Yankees can relate to fans’ streaming frustrations: ‘Everything’s about money nowadays’
By Gary Phillips, New York Daily News
SAN FRANCISCO — As Netflix prepared to stream Wednesday’s Opening Day matchup between the Yankees and Giants, Ryan McMahon wondered if fans would have an easy time watching.
“I hope everybody can find the game tonight,” the Bombers’ third baseman said.
McMahon was joking when he said that, as Netflix and Major League Baseball spent plenty on advertising to ensure that the general public knew the first game of the season could be found exclusively on the streaming service. But his tongue-in-cheek comment came as he and teammates discussed a larger point with the Daily News: watching sports has become increasingly complicated.
In 2026, Yankees fans may need access to 10 networks and five or more subscriptions to see all of the team’s games should they play deep into October, according to The Athletic’s Andrew Marchand. If they want to watch all of those games legally, it could cost nearly $1,000.
“That’s brutal,” Yankees reliever Tim Hill said. “I can empathize with them. That sounds terrible.”
And those are just Yankees games. If fans want to watch other MLB teams and other sports, they’re gonna have to spend a ton of money, download more than a few apps and avoid regional blackouts.
“It’s tough,” said McMahon, who primarily uses ESPN+, Amazon Prime and YouTube TV to watch sports. “All of the TV stuff, it’s over my head, but as a player, I feel like you want the fans to be able to see all the games.”
“Ideally, it could all be in one place, right?” added Cody Bellinger, who gets his football fix through YouTube TV and Amazon Prime. “As a fan, I wouldn’t want to buy a bunch of different subscriptions.”
Even Aaron Boone can relate to the plight of the present-day sports fan.
Asked about the abundance of streamers and the dispersion of games, the Yankees manager recalled how there was an NBA matchup he was excited to watch over the offseason. He figured that wouldn’t be an issue, as he has NBA League Pass. But much to his chagrin, he learned that he needed Peacock to see that game as he sat down to watch that night.
“I was like, “Oh, man,” Boone said, noting that he’s not sure how many subscriptions his household has racked up over the years. “I have Netflix. That’s what I watch every day. But as a family, I’m sure, in some way, shape or form, we got them all.”
But even if someone has all the subscriptions under the sun, McMahon noted that finding a game can be a separate challenge.
“Even the WBC games, I couldn’t figure out if I had the channels or not,” he said. “Most of the time I did, but I couldn’t find them. I missed a couple pitches.”
When asked what could be done to make life easier on modern consumers when a surplus of media rights deals are making a mess of the viewing experience, McMahon didn’t have any suggestions.
“I’ve got nothing,” he continued. “They got people a lot smarter than me trying to figure all that out.”
Boone couldn’t come up with a solution, either.
“I don’t know,” he said. “I’m an old head, as my kids would call me.”
Fortunately, Michael Kay, the Yankees’ play-by-play man for the YES Network, has an idea.
The broadcaster suggested that all the streamers need to get “under one tent” and offer a bundled sports package, similar to a cable bundle.
“You’ve got to somehow unify everybody, maybe get all the games under one streaming umbrella,” said Kay, who was disappointed that YES wasn’t airing the Yankees’ season-opener for the second straight year.
Asked why these companies would do that, the announcer mentioned public frustration — and that it’s not good for the networks or leagues if fans become more comfortable with missing games because they lack access.
“I think people are getting to the point where they’re angry now,” Kay said. “If they can’t see certain games on a streamer and they go, ‘Ah, I actually lived to see another day,’ that’s how you wean people off of the thing that they love. So that’s a concern of mine.”
Perhaps the parties involved will take Kay’s advice, join forces, and find a way to make watching sports a little easier sometime soon.
Then again, there’s plenty of reason to be skeptical with billions already being made from an ecosystem that is stretching fans’ wallets.
“Everything’s about money nowadays,” McMahon said, “and sometimes it just shouldn’t be.”
I would like to assure you that I was not born yesterday. If you have a legitimate copy of the game you never would have gone to that site to download it. I really understand that buying the game now can be pricey and it is all because of the mods here but an excuse like the one you just gave me is while understandable, is hard to accept at face value. Goodnight.
