Baseball all about widening its fan appeal with streaming services

Frustrated by your favorite team defecting to Apple TV+ on Friday nights or popping up on Peacock for Sunday brunch?

Get used to it. And expect even more.

From MLB’s perspective, whatever negative feedback has arisen from these new streaming services can only be categorized as growing pains for the industry. That’s where the money is going forward — for every professional sports league — and baseball is no different in that regard.

“We are always sensitive to fan concerns,” commissioner Rob Manfred said Thursday at the conclusion of the owners meetings in midtown Manhattan. “And I understand the idea that, I’m used to finding a game here and now it’s moved somewhere else. But I think we would not have done either the Apple deal or the Peacock deal if we did not believe that experimentation with partners like that on the digital side of the business were crucial to our long-term efforts to make games more widely available on a flexible basis the way consumers want to buy them.

“So I think it is a short-term issue that is designed to put us in a position to provide more access over the long haul ... I think it’s really important that we see the Apple and Peacock undertakings as part of the effort to respond to a rapidly-changing media environment. Having a relationship with Peacock — and more broadly NBC — is important for us over the long haul. Apple’s an innovator. And we need to be innovative in our efforts to deliver games to fans on platforms that they use and visit frequently.”

Manfred actually kicked off Thursday’s news conference by bringing up the discussion among owners to increase MLB’s “reach” now that everyone has moved on from the new collective bargaining agreement, which finally was agreed upon March 12. Figuring out how to better broadcast and distribute games, beyond the MLB.TV package, is obviously a top priority with the skyrocketing demand for live content that all leagues are cashing in on.

“We are concerned about our reach,” Manfred said. “We think that we have fans that want to watch baseball who don’t feel that they have an adequate opportunity to do that. There’s a strong sense among ownership that an undertaking we’re referring to as MLB Media should step into the digital space in particular to provide fans with greater and more flexible opportunities to watch games.

“Unlike any other entity, we have access to all of the digital rights. And let’s not forget, we do have the technology chops to stream 2,430 games given that we’ve been doing it since 2000. It’s about giving fans that may be outside the traditional cable bundles adequate opportunity to see our games.”

As for the games themselves, Manfred said MLB’s competition committee plans to meet next week to discuss a number of potential rule changes, including a pitch clock and a ban on defensive shifts. Those topics were shelved during the contentious CBA negotiations in order to help facilitate a deal, with the assumption both could get pushed through for 2023.

“We’re going to commit to the process,” Manfred said. “We’re not entering that process with any predisposition that this or that has to happen next year and I’m not going to comment on specific changes. We want to hear what the players have to say. We negotiated that process to make sure we got player input and I don’t want to prejudge the outcome until we get that input.”

MLB is currently experimenting with a 14-second pitch clock in the minors, among other changes, and is so far impressed by the pace-of-play improvements. Through June 14 of the minor-league season, nine-inning games with a pitch clock averaged 2:35, a substantial trim from 3:04 a year ago without a timer, while exhibiting an increase in action (more runs, fewer strikeouts and walks). This season, a nine-inning major-league game averages 3:05.

“The pitch clock itself, and all aspects of the mechanics — the amount of time, whatever — I expect will be a subject of discussion in the competition committee,” Manfred said. “We are encouraged by the results in the minor leagues.”

As for robot umpires, officially known as the Automated Ball and Strike system (ABS), Manfred made it sound like that wasn’t so close on the horizon at the major-league level. It’s currently being used at some Triple-A ballparks this season.

“I don’t see the ABS as a competition committee issue for this year,” Manfred said. “That’s the best I can tell you.”

By David Lennon

dave.lennon@newsday.comDPLennon

David Lennon is an award-winning columnist, a voter for baseball's Hall of Fame and has covered six no-hitters, including two perfect games.