As some of you may know, I tend to cover most of the technological news that come out of the MLB offices, and some of you may remember our coverage of the failed DirecTV-Extra Innings exclusive deal.

Many saw the deal as a greedy money-grab since it would shut-out a good chunk of baseball fans that had paid a hefty price to subscribe to the Extra Innings package via their Cable and Dish services. Back then, the argument put forth by MLB Advance Media was in the form of MLB.TV, an online-relative to the Extra Innings package, which was supposed to serve as a substitute.

What MLB didn’t realize was that, though the service worked, at $89, it was an expensive indulgence that delivered sub par quality that still managed to shun fans that didn’t want to watch baseball on their laptops, or couldn’t due to the need for broadband internet access.

Enter 2008. With more people going online at faster speeds, TV on the web has exploded, and with a few years under its belt, MLB’s online experience is finally coming around to becoming the alternative Bud Selig and his new media henchmen wanted to ram down our throats last year. And they’ve got the numbers to prove it, 1.7 million live streams on Opening Day, to be exact.

The biggest difference this year is the software the system uses to stream the games. Microsoft’s Silverlight is a newcomer to the web, but it proves as a credible competitor to Adobe’s Flash system. The user interface behaves much like Apple’s newest incarnation of OS X or Windows Vista in the sense that there are fancy screens that shrink in size as you navigate from one panel to the next, without having to refresh the page or interrupt the broadcast. And it works well on both Macs and PCs.

The transition from broadcast to commercials is still choppy (the service blocks out ads by placing a generic graphic) and during one game, they forgot to flip the switch as the graphic was stuck for a good 15-20 minutes, or about one and a half innings.

Another significant difference is the fact that you can now watch FOX Saturday baseball games that are not scheduled for your area. As some of you know, FOX has the right to broadcast the “Game of the week” except that FOX sliced the broadcast by region, showing “games” of the week instead.

I’m not an expert on TV deals, but I’m guessing something in the language of the contract prevented MLB.TV from broadcasting any FOX Saturday games, forcing me to watch the Braves or Marlins (National League, and I live in Atlanta) when I wanted to watch White Sox - Cubs.

Now, however, it seems the language changed in favor of allowing out-of-market FOX “Game of the Week” games on MLB.TV (the language on the press release simply reads, “All 2,430 out-of-market games in the regular season will be available live on both MLB.TV and MLB.TV Premium.”) And what’s more, because of the source of the TV streams, we don’t get to listen to or watch the broadcast signal coming from the studios. Yes, that’s right, no Jeanne Zealsko!

–

Edit: As Nick points out in the comments, this is not entirely true. Saturday games will be available on mlb.tv up until May 17th, which is when FOX’s exclusivity clause kicks in, and thus, the games are blacked out.

From mlb.tv’s homepage: • National Live Blackout (Regular Season): Due to Major League Baseball national exclusivities, each Saturday until 7:00 PM EST (beginning May 17, 2008 and continuing for remaining Saturdays during the regular season) and each Sunday night (for games that begin after 5:00 PM EST), all scheduled webcasts of games played within such time period will be blacked out.  –

And what’s so premium about this already posh luxury? Well, like last year, there are two tiers of service, regular and premium. For $89.95 a year you get access to a 400k stream, which is typical good quality web video. But this year, if you pony up $119,95, you get a choice of 800k streams, or 1.2 Mb “NextDef,” “TV quality” streams (either way, you get access to MLB Game Day audio for all games).

Don’t get too excited, though, even though the stream is bigger, and the quality is greater, it isn’t really the same as watching the game on a TV.

Of course, all this could be moot if the cable industry gets away with killing net neutrality (and screwing us all over), but for now, it works, and it gets a nod from me.

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.

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.