YouTube TV loses MLB Network and MLB.TV add-on

By Phil Nickinson Published January 31, 2023

YouTube TV no longer has access to MLB Network — with Spring Training set to begin in less than a month. In a note to subscribers, YouTube TV said that it was unable to reach a deal that would keep Major League Baseball’s network available on the service’s base plan.

“We have been working hard to renew our deal with the MLB Network to continue carrying their content on YouTube TV,” the note stated. “However, we have been unable to reach an agreement, and starting today, January 31, 2023, MLB Network content will no longer be available on YouTube TV.”

YouTube TV on Roku. — Phil Nickinson / Digital Trends

In addition to the live shows on the linear channel, any recorded content also is now unavailable.

Recommended Videos

Adding insult to injury, the MLB.TV add-on also is no longer available as an option on YouTube TV. That add-on allowed subscribers to watch out-of-market games.

The note from YouTube TV continued: “We apologize for the news and will continue conversations with the MLB to advocate on your behalf, in the hope of restoring their content on YouTube TV.”

This sort of carriage disagreement isn’t uncommon, and YouTube TV is no stranger to it either, despite its position as the biggest live streaming service in the U.S. with more than 5 million subscribers. The loss of MLB content likely will leave some fans searching for a YouTube TV alternative, but it’s doubtful that the service will suffer a massive drop in subscribers.

YouTube TV is available on every major platform, including Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Apple TV, Google TV, Android TV, on various smart TV, and in a web browser. Its base plan costs $65 a month, with options such as 4K Plus and various sports and entertainment bundles available from there.

Former Section Editor, Audio/Video

Phil spent the 2000s making newspapers with the Pensacola (Fla.) News Journal, the 2010s with Android Central and then the…

Topics

Audio / Video

Stop joining group projects with a blurry laptop webcam and buy one of these instead

Your laptop webcam is sabotaging your first impression. These five can fix it

I'm holding my Logitech C920 1080p webcam in my hands.

The webcam built into your laptop might be good enough for a quick call with friends and family. But its shortcomings become much harder to ignore when you are presenting a semester project, interviewing for an internship, or maybe if you're planning to stream for fun.

Laptop cameras also tend to sit far too low, especially when the computer is placed directly on a desk. Meanwhile, a dedicated webcam lets you position the camera closer to eye level. This improves the framing and brings larger sensors, better microphones, and more effective low-light processing.

Audio / Video

I desperately want a new classic Walkman, but Sony probably can’t give me one

Tech minimalism is begging for a new Walkman. Though rebuilding it may be close to impossible

Sony Walkman WM2011

Every few months, another piece of tech that seems obsolete crawls out of a drawer and becomes cool again. The age of minimalism has revived the popularity of iPods among younger buyers. Dumbphones have become an escape hatch from endless notifications. Similarly, digital cameras are dangling from bags again. Physical media keeps attracting people who want something they can actually hold instead of another frustrating subscription.

All of this makes it the perfect time for Sony to bring back the classic Walkman, which was a phenomenon during the 80s and 90s. I would love one. Give me a compact cassette player, physical buttons, and wired headphones. Keep the apps, notifications, and algorithms that shape your taste of music. No more AI assistants or personalzied feeds, just you and your Walkman. There is only one problem though. Recreating the Walkman that people love and remember, would be far harder than putting an old design back into production.

Audio / Video

Proton reveals how smart TVs track you and the escape situation is pretty grim

Modern smart TVs fingerprint your screen content at the chipset level.

Google TV applications on the Sony A95K TV.

Your smart TV may know far more about your viewing habits than you realize, even if you rarely use its smart features. In a new privacy explainer, Proton warns that many modern TVs quietly collect data about everything displayed on the screen and share it with manufacturers, advertisers, and analytics companies.

The worrying part is that escaping this tracking is becoming increasingly difficult because many privacy controls are buried deep in settings or enabled by default. Proton argues that buying a smart TV today often means accepting a level of surveillance that most people never knowingly signed up for.