Just before the start of the baseball season for 2009, I went through the usual weighing up of which services I will be purchasing to enjoy baseball this year.  Normally, I would subscribe to what used to be NASN (North American Sports Network), which has been rebranded to ESPN America to watch the odd Yankee's game, and then subscribe MLB's Gameday Audio package, so that I could listen to any of the games that aren't on ESPN America.  This season seemed different, MLB were making noises about an affordable high definition video product which would allow me to watch every Yankee's game in the same quality as if I was watching it through my Satelite TV subscription.  This, strapped to the fact that Gameday Audio is only streamed at 20kbps, which even for a speech only mono audio stream is awful, I thought why not, and signed up to a season of non-stop baseball, effectively widowing my partner for 8 months.  Big mistake.  Awfully big mistake.

In this article, I'm going to explain the reasons behind why I'm now preparing to report MLB Advanced Media to the United Kingdom's Trading Standards authorities and the Office of Fair Trading who primarily deal with "faulty goods, scams and rip-offs".  I'm also looking to team up with some like-minded people in the US who will aid me in also reporting MLB Advanced Media to similar bodies over there, I'll give you my contact details at the end if you are interested.

Gameday Audio

Quality

All audio streams for the gameday audio service are in a very poor 20kbps mono format, with regularly drifting volume which can go from being so quiet to being completely unaudible, through to blowing your eardrums out.  I've suggested since 2005 that MLB Advanced Media simply notch up the audio quality to 32kbps which would  remove a lot of the "tinny" and "whiny" artifacts from the stream, however it wouldn't solve the drifting volume issue, that is something MLB need to seriously address their end.  The gameday audio service isn't advertised at a particular bitrate, but it is clear that the level of service provided for a premium (not free) product is substandard.

MLB.tv

Nexdef Plugin

In order to view games at the highest quality, it is required that a plugin called "Nexdef" is installed onto the computer that the game is being viewed on.  The plugin is provided to MLB Advanced Media by a company called swarmcast.  It is clear that the use of the plugin is far from stable, and the only responses from MLB's own support forum range from the simplistic restart of the computer, through to restarting the router supplying the broadband connection, through the absolutely ludicrous advice to download and use an alternative internet browser.  It is all too common to have several problems relating to the nexdef plugin per game viewed, meaning that viewing is either disrupted completely because of the need to reload the game in the browser, or that the quality becomes standard definition and very blocky because of the complete failure of the plugin completely.

Flash Player

This season, MLB Advanced Media introduced a flash player for watching games in.  Again, this is far from stable, and regularly freezes or starts behaving wildly, leading to consistant interruption of viewing, again, several times in one game viewed.  This, along with the nexdef plugin issues, can render some games completely unwatchable, or result in missing substantial, and sometimes influential parts of the game.

Advertisement Breaks & Pitching Changes

During normal television advertising breaks, MLB.tv put up a slide drawing awareness to the fact that the game is between innings or that a pitching change is taking place.  It is all too common that whoever is in control of the advertising break slides "forgets" to return to the game after the break or pitching change which results in, at times, the loss of a whole inning.  A situation occurred on the weekend of 13th June, where a pitching change took place in a Yankees V Mets game, where the break slide remained on screen whilst the yankees scored nine runs.

Prior to, and coming back from breaks are also regularly mis-timed resulting in the loss of some play and coverage, something that many MLB.tv users find infuriating.

MLB.tv Support

Forum

MLB.tv provide a support forum for users to post their problems, issues and feedback.  While MLB do post replies very quickly to some problems, many are left unanswered, and the responses that are made are regularly very patronising and unhelpful.  The feeling of anger and a sense of poor service is rife with those that post there.

Telephone

Considering when I call, I'm calling from the UK, costing a pretty penny for every call, it is not uncommon to be on hold for over an hour before getting though to someone as helpful as those on the forum.  Regularly I have personally been promised a callback from someone more senior, a call which has never been recieved.

Email

I have sent many emails to MLB's support department, I'm yet to recieve a reply, other than a 15% off voucher for the MLB Shop that expired a week later.

This is just a small snapshot of some of the worst problems with MLB Advanced Media's service, and their complete lack of regard for their customers.  Obviously, as a monopoly on the sport of baseball, they think they can afford to be complacent.  Treating their customers with contempt is something which I simply cannot stand.  Obviously this organistion is too big to fail, but any other business would have folded as their customers deserted them.  I have seen enough now to know that something has got to give, MLB Advanced Media need to be held accountable and need to start communicating with their customers in a more open and honest way.

I intend to submit a report to the UK authorities, and with the help of other likeminded people from around the world, particularly in the US, but also across Europe, submit similar reports to their respective authorities in order to begin to gain leverage against MLB.  I also intend to start lobbying MLB Advanced Media directly with the support of other disgruntled users.

If you are having, or have had problems with MLB Advanced Media both current and past, I'd love to hear from you.  Please feel free to comment, or email me directly (me details are on this site), particularly if you can help me with submitting my report to the powers that be.