It's still generally pretty easy to catch a local sports team on OTA in the states. At least compared to Canada. We've been in a hell where cable is mandatory if you follow the raptors or jays for decades now, same with if you want more than 1 NHL game a week. Almost all of the OTA channels here are owned by either the main cable company or the main satellite company lol.
Honestly Canada rules on telecom, there's essentially a duopoly. Somehow the regulators are maintaining a system that allows subsellers to exist, even though all of the news is running propaganda against it (because the news is owned by the telecom giants).
I'm in Canada, so the latino immigrants we get are the soccer kind and not the baseball kind, so the only people into it are mostly white guys over 40. This is also why soccer is becoming bigger in Canada even though it was always big by the amount of kids playing it (probably bigger than hockey because hockey more expensive), but not amount of people watching it.
In the USA with baseball, it helps that it's on free-to-air TV, but problem is many people aren't bothering with antennas so won't watch it if it's free on the airwaves, but might if it's free on the web (which it isn't because baseball streaming rights are a mess).
I think it's just that the viewers are getting older on average, and it didn't flashy reinvent itself constantly like NBA or NFL. Also it's already everywhere so it's not trying to constantly expand like the NHL does into non-hockey states.
Historically they have. Baseball stadiums are notorious for the loss leader strategy of $10 tickets and $20 hot dogs.
But the bidding war for broadcast rights has been insane.
It's still generally pretty easy to catch a local sports team on OTA in the states. At least compared to Canada. We've been in a hell where cable is mandatory if you follow the raptors or jays for decades now, same with if you want more than 1 NHL game a week. Almost all of the OTA channels here are owned by either the main cable company or the main satellite company lol.
Honestly Canada rules on telecom, there's essentially a duopoly. Somehow the regulators are maintaining a system that allows subsellers to exist, even though all of the news is running propaganda against it (because the news is owned by the telecom giants).
A broadcast company shouldn't be allowed to own exclusive rights on Canada's only baseball team just because they own that team, but here we are.
Roger's buying the Jays should've been stopped but of course it wasn't.
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Baseball is kinda dead and kinda isn't.
I'm in Canada, so the latino immigrants we get are the soccer kind and not the baseball kind, so the only people into it are mostly white guys over 40. This is also why soccer is becoming bigger in Canada even though it was always big by the amount of kids playing it (probably bigger than hockey because hockey more expensive), but not amount of people watching it.
In the USA with baseball, it helps that it's on free-to-air TV, but problem is many people aren't bothering with antennas so won't watch it if it's free on the airwaves, but might if it's free on the web (which it isn't because baseball streaming rights are a mess).
I think it's just that the viewers are getting older on average, and it didn't flashy reinvent itself constantly like NBA or NFL. Also it's already everywhere so it's not trying to constantly expand like the NHL does into non-hockey states.
it's not tho and hasn't been for decades
it's not pay-per-view but most baseball games are broadcast by regional sports networks carried by basic cable
I guess my relatives in Buffalo have a special situation, they're yankees fans since they get the games on local antenna.
It was funny when the Bluejays were in Buffalo during the travel restrictions, every red sox or Yankees game was basically a road game lol.
ah that explains why friend's family in northern NY are all yankees fans