Foul Tip: Users Complaining About MLB.TV's Choppy Video, Audio

MLB Receives Complaints About MLB.TV's Choppy Audio And Video

Four days into the MLB season, "hundreds of users are complaining about choppy video and audio on MLB.TV," according to Joseph Tartakoff of PAID CONTENT. The complaints are "particularly embarrassing for MLB because MLB.TV's debut last year was also dogged by problems." MLB also "appears to be making efforts to paper over the embarrassment." The league earlier this week acknowledged some of these problems on its blog, saying, "We have a lot more to do still to get the (media) player to perform in a more stable manner across the board." But Tartakoff noted "all the entries on the blog, which explained that many of the issues had to do with an Adobe Flash plug-in called NexDef, have since been deleted." There is "now only one post, which states that the Opening Day issues were 'predictable'" (PAIDCONTENT.org, 4/8). PCWORLD.com's Juan Carlos Perez wrote, "Gone are months' worth of postings, along with hundreds of comments from MLB.TV subscribers." The message from MLB is also "incorrectly dated as having been posted on Monday, when in fact it went up at some point on Tuesday afternoon or evening." Experts indicated that it is "not wise for a corporation to abruptly and radically purge a blog it has used to communicate with paying customers, especially at a point in which customers are feeling upset about a product or a service and when pending issues remain unaddressed" (PCWORLD.com, 4/8). 

STRIKE ONE: MLBAM VP/Corporate Communications Matthew Gould said that the "glitches affected less than 1[%] of the company's 500,000 subscribers and were not caused by Adobe's player." Gould last night said that there were "eight games ... in progress and three were completed and there were no complaints." Gould said that the malfunctions were "relatively minor and were far fewer and less severe than last season, when many subscribers were unable to even log in." CNET photographer Charlie Wagner said that he was "prevented from seeing a ninth-inning rally" by the Twins Tuesday night against the Brewers "when his MLB.com video player went down." But despite the problems, Wagner said that he "thinks the picture quality is better" (CNET.com, 4/8).