Well friends, I was wrong. OK, I was sort of wrong. But the best part of it, no matter what you call it, is that you win.
In this article from January, I posted information from an AT&T press release about pricing for the MLB Extra Innings package. But sometime since, AT&T actually released pricing that was about $60 lower than they originally said it was going to be.
6 payments of $21.66
That’s right, the new cost for MLB Extra Innings for the 2021 season is just $129.96. That’s the lowest it’s been in a very long time. Possibly over a decade. And the best part is that you still get everything that comes with it. There’s no skimping on features. You get the Strike Zone channel, you get the MLB mix channel, you get the ability to use the MLB.TV app and stream every game no matter where you are (except for blacked out ones.)
In other words it’s like someone slipped you three $20 bills and you still got all the baseball action you were promised!
Not like I’m complaining but…
You do have to wonder why the price drop happened. And then, you know, you remember what we’ve all been going through in the past year. And you say, “oh yeah.”
Obviously the 2020 baseball season wasn’t what we all expected. It was shorter and the rules were different. Personally I kind of liked it. But, it’s easy to see that with about one-third of the games, the price of a package like MLB Extra Innings didn’t make a lot of sense. There were some refunds given last year for people who subscribed early, but I am guessing that subscriber numbers were just way down.
And until just a few weeks ago, it wasn’t even clear what this season would be like. The players’ union held out for a full season, and so that’s what we all got. At least for now. For now, stadiums are opening to the public and players are getting ready for the full 162 game season. Let’s hope there aren’t any surprises and that things keep moving toward something more normal.
Get MLB Extra Innings on DIRECTV
The way I see it, Extra Innings on DIRECTV is essentially free for baseball fans. It’s priced almost identically to the standalone MLB.TV package for 2021, and when you sign up for it on satellite you get MLB.TV included as well. So think of the satellite part as an extra added benefit. If you’re the sort of person who watches on your phone a lot, that’s great. But if you watch even one game on your TV, well DIRECTV’s package has paid for itself. That’s a pretty sweet deal if you ask me.
One last word…
Unfortunately the one thing that hasn’t changed has been the league’s insistence on blackout rules. If you live within any reasonable distance from your team’s stadium, you probably won’t be able to watch your local sports network’s broadcast. Yes I think this is as stupid as you think it is. But don’t blame the messenger here. If you think blackout rules are just dumb, complain to your local team. That’s the only way they’re going to change.
