How Do You Plan on Following the Twins in 2021?

[Tom Froemming]

As things stand, most fans across Twins Territory have few (if any) options in terms of where they can watch FOX Sports North. How do you plan on following the team in 2021?These things can change quickly, but right now the only streaming option for FSN is AT&T TV. I took a quick look into their packages and explained why my first baseball-related purchase of 2021 was a piece of outdated technology in the video below.

 

 

If you're interested in your options, go to getmyhometeams.com and enter your ZIP code.

 

As a cord cutter, I've jumped from Fubo TV to Sling TV to YouTube TV to Hulu + Live TV over the past few years. Sinclair Broadcast Group, which owns the FOX Sports Regional Networks, can't seem to maintain a relationship with a streaming service for long. That gives me even more pause when considering singing up for AT&T TV.

 

We'll see if anything changes between now and Opening Day, but my plan right now is to turn to the radio. This is reminding me a bit of the Victory Sports One debacle of 2004. I'd prefer to watch the games, but Cory, Danny and Kris do a great job on 830 WCCO.

 

What's your plan?

 

SEE ALSO

• How Many Roster Spots are Locked in for 2021?
• Top 20 Minnesota Twins Assets of 2021: Part 4 (1-5)
• What Does the Francisco Lindor Trade Mean for the Twins?
• AL Central Offseason Update: Twins Wait While Others Active
• The 5 Biggest Trades Minnesota Could Make This Offseason
• Wolfson: Despite Lack of Action, Nelson Cruz Wants to Remain a Twin

 

Click here to view the article

[mikelink45]

As usual it will be on the radio - football might be perfect for TV, basketball needs to be seen in person, and baseball is perfect for radio.  Sorry soccer guys I haven't figured out your category - maybe it is the newspaper. 

[Thegrin]

Since I now live far from Minnesota, I am signed up for the MLB broadcasts and I don't miss a game. 

[IndianaTwin]

As a northern Indianaer, it’s MLB Audio for the radio and the occasional TV game when they play the Sox. (Or all the East coast teams get rained out and one of the networks stoops to having to show one of the Midwestern teams besides the Cubs/Cardinals series.)

[h2oface]

reddit

[dbminn]

I'm lucky enough to be able to afford traditional cable. I'll be watching them.

 

Although, why am I saying this? Buy enough boutique options and you're back with the same bill you always had.

[Tom Froemming]

 

reddit

(shhhhh)

[Sielk]

There are not many advantages to being a baseball fan in Europe but this is one. I can just subscribe to mlb.tv without having to worry about blackouts.

 

But I feel for you.

 

(The disadvantage is that I have to worry about sleeping hours. No night games for me during the week... )

[ashbury]

 

There are not many advantages to being a baseball fan in Europe but this is one. I can just subscribe to mlb.tv without having to worry about blackouts.

But I feel for you.

(The disadvantage is that I have to worry about sleeping hours. No night games for me during the week... )

The Yankees didn't declare Europe part of their assigned territory?
 

[DocBauer]

I'm lucky enough to be able to afford traditional cable. I'll be watching them.

 

Although, why am I saying this? Buy enough boutique options and you're back with the same bill you always had.

 

I work for a communications company. That being said, I have no dog in this hunt. And I have total understanding for anyone who is a cord cutter. I get it. But what you are seeing is an expected evolution in the process. If you actually pay attention to the process...and why would you normally because it's frustrating, confusing and fluid...all the other "options" keep adding and deleting while raising rates. And you shouldn't be surprised.

 

Media in all forms remains fluid and will be for years to come. Even if some dream of free internet becomes a reality some day, we will all have to make decisions as to what "package(s)" we want to subscribe to. And *hint* they won't get cheaper, lol.

 

I'll be following the Twins on the MLB app for video and audio on my car and WNAX 57.0 from Yankon SD as well as right here on TD!

[WyoTwin]

SiriusXM

[beckmt]

I am still with Xfinity, package is decent, but somewhat expensive. We will see in the future, AT&T is an option if you carry their cell phone service also, but I can't stand that service.  We shall see in a year.

[Linus]

Cory Provus who I love will be my best friend this summer.

[Sielk]

The Yankees didn't declare Europe part of their assigned territory?

 

Surprisingly not, though you wouldn't know it just by looking at the number of Yankees caps worn around here. I feel like I see at least one whenever I turn around in public.

 

I always wonder if it's a lack of taste or simply a lack of baseball knowledge. Probably the latter.

[DocBauer]

Surprisingly not, though you wouldn't know it just by looking at the number of Yankees caps worn around here. I feel like I see at least one whenever I turn around in public.

I always wonder if it's a lack of taste or simply a lack of baseball knowledge. Probably the latter.

 

I vote for both!

[carewser]

It’ll have to be radio for me. Thankfully, Cory P does a great job. I will miss watching on TV but I’m not going back to cable, and younger people certainly aren’t. 

[wavedog]

I am fortunate to be a Twins fan that lives in Texas so I will subscribe to mlb.tv again and catch most of the games.   I’ll miss the Houston and Texas games which will be blacked out.  I have YouTube TV which does not have the local FoxSW channel any more.  

[Greglw3]

Things have taken a strange twist. I’ve been a lifelong Twins fan from Toledo, Chicago, now Nashville. So, I can watch everything now on MLB.TV except Braves vs Twins.

 

However since 1964, I followed them in newspaper and Sporting News plus the games vs. Detroit. Herb Carneal was my best friend for years. First on WHO from Des Moines, then when WHO dropped them in 1980, WCCO. As soon as MLB Extra innings came to be, I got that and even listened to Herb when I had AOL!

 

I also made some long trips to the Met, The Metrodome. I’m just glad I didn’t smoke because Bob Casey’s NOOOO Smoking in the Metrodome would have made me quit! I can still hear his introductions to bat for Tony Oliva and Kirby Puckett. I had gotten to the point that I could do a good Bob Casey impersonation to where my friend in Florida when I visited for Spring Training games said, "You sound more like Bob Casey than Bob Casey!

 

So, it’s odd that I have it better now in Nashville than the people in the Twin Cities. I hope they get that straightened out. I wonder if you got MLB.tv, one team? Maybe you could watch all the road games. 

[theBOMisthebomb]

I don't understand this entire debate/topic. I pay $120 per month for Spectrum. I get more television channels that I could possibly watch along with the full sports package (which includes FSN). I'm not overly pleased with the value, although it gets me all the Twins games and I use the Spectrum TV app quite a bit along with access to college football on the ESPN app. The headache of cutting the cord and chasing a better deal (with FSN) for the difference between $120 and whatever the streaming services cost doesn't seem worth it. I cut costs in other areas of my budget. And, I cannot and will not listen on the radio.

[Richard Swerdlick]

I love the radio broadcasts. I go to bed early in the evenings so I end up listening in bed until I fall asleep. I get MLB TV and even though we are in blackout land I can watch the replays or highlights the next day. Live TV is way over rated, especially for such a long season with so many games. 

[Vanimal46]

AT&T TV is still hanging in there? Wow, they are among the worst of the streaming options IMO. Last time I checked them out they were called DirecTV Now and it was awful. It could only stream on Roku devices and the UI was tough to navigate. I’m sure things have changed in 3-4 years other than a new product name.

[Trov]

I am not a cord cutter, mainly for sports purposes because you cannot rely on getting the sports you want, mainly from contracts of local rights.  I would not compare it to victory sports though, because that was where big media, Fox, would not allow big cable companies to carry the Victory as a normal package, without raising the price of other Fox media at the time.  

 

By choosing to cut the cord you are choosing to limit your chances of watching the games.  It is not the same.  

[lukeduke1980]

I rarely sit down and watch 9 innings, more or less have the game on in the background and listen for highlights, so switching to the radio won't be huge transition.

[terrydactyls]

I live in Maine and I am the only sports watcher in my house. In 2019, I bought the MLB.com single-team package for about $100. The only games that were blacked out were Red Sox games which NESN carried. So I had access to every game. What I discovered was, that for personally, baseball was too slow to watch. After about a month, I started to tune when I thought it was close to being completed, fast forwarding through games waiting for the score to change, and then rewinding to see what happened. For me (again, personally), baseball is a game to be seen in person or with a group on TV. I cancelled my subscription before the 2020 season (and was that a great decision).

[USNMCPO]

If it was just the Twins i would listen to the radio. I truly enjoy the radio broadcasts as it is what i grew up with. That said, i am also a Wild and Gopher hockey fan. The radio broadcasts for them is shakey at best. I just changed providers and stuck with cable for now. It is more expensive than i like but it works. 

[amjgt]

 

I don't understand this entire debate/topic. I pay $120 per month for Spectrum. I get more television channels that I could possibly watch along with the full sports package (which includes FSN). I'm not overly pleased with the value, although it gets me all the Twins games and I use the Spectrum TV app quite a bit along with access to college football on the ESPN app. The headache of cutting the cord and chasing a better deal (with FSN) for the difference between $120 and whatever the streaming services cost doesn't seem worth it. I cut costs in other areas of my budget. And, I cannot and will not listen on the radio.

 

This is me, except for one big caveat. Sports fans are purposely being yanked around by these streaming services as they hot potato around streaming sports trying to get their hooks (read: automated payments) into new customers, only to yank the carpet out from under them in a couple months. The only reason that is possible is because MLB's local blackout rules need to be updated. I'm sure there are some contractual restrictions that are preventing this, but it needs to be figured out.

 

I don't cord cut, but I understand people that do. But if you're paying significantly less money I don't see how you can expect the same service and/or stability. But you should expect SOME stability.

[strumdatjaguar]

I will get my vaccine and hopefully follow the Twins as much as possible in the stands with other vaxxed fans at Target Field. Otherwise, I’ll follow them on FSN on Directv, in the Strib and of course here at TD

[puckstopper1]

830 WCCO.  Go Twins!

[rdehring]

MediaCom basically told me when my rate went up 35% that if I wasn't willing to bundle they didn't want me. So I left.

 

Am now at Hulu and although my wife says things will change, am assuming I won't have Twins games come spring...or Wild games now other than the 6 on NBCSN. Also couldn't watch the Badgers play the Gophers in Hockey yesterday or today.

 

As for baseball, will be back where I was when I was a kid listening to the games on radio...although then it was the Braves. Assuming the MiLB package will be available, will sign up for that and watch a lot of Saints and whatever the Wichita team is called. Heck, I usually am more interested in the minors anyway.

[Nine of twelve]

We are dinosaurs. We finally ditched our landline phone in 2020 but due partly to inertia the cable is still hooked up, so FSN it is. We are a one-TV family so if there's another show being watched by another family member I'll stream the game on a site that is not supposed to be mentioned on Twins Daily's web site.

When I'm in the car it's SiriusXM (better sound quality than AM) unless the home broadcast isn't available there, in which case it's CCO. And even then I find that I sometimes enjoy listening to the opposition radio crew while the Twins are batting, even John Sterling if the Twins are having a rare good inning against the team that must not be named.

As much as I love going to Target Field, I'll wait until community immunity reaches a satisfactory level before I venture there. I hope we get to that point sooner rather than later.