So I get home just in time to tune in to the first inning of the All-Star game (in progress) and since I don’t have a working TV, I log on to MLB.tv. To my surprise, the broadcast is not the same TV broadcast (as was the case for the Home Run Derby last night), but instead, is a direct feed from nine different camera angles around the new Busch Stadium. Freaking cool!

The video player is very similar to the MLB.tv player, and it gives you the option to watch anywhere from one camera to four simultaneously. Switching between them is as easy as clicking on the grid, then clicking on the new angle available as a list or placed geographically on a graphic of the ball park.

I was asked for my MLB.com account login info, not my MLB.tv, but in my case, they happen to be the same. Not sure if non-MLB.tv subscribers can watch it gratis, tho. Also, I hadn’t heard of this at all, I did some googling to try and figure when/if it had been announced, and the only thing I could find was a press release for a similar broadcast Fox Interactive did for the BCS.

And the best part? No broadcasters! Just pure unfiltered stadium ambience sounds. Beautiful! Darn. The first three camera angles (X-MO Low Home, High Homeplate, and Centerfield) do have the Fox broadcast audio.

(The main Fox online broadcast itself is blacked out, but is available through MLB.tv, as is Game Day audio).

I’m sorry, but I have to say this is freaking awesome. I take most of it back Bud, Robert, you too Donald, who’s a good new media goonie? who’s it, who’s it? yes you.

Come hither...

When Apple announced the new iteration of it’s venerable cash cow, the iPhone 3GS, it did so emphasizing the speed of the device, capable of delivering faster web pages, loading applications in a snap, and, at least in the future, capable of utilizing AT&T’s faster mobile internet network.

Another feature that will no doubt take advantage of the upgraded horsepower will be streaming video, and because we know these MLB New Media Goons are ahead of the technology curve, Apple promptly partnered with MLB Advanced Media to showcase the live video delivery capabilities of the ubiquitous machine with its latest version of the MLB At Bat iPhone application.

And to complete this delicious new media menage a trois, AT&T gave MLBAM the exclusive right to stream live video via its 3G cellular network, a right previously denied to applications such as Skype and Slingplayer (remember them?).

This is where it gets hairy. It’s no secret that Apple’s extremely restrictive application approval process has been contradictory in giving the green light to certain kinds of applications while rejecting other, very similar ones. But now that AT&T is wanting to play VIP with MLBAM, it raises another set of questions.

AT&T denied Slingplayer access to its 3G network for video streaming saying it would clog up its 3G network, so why give the MLB New Media Goons the full spread?

From CNET:

But now AT&T is allowing MLB to do exactly what it would not allow Sling to do, which is stream live broadcast TV over its 3G cellular network onto iPhones. So what gives? Is AT&T playing favorites?

That’s exactly what Ben Scott, policy director for the advocacy group Free Press, thinks. The group issued a statement Thursday expressing its concern over what it sees as an inconsistent policy.

“We are troubled that carriers like AT&T are playing gatekeeper to the next generation of wireless Internet applications,” Scott said in a statement. “No Internet service provider should be allowed to pick winners and losers online.”

Two things: First, Net Neutrality

Up until this point, the Net Neutrality battle (remember kids, same Internet for all) was being fought on the Cable companies’ turf, in which Big Cable’s bandwidth cap threats could’ve impacted MLB’s own broadband hog, MLB.tv, but AT&T’s contradictory policy towards the MLB At Bat application seems to indicate that it will also have to be addressed on the mobile web.

(An interesting side note, MLB Advanced Media has been a busy little new media whore. Just a few days ago, Boxee, the media center that allows you to hook up your computer to your HDTV and watch TV shows and movies, announced that the alpha version of its software will give MLB.tv subscribers a way to watch games through Boxee on their TVs.)

Second (and here’s my conspiracy angle)

It’s quite curious to note that the kid not invited to the party is Sling Media, the maker of the Slingplayer application for the iPhone.  If you all remember, MLB has once before targeted Sling, which allows you to setup a box at home, and stream your cable or satellite service (or your shiny new public digital TV signal) over the internet to your laptop or mobile phone. Yes, you can stream your Sling connection to your iPhone, but it has to be done through a Wi-Fi connection (which necessitates a hot spot and not AT&T’s much wider 3G network).

Of course, MLB is not getting the double dip in broadcast rights once you stream the home team’s game when you’re away from home. And so you see, in my humble opinion at least, Bud Selig and his New Media Goons are getting AT&T to give them the 3G buffet while at the same time, Mamma Bell kicks Sling Media to the curve.

Full circle

Remember who bought Sling Media? Echo Star, the parent company for Dish Network, which never got a piece of the MLB Extra Innings pie.

Conclusion?

Clearly MLB Advanced Media is spreading its tentacles to as many areas of technology as it can. That is a good thing. But there seem to be some shady shenanigans going on behind the scenes. And what I don’t like is the fact that we have to keep paying an arm and a leg just to watch some baseball.

TBS is showing a re-run of the Steve Harvey Show. I don’t even know what that is. My boyfriend had to spell it for me.

WHERE IS MY BASEBALL? WHERE IS MY BECKETT? WHERE IS TROPICANA FIELD?

Right about now, those mowhawked, blue-haired, cowbell-ringin’ Rays fans are standing and screaming, “NOT IN OUR HOUSE, MUTHAF*CKAS!”

Right about now, the Red Sox are slappin’ some extra pine tar on their helmets and spittin’ their chaw on the dugout steps.

But I am watching a man with a mustache crack jokes to a laugh track due to “technical difficulties.”

“Please stand by,” they’re telling me.  And I’m telling them, “THERE’S ONLY ONE OCTOBER, A**HOLES!”

That sharp pain you feel in your back isn’t a piece of maple bat wedge in between your ribs, it’s Big Cable’s hunting knife half way in your spinal chord. And trust me, they’re about to twist it some more.

Thanks to a leaked memo, we learned back in January that Time Warner was considering instituting some kind of trial run, capping the amount of web traffic a consumer of their broadband service could get under the traditional price scheme.

That program is now a reality, as the good folks of Beaumont, Texas will be allowed a 40GB max on their $55-a-month broadband plan; with every additional GB costing a buck.

I know I don’t need to spell out why this is relevant to any one of you out there. But for the sake of redundancy, let’s go through it, one more time. This time, we’ll do the math:

• Time Warner (and don’t let the fact that it’s just them fool you, it’s Big Cable in general) wants to control the amount of bandwidth people consume via their broadband connections.
• They claim that a few bandwith hogs out there are consuming as much as half of local traffic in some areas. A claim that, of course, only they could corroborate. Good luck trying to get those traffic logs.
• As little as a year and a half ago, Cable was whining about the fact that MLB Advance Media would be moving its MLB Extra Innings service exclusively to DirecTV. Congress got involved, MLB opened the deal, and Cable was allowed to buy into it, keeping the Extra Innings service (poor old Dish was left out in the cold).
• As an alternative to the TV package however, MLB Advance Media was hawking its mlb.tv service, one that resides online and makes excellent use of the “unlimited” bandwidth those of use who get broadband internet enjoy.
• This year, mlb.tv began offering a “tv-quality” stream for games, which downloads at 1.2 MB per second. An average baseball game lasts about 3 hours, so that would be 180 minutes, equaling 10,800 seconds.
• That times 1.2MB, equals about 1,296 MB, so if we’re watching those fancy streams (like, say, I do), then we’d be downloading about 1.3 GB per game (1,000 MB in a gigabyte, and don’t forget some users have access to the multi-stream of games, also known as mosaic).
• Say you watch a game every night, for, oh I don’t know, 20 nights a month. That’s 26 GB a month spent on just baseball. Who knows how much bandwidth you would’ve consumed doing other things.

I know I’m framing this issue as baseball centric, but I only do this as a practical illustration on a very plausible scenario. It’s much broader than that. Do your part, contact your Congressman or Senator and demand Net Neutrality.

After whining themselves into the DirecTV deal, Cable suddenly forgot what team it’s playing for.

The technology landscape has changed dramatically since last year’s ill-fated DirecTV-Extra Innings exclusive deal; more and more people have migrated to the web to watch TV shows and download movies, something that’s been traditionally and intrinsically tied to the Television and the cable or satellite set top box.

Ironically, the Extra Innings deal would’ve forced subscribers to switch to the MLB.TV service, where they’d be able to watch most games from their computers at home or work. But due to huge fan outcry and a brief intervention by Congress, MLB New Media Goons, aka, MLB’s Advance Media arm decided to let Cable into the deal.

This time around, however, it’s Cable that’s about to screw us all over. And this time, I doubt there’s anything Selig or his henchmen can do to stop it.

From the AP:

NEW YORK – Time Warner Cable will experiment with a new pricing structure for high-speed Internet access later this year, charging customers based on how much data they download, a company spokesman said Wednesday.

As you all remember, Time Warner is part of that group of affiliates that own and operate In Demand, the system that distributes the MLB Extra Innings package to cable subscribers.

And this new pricing structure that they’re testing for broadband access will undoubtedly add a premium to the luxurious price that those of us who watch TV programming online (IE, baseball games through MLB.TV) already pay.

And what’s the reasoning, you ask?

Now, let’s see — that pricing structure would be really bad news for any Web entity selling downloadable movies and TV shows. Customers of cable company broadband might think twice if the download would bust them through to the next tier of service, forcing them to pay more.

And, hmm, who is most threatened by Web entities selling movies and TV shows? Why — that would be cable companies! How coincidental! By making downloadable video more expensive, cable companies might convince customers to just watch cable TV or get a movie on cable’s pay-per-view. Amazing how that works, huh?

Sure, that this becomes the norm is only speculative, but the Net Neutrality issue has been brewing for a while, with Cable leading the charge that we ought to have a tiered system to pay for broadband.

And so, the fact that Networks are enticing people to watch TV online, and not to mention, the big push for online movie rentals, oh and of course, music downloads, will make broadband internet service providers (IE, Cable) only think of pulling schemes like Time Warner’s out of their digital rear ends.

Among certain of my friends, the phenomenon of “Sarah’s Angry Emails” is not unknown. Something sets me off (usually involving politics, sports, ex-boyfriends, feminism, a particular downstairs neighbor, or some combination thereof) and before I can stop myself, I’ve seized my keyboard and pounded out a single-spaced screed. This happened recently in regard to a post I wrote that got picked up by Deadspin (always interesting, the folks that wander over here from Deadspin). Only instead of Sarah’s Angry Email, it was Sarah’s Angry Blog Comment, and instead of going only to an ex-boyfriend/my e-mail drafts folder/the spam filter of one of these columnists, it ended up on the Interwebs for all to see.

Though the ranting began because of a particularly limp Bob Ryan column, the weakness rampant throughout sports journalism had actually been a topic of discussion between Nick and myself for some time. (And of course, it’s been a frequent topic on UmpBump is well, thanks to the provocations of Murray Chass, Jay Mariotti and other MSM folks and their questionable writings or uninspiring broadcasts.) So after a recent spate of emailing between us, Nick and I decided what the heck, let’s post this private conversation and open it up for public comment.

Read the rest of this entry »

Or cable, for that matter.

You will all remember that when said deal was announced, many of us cried foul. Some doubted our conviction, yet our resolve would not be undermined until we got results. And results we got. MLB was publicly scorned and vilified into including poor-ol’ cable into their deal.

All was well with the world, fans could again watch their MLB Extra Innings packages through Cable or DirecTV. Oh, uhm, well not all fans. Certainly not those with Dish satellite service in their living rooms.

Curious that nobody raised their arms in protest because the other satellite provider was not invited to the MLB Extra Innings party. Curious also that Echo Star, the parent company of said Sat Service Provider just announced that it had acquired Sling Media.

So the conspiracy nut in me has to wonder…

But if you’re just joining us, let’s recap:

Sling Media is a tiny little compnay (not really, but it makes for great Drama) that makes the Sling Player. This brick-shaped device allows you to connect it to your home internet connection and television service (be it Satellite or Cable or UHF). Once you hit the road, you’ll be able to connect remotely to your Sling Player to watch your home’s TV service using those series of tubes we call the Internets.

You will also remember that just this summer, the MLB New Media Goons, née MLB Advance Media hinted at suing (then backed off) Sling Media for putting a huge obstacle into their Geotracking scheme. What is GEO Tracking you ask? Well, you should know that you can watch baseball games through MLB.tv, a concoction brought to you by MLB owners and Bud Selig.

Though it resides on the Web, this service has a peculiar distinction from other Video streaming services. MLB managed to impose a TV-style restriction system on it, where you cannot watch your local team due to Blackout restrictions. This means you’re stuck, and they’re stuck with all the cash for the local TV deals.

How was this possible? Yes, Virginia, GEO Tracking would be the correct answer. They know where you are from the IP address your computer is using while online.

Naturally, that small device known as the Sling Player would flush that model down the toilet, eliminating any and all trace of GEO Tracking, because, as you remember, you’d technically be using the cable or sat signal from your home, allowing you to watch local market baseball gratis.

So back to the conspiracy nut in me. Now that Echo Star, aka Dish network, aka the other satellite service provider that was not, I repeat, WAS NOT, included in the MLB Extra Innings Deal, has acquired Sling Media, they own the Sling Player and anything and everything you do with it.

Again, the winner of the MLB Extra Innings deal is not MLB, is not DirecTV, is not Cable. It is Dish, who silently understood who really has the heft to pull some leverage.

That’d be Us. Or as Time put it, “you.”

A belated thank you to Forager for the WSJ info. Hit us up with an email and we’ll get you that umpbump.com sticker.

Endgadget is reporting that MLB Advance Media, AKA MLB New Media Goons are not going to sue the hell out of Sling Media.

Major League Baseball may not be happy about Sling Media enabling fans to stream out of market baseball games over the internet, but it is apparently backing off of plans to sue the company into oblivion, RIAA-style. Bob Bowman, president of Major League Baseball Advanced Media said in an interview that winning could be done with “good technology and good content, not lawyers”.

The interview in question in which Mr. Bowman alias Captian New Media Goon said what he said is in the Wall Street Journal, meaning you won’t be able to read the article unless you’re a paid subscriber.

[For an umpbump.com sticker, which WSJ subscriber is going to share the good stuff from that column in our comments?]

Here’s a quick primer about the issue: Sling Media is a company that makes this little gizmo that allows you to hook it up to your TV (which in turn can be connected to your cable or sat service) and then broadcast said TV’s signal through a broadband Internet connection to wherever you are. Could be your office downtown, or your hotel room across the country. A loyal Pirates fan from Pittsburgh, who also happens to own a Sling Player can watch his Bucs from L.A. gratis. Unlike some of us who ponyed up the cash for MLB.TV, Baseball’s service that… aw hell you know what it does.

Naturally, Baseball didn’t like this, and was threatening to sue Sling.

Frankly, it doesn’t surprise me. We all saw what kind of backlash Baseball had to endure after they made a “dumb” decision. So now they’re backing off Sling in order to avoid alienating fans (aka costumers) who use their service to watch games from their home markets through the Internet.

That’s right. Back off.