They announced the iPad yesterday. Dude, have you seen it? Large capacative touchscreen, 1.5 pounds, wifi, 3G: it’s everything you could want in a mobile media device. Which the folks at MLB have clearly figured out, as they, with but a scant two weeks lead time, cobbled together an application designed expressly for the device. The iPad and MLB.tv are the perfect combination to watch every team but your favorite.
Wait, what?
Yeah, it’s a fact. You can’t watch your hometown team, unless you find yourself far from home. Look it up. Undoubtedly some baseball fan somewhere is going to get suckered into buying an iPad, at least in part, to watch games when they’re out and about. That’s certainly why I would buy one. Unfortunately, after they get home and have paid MLB.tv, they’ll discover that unless they root for a team in a different region, they can’t actually watch the games they want. Thanks, MLB Blackout rules.
You know, the same blackout rules that are an artifact of the 60’s, that the commissioner himself said he didn’t “understand,” and that Bob DuPuy was going to fix back in 2008?
If they fixed it, it’s certainly not obvious. So while there are undoubtedly many good reasons to buy an iPad, MLB.tv is not, as far as I’m concerned, one of them. Regardless of what they showed on stage yesterday, because you won’t be able to watch what you want, just what those who gerrymandered the map together fifty years ago want you to.
Technology’s a wonderful thing, but it’s no match for decades of broadcasting fear and protectionism. Which is sad because man, did you see that MLB.tv app?
