MLB.TV Premium now $9.99 for remaining games
There are 238 games remaining in the Major League Baseball regular season, and now you can watch all of them live and out-of-market with millions of other fans for less than 10 bucks.
MLB Advanced Media announced Friday that it has dropped the price of its MLB.TV Premium yearly subscription to $9.99, the only available signup remaining for this dramatic homestretch. Rachel Becker will be the first to tell you to go for it.
On Thursday, the 28-year-old Braves fan in Richmond, Va., tweeted: "I literally don't remember what I did before getting MLB.TV, like what did I watch every night? No idea." We saw that and had to know more. Millions like her have watched live games this way over 11 years as the leading sports technology, and Becker, the administrative coordinator for Natural Resources International LLC, agreed to be a case study via email for why it works.
MLB.com: How long have you had MLB.TV, and how has it impacted your life as a baseball fan?
Becker: This is the first season I've had MLB.TV. I don't know how I got by without it before, because now I watch every game. A friend who was staying at our house for a few months had MLB.TV and would watch games, and my husband Mike and I got hooked. Being able to watch every game has increased my love of baseball and my team, the Braves. We now schedule things around Braves games, not the other way around. Some might say I'm obsessed.
MLB.com: Tell us how you use MLB.TV -- connected and/or mobile, what kind of devices, and if you watch games via the award-winning MLB.com At Bat app.
Becker: I watch MLB.TV anywhere and everywhere if there's a Braves game on, or any game we want to watch. We use my husband's Xbox at home with the TV, my iPhone with the At Bat app if we're out of the house or even out of sight of the TV, my desktop computer at work if there's a day game (shhhh), and my iPad when I'm traveling. My husband and I have gotten strange looks because we are watching the game on my phone and cheering in the middle of an aisle at the grocery store.
MLB.com: How does it feel knowing you and Craig Kimbrel both use MLB.TV with an incredibly high frequency? The Major League saves leader told MLB.com last month he watches it away from the ballpark to study his mechanics and scouts opposing hitters' tendencies.
Becker: Craig Kimbrel is my favorite Braves player, so having anything in common with him is amazing. The only thing better would be Craig watching MLB.TV with me.
MLB.com: So you're a Braves fan in Richmond, out of the club's market but not too far. Describe what that's like and how MLB.TV helps in that circumstance.
Becker: I live in Richmond, but I'm originally from a small town about two hours west of Richmond in Virginia. I was very excited to move to Richmond after college because at the time we had the Braves' Triple-A team to watch -- now relocated to Gwinnett County in Georgia. I've been a Braves fan since I was probably 10. At first, the only reason my twin sister and I started watching the Braves was because we thought Chipper Jones was the hottest guy on Earth. Turns out we both really love baseball and have been Braves fans ever since. We watched every game on TBS, cheering and screaming two inches away from the TV.
MLB.com: What is the feeling like now being able to watch a team that is closing in on the first clincher and hoping for home-field through the National League playoffs?
Becker: It's a really exciting time for the Braves right now, and baseball in general. I think I would go crazy not being able to watch every game and having to rely on score updates. Every game counts right now with the Braves trying to get that home-field advantage in the playoffs, and I don't want to miss a minute of it. I also love being able to switch between games with the tight races that are going on right now, and will be throughout the rest of the season.
MLB.com: Looking at your Twitter page, it appears that you and your friends have a live-tweet routine that surrounds the MLB.TV experience. How has that worked?
Becker: Live-tweeting about games is definitely a tradition now. Watching games is so much more fun when you're talking to other fans and I have met so many great people because of it. Because I don't live in Atlanta or get a feed that shows Braves games, I rely solely on MLB.TV to be able to watch the game with every other fan and interact with them. If you're not watching the game, it's not near as much fun to live-tweet. It's just not the same saying "what happened?!" the entire time and relying on everyone else for information.
MLB.com: While MLB.TV is a fact of life for a fan now, naturally nothing can duplicate the experience of being in the crowd at a game. Do you all get to any Braves games, and if so how often?
Becker: We always go to at least one game every weekend series that the Braves are at Nationals Park, since it's not far from Richmond. It is always fun being the enemy in enemy territory, and the Nationals have a great park. The last game we went to was when Paul Maholm was pitching and we shut out the Nationals and swept them again. It was amazing to be there for the sweep, the shutout, and doing the chop with the many other Braves fans there.
MLB.TV Premium includes a free subscription to At Bat 13 (the top-selling sports app of all-time) for iOS and select Android devices. You can watch games live or on demand in HD on your favorite mobile and connected devices, now including Blackberry Z10. It includes your choice of Home or Away broadcasts; lets you pause, rewind live game action with DVR controls and use Clickable Linescores; and permits PiP, Split Screen and Mosaic View.