Wednesday’s game available only on YouTube
For the second time in a week, the Milwaukee Brewers will be available to watch only on a streaming service, but this time the game is on YouTube.
The Brewers, whose win Friday over the Pittsburgh Pirates was available exclusively on AppleTV+, will appear exclusively on YouTube for the second time this season with the 12:10 p.m. game Wednesday in Minnesota. A Brewers-Reds game in May also appeared on YouTube, as did four contests last year.
That means the game won't be in its usual spot on Bally Sports Wisconsin. That's bad news for those used to the Bally app or channel but good news for anyone with an internet connection; the game is available for free and accessible without the need to download software or a special app.
That's slightly different from AppleTV+, which was a free broadcast but required users to have the AppleTV+ app on their device.
You can find the Brewers-Twins broadcast at youtube.com/mlb or youtube.com/brewers, or at the Brewers official website.
If you're frustrated by MLB games showing up in seemingly random places, you're not alone; multiple streaming services have entered the baseball streaming game this season, temporarily forcing consumers out of normal routines. Many consumers are still getting used to the Bally Sports Wisconsin app, newly available within the state without a cable or satellite account.
Essentially, the streaming-service sampling serves as a trial balloon for customers and represents a baby step toward a much broader streaming component in the years ahead.
"I think these leagues do realize they have to start educating their customers about how to watch their games on streaming, because in 10 years, that might be the way you watch games. But they're also not naïve enough to completely pull games away from linear TV where there are still tremendous eyeballs and ad dollars," said Jason Gurwin of The Streamable, a site dedicated to watching and covering matters of content streaming. "Remember there are still 70 million with cable subscriptions; this isn't a tiny fraction of the population. Sure it's not the almost 100 million when it was near its peak, but there still are a lot of people who get their TV in a traditional way."
Gurwin thinks streaming services have appropriately tested the waters, such as Amazon streaming NFL games in a non-exclusive broadcast, followed by what's to come later this football season, when Thursday night games will stream exclusively on Amazon and not on traditional channels.
"People who have never used a streaming app before just get lost every single time one of these exclusive games are on," Gurwin said. "We're going to see it with AppleTV+ games, games on Prime Video. You're going to have to educate people who are still using traditional linear TV how to access streaming apps to watch these games."