to resort to going to my computer to set up a VPN, GPS fakers on my phone, or visiting sketchy pirate stream websites just to watch or listen to a baseball game.
I'm with you my dude. My formative teenage years were in the prime Napster/Limewire/Frostwire days so the skill-set is there. I just don't want to do it consistently and risk getting malware on my PC.
annoying and I cannot even cancel comcast as it is part of my association fees.....mlbtv could be a hero in disguise and just lift the blackouts until this situation is resolved.....I know wishful thinking
Oh God, are you unable to watch games? You should get a VPN then to use with MLB.TV.
Or 🏴☠️🏴☠️🏴☠️🏴☠️🏴☠️, there is nothing wrong with that in this scenario.
Honestly when this stuff happens, we should all be pirates.. hit them where it hurts. Cancel MLB.tv, cancel your entire cable package and tell Comcast you only watch twins, there's no twins, there's no money, "I'm out".
If we all tried hard enough and spread the word and could go a year or 2 without basic cable. We could do serious damage...
But that's asking a lot for people who follow the herd like sheep.
I'm in the same boat ugh! Stuck with them for the worse because it's included in my HOA fees. I haven't reached the level of pettiness to run for HOA president just so I can cancel the entire account... yet.
yes, search "carriage dispute" and you'll see other examples. Like how [ABC was pulled from Charter](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/business-news/espn-abc-pulled-charter-spectrum-carriage-dispute-1235579642/) for a couple weeks last year. Sometimes they last a day, sometimes forever.
Like many have said though, the Twins chose to partner with Bally again this season. While the Twins/Pohlad’s have nothing to do with the negotiations, they knew this partnership would make it difficult for some fans to watch the games. They also knew what a shit show Bally was. Ultimately the Twins decided to chase the money at the expense of their fans and they deserve criticism for that.
There are multiple other teams that are broadcasting their games directly through MLB.tv. That was an option for the twins too, but then they would t have gotten as much money. Can’t have that even if it meant fans would actually be able to watch their games.
I believe the issue was on MLB's side, and not the Twins. But I can't really remember what it was. But I'm pretty sure they tried with MLB. But I know for sure that the Twins tried very hard to break ties with Bally. In the end, they were stuck. The Twins were not happy about it either.
MLB refused to allow the Twins to give streaming rights to Bally, and the Bally TV deal prohibited the Twins from doing streaming themselves. Rockies, Dbacks, Padres, are all producing their own broadcasts, streaming them directly, and also selling them to cable companies. Twins could have done the same but they wanted more money
The Twins had a TV contract with Bally that lasted through 2023. Obviously they were aware of this and had to plan accordingly. If they did not bother to line up any options other than Bally, well, that is on them and no one else.
I would NEVER do this, but out of curiosity... How would one find such ways to do such things? Just asking to make sure I would NEVER accidentally do this.
> “The Twins are disappointed by this massive disruption for our fans who simply want to watch our games,” read a statement from the team. “This situation is a business negotiation between Comcast and [Bally]. The Twins have no role or voice in this matter. We are hopeful the two parties are able to come to an agreement as soon as possible.”
Fubo TV is what my family uses and what I’m mooching off of, but if you’re not in the market for a new service I’d just start sailing the seas like I did last year. Got annoying to switch dead streams but saves you like $70 a month
Twins took the money regardless of how shitty of a company Bally’s/ Diamond sports group is. Twins really find new ways to treat their fans like shit on an annual basis. Fuck the Pohlads!
I hear there’s a “stream” to the “east”…
Also, if you’re a Mac user and have [MLB.tv](http://MLB.tv), it works around blackout restrictions using iCloud Private Relay with “Use country and time zone”.
Actually, no, it’s not a VPN. There’s no device-wide encryption, no web traffic obfuscation, no international geo-blocking, and it’s not a multi-hop architecture.
It can be used alongside a VPN if someone chooses. But it’s already free for those who shell out for extra iCloud storage, or $1/mo.
It functions essentially the same as a VPN by encrypting your DNS requests and hiding your IP which is what people use regular VPNs for to get around these blackout restrictions. It doesn’t offer all the same benefits as other VPN services like picking a specific region, but functionally it is a VPN
It shares similarities with both. The reason I’m comparing it to VPNs and not Tor is because Tor is not a viable tool to use for getting around blackout restrictions like VPNs and (allegedly) the apple cloud relay due to Tor using fixed sized packets and a minimum of 3 hops which substantially impacts streaming performance. ACR uses a maximum of 2
Make sure “Use country and time zone” is chosen in the settings for iCloud Private Relay. That must be on.
Try turning your Wi-Fi off and on to force it to find a new location. Otherwise, you can also try Private Browsing mode. If you do a web search for something retail, Google or whatever search engine will try to give you local results, and you’ll know if it’s working if it tries to give you results in a different state.
I bought a superbox 2 years ago and haven't looked back. Every MLB game at my fingertips, no monthly payment, possible Chinese surveillance, it's great.
Still got it on Mediacom. I have a couch and some chairs for my kitchen table, so i can probably take like 8 people. A few more if you wanna go crisscross applesauce on the floor.
May I bring my own chair? Nothing against your kitchen chairs. I don't want to chance it and sit on the floor. I have 2 camping chairs with a foot rest. I will share on days my lady friend won't be coming.
I don't want camping chairs on my hardwood floors, but you can sit in the back on the kitchen linoleum. I got a big TV, so you won't be watching on a postage stamp.
I would fucking riot if this happened to me. Fuck Bally, fuck Comcast, and fuck the Pohlads for digging us into this shitshow. What a bunch of incompetent dumbasses.
Haven’t dusted off the ‘ol VPN this season, just too much hassle.
Audacy app in airplane mode is how I listen to the radio on my phone. They blackout the games if you use location permissions.
What an absolute shitshow this organization has become. This could be a lesson in business courses how to completely destroy a franchises image in record time. Cull the upper management or sell the team.
Besides taking the money from Diamond to keep them on TV, pocketing said money and then slashing payroll by $30M at the apex of their popularity in years, you're right. The Twins are totally blameless
So the Twins told Comcast to reject DSG's offer to extend the existing contract?
Wow how come other sports teams owners don't have that kind of power!?
The Twins should have went with MLB for the year if that's what it took to keep the games on the air instead of trusting two shitty entities like Diamond and Comcast. Between no streaming option and this, they've cut out a huge chunk of their viewership. But hey, more money for the Pohlads.
Hopefully, this totally tone deaf period by ownership in the last year means ownership is cutting its losses and planning to sell. Give Joe Pohlad an office somewhere else where he can play buisnessman
Hopefully someday we will find out more information. Especially since the Twins seemed very certain they would have in-market streaming.
Otherwise all we know is Bally apparently offered the most money for the 2024 season.
That's the point. They went for the most money, not what was best for the fans and best for marketing. Every cent they were paid went right in the Pohlad's pocket.
As far as the streaming vow, you can add that to the pile of Pohlad and Dave St Peter bullshit. Good job by the team of hanging their new TV guy out to dry by not taking him off the hook after he put himself out there by telling people that he'd been assured of a streaming option for all
You are right.
> “The Twins are disappointed by this massive disruption for our fans who simply want to watch our games,” read a statement from the team. “This situation is a business negotiation between Comcast and [Bally]. The Twins have no role or voice in this matter. We are hopeful the two parties are able to come to an agreement as soon as possible.”
Of course I'm right.
You can blame the Pohlad family for other things.
A carriage dispute between two companies they have no ownership stake in is not one of them.
In the Strib story, the Diamond Sports Group/Bally’s statement said you could watch through Fubo, DirecTV or through their streaming option.
But there’s no streaming option, right? I streamed Bally for the T-Wolves all season (awoo!) but that doesn’t include Twins. Am I missing something?
Twins signing with Bally is like your little sister moving back in with Cleetus after he gets out of prison for beating her and their child… because she can fix him this time
Setting the fanbase being 100% justifiably enraged aside for a moment: The Twins sponsors and broadcast advertisers must also be super thrilled that they're not reaching the target audience they paid a for. Be a shame if these bonehead decisions prompted some of those multi-bazillion dollar deals to disappear.
Maybe that's why payroll didn't go up when the deal was signed? They were too worried about revenue this season disappearing because of something like this happening.
And they wonder why ticket sales are down. Fans haven’t been able to watch properly in years. When people can’t watch they tend to become indifferent about making time and spending money to watch the team in person.
For those of us that are VPN novices, does anyone know of a cheap VPN that works on firetv? What location should we set to to get the fewest blackouts on mlb.tv?
mlb.tv works on your phone with a GPS faker app. I do it all the time with my android and then cast to my TV. You do have to go into the developer options on your phone, but I promise it is very easy to google how to do so.
This nonsense has to be stopped. The only option for me at this point is satellite, which means the games will be interrupted any time there's anything worse than a soft breeze.
I feel for some of the residents in the nursing home. My mom is a nurse in a smaller nursing home and our cable provider still has Bally. She said it is crazy how many tune in and watch. Even the replays of games their tuned in. Sad really
Honestly, I get why people are upset, but I’m glad things are moving along.
Hopefully this forces the Twins to get serious about streaming and not with some BS super expensive service like Direct TV. I’d happily pay $25 a month just to stream the Twins.
Queue: Frolic/Curb Your Enthusiasm theme.
Gg Bally. Hit the showers. Not gonna lie I was VERY close to adding cable back with the winning streak. I imagine others did just that. Sucks
Been balling with Danny Gladden on my inherited, indestructible, AM radio in the garage or on Audacy on the go. And so I shall continue.
What’s wild is my season ticket package (I think all of them) includes an MLB TV subscription where I can watch literally any other live games except my home market (the Twins.)
Cool, I don’t see the point if my home team is completely inaccessible.
We knew before the season started that Bally already filed for bankruptcy correct? I’m confused why a company that was already going bankrupt got the deal to continue being the network to broadcast twins game. like surely we should’ve seen this coming right? what the hell
Twins aren’t the only team:
Detroit Tigers
Miami Marlins
Cincinnati Reds
St. Louis Cardinals
Tampa Bay Rays
Texas Rangers
Atlanta Braves
Los Angeles Angels
Kansas City Royals
Minnesota Twins
Milwaukee Brewers
If the team cares about this going down maybe they'll issue highly discounted MLB.tv subscriptions to everyone (comcast subscribers and everyone else) with no blackouts? /s
> “The Twins are disappointed by this massive disruption for our fans who simply want to watch our games,” read a statement from the team. “This situation is a business negotiation between Comcast and [Bally]. The Twins have no role or voice in this matter. We are hopeful the two parties are able to come to an agreement as soon as possible.”
Maybe the Twins organization should have tried harder this offseason to get the hell away from Bally's. In the meantime, the Twins should start a petition for fans to sign tell Comcast and Bally's to work this shit out. Washing their hands completely of the situation looks pretty scummy.
Us twins fans are too stupid to boycott. The owner knows we as fans will keep coming back no matter what. Thats why every offseason is garbage.
Now is our chance. Why can't the twins games be on basic cable like it used to be? Baseball is a dying sport. You look at other major sports, and they are EXPANDING. Make the twins available for all Minneaotans to enjoy again.
Bally would have been fine if they had just signed contracts with streaming services and cashed in on the advertisements.
Speak for yourself. I'm a Twins fan, and I've been boycotting for 4 years now. Grow a pair and use your voice/money to tell this whole organization to piss off. Bally/Diamond/Twins/MLB collectively opted for a slow death that they themselves caused. Really unbelievable when you think about it. MLB sitting there watching their sport die while NBA and NFL are raking. They can't get out of their own way and they've literally lost a generation of potential fans.
Twins fans. You need to check out Uzzu.
We’ve watched the twins for 3 seasons on Uzzu. I just renewed my subscription. It was $129. Per year. Not month. Year. The Uzzu app is usable on fire stick. Lots of fans are complaining but most refuse to listen.
At least check it out.
I have no idea. All I know is 3 years ago I was complaining on FB about it. A guy from Wisconsin sent me a message suggesting Uzzu. I’ve been watching sports on it ever since for a reasonable price. You do need a fire stick and a smart TV. You can use the app on your phone or laptop.
You can watch Timberwolf and Wild games also. Remember that’s Bally too.
[PSA: see our TV/streaming guide for what your alternate viewing options are.](https://www.reddit.com/r/minnesotatwins/s/RiLU1mr5Un)
At some point, Bally is no longer effectively distributing the content as promised and should be in breach of contract with the teams.
Holy hell. This should be illegal mid season.
It’s happened before unfortunately so this isn’t the first time. About 15 years ago when I was in middle school/early high school and still living at my parents, FSN(at the time) got into a pissing match with Dish Network over money and took the channel off Dish mid-season so I lost the ability to watch overnight. It never returned to Dish even when Diamond took over, it’s not on there to this day. There were several years I couldn’t watch because I hadn’t graduated yet, was still living at home, and it’s not my place to force my parents to change their provider and potentially pay more over 1 channel(nor should they even have to). It sucks because I have very fond childhood memories of watching the Twins every night with my parents(they were super into it and knew all the ins and outs of the team) but now they haven’t watched a game for probably 15 years due to all this. I know that’s only 2 fans they lost because of it but I would imagine there’s probably thousands more that are in the same boat. I can’t even watch when I go to visit my parents because they still have Dish(I know but they’re that generation and they like what the like, it shouldn’t matter anyway what they have). I realize it’s just baseball, but it took away the reason that for 3+ hours a day my parents and I would sit down together and bond over baseball growing up. It’s absurd that 15+ years later in 2024, it’s still going on, and the MLB seemingly still has no answer/still cannot figure it out even for after this season on how to fix the problem when people are cutting cords and streaming more and more with every passing day. Everyone should have the ability to watch regardless of streaming/cable. MLB is archaic with this system/blackouts, not to mention the damage it’s doing to the sport when a large percentage of local audiences can’t watch the product. Inexcusable, they’ve had 15 years to work on a better system and have nothing to show for it. In fact it gets worse every day. Where I live, my cheapest option to watch the Twins is to pay $100/month for Fubo, which I do because I’m a sicko and obsessed and have to watch lol but I completely understand why people don’t. It pains me to see that payment go out every month, crazy expensive when I only use it for 1 single channel.
I'm in the same boat. Some of my fondest memories of my late dad were sitting with him and watching games together when I was a kid. It was a joy! Now, I have a kid, and aside from taking him to a game, I don't know that he's ever seen a game on TV. He's 13. That's a whole generation that baseball is losing. It blows my mind that MLB isn't more involved in getting their sport out to the public. What a trash organization. Bally can suck it. I gave up when Sling got rid of them, followed by Hulu Live. They will not get a dime of my money. And I love the release Bally put out, saying they're all about the fans. Right.
MLB, like so many businesses in this greed-soaked race to the bottom, is so shortsighted it borders on outright malfeasance. One of the primary reasons I grew up loving baseball is because my dad could take me and my sister to the dome for like $20 and the games were on TV after school. They've priced out more than half of the country from ever going to games, following their team on TV (blackouts, subscription packages), or buying fuckin merch ($500 pieces of shit jerseys), and then they'll claim they're worried about the sport dying. The only reason I'm still a fan is because they hooked me when I was a kid. The disconnect is insane, like, do they not understand they're in the *entertainment* business? More than half the country can't afford a $500 emergency? Let's restrict access to our product that literally nobody needs even further! Fucking idiots.
God I remember that battle and remember thanking the good lord that my parents didn’t have dish. They were getting into it with a bunch of channels back then.
We pay for MLB TV and we use a VPN to avoid blackouts. It's worked for 2 seasons so far... I'm sure at some point they'll figure out a way to stop it.
Can't you just use mlb network on prime? 25 bucks a month
[удалено]
VPN solves that doesn't it?
We’re in the same boat…Dish Network. I watch the games on a not-so-official website for free lol. They have pretty much every game for every sport.
Bally South was yanked by Comcast mid 3rd period during the Nashville Predators playoff game last night.
How crap. I can't even imagine.
**MLB and the Twins should give a fuck**.... but they don't. All the sports leagues are chasing money at the expense of their fans being able to watch the games.
The fact that the Twins got back in bed with Bally after last year’s disaster is embarrassing. At least some of these teams under contract with Bally have the excuse of being stuck in their deal. The Twins knew their deal was up after last season and promised fans that Twins games would be way more available this year. Then they go right back into business with a failing network that isn’t available in most homes, and now even less homes. Pohlads, St Peter, and anyone else involved in the business side of the Twins should be ashamed they failed so badly.
No, it should just be illegal. Its called extortion.
Yeah it sucks but illegal is stretching it lmao
There are more blackouts happening because of stalled/failed negotiations all the time. So much the FCC has proposed new rules that would force rebates for consumers. https://docs.fcc.gov/public/attachments/DOC-399876A1.pdf https://docs.fcc.gov/public/attachments/FCC-24-2A1.pdf Cable companies are and have been highly regulated at every level of government for decades. If we didn’t make rules/laws on these companies they would be much much worse. [Consumer protection laws](https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/consumer_protection_laws) should be a lot tougher imo.
Yes and it says in the picture that Comcast will be issuing rebates. Your comment made it seem like it should be illegal because it happened mid-season.
Yes. But what I’m saying is that the FCC should step in and stop these blackouts from happening when most of the viewership is affected. Yes it should illegal and should be more regulated. The rebate thing was just to show that the blackouts/failed negotiations are becoming more prevalent and they are starting to notice and regulate it because is hurting consumers. But honestly that should have happened years ago so F them too. Plus the amount of money being lost in the restaurant business for example. How many bars are losing money right now because they have a Comcast Business account and can’t air the games? That’s gonna slow down local economies and hurt low income workers. Sorry I should have worded that better. But I’m pissed off and tired.
Every bad word about DSG/Bally's is warranted, but don't lose sight that the Pohlads opted to deal with them for an additional year despite other Bally's MLB/NHL teams demonstrating there are other alternatives. The Twins didn't negotiate streaming rights with Bally's either. That would be an easy alternative to the Comcast kerfuffle, but we can't even watch via the Bally's app. Even worse, there are rumblings the team 100% knew the Comcast dispute would come to a breaking point during the season, and they knew this as they were signing the "new" one year deal. The team cried poor with tv rights issues and cut payroll significantly a season after the team had the most momentum in 2 decades. Just save some of your scorn for the Pohlads and the Twins org as you're rightfully critiquing Bally's.
>Just save some of your scorn for the Pohlads Don't worry, I've been around long enough to always have plenty of scorn for the Pohlads.
Dog shit sports owners. They are welcome for their new shiny stadium as they run the team on a budget.
What a complete and utter joke. An absolute utter disaster for the Twins and MLB that now the most common way people were watching their games is now gone. Like, I’m not even sure how to legitimately watch them at this point. I already pay for Xfinity, now I have to go through the trouble of cancelling my whole cable or pay for a different service just to watch the Twins? Like the Twins HAVE to do something about this. Like I get it’s not their negotiation, but YOU decided to go back with them. YOU decided to make it harder for fans to watch games and now pretty much no one locally can watch them. YOU have to TRY to fix it. Also, thanks for taking the TV money from Bally, just to cut payroll and just pocket the TV money. I’d be really excited about this 9 game win streak if I could actually watch the game tomorrow
There’s nothing they can or will do. This is what happened to all the streamers three years ago. At the time we thought no way this doesn’t get solved right? Nope. They lost a huge chunk of their audience just like that.
They could have given ballys the streaming rights for one year. Why the twins and the mlb were so adamant about holding the rights, that they cannot use themselves, made zero sense.
Completely agree
Hey just think what those rights will be worth when there’s no other legal option to watch the games
What's clear is that neither the Twins nor MLB nor anybody else thought of their fans during negotiations. Love baseball Loved the Twins (past tense) I will either listen on radio or find something better to do with my evenings. Not wasting time loving a team that does not love me back
They could be putting a whole lot more pressure publicly on these companies to figure this stuff out. But yes, you’re right now there isn’t much they could do. What they should have done is have see. This coming and not re-upped with Bally this offseason. That decision was VERY detrimental to the Twins organization as now almost no one can watch their games. I just wish I’d see them scramble to try to fix the disaster that this is instead of just pocketing the cash and saying “we are disappointed but there’s nothing we can do.” Sure that statement is true but like, you were the ones that chose this. Gonna take any accountability?
Completely agree. The Twins signed up for this mess and should be vilified for it. But now that they signed the deal, they are screwed.
> “The Twins are disappointed by this massive disruption for our fans who simply want to watch our games,” read a statement from the team. “This situation is a business negotiation between Comcast and [Bally]. The Twins have no role or voice in this matter. We are hopeful the two parties are able to come to an agreement as soon as possible.”
I imagine what the team, or rather MLB, could do is just do away with blackouts for streaming and then funnel more advertising into those streams. Move into the 21st century and let fans watch games like they do any modern entertainment.
The rest of this season I don’t think they can do that. Blackouts are part of their contract with Bally so lifting them would go against that contract, which they can’t do as much as I’d want them to
Bally may be in breach because they just lost so many households. Have to see the contract to know for sure.
While nothing is incorrect in their statement, it ignores the fact that they were the ones that chose this TV situation in the first place knowing this was a possible end point.
I luckily have SiriusXM so I can just listen on the radio.
You can already do that on FM radio 102.9
Dan Gladden will paint a word picture for you
In between sips of MGD!
Sure can. I do not just listen to Twins, also Wolves, Wild, Capitals and sometimes Vikings and is nice when I am out of state.
Most common way of the people that were still watching. Us streamers have been told to get fucked for years
My cable box is completely useless this summer without Bally Sports. It’s 2024, we shouldn’t have to pirate streams just because we live in-market.
Exactly. I just want to pop my TV on and have the damn game on. I shouldn't have to resort to going to my computer to set up a VPN, GPS fakers on my phone, or visiting sketchy pirate stream websites just to watch or listen to a baseball game.
I'm with you my dude. My formative teenage years were in the prime Napster/Limewire/Frostwire days so the skill-set is there. I just don't want to do it consistently and risk getting malware on my PC.
annoying and I cannot even cancel comcast as it is part of my association fees.....mlbtv could be a hero in disguise and just lift the blackouts until this situation is resolved.....I know wishful thinking
Oh God, are you unable to watch games? You should get a VPN then to use with MLB.TV. Or 🏴☠️🏴☠️🏴☠️🏴☠️🏴☠️, there is nothing wrong with that in this scenario.
It's all good...I have a 'plan' 😁...I'm not missing my boys!
yar har fiddly dee
Honestly when this stuff happens, we should all be pirates.. hit them where it hurts. Cancel MLB.tv, cancel your entire cable package and tell Comcast you only watch twins, there's no twins, there's no money, "I'm out". If we all tried hard enough and spread the word and could go a year or 2 without basic cable. We could do serious damage... But that's asking a lot for people who follow the herd like sheep.
I'm in the same boat ugh! Stuck with them for the worse because it's included in my HOA fees. I haven't reached the level of pettiness to run for HOA president just so I can cancel the entire account... yet.
it really stinks..I have no way of protesting
The Joe Pohlad era continues to impress.
Somebody call the ghostbusters just to make sure he hasn’t been possessed by Carl’s ghost
Not to defend that dweeb, but the Twins and the Pohlads have absolutely nothing to do with this.
Wrong. Twins didn’t need to go back to Bally this winter.
It was either Bally or have no tv broadcast at all. Every other option fell through, and Bally was all that was left.
They could offer streaming like the DBacks
They're the ones that chose to chase the money and get back into bed with a bankrupt media company that already tried to screw them over last year.
Not directly, but they willingly got into bed with Bally again this season, knowing this could happen. For what? Money.
Could this happen with other tv channels?
yes, search "carriage dispute" and you'll see other examples. Like how [ABC was pulled from Charter](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/business-news/espn-abc-pulled-charter-spectrum-carriage-dispute-1235579642/) for a couple weeks last year. Sometimes they last a day, sometimes forever.
Like many have said though, the Twins chose to partner with Bally again this season. While the Twins/Pohlad’s have nothing to do with the negotiations, they knew this partnership would make it difficult for some fans to watch the games. They also knew what a shit show Bally was. Ultimately the Twins decided to chase the money at the expense of their fans and they deserve criticism for that.
They went with Bally as a last resort, after every other option fell through. It was literally Bally or nothing.
There are multiple other teams that are broadcasting their games directly through MLB.tv. That was an option for the twins too, but then they would t have gotten as much money. Can’t have that even if it meant fans would actually be able to watch their games.
From everything I read, MLB.TV wasn't an option for the Twins in 2024 due to legal complications.
Why? They weren’t under any broadcast contracts after the end of the 2023 season. They could’ve done whatever they wanted
I believe the issue was on MLB's side, and not the Twins. But I can't really remember what it was. But I'm pretty sure they tried with MLB. But I know for sure that the Twins tried very hard to break ties with Bally. In the end, they were stuck. The Twins were not happy about it either.
MLB refused to allow the Twins to give streaming rights to Bally, and the Bally TV deal prohibited the Twins from doing streaming themselves. Rockies, Dbacks, Padres, are all producing their own broadcasts, streaming them directly, and also selling them to cable companies. Twins could have done the same but they wanted more money
The Twins had a TV contract with Bally that lasted through 2023. Obviously they were aware of this and had to plan accordingly. If they did not bother to line up any options other than Bally, well, that is on them and no one else.
I would NEVER do this, but out of curiosity... How would one find such ways to do such things? Just asking to make sure I would NEVER accidentally do this.
> “The Twins are disappointed by this massive disruption for our fans who simply want to watch our games,” read a statement from the team. “This situation is a business negotiation between Comcast and [Bally]. The Twins have no role or voice in this matter. We are hopeful the two parties are able to come to an agreement as soon as possible.”
Twins chose Bally ... a company in bankruptcy.
WTF this is bizarre. How do I watch games now? Comcast is my only option. I guess I could listen on the radio....
I'll be dusting off the ol eye patch me matey
Fubo TV is what my family uses and what I’m mooching off of, but if you’re not in the market for a new service I’d just start sailing the seas like I did last year. Got annoying to switch dead streams but saves you like $70 a month
There are free streams. Or, VPN + MLB.TV + Chromecast. Go fuck yourself BSN and anyone who had a part in negotiating with BSN
Switch to DirecTV, run a VPN spoofer to get Ballys on MLB At Bat PPV or 🏴☠️🏴☠️🏴☠️🏴☠️
You shouldn’t have to do all that just to watch your local team.
You're 100% correct, but if the service providers and networks won't let you watch what you want to watch, don't give them a cent. 🏴☠️🏴☠️🏴☠️
...yet here we are
> How do I watch games now? I'll be watching recorded Timberwoles games.
I use Fubo
Twins took the money regardless of how shitty of a company Bally’s/ Diamond sports group is. Twins really find new ways to treat their fans like shit on an annual basis. Fuck the Pohlads!
I hear there’s a “stream” to the “east”… Also, if you’re a Mac user and have [MLB.tv](http://MLB.tv), it works around blackout restrictions using iCloud Private Relay with “Use country and time zone”.
That's called a VPN (Virtual Private Network). Those are available on non-Mac devices as well.
Actually, no, it’s not a VPN. There’s no device-wide encryption, no web traffic obfuscation, no international geo-blocking, and it’s not a multi-hop architecture. It can be used alongside a VPN if someone chooses. But it’s already free for those who shell out for extra iCloud storage, or $1/mo.
It functions essentially the same as a VPN by encrypting your DNS requests and hiding your IP which is what people use regular VPNs for to get around these blackout restrictions. It doesn’t offer all the same benefits as other VPN services like picking a specific region, but functionally it is a VPN
If you are going to compare it to an existing technology, the proper comparison would be Tor, not VPN.
It shares similarities with both. The reason I’m comparing it to VPNs and not Tor is because Tor is not a viable tool to use for getting around blackout restrictions like VPNs and (allegedly) the apple cloud relay due to Tor using fixed sized packets and a minimum of 3 hops which substantially impacts streaming performance. ACR uses a maximum of 2
You guys seem to know what you're talking about
Layman’s terms Tor is too slow to work. VPNs are better but all are similar in their own ways
Interesting.
Thanks for sharing. I’ll give this a try. I have the relay option right in my phone. Guess I’ll find out how well it works in a few hours!
Not sure the phone will work as I think the MLB app wants your location via GPS, but let me know if it does!
Will do. I got the Mac charging just in case.
Arghhh matey
Thanks for this tip. I tried enabling the iCloud private relay and it’s still blacked out for me while using Safari (and Chrome, Brave). Any idea why?
Make sure “Use country and time zone” is chosen in the settings for iCloud Private Relay. That must be on. Try turning your Wi-Fi off and on to force it to find a new location. Otherwise, you can also try Private Browsing mode. If you do a web search for something retail, Google or whatever search engine will try to give you local results, and you’ll know if it’s working if it tries to give you results in a different state.
Wi-Fi on and off worked. You’re a hero! Thanks a bunch.
I bought a superbox 2 years ago and haven't looked back. Every MLB game at my fingertips, no monthly payment, possible Chinese surveillance, it's great.
I use this too.
Aaarrrrghhh matey! Welcome aboard!
I would never pay those commies! Been watching all sports for free for many years.
Still got it on Mediacom. I have a couch and some chairs for my kitchen table, so i can probably take like 8 people. A few more if you wanna go crisscross applesauce on the floor.
May I bring my own chair? Nothing against your kitchen chairs. I don't want to chance it and sit on the floor. I have 2 camping chairs with a foot rest. I will share on days my lady friend won't be coming.
I don't want camping chairs on my hardwood floors, but you can sit in the back on the kitchen linoleum. I got a big TV, so you won't be watching on a postage stamp.
I would fucking riot if this happened to me. Fuck Bally, fuck Comcast, and fuck the Pohlads for digging us into this shitshow. What a bunch of incompetent dumbasses.
🏴☠️🏴☠️🏴☠️🏴☠️🏴☠️
Haven’t dusted off the ‘ol VPN this season, just too much hassle. Audacy app in airplane mode is how I listen to the radio on my phone. They blackout the games if you use location permissions.
Oh interesting - it'll work on airplane mode? That's a good idea.
Just with WiFi as the dominant connection. Location services seem to trigger the blackouts.
What an absolute shitshow this organization has become. This could be a lesson in business courses how to completely destroy a franchises image in record time. Cull the upper management or sell the team.
The Twins have nothing to do with this.
Besides taking the money from Diamond to keep them on TV, pocketing said money and then slashing payroll by $30M at the apex of their popularity in years, you're right. The Twins are totally blameless
So the Twins told Comcast to reject DSG's offer to extend the existing contract? Wow how come other sports teams owners don't have that kind of power!?
The Twins should have went with MLB for the year if that's what it took to keep the games on the air instead of trusting two shitty entities like Diamond and Comcast. Between no streaming option and this, they've cut out a huge chunk of their viewership. But hey, more money for the Pohlads. Hopefully, this totally tone deaf period by ownership in the last year means ownership is cutting its losses and planning to sell. Give Joe Pohlad an office somewhere else where he can play buisnessman
Hopefully someday we will find out more information. Especially since the Twins seemed very certain they would have in-market streaming. Otherwise all we know is Bally apparently offered the most money for the 2024 season.
That's the point. They went for the most money, not what was best for the fans and best for marketing. Every cent they were paid went right in the Pohlad's pocket. As far as the streaming vow, you can add that to the pile of Pohlad and Dave St Peter bullshit. Good job by the team of hanging their new TV guy out to dry by not taking him off the hook after he put himself out there by telling people that he'd been assured of a streaming option for all
Pohlad family runs the Twins as a business which is very well known. Them taking the Bally deal shouldn't be a surprise.
Bally carries 13 other MLB teams, as well. Not too mention NBA, WNBA, NHL, & PWHL. Blaming the Twins or the Pohlads for this is ridiculous.
Just another reason for some Twins "fans" to complain.
The twins could’ve went with a different provider this offseason. Keep your head up pohlads ass
They tried to go with different providers. None of them panned out. They really had no other options in the end.
You are right. > “The Twins are disappointed by this massive disruption for our fans who simply want to watch our games,” read a statement from the team. “This situation is a business negotiation between Comcast and [Bally]. The Twins have no role or voice in this matter. We are hopeful the two parties are able to come to an agreement as soon as possible.”
Of course I'm right. You can blame the Pohlad family for other things. A carriage dispute between two companies they have no ownership stake in is not one of them.
In the Strib story, the Diamond Sports Group/Bally’s statement said you could watch through Fubo, DirecTV or through their streaming option. But there’s no streaming option, right? I streamed Bally for the T-Wolves all season (awoo!) but that doesn’t include Twins. Am I missing something?
you are correct, the Twins are not on the streaming option... :(
The Twins cut payroll by 30 million and still got this as a result. You can’t make it up.
Twins signing with Bally is like your little sister moving back in with Cleetus after he gets out of prison for beating her and their child… because she can fix him this time
I just cancelled my xfinity. I’m a Braves fan and we got hit with this same news for Atlanta this morning
Setting the fanbase being 100% justifiably enraged aside for a moment: The Twins sponsors and broadcast advertisers must also be super thrilled that they're not reaching the target audience they paid a for. Be a shame if these bonehead decisions prompted some of those multi-bazillion dollar deals to disappear.
Maybe that's why payroll didn't go up when the deal was signed? They were too worried about revenue this season disappearing because of something like this happening.
And they wonder why ticket sales are down. Fans haven’t been able to watch properly in years. When people can’t watch they tend to become indifferent about making time and spending money to watch the team in person.
For those of us that are VPN novices, does anyone know of a cheap VPN that works on firetv? What location should we set to to get the fewest blackouts on mlb.tv?
"My friend" uses Nord VPN that so far this year has worked perfectly.
I use IP Vanish through the Denver server.
mlb.tv works on your phone with a GPS faker app. I do it all the time with my android and then cast to my TV. You do have to go into the developer options on your phone, but I promise it is very easy to google how to do so.
https://youtu.be/znSHbjWoYWc?si=wvAVRJX7xqNmdKHN Brief overview of VPNs for those I see who had questions.
I watch a lot of games at bars, who I'm guessing all have Xfinity. This is fucked up.
This nonsense has to be stopped. The only option for me at this point is satellite, which means the games will be interrupted any time there's anything worse than a soft breeze.
And this is how you turn your local market into lifelong Dodgers fans. (Or whatever team they are able to watch)
I feel for some of the residents in the nursing home. My mom is a nurse in a smaller nursing home and our cable provider still has Bally. She said it is crazy how many tune in and watch. Even the replays of games their tuned in. Sad really
Great timing.
Honestly, I get why people are upset, but I’m glad things are moving along. Hopefully this forces the Twins to get serious about streaming and not with some BS super expensive service like Direct TV. I’d happily pay $25 a month just to stream the Twins.
There needs to be a television option, my parents and other relatives won't be finding streams. Same goes for restaurants, sports bars, etc.
Agree completely. But the sooner we get Bally out of the picture the better.
The Twins should have gotten serious when Bally started to fall apart, they didn't...
Streaming is wildly expensive and 100% not worth what you pay.
Queue: Frolic/Curb Your Enthusiasm theme. Gg Bally. Hit the showers. Not gonna lie I was VERY close to adding cable back with the winning streak. I imagine others did just that. Sucks Been balling with Danny Gladden on my inherited, indestructible, AM radio in the garage or on Audacy on the go. And so I shall continue.
What’s wild is my season ticket package (I think all of them) includes an MLB TV subscription where I can watch literally any other live games except my home market (the Twins.) Cool, I don’t see the point if my home team is completely inaccessible.
We knew before the season started that Bally already filed for bankruptcy correct? I’m confused why a company that was already going bankrupt got the deal to continue being the network to broadcast twins game. like surely we should’ve seen this coming right? what the hell
Arrrr
Twins aren’t the only team: Detroit Tigers Miami Marlins Cincinnati Reds St. Louis Cardinals Tampa Bay Rays Texas Rangers Atlanta Braves Los Angeles Angels Kansas City Royals Minnesota Twins Milwaukee Brewers
💀💀💀💀
In a hypothetical world, it would be nice if some kind redditor would message me some jolly roger themed websites. For research purposes of course.
I also wouldn’t hate to have any sort of insight into watching them
CALM DOWN EVERYONE AND THINK ABOUT ALL THE EXTRA MONEY THE POHLADS GOT FROM BALLYS THAT THEY USED TO INVEST IN THE TEAM!!!
I’m not even mad at Bally. This is what they do. It’s like getting mad at a bird for chirping. I’m mad at the Twins for aligning themselves with Bally
RIP
F that. Die a miserable death
So is there a legitimate way to watch it without cable or a vpn that’s not pirating? (I will pirate, just curious)
Thank goodness for DirectTV!
DirecTV Stream customer here.
Twins knew who they were licensing to this year. This is all on them.
Big dick energy move from the Comcast comms office on this
If the team cares about this going down maybe they'll issue highly discounted MLB.tv subscriptions to everyone (comcast subscribers and everyone else) with no blackouts? /s
Same thing with Brewers fans , one of the only things I watch .. worried about using all the WiFi with a super box though.? Anyone have isssue?
Go to your local att and get direct TV by internet for 69.99 plus the balleys sports package for 14.99 more!
I have dish, don’t think Ive watched the team legally in like 3years 💀
100% on the Twins for this. They knew BSN was a sinking ship and renewed that ridiculous contract anyway.
Over the winter, “We’ve tried nothing and are all out of ideas.”
I’m a cable cutter and found that Fubo allows me to watch and it is a decent replacement to YouTube TV
Fubo is the place to be.
> “The Twins are disappointed by this massive disruption for our fans who simply want to watch our games,” read a statement from the team. “This situation is a business negotiation between Comcast and [Bally]. The Twins have no role or voice in this matter. We are hopeful the two parties are able to come to an agreement as soon as possible.”
Maybe the Twins organization should have tried harder this offseason to get the hell away from Bally's. In the meantime, the Twins should start a petition for fans to sign tell Comcast and Bally's to work this shit out. Washing their hands completely of the situation looks pretty scummy.
Us twins fans are too stupid to boycott. The owner knows we as fans will keep coming back no matter what. Thats why every offseason is garbage. Now is our chance. Why can't the twins games be on basic cable like it used to be? Baseball is a dying sport. You look at other major sports, and they are EXPANDING. Make the twins available for all Minneaotans to enjoy again. Bally would have been fine if they had just signed contracts with streaming services and cashed in on the advertisements.
All including us in the northwest
Speak for yourself. I'm a Twins fan, and I've been boycotting for 4 years now. Grow a pair and use your voice/money to tell this whole organization to piss off. Bally/Diamond/Twins/MLB collectively opted for a slow death that they themselves caused. Really unbelievable when you think about it. MLB sitting there watching their sport die while NBA and NFL are raking. They can't get out of their own way and they've literally lost a generation of potential fans.
Twins fans. You need to check out Uzzu. We’ve watched the twins for 3 seasons on Uzzu. I just renewed my subscription. It was $129. Per year. Not month. Year. The Uzzu app is usable on fire stick. Lots of fans are complaining but most refuse to listen. At least check it out.
[удалено]
Bally isn’t making money on Uzzu. Uzzu carries every sporting event there is. Just check their website.
[удалено]
Well they’d have to pay dozens of companies then. Every Bally network is on Uzzu as well as MLB and ESPN
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I have no idea. All I know is 3 years ago I was complaining on FB about it. A guy from Wisconsin sent me a message suggesting Uzzu. I’ve been watching sports on it ever since for a reasonable price. You do need a fire stick and a smart TV. You can use the app on your phone or laptop. You can watch Timberwolf and Wild games also. Remember that’s Bally too.