DEAR PHILLIES OR WHOEVER: TAKE YOUR STREAMS AND SHOVE’EM!

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Hey Phillies, Comcast/Xfinity/NBC Sports Philadelphia, and Facebook: TAKE YOUR STREAMS AND SHOVE’EM. For starters, it is an embarrassment that a Major League Baseball game is not broadcast on television in the team’s local market. Then, there is the stream itself. It sucked. There were glitches. The stream froze and cut in and out. Poor T-Mac was cut off more than once to get to commercial breaks.

Here’s a newsflash, if I wanted to watch the Phillies on my phone, tablet, or computer I wouldn’t pay over TWO HUNDRED DOLLARS A MONTH FOR F*CKING CABLE! I didn’t want to cave, but I couldn’t take listening to Kevin Stocker on the Phillies radio broadcast any longer and broke down in the seventh inning and watched the stream, after I was forced to shut off my ad-blocker. That’s right, I pay upwards of $3,000 a year for cable TV service and yet I’m still forced to turn off my ad-blocker to stream the Phillies game.

There are also establishments like bars and such that make more money on a Tuesday by broadcasting sporting events. Streaming-only hurts those establishments and the bartenders or servers who rely on tips because Phillies fans will watch the game at home instead of coming out to watch the game. Way to hurt the local micro-economy.

And, most of all, it’s a TOTAL VIOLATION for franchises or corporations to bully fans to their apps and sites by holding the broadcast of local professional sports teams hostage. What about my Grandmother? She’s a life-long Phillies fan and has no clue how to stream. She still needs help setting the clock on her VCR. Shame on whoever is responsible for alienation your older fans.

 

But what channel would they broadcast the Phillies on if they were on at the same time as the Flyers and Sixers, who were on NBC Sports Philadelphia and NBC Sports Philadelphia+ respectively? The possibilities are endless, no? CNBC? CW? PHL17? Put the Flyers on the national NBCSN? Something. I have like 1350 channels half of which seem to have infomercials 24/7. There had to be another channel option.

Look how much of a success this Phillies streaming was with the public:

https://twitter.com/phillychicago/status/981317455783055360

If this wasn’t bad enough. Tomorrow/Today’s Wednesday afternoon game vs. the Mets STREAMS ONLY ON FACEBOOK. Yeah, the company/site that mines and sells personal data, which many people have recently left is the only option if you want to watch the game. Shame on you Phillies or NBC/Comcast or whoever made this gross, money-motivated deal. Get off Mark Zuckerberg’s jawn and think of your fans. Wait until I tell my 88-year-old Grandmom she’s gotta log into Facebook to watch the game. Her mind will be blown when I tell her she needs a book to watch the Phillies.

Whether this is a Phillies or Comcast/NBC, it doesn’t matter. The message remains the same. Broadcast the damn games on television!