MLB brings unlimited out-of-market games via smartphone subscription plan
For $49 a year, owners of the iPhone, iPod touch, and certain Android phones can now access unlimited away games on their mobile devices. The plan is a miniaturized version of MLB. TV Premium and MLB.TV, which run for $109 and $89 a month, respectively. While the previous plans also offered mobile streaming, the new plan is limited entirely to mobile streaming, which explains the price cut.
There are, however, some caveats. In order to view the games, subscribers must first download At Bat, the $14.99 application available via the iTunes Store and Android Market. Nor are all phones supported. BlackBerry users, for instance, are left high and dry, as are owners of Android devices that don't meet the minimum specifications. (Consolation: BlackBerry users can listen to the games, if they are into that sort of thing.) The mobile plan does not extend to the iPad, either.
Predictably, the plan does not solve one of the largest issues irking baseball fans: Blackout restrictions. Whereas MLB was previously able to limit live broadcast streams via subscribers' IP addresses, mobile streams of the game are limited based on GPS data. This means that the At Bat app will need to access a user's phone's location data in order to know whether to blackout certain games.
Below is the list of supported Android devices for the live video streams. All devices need at least OS 2.2 and Flash enabled.
- Sprint HTC Evo
- Verizon HTC Droid Incredible
- Verizon Motorola Droid X
- Verizon Motorola Droid
- Verizon Motorola Droid 2
- Verizon Motorola Droid Pro
- Verizon HTC Thunderbolt
- T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy Tab
- HTC Nexus One
- T-Mobile Samsung Nexus S
- T-Mobile HTC Glacier (myTouch 4G)