Subscribers to MLB.tv, Major League Baseball's paid game-broadcasting website, pay either $19.95 per month or $119.95 per year to watch live baseball on their computers. Theoretically, that is. So far this season all some fans have seen is a lot of swing-and-a-miss from MLB.tv and its technology provider, Microsoft. Switching to Microsoft's Silverlight, a supposed alternative to the Flash technology that runs YouTube and most other video sites, caused opening-day glitches for which the league's technocrats apologized Customers tell us it hasn't gotten much better since. Giants fans may be used to that kind of failure — watching Randy Winn, Bengie Molina and Ray Durham hit 3, 4, 5 will do that — but others are peeved.

"It is a bit ridiculous to pay 20 dollars a month to beta test a product," one fan commented.

It's interesting that CBS is able to handle weekend traffic for the NCAA tournament, display a beautiful picture for a high-motion sport, and then give it away for free.

(Photo by AP/Jeff Chiu)

3:20 PM on Thu Apr 3 2008
By Nicholas Carlson
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3 comments

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categorically at 04:19 PM on 04/03/08
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Given that my Giants are unwatchable, I'm happy that this Bay Area transplant can't watch them live right now.

Typical scenario though, abandon something that works for something untested. You'd think companies would learn this by now, but alas no....
SeattleBuzzKill at 04:46 PM on 04/03/08
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Interesting that one of the original monopolies, MLB, teamed up with a newer monopoly MSFT, and gave their customers a right good buggering.

And what are you going to do about it? Just watch the *other* professional baseball league out there? Oh wait..thats right there isn't one.

So you will pay. You have to. That is the reason monopolies suck.

Some baseball loving lawyer needs to do a class action for this one. At the very least, peoples needs them a free month or something.
Nicholas Carlson at 04:09 PM on 04/04/08
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Just read your post on Valleywag.com on the MLB.TV Mosaic issues (which have since been resolved) and just wanted to clarify the situation regarding Silverlight's involvement. In short MLB.TV Mosaic is not a Silverlight application.

MLB.TV offers three different download options for its subscribers to view content, one of which utilizes Silverlight (for a side by side view, please visit: [mlb.mlb.com]). The issues you wrote about were associated with MLB.TV Mosaic, which is a C# application on the Windows platform and Java for the Mac, but doesn't use Silverlight.

I'll be sure to keep you updated if there are any changes to the Mosaic service relative to the use of Silverlight.

Thanks,

Melissa Hovis
Waggener Edstrom Worldwide