Game 1 of the Wild Card round is in the books, and Chicago, we have some serious problems. The Cubs’ vaunted offense did nothing against Padres pitching, narrowly avoiding being no-hit in the first of the three-game series. Admittedly, Michael King dominated, throwing pitches that looked out of the zone only to dart back in to an unhittable corner of the plate. It completely disrupted a Cubs offense that is defined by taking walks, forcing pitchers to the big part of the zone and then doing damage. If Nick Pivetta is able to execute a similar strategy tonight the Cubs’ Postseason will end unceremoniously tonight.
It’s also unclear how many people in Chicago actually were able to watch the game (whether you think that’s a blessing or a curse is debatable). The Wild Card round was hosted on NBC, which decided to put both of the Chicago games on its streaming platform Peacock and a lesser carried channel, NBC Sports Network. If you subscribe to Comcast/Xfinity, YouTube TV or Fubo, you had the game via those services. If you subscribe to Peacock (more on that in a second) you had the game. If you either get cable through Astound (previously RCN) or DirecTV, you were out of luck, as they don’t carry NBCSN. This was also true if you use a live TV streaming option other than YouTube or Fubo. As reported in the Sun-Times:
To watch Games 1 and 2 of Cubs-Padres and White Sox-Astros, fans must watch on Peacock, which costs $12.99 per month, or NBCSN, which is available on Comcast’s Xfinity system and streamers Fubo and YouTube TV. Though Xfinity and YouTube TV are two of the largest pay-TV providers in the country, NBCSN is missing from services such as DirecTV and Astound/RCN.
A couple of notes here: I am one of the people impacted by this as I use Sling and despite having multiple sports add-ons had no way to access NBCSN through that platform. Additionally, not to quibble with the Sun-Times, but when I looked at the cost of adding Peacock for the game yesterday it was $19.99 a month and there was no option for a free trial through NBC. I did some digging and found that I could add a 7-day Peacock trial through Amazon Prime, and if I didn’t cancel in seven days the charge would be an additional $19.99 a month. I have also since heard on social media that if you have some cable packages, Peacock is a $5 add-on, for others it’s $9.
The current maze of streaming, cable and pay-TV options is exhausting. Admittedly, I am taking people’s word on the price they are charged for Peacock right now, and didn’t devote even more hours trying to figure out their pricing tiers and deals. And that’s just Peacock. This season MLB had a handful of deals with multiple streamers who all have their own deals with different providers, etc.
Major League Baseball deliberately partitioning off a handful of games here and a handful of games there is designed to extract the maximum amount of money from their most engaged fans at a time most Americans feel stretched economically. Want to watch the Home Run Derby? Better have Netflix. Want to watch teams all over the country (except your local team)? Better sign up for MLB.TV. Want to watch your local team? Better pay them for streaming too, and/or pray your cable or pay-TV option has a deal with them. You can shell out $19.99 a month to subscribe to Marquee Sports Network, right? Want to watch your local team in the playoffs? That’s another $19.99 a month, either to NBC or through an add-on via some other nonsense Subscription as a Service (SAAS) designed to ensure you NEVER pay for just one thing. You’re always shelling out a few dollars here, a few dollars there, and from a company perspective, hopefully forgetting you signed up for that free trial so they can milk you for $19.99 until you figure it out.
Oh, and it doesn’t stop there. Not only are they hoping you forget you are paying them every month, they can and will raise those rates with as little notice as legally possible until you figure out that what you used to spend $64 a year for has somehow ballooned to $122 in less than two years. Streamflation is real, as reported this month by Nerdist:
Last year, we set out to chronicle the number of price hikes we’d see across streaming platforms. It had started to feel like every day, a streaming platform would raise its prices and increase its costs to subscribers. And that turned out to be… basically true. In 2025, we saw a total of SIX streaming price hikes — averaging out to about one cost increase every other month. While in a vacuum, streaming price increases can feel immaterial, taken altogether, the constant cost hikes are INTENSE. So this year, we’re doing it again. Join us as we take a look at every streaming price hike and cost increase in 2026. Will we be over or under the 2025 total? We’re already tied at 6 streaming price hikes in 2026 and 2025… So under is off the table… And over is looking likely.
My apologies for screenshotting the table of contents to summarize this article, there are so many increases, with so much individual nuance, the table of contents is the best way to get a sense of the scope of the changes. You really should read the whole thing to get an idea of actual increases and then take a close look at your bill to tally what you’re actually paying for TV and streaming):
Spoiler alert: they are all just really hoping that you never notice it or do the tally. That $7 becoming $9 becoming $14.99 just doesn’t register in the slew of other cost increases that are more in your face each day. It’s hard to escape the conclusion that one-off events like the MLB Wild Card round being on a niche streaming service that’s losing the platform wars are designed to artificially increase their market share. Here is the list of top streaming services in the United States by subscribers according to FlixPatrol:
There are any number of fans who are just tired of this discourse. I don’t blame them, it’s a complaint about the new media reality that probably isn’t changing anytime soon. Someone is always going to lose. Get over it and either sign up for the free trial, remember to cancel, pay $5 (or $9, or $12.99 or $19.99) and watch the game or choose to miss it.
However, the answer to an increasingly labyrinthine and opaque system for charging baseball fans the maximum they’ll agree to pay for games. Meanwhile, corporate fingers are crossed behind CEO backs as they secretly hope you forget you added their service. It’s a textbook example of why people despise big business. Don’t take my word for it, Gallup polls these things:
Fifteen percent of Americans say they have “a great deal” or “quite a lot” of confidence in big business, far below the 70% who say they have confidence in small business, as of June 2025. Separately, an August 2025 poll found that 37% of Americans have a positive view of big business, while 95% have a positive view of small business. Perceptions of small business have generally been steady in recent years, while views of big business have worsened.
Perhaps the billionaires who own baseball teams and the people who direct MLB’s front offices to make these decisions don’t care about any of that. Netflix offered more than Peacock, who offered more than Amazon, and some consultant with a spreadsheet figured out a way to maximize all of that at the cost of our growing anger and frustration. Fans have dealt with that angst in housing, food costs and the rising cost of everything else, so we’ll probably tolerate it from baseball too. Even if the powers that be in MLB’s front offices believe fans will always come back and they don’t need to worry about losing their most loyal fans, they should worry about the constraints they are inadvertently putting on growing the next generation of fans. How many kiddos out there won’t even have the chance to fall in love with baseball because they never saw the big moments in the first place?
MLB should be more than a corporation. It should be more than profit and loss statements. The type of loyalty, love and heartbreak that was on display at our watch party last night in Wrigleyville is a priceless asset MLB and team owners hold in trust. The endless carousel of streaming complications making it difficult for fans to watch the most important games of the year is a violation of that trust. MLB is playing a dangerous game leaving their fans disgruntled with these arrangements, especially with a labor battle looming that threatens the viability of the sport in 2027 and beyond.