Perhaps the most common complaint about Major League Baseball's product in recent years has concerned the blackout policy. As more and more consumers cut the cord, moving away from cable and more traditional television models, the calls have grown louder for MLB (and other leagues) to do away with broadcast blackouts -- the pesky mechanism that prevents fans from streaming games in their own market (or, in the cases of fans located in places like North Carolina or Iowa, their regional territory).
You can count MLB commissioner Rob Manfred among those who hopes to see positive change in that area over the coming years. Manfred addressed the topic during an appearance on John Ourand's The Varsity podcast for Puck.
"What I'd like to see happen over time is, we do our national deals, that we convert some of that local inventory into national inventory. It increases our reach and at the same time, when you think about it, we own the out-of-market rights already, if we control local rights as well, we can sell anything anywhere," Manfred said, according to Awful Announcing. "You don't have to just sell in your market. And I'd like to get into a mode, where if it's not in a national package, the consumer has the ability to go in, buy what he wants to watch, wherever he is, and we get rid of that really questionable business concept of the blackout, meaning not letting people who want to watch, watch."
Of course, moving away from blackouts is more complicated than Manfred merely wanting it to be this or that way. There are existent broadcast contracts that have and will continue to stipulate such matters. Over time, though, Manfred's comments suggest MLB will make a point out of doing away with blackouts.
Indeed, Manfred's comments come at a notable time for MLB, as the league continues to navigate an altered state of local broadcasting affairs. Several teams have had to shift their games away from regional sports networks and toward a centralized streaming platform. Those clubs, notably, offer in-market streaming packages.
