Friday, February 17, 2012 at 2:12 pm

MLB At Bat pricing changes: No $15 iOS app fee for MLB.TV Premium subs

Major League Baseball’s pricing structure for its iOS/mobile apps is changing a bit this year.

Instead of $15-per-mobile-app fees — iPhone and iPad were separate apps, so $30 for both — MLB.TV Premium subscribers will be able to log in and stream live game video and audio for no extra fee. (Launching 2/29, according to MLB’s site.) Xbox 360 streaming will also launch this year for the first time, for Premium subs only.

MLB.TV Premium costs $125 this year, up $5 from last year. But if you were a subscriber last year, and have your account set to auto-bill, you’ll pay last year’s price. So instead of spending $150 total for MLB.TV, the iPhone app, and the iPad app, you’ll pay $120 as a repeat customer. Or $125 for new customers. That’s $25-30 in savings; a nice added value.

MLB.TV Standard — no access from mobile/connected devices — is $110.

(Unfortunately, the Cubs will still probably stink.)

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  • http://twitter.com/pberry Patrick Berry

    I hope they plan to deal with blackout restrictions someday.  Those are killing me.

    • http://www.fromedome.com/ Dan Frommer

      Only as soon as 30 different team broadcast agreements are rewritten! (So, maybe a year or two before MLB.TV brain implants are available.)

      • http://procause.com/ matthewhughes

        MLB.TV and At Bat are pretty awesome, save the blackout nonsense…

        What they don’t realize is I’m only interested in watching my team (Yankees).

        I’m not remotely interested in other teams (again, I’m a Yankees fan).

        If there’s a blackout my attention (and inherently my dollars) just go elsewhere…

        • http://www.fromedome.com/ Dan Frommer

          I’m sure they do realize that, actually. But the business is set right now that local TV rights are worth far more money than online subscription fees can generate. So barring some sort of (unlikely) league-wide mandate, it’s going to be quite a while before MLB.TV doesn’t have to honor blackouts.
          However, I believe the Yankees were one of the teams that tried doing in-market streaming as a separate service for cable subscribers. Not sure how it went or whether they’ll do it again this year. (Will look into it. On my cell right now.)

  • http://twitter.com/sachinag Sachin Agarwal

    Your content reflects my interests.

    • http://www.fromedome.com/ Dan Frommer

      I love it when you analyze. Oh wait, that’s a White Sox thing.

  • http://johncapone.me/ John Capone

    It was kind of ridiculous that there was one charge for th intent and another to use it though.

    I might Subscribe this year, but I want the Mets to pay me a special fee for the agony of watching their games after July.

    • http://www.fromedome.com/ Dan Frommer

      Well, the app fee (launched before live video streaming) was initially for live audio streaming and, I believe, in-game video highlights. MLB At Bat was seen as a different product than MLB.TV, so it had a different fee. Now that Apple has more options for subscription stuff, plus the MLB Apple TV and Xbox stuff, which is kind of an app but also an MLB.TV thing, the lines are blurring. So it makes sense to bundle.