Below are four questions for an unscientific survey on how much you would pay to see the Dodgers on TV, if the games weren’t part of an overall TV package.
Note: If the Dodgers aren’t your favorite team, obviously feel free to take the poll by applying the questions to your favorite team.
Question 1:
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Question 2:
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Question 4:
Madeleine Clarke St Marie
Great question, Jon.
Madeleine Clarke St Marie
I’ll be honest: I based this on what I would pay for a single beer at a bar if I were watching the game there.
nolander
Some will say the bar is added value because of social and stuff, but then again not having to deal with people while I”m trying to concentrate on my boys in blue sounds like a better added value to me.
iiidown
Hard question to answer, knowing how much cable access is right now.
nolander
I want to be able to pay for the games, without worrying about blackouts, and without having to pay for any other tv content.
nolander
I would pay more then 250 but less then 500 for a full season. 162 games is a ton of games and a lot of entertainment.
Anonymous
Most people don’t realize how much they already pay to watch dodger games.
MATT DEMELLO
Considering baseball’s MLB package is a great value at $129 then that’s what I’d pay, but I’d pay more if it meant no blackouts. Perhaps up to $175
Anonymous
I already pay for the MLB package every year simply to watch the Dodgers.
Brent Daniel
I based my answers on what I just payed for MLB’s Extra Innings. I’m curious, Matt: who is your provider that you were able to pay only $129? DirecTV offered it for more than that by $100…
Anonymous
Wonder what the results would be if you asked this Q on a blog that was already behind a paywall…
TrueMontenegro
It would be marketing suicide if the Dodgers charged anything that you don’t already pay Directv or Time Warner.
Eric Stephen
I went $500 for the entire regular season. Even though I can’t afford that now, I would probably find a way to make it work if that were the only option.
MatthewJ
I’d go to more games if it were that expensive for TV. Or less if I actually paid for it.
Adam Luther
I just don’t have the time to watch all 162. What makes baseball great (or used to) was that you could always kind of follow along with the grand ole game and peek in every once in a while to see how your team was doing. Instant coverage has practically killed that idea. I’m a nostalgia nut though…remember the Sporting News complete box scores a week later???
Linkmeister
Maybe a week later for you, pal. ;) I subscribed to TSN when I was on Kwajalein. By the time I got an issue the actual games were two-three weeks back. The only game I saw of the 1975 WS was Game Six (the Fisk HR game), and I
didn’t see that until a videotape arrived about three weeks after the
Series was over.
‘Course, it made no difference to me, since in the 1970s there was no Internet and no TV or radio out there, so I didn’t get the scores or game summaries on the day of the game anyway.
Adam Luther
I like the a la carte idea. I’d pay perhaps $5.00 to watch a Giants/Dodgers series. Dodgers vs. whoever during the pennant race (they still have that Jon??) .99/game.
We’re AppleTV people, we cut our cable, and I get by with “free” radio and those KCAL Tuesday night games, and Gameday (when it works). I’d even consider paying to watch a game tape delayed or with highlights. Via AppleTV I get all NHL game highlights and I’m not paying any fees…with baseball have to subscribe.Do not miss cable, and the the over-the-air picture broadcast locally is pure digital bliss.
Blue-eyed Gal (Ellen)
I already do this. I dropped cable TV at the end of last year, and now I just go with an MLB subscription. I don’t regret it.
I take the tablet outside or in the garage if I need to get some work done, so I can listen or glance up for the good bits; when I have leisure I plunk in front of the flatscreen. Vin all 9 innings wherever I am = sweet. (Of course, it helps that I’m in OC; the games aren’t blacked out since I’m not local.)
Anonymous
Over here obviously i don’t get any coverage, I am just happy with the occasional live lookin and highlights as they come up on gameday
Anonymous
I would have paid $10 not to see yesterday’s game.
Anonymous
How much would a total brain wipe be?
Anonymous
“I don’t care who ya are, that’s funny right there.” At least it was Sunday and I could change channels and watch the NASCAR race.
Jon Weisman
The most surprising thing to me so far is that only 20% of people so far would pay more than $100 to get 162 games on TV.
Derek TC
Well, like people said, It doesn’t cost much more than that to get every MLB game, so it shouldn’t cost much more than $100 to get only Dodger games.
edit: i think the package that gives me Prime Ticket is 9$/month but I also get Lakers games in that deal.
Jon Weisman
Yeah, but it’s not about what it costs. It’s about what you’d be willing to pay in the absence of alternatives. In other words, if you had no other choice, would you really not pay at least $100 to see your favorite team all year?
Scotty Ray
I wonder how many people would pay $150 or (to be cute) $162? Your spread jumps from $50 to $150 so I think from a survey design standpoint, people see that big difference, and they’re much more inclined to pay $100 than $250.
I live out of market and pay $120-something for MLBTV every year, so that’s pretty much my baseline value for on-demand baseball. I’d pay a premium for an HDTV broadcast without buffering problems, but we’re a house of mixed loyalties so it’s also nice to be able to watch Phillies games, as well as random interesting matchups, high profile debuts, no-hitters in progress, etc.
Jon Weisman
Interesting question.
Steve Hall
Unfortunately, I get blacked out of all Dodgers games against the Rockies (and, if they happen to play the Twins in interleague games, those too). For that reason, I didn’t resub to MLB.TV this year. Last year, in a lost season, I didn’t watch enough to make my subscription worthwhile.
Unfortunately, I don’t know of any way Dodgers games could be broadcast (and it would have to be on the internet, for me—I live in South Dakota) without running into 18 blackouts a year. It wouldn’t be so bad if the Rockies and Dodgers weren’t in the same division, but I don’t see that ever changing.
Derek TC
I run into blackout issues whenever Dodger games are broadcast on KCAL. I live right between Bakersfield and Fresno and according to DirecTV, the FCC considers us to be in Fresno/San Francisco territory, so I don’t get KCAL, but the MLB considers us in Bakersfield/Los Angeles territory, so they black out those games and no matter how many times I call they don’t fix it.
Casey Goldman
Sports broadcasting rights and territories are butt backwards. I feel your pain.
Anonymous
I would pay zero for TV coverage. Now radio coverage for Vin and Jerry or Vin, Don and Ross back in the day would get a much different response.
In the early 90’s I cut the cable cord when the owners locked out the players because they couldn’t reach an agreement about how the split the TV pie. I figured if they were not going to give me baseball because they could not agree on how to divide the money I was giving them, I would take my money away. I haven’t had cable TV since. I don’t subscribe to the MLB internet package either.
With no cable, I am not able to watch baseball on TV. My Mom does have cable, so I watch some games when I go over to visit her. Anyway, I prefer to listen to baseball on the radio over watching it on TV. I listened to the Humber perfect game on Saturday from first pitch to last and did not feel in the least deprived because I didn’t see it. An added benefit was that I was able to get my bathroom painted while I was listening to the game. Try doing that while watching TV.
Anonymous
I’m with you Stan. As long as I can pick up a radio broadcast I wouldn’t drop a dime on any subscription package.
Adam Luther
“I prefer listening to baseball on the radio.” Can’t agree more. Too many talking heads over-analyzing as if the game were NFL football. I prefer listening to it on radio when there is only one broadcaster which the exception more than the rule these days. Radio does not “own” me like the square box does. There are other options, and it does not make one a less loyal supporter because they’re not a full season ticket holder, bobble head mini-plan ticket holder, or a cable/Game Day subscriber.
Champ Kind
Jon, while I understand what you are asking, I think its hard to really envision the hypothetical “if no other alternative” scenario, because folks get used to something and they use that as their lens. I know I struggled to see myself paying anything much more than what I currently pay, because how else would I contextualize it? I love the Dodgers, and so I suppose theoretically I would pay a lot more to see their playoff games, or pennant race divisional games, if that was the only option to me, but as someone pointed out about local bars, MLB-TV, and the radio, its hard to believe that this would ever be the only option. I get what you are asking, but I think its a more difficult scenario to visualize than you believe.
Jon Weisman
I don’t know, it’s obviously completely hypothetical, but I don’t really get why it would be hard to envision as a hypothetical. You want to see the Dodgers on TV, and the only way to see them is to pay X. (No MLB.TV, no bars). What would you pay? It’s not like I’m asking about a tree falling in the woods.
Anonymous
No blackouts are the key. The MLB package, as it is today, is of little value to me due to the numerous West Coast blackouts.
Jon Weisman
In this hypothetical, there would be no blackouts.
Adam Luther
I use the money I save by not watching them (or ESPN, etc.,) on cable or MLB network and flip the savings and actually get out to the ballpark more often. Currently my overall package is “free” KCAL, am570, the paper (LOL), and monthly wireless access.
Adam Luther
Off topic, is my math right in that Strasburg will face Kemp, et al this Saturday at the Stadium?
Jon Weisman
Detwiler-Kershaw Friday, Strasburg-Billingsley Saturday.
KT
I currently pay $215.94 for MLB extra innings with Directv plus the cost for the select basic package (not availabe to most customers) and most of the movie channel packages.
This MLB package doesn’t allow me to watch all the games and some of the games (against SD, [Kcal home and away broadcasts] and were there is no Dodger broadcast at all) are from the other teams broadcast teams.
I do get the MLB network games, ESPN and a whole lot of other MLB games with this package but usually I only watch the Dodgers
Anonymous
Just a hunch, but I’m guessing the population on this blog is disproportionately out-of-town, since there are so few other outlets for Dodger talk of any kind in Buenos Aires or Boston (Hi Wayne). That clearly colors the responses, since so many readers of this site may already pay to watch Dodger games.
Directv just offered me 3 free months of their premium sports packaging, which I leapt at. But they didn’t tell me I’d have to buy the MLB package if I wanted to watch actual games. I canceled before having to endure three months of Yankeeographies.
Linkmeister
Re blackout rules, try living in Hawai’i. We’re blacked out from every single West Coast team, from Seattle to San Diego (all of them claim Hawai’i as their territory). So if the Dodgers aren’t on Prime Ticket and I want to watch baseball, MLB.com is useless to me if it’s scheduled a game involving any one of those teams.
Almost makes me long for the old days when WTBS used to show nearly all the Braves’ games.
Eric Enders
One wonders how anyone can grow up in Las Vegas and become a baseball fan. They’re blacked out of the Dodgers, Padres, Angels, Giants, A’s, and Diamondbacks, and they get almost none of those on cable TV. When I lived in upstate New York, I was blacked out of Pirates games because my cable provider also served a few homes in northern Pennsylvania. Now, living in El Paso, I missed yesterday’s Dodger game because I’m in the blackout territory of a team 800 miles away that televises barely half its games.
The blackout restrictions are ludicrous. They could easily be reworked with common sense in mind, without losing any of their financial benefit to the teams. This should be at the top of MLB’s to-do list but it never is.
Anonymous
Not that I cared, but Seattle also used to claim the Vegas market. With the Padres, we can at least get local coverage, but if Prime Ticket isn’t carrying the others, then it is a no go.
However, the real tragedy is that this is our fourth straight year without radio coverage.
Anonymous
Have you checked the list of Dodger radio affiliates? I’d be surprised if there isn’t one you could pick up.
Jon Weisman
NPUT
Joe Pierre
I’m paying about $2.00 a game at the moment because my computer is having trouble with MLB.TV
So I’m also using MLB Extra Innings.
Christopher Staaf
Great question. I will say this: if the Dodgers were guaranteed to make the World Series this year, I would shell out a few hundred bucks to watch every game. I am kinda already doing that with MLB.tv. Never mind lol
Anonymous
Wow, I’m a freaking cheepskate. I answered $0 for everything. My dad used to always say, “You shouldn’t pay for something you used to get for free.” It’s scares me how much I’m growing up to be my dad.