To Stream, or Not to Stream: Unaffiliated Baseball and Streaming Services
I like to consider myself one of the most ardent supporters of the unaffiliated baseball world. I spend a considerable amount of my time covering and writing about the comings and goings of leagues all over the globe. Beyond that, I also watch more unaffiliated baseball than I wager most Major League Baseball fans watch on the affiliated side of things. My wife has become accustomed to sitting down and asking me what league we’re watching at the given moment and what country said league is from. The point being, I support unaffiliated baseball as much as I possibly can but even I have my limits, especially when it comes to streaming.
In this case, specifically, I am referring to the concept of unaffiliated streaming services. I’m not against such streaming services, but man oh man do unaffiliated leagues really have a bad idea of how much their product is worth in the grand scheme of things. Truth be told, I’m all for every unaffiliated league having a streaming service of some sort. Right now I enjoy that so many leagues stream their games for free. That makes getting into the leagues super easy and I appreciate that those leagues offer the unfettered accessibility that they do. Still, they are running a business, and whenever an unaffiliated league decides to monetize their streams I understand why that decision has been made and do not harbor any ill will because of that decision.
Where I start to have an issue is the prices that some of these leagues set their streaming services at. There are, for all intents and purposes, two levels of unaffiliated streaming services. The realistic and the unrealistic. Let’s break down what both of those levels mean in this context.
Realistic refers to a league that recognizes where they fall in the pecking order of unaffiliated leagues and what type of clamor there may be for their product. Taiwan’s Chinese Professional Baseball League is the best example of a league at this level. They price their service, CPBL TV, at $45/year. That may seem pricey on the surface, but a deeper dig reveals it’s just about the perfect price point. Their service streams every regular season CPBL game, 120 per team, plus every game of the playoffs. That’s not all though, CPBL TV also streams every Friday through Sunday game of the CPBL’s minor league, the Future League. To top off that, the service also streams every game of the month-long Asia Winter Baseball League. Lots of high-quality (major league production values) streams of good baseball for that price is both realistic and hard for the buyer to pass up.
On the other end of the spectrum, there are the unrealistic leagues. These leagues don’t quite understand that being an affiliated league already makes them a niche part of the larger baseball world. These leagues typically combine a lower quality of play with an insanely high price point. The best, or worst, example of this is the Mavericks Independent Baseball League’s, Mavericks Live. Their streams are lower quality and the play is Rookie-level at best. Those aren’t an issue though, the issue is the price that the league attached to their streaming service. Initially, the MIBL was charging $8/game. They then offered an additional season package, offered only at the midway point of the season mind you, that clocked in at a whopping $150/year. That’s more than any baseball streaming service the world over, affiliated or unaffiliated. There’s no way to look at that price point and think, “Yep, I want to give this league a try.”
I know what the counterargument is, that the higher price points that unaffiliated leagues often settle on are designed specifically for their pre-existing hardcore fans. To that I say, “what?” Instead of choosing a price point that could possibly bring in new fans, you’re going with a price point that ensures you’re only going to get a small fraction of your hardcore fanbase and likely not a single new fan? That can’t be good for your existing business and it sure as heck isn’t how you grow your league in the day and age of streaming.
I want unaffiliated leagues to succeed. I will continue to regularly champion and support unaffiliated leagues. That being said, get your act together unaffiliated leagues. Price your streaming services so that people can actually watch your games. If a stream is so expensive that no one will watch the stream, did a game even take place? Maybe, but we’ll never know because most of your fanbase couldn’t afford to tune in.
