Mammoth Blog

Like cool ocean water on a hot summer day, the temptation to dive into broadband streaming of local sports events has been lurking. The New York Yankees, perhaps with a push by Major League Baseball, will be the first to test the temperature.

The Yankees, in conjunction with the YES Network and MLB Advanced Media, announced this week that they will begin in-market broadband streaming of games in Cablevision homes.

It will be at a cost, of course, and it's not yet available in the Capital Region, but that probably will come along, too.

Why is it a big deal? Baseball has long protected its home markets from outside interests. You can watch virtually every game online with the MLB-TV package for as little as $69.95 annually, except that games involving teams in your home market are blacked out.

This new deal allows slackers at work to watch the home team, but at a cost. The price -- and this is just for the Yankees -- is $49.95 for the remainder of the year, or $19.95 for any 30-day period.

"Yankees fans have more choices than ever before to follow the team, and there are no extra costs passed on to those who choose not to sign up for the package," said Tracy Dolgin, YES president and CEO.

You really have to be a Yankee fan, or have an income that rivals that of Derek Jeter, Mark Teixeira and CC Sabathia, to want to invest this kind of money for the opportunity to see your team when away from the living room.

For a New York fan to get the package, he must be a Cablevision expanded basic customer and subscribe to the Optimum Online high-speed Internet service.

And you still have to pay on top of that.

"We're already in discussions with our cable operators and our distribution partners," Dolgin said. "We've gotten a lot of interest in the product. We started with Cablevision because Cablevision is the biggest cable operator within our footprint."

Asked specifically about Time Warner, which services a majority of the Capital Region, Dolgin said, "We are having discussions with Time Warner, and we are working through those as with all operators, these things take time to get done."

No need to rush. I can't imagine, with today's economy, people will be lining up to pay another 50 bucks while risking their job to watch games at work.

Then again, I was never into high-risk swimming. source>>>