CUBS WLS Feed on MLB.tv but not on Directv?

[goaliebob99]

I dont get why MLB.TV has the WLS feed but Directv doesn't have it in the 700's. You would think at this point that EVERY GAME (Both Home and Away feeds) would be carried in HD. You would think that apart of the MLBEI deal they would have authorization to do this. It would be awsome for Cubs fans not located in Chicago have the ablity to see the home teams feed.

 

[king3pj]

I dont get why MLB.TV has the WLS feed but Directv doesn't have it in the 700's. You would think at this point that EVERY GAME (Both Home and Away feeds) would be carried in HD. You would think that apart of the MLBEI deal they would have authorization to do this. It would be awsome for Cubs fans not located in Chicago have the ablity to see the home teams feed.

I've never had EI but I have had MLB.tv for probably around 5 years. One of the benefits to MLB.tv is that they always have both teams' feeds whether they come from a regular RSN, OTA channel, Canadian RSN, or RSNs Directv doesn't offer. It's my understanding that EI providers have always been missing some feeds that are available on MLB.tv.

Does Directv EI provide CSN Philadelphia, Sports Net LA, and the Blue Jays feeds now? If they can provide those feeds for channels they don't carry it shouldn't be too much harder to provide OTA feeds.

 

[AZ.]

It was on the MLBNetwork feed(which used Cards)....But I did wonder the same....

 

[jcrandall]

I'm very curious to see if the majority of the Cubs OTA games are carried in about 2-4 weeks. April is tough on bandwidth (new satellite aside), as they have MLB, Masters, NHL, and NBA all in full swing with alternate feeds all over the place. In years past once NHL reaches playoffs (next week) they have started showing more consistent dual feeds (Blue Jays for example), as well as some OTA (NYY and TEX consistently were aired).

The Cubs viewership nationwide (myself included) should warrant the effort. They did have the WGN9 game on the schedule in the guide yesterday that was rained out, so that is a good sign that WGN local will be carried. Perhaps today was not selected due to bandwidth, or due to that MLBNet had the game (which turned out to be the Cubs feed anyway via ABC7).

In my opinion - too early to tell. If they aren't carrying them in 2-3 more weeks, I will be disappointed.

 

[goaliebob99]

Jason, I don't think this is a bandwidth issue. The game as at a low bandwidth time, (early to mid day) and was over before any of the night games started. The only game going on at the time was Detroit's game that ended about a half hour earlier than the Cubs game. I am wondering if this was a contractual issue with WLS. I do know that they can carry WLS just as well as WGN so the issue isn't getting the signal to the right place. I would like to see all games carried with all feeds. Bandwidth shouldn't be an issue anymore with D14 online. Maybe they just aren't their yet.

 

[Sparkman]

Wondering if the WGN and WPWR games for both the Sox and Cubs will be carried in EI. Tonights Sox game on WGN isn't on EI. Thinking their not going to carry any of the OTA games.

 

[bruin95]

Wondering if the WGN and WPWR games for both the Sox and Cubs will be carried in EI. Tonights Sox game on WGN isn't on EI. Thinking their not going to carry any of the OTA games.

This is exactly why I dropped EI, long ago, and went with MLB.TV instead. Not only do I have access to all feeds, no matter their origin, but it's way cheaper, too.

 

[jcrandall]

The reason I speculate bandwidth may still be a factor is that D14 is still in a light use / test type phase, and it seems they may be holding off on using it for much until D15 is successfully launched, which is not a bad strategy.

With yesterday being a 2:20 game, they would allocate/ensure a 6 hour window, which would run into the prime time.

That said, they may be planning to use the WGN games but not the WPWR or ABC games, similar to how they didn't use WCIU in years past.
Could be agreements, could be ignorance, hard to say.

With the volume of games the Cubs have OTA, I'm hopeful we'll see a different approach 2-3 weeks from now, but it could be mute point if they simply aren't going to make an effort at these feeds.