The Comcast/YES Dispute

[jon abbey]

I could have put this in a number of sections, but Yankees seemed most relevant...

So for those who don't know, Comcast's licensing agreement with YES expired midseason last year. They prolonged discussions until the season ended, and in November, Comcast dropped YES because they say they're asking too much and not enough of their customer base cares, certainly good timing with the Nets being unwatchable.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-02-17/no-joy-in-jersey-yankees-fans-fret-tv-blackout-amid-fox-dispute

Anyway, a month to go, and barring a breakthrough in talks, soon I will need to line up a new way to watch the Yankees through my TV set. I believe I can just switch entirely over to FIOS, which would be a bit of a shame because I am a longtime mostly happy Comcast customer, but I need me some Didi. I would prefer to keep Comcast and somehow stream games through some other method through my TV if possible, but I know very little about that and figured people here knew much more, so I'm asking for advice.

 

[The Price Is Wrong]

I'd suggest the following ingredients:

1. MLB.tv account, or shared one
2. Working knowledge of using proxy servers to appear to be outside the Yankees' home region
3. HDMI cable to pipe from your laptop to your TV

I only have to use #2 when the Sox are playing locally, but if you live in the home market, that's an "every game" sort of thing. It's really not that hard, and once you've done it once you'll be able to do it without much trouble. There are free plugins on the Chrome store - search for "proxy". But if you'd rather not have to hunt for a good server, though, you can just buy ZenMate Premium for ~$9/m for a 6-month subscription, and route yourself reliably through Germany or wherever. That's what I did to watch the Division Series and LCS this year.

 

[hbk72777]

You have FIOS available and haven't jumped on it? Come on, get stepping. I had them from 2007 to 2010 when I moved out of state. They are the best cable service I've ever had. Not 1 second of downtime, no outages.

New customers usually get a great deal, plus a giftcard for switching ($200-$300 visa gift card)

You can package them in with their internet and have one modem that does it all.

 

[jon abbey]

I'd suggest the following ingredients:

1. MLB.tv account, or shared one
2. Working knowledge of using proxy servers to appear to be outside the Yankees' home region
3. HDMI cable to pipe from your laptop to your TV

I only have to use #2 when the Sox are playing locally, but if you live in the home market, that's an "every game" sort of thing. It's really not that hard, and once you've done it once you'll be able to do it without much trouble. There are free plugins on the Chrome store - search for "proxy". But if you'd rather not have to hunt for a good server, though, you can just buy ZenMate Premium for ~$9/m for a 6-month subscription, and route yourself reliably through Germany or wherever. That's what I did to watch the Division Series and LCS this year.

Nice, thanks. And this ends up being HDTV quality without much skipping or jumping? I guess that depends on my line speed?

 

[jon abbey]

You have FIOS available and haven't jumped on it? Come on, get stepping. I had them from 2007 to 2010 when I moved out of state. They are the best cable service I've ever had. Not 1 second of downtime, no outages.

New customers usually get a great deal, plus a giftcard for switching ($200-$300 visa gift card)

You can package them in with their internet and have one modem that does it all.

I researched it a couple of times and decided it didn't make sense for reasons I don't really remember, but yeah, this is looking like the most likely option currently.

 

[caminante11]

Likely there is some sort of settlement before the season starts. The bill will go up afterwards.

 

[jon abbey]

Likely there is some sort of settlement before the season starts. The bill will go up afterwards.

Maybe yes, maybe no. I'm not sure where the Dodgers' dispute currently stands, but I know that they were blacked out for most of LA for two full seasons:

http://www.latimes.com/sports/dodgers/dodgersnow/la-sp-dn-mlb-commissioner-dodgers-tv-blackout--20151110-story.html

In the meantime, the bill already went up in the interim, and even if they settle by Opening Day, I'll miss all of the spring training games (yes, I am really jonesing for baseball).

 

[SumnerH]

You have FIOS available and haven't jumped on it? Come on, get stepping. I had them from 2007 to 2010 when I moved out of state. They are the best cable service I've ever had. Not 1 second of downtime, no outages.

I had way more downtime with Fios than Comcast/Xfinity. It'd go down for a half hour or so (late at night) at least a couple nights a month.

Comcast customer service blows and I hate them, but at the end of the day they're better than Fios for me. Maybe it varies by region.

 

[jon abbey]

Yeah, my Comcast customer service has always been great, over multiple decades, which is why I'm hesitant to cut ties with them. FIOS I see way more horror stories about losing service and inconsistent customer service, which would especially be a problem if I was doing phone/internet/TV all through them.

 

[Papelbon's Poutine]

Yeah, my Comcast customer service has always been great, over multiple decades, which is why I'm hesitant to cut ties with them. FIOS I see way more horror stories about losing service and inconsistent customer service, which would especially be a problem if I was doing phone/internet/TV all through them.

You are one of like five people alive who could ever cite a positive experience with Comcast customer service. Consider yourself lucky.

 

[SumnerH]

You are one of like five people alive who could ever cite a positive experience with Comcast customer service. Consider yourself lucky.

Yeah even I hate them. The good thing is that you can often avoid them - I bought my own modem to avoid monthly fees, and found out I could self install because I had it (no waiting for a window or having them screw up the setup). But any time you have to deal with them sucks. It's not that they're good, just that Fios is worse as a service, in my experience.

 

[Wingack]

I had way more downtime with Fios than Comcast/Xfinity. It'd go down for a half hour or so (late at night) at least a couple nights a month.

Comcast customer service blows and I hate them, but at the end of the day they're better than Fios for me. Maybe it varies by region.

Interesting since we sort of live in the same area. I haven't had trouble with either service really and I never understood the Comcast hate, but since I work from home over night most nights I would get interruptions in service about once a month on Comcast because they were doing maintenance at that time, which I understand needs to be done. Since we have had Fios though (which we only got because they came in and offered us a better price and more HD movie channels) my internet service has not been interrupted a single time.

 

[jon abbey]

Yeah, as best I can tell, FIOS is decidedly cheaper too, and after a year, I can renegotiate or even go back to Comcast if the dispute is settled and I prefer them. I think I'll be making the move within the week, in time to watch plenty of meaningless spring ball, although definitely still open to any other input.

 

[Steve Dillard]

I could have put this in a number of sections, but Yankees seemed most relevant...

Anyway, a month to go, and barring a breakthrough in talks, soon I will need to line up a new way to watch the Yankees through my TV set. I believe I can just switch entirely over to FIOS, which would be a bit of a shame because I am a longtime mostly happy Comcast customer, but I need me some Didi. I would prefer to keep Comcast and somehow stream games through some other method through my TV if possible, but I know very little about that and figured people here knew much more, so I'm asking for advice.

We just made the switch from Comcast to Fios two weeks ago. Comcast was spotty in our area, and because we already had our home phone line with Verizon, decided to bundle with Fios. With second phone line, two tvs and internet, we got installation waived (80), the ultimate package, which means we also get NESN feed and they chipped in 50 credit for the MLB ticket, so we can also get the Sox. Two years 187/mo lock, which because of pretty hefty reg fees, actually is about $225/mo. So far so good with quality.

 

[The Price Is Wrong]

Nice, thanks. And this ends up being HDTV quality without much skipping or jumping? I guess that depends on my line speed?

Yeah, if you're on FIOS you'll have absolutely no problems with bandwidth. If you're using a proxy server, some of them limit your bandwidth through the proxy server, but some have perfectly acceptable throttles. Zenmate Free was choppy for me, but Zenmate Premium worked like a dream. The other thing is, once you've passed the initial check MLB.tv makes during loading, of "are you in the local area?", and starts streaming, you can then turn the proxy off and the streaming continues unabated.

edit: also, older computers may lack the CPU to fully process HD streams, but that one's in your court. I have a 2008 HP laptop that's mostly fine, but if it's been running for weeks it may start to skip and crawl... but my new macbook pro (from work) obviously has zero issues.

 

[Flunky]

I wonder how this would impact the MLB.TV plus the "Follow Your Team" option. Like, using your Comcast login to stream the Yankees in-market when Comcast doesn't carry the RSN (YES).

 

[jon abbey]

Not Comcast/YES, but the latest on the Dodgers local TV mess that still isn't resolved for the third straight season:

http://www.latimes.com/sports/dodgers/la-sp-plaschke-dodgers-tv-20160224-column.html

 

[cromulence]

As someone who's had FIOS, Comcast, and uses MLB.tv to watch the Yankees, I feel I can be helpful here. Get FIOS. Nothing beats the game always being on TV and never worrying about the feed having a bad night (which happens). Also, depending on your tastes and how the game went, it's nice to have a post-game show. As for FIOS vs. Comcast, I've had a better experience with FIOS, so that shouldn't be a problem either.

 

[jon abbey]

YES went on the offensive on this today, huge advertising blitz across every possible channel, print, TV, social media, someone took this pic at Port Authority:

 

[jon abbey]

This is finally resolved, YES will be back on Comcast as of March 31. Comcast lost me in the meantime, though, I switched to FIOS and don't see why I'd switch back.