Bally Sports North Plus Question

[KirbyHawk75]

Are there any chances they will air Twins games this season?

[lecroy24fan]

What I heard the other day, can't remember which tv station mentioned, was that the questions was asked and they were told no to any games on plus.

[TwinsFan247365]

Sparklight Cable in Sioux City, IA just dropped Bally Sports North at the start of the year.  Does any streaming cable service offer it?  Could be the first year not watching the Twins since the Victory Sports fiasco.

[dex8425]

10 minutes ago, TwinsFan247365 said:

Sparklight Cable in Sioux City, IA just dropped Bally Sports North at the start of the year.  Does any streaming cable service offer it?  Could be the first year not watching the Twins since the Victory Sports fiasco.

Fubo tv does. It's almost $100/month though. 

[KirbyHawk75]

The Twins proved they dont care about fans when they re-signed with Bally.  They know so many fans can't watch them and they don't give a damn.  MLB is dying and this is one of the reasons why.  

[howeda7]

9 hours ago, TwinsFan247365 said:

Sparklight Cable in Sioux City, IA just dropped Bally Sports North at the start of the year.  Does any streaming cable service offer it?  Could be the first year not watching the Twins since the Victory Sports fiasco.

Fubo and DirecTV Stream

[Oldgoat_MN]

They had to have some conversations with multiple media outlets. It's sounding like no one was offering as much as they expect to get from Bally.

This bodes poorly for the future. 

[ziggy]

I literally cut my cable a couple of days before this Balleys deal was announced. I gambled that I would be able to stream the Twins games and not have to pay such an exorbitant price for TV. Looks like I'll have time for long walks in the summer evenings.

[KirbyHawk75]

I feel that MLB and the Twins are going to lose a lot of young fans.  This is all ridiculous.   It is 2024.  If you live in Iowa, Minnesota, or the Dakotas you should be able to watch the Twins.  

[Richie the Rally Goat]

On 2/8/2024 at 1:06 AM, Oldgoat_MN said:

They had to have some conversations with multiple media outlets. It's sounding like no one was offering as much as they expect to get from Bally.

This bodes poorly for the future. 

Quoted below is DSP from the Athletic, bolding is mine: “That said, it’s not a perfect outcome for anyone. It’s a one-year deal for us. Some of it was in our control, much of it was out of our control. Some of it is a product of the bankruptcy system. And as we think about it from our perspective, it’s a balancing act. You balance economics, distribution and production quality, and local priorities vs. national priorities.”

I heard one of the talking heads, maybe Gleeman have a theory about this means the MLB is trying to launch a streaming service with all of the teams that were on Bally for 2025 and the League was pressuring the Twins to accept a 1 year deal without streaming rights. 
 

if this is the case, they were likely hamstrung in negotiations 

[mrtwinsfan]

On 2/8/2024 at 6:10 AM, ziggy said:

I literally cut my cable a couple of days before this Balleys deal was announced. I gambled that I would be able to stream the Twins games and not have to pay such an exorbitant price for TV. Looks like I'll have time for long walks in the summer evenings.

M.L.B.  TV HAS BEEN FREE WITH A T-MOBILE account, or ?? 149.00 for the year , INSTALL  a V.P.N. TO GET AROUND THE LOCAL BLACKOUT,  ITS Sad we have to go around the Blackout rules, If the team cared about getting new fans and insisted on zero blackouts, , They leave alot of us to skirt the rules,  Why ????

[mrtwinsfan]

On 2/7/2024 at 3:51 PM, KirbyHawk75 said:

The Twins proved they dont care about fans when they re-signed with Bally.  They know so many fans can't watch them and they don't give a damn.  MLB is dying and this is one of the reasons why.  

M.L.B.  TV HAS BEEN FREE WITH A T-MOBILE account, or ?? 149.00 for the year , INSTALL  a V.P.N. TO GET AROUND THE LOCAL BLACKOUT,  ITS Sad we have to go around the Blackout rules, If the team cared about getting new fans and insisted on zero blackouts, , They leave alot of us to skirt the rules,  Why ????

[howeda7]

On 2/19/2024 at 5:43 PM, KirbyHawk75 said:

I feel that MLB and the Twins are going to lose a lot of young fans.  This is all ridiculous.   It is 2024.  If you live in Iowa, Minnesota, or the Dakotas you should be able to watch the Twins.  

In MN/SD/ND you can, you just have to sign for Fubo/DirecTV Stream if you want to stream them. The Iowa blackout thing is $%%^ up but it's been that way for decades.

[ziggy]

Quote

In MN/SD/ND you can, you just have to sign for Fubo/DirecTV Stream if you want to stream them. The Iowa blackout thing is $%%^ up but it's been that way for decades.

Thanks, that's what I have done. I now have Fubo for $79.00 per month to watch the twins and have local TV. I can live with that.

[AZDane]

Out of curiosity, how many teams have Iowa in their region? Twins and Cubs?
Diamondbacks AND the Padres get blacked out in Southern AZ.

[mnfireman]

Not saying it's better, but (Twins) baseball on the radio is a very viable option to keep fans. I find it way easier to keep a game on in the background on the radio and still be able to do other things than a TV broadcast (streaming and unlimited data plans are making this tougher though...).

[snellman]

11 hours ago, AZDane said:

Out of curiosity, how many teams have Iowa in their region? Twins and Cubs?
Diamondbacks AND the Padres get blacked out in Southern AZ.

Living in Iowa, I can't watch the Twins, Cubs, Royals, White Sox or Cardinals on MLB TV

[Richie the Rally Goat]

On 2/19/2024 at 5:43 PM, KirbyHawk75 said:

I feel that MLB and the Twins are going to lose a lot of young fans.  This is all ridiculous.   It is 2024.  If you live in Iowa, Minnesota, or the Dakotas you should be able to watch the Twins.  

I agree on the ridiculous nature and the impact on the fans, but my opinion is this is more of an unprepared MLB, than the Twins going back on their word.

in reading between the lines, if the MLB did indeed put pressure on the Twins to take a 1 year deal, it’s because they (MLB) weren’t ready to launch their own streaming package, this current outcome was the best of a bad situation for the Twins.

who is going to invest in all the capital expense, cameras and computers, hire all the crew, setup all the infrastructure to broadcast a 162 game season for 1 year? Only Bally because they already had the cash spent on the capital and they didn’t have to set it up from scratch. It was already depreciated out. 
 

any competitive bid had to be a multi year deal because ESPN or local Tv station would have had to pay off the capital expense, or… “hey we’ll do a 1 year deal, but you have to pay the out year costs”.

my opinion was the MLB was the Twins stop-gap as a stand-alone, but because they would be the only team involved, it might have been really low dollars because of the associated costs the mlb would incur.

[AZDane]

7 hours ago, snellman said:

Living in Iowa, I can't watch the Twins, Cubs, Royals, White Sox or Cardinals on MLB TV

That's disgusting