MLB Online Video Strikes Out on Opening Day

by Jarrett Martineau | April 1, 2008 at 05:53 pm

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As much as every business seems to be making forays into the world of online video in order to stake a claim on this fast-growing industry, technical issues still plague even the largest service providers.

Unfortunately for MLB subscribers, they were unable to watch yesterday's opening day games online, as they had hoped, due to substantial technical problems with Mosaic's media player.

Not exactly a great way for fans to kick off the new season of America's favourite pastime.

Major League Baseball's opening day turned into a frustrating affair for many subscribers to its fee-based MLB.TV live game video-streaming service.

Subscribers encountered disruptive technical problems on Monday that included slow response times at the MLB.com site and problems with an upgraded media player.

For starters, the new version of MLB.com's Mosaic media player remained unavailable until around 4 p.m. Eastern Time, although six games had started between 1:05 p.m. and 3:05 p.m.

"With this being MLB.TV's most anticipated Opening Day ever, we appreciate your frustration," reads a posting Monday at the official MLB.TV Mosaic Blog. "Ultimately we ran into conflicts that were buoyed by an entire suite of new products rolling out simultaneously ... [We] will be monitoring the support forums here around the clock while we ensure that everything is stable."

But everything wasn't stable. Problems with Mosaic's operation have continued.

Frustration was high among premium-level MLB.TV subscribers, who pay either $19.95 per month or $119.95 per year. They were promised an improved "TV-quality" picture this year, due to enhancements to Mosaic and to the service in general.

Nick Mavro, a premium subscriber since 2006, is getting tired of MLB.TV opening-day glitches, and the current problems had him questioning whether he should have signed up for this season. "When they cannot get it right on clearly their most 'glorious' day, it is very frustrating. In hindsight, I would opt against signing up again," Mavro, a Toronto businessman, said via e-mail.