Those Yankee fans who are cursed with rely upon Time Warner for their YES Network access will now have the ability to purchase live streaming of all YES-broadcast Yankee games this year. The deal — announced this morning by MLB Advanced Media and the YES Network — now means that nearly every cable subscriber in the YES Network territory now has the option to purchase in-market streaming upgrades as well.
The Yankees offered up more details via a press release:
The Yankees on YES Live Game Streaming in-market package will launch in conjunction with YES’ Sunday, April 4, season-opening Yankees-Red Sox telecast (8 pm ET). YES Network will offer the package to eligible Time Warner Cable customers for $69.95 for the entire 2010 regular season, or $19.95 for any 30-day period this regular season. All games will be delivered in true high definition, the highest-quality live streaming as pioneered by Major League Baseball Advanced Media.
YES Network will allow eligible Time Warner Cable customers to purchase this package and use high-speed Internet access to watch YES’ Yankees telecasts live on their computers throughout the Yankees’ entire home broadcasting territory. They also will be able to watch YES’ Yankees telecasts live on laptops or other portable computers via WiFi. Time Warner Cable has reached an agreement with the YES Network to cooperate with Major League Baseball Advanced Media to ensure that only eligible Time Warner Cable customers may subscribe to the package.
As Maury Brown notes, with Time Warner now on board, the 127 games the YES Network airs are now available for streaming through all of the city’s major content providers. FiOS and Cablevision had signed deals with the Yankees last season, and millions of in-market fans can now purchase this live game streaming package.
For the future of online streaming of live baseball, this is clearly a deal big. The most popular team has made its games available online in the country’s biggest media market, and the revenue from this deal should be substantial. I have, however, a question: Will people purchase it? As far as I can tell, the streaming option is available only within the Yankees’ home broadcasting territory. Since the streams won’t work outside of that area, do people in New York — those who have access to YES via their standard cable subscriptions anyway — purchase this? In my view, until the requirement that only those who already have YES are eligible to purchase the streams are lifted, live in-market game streaming will not replace cable subscriptions.
And so a poll, if you will:
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