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It’s much easier to watch the Yankees in Los Angeles than in New York these days and Yankees fans aren’t happy. The 21 Yankee’s games that appear on Amazon-Prime this season are really firing up the Bronx Bomber fan base.
See also: 3 Reasons You Can’t Watch the Yankees on the YES Network
With the advent of what I call the “streaming exclusive” game on Apple TV+, Peacock, and YouTube, the 2022 MLB season has been a difficult one for many MLB fans. When media giants like Apple or NBC purchase the rights to exclusive MLB games, as they did with Friday Night and Sunday Morning Baseball, the normal broadcast schedules are disrupted. Games that would appear on a local regional sports network are blacked out, which leaves fans scrambling to find their game. At Streaming Stadium, we see big analytics spikes to the MLB team pages that participate in the streaming exclusive games about an hour before the first pitch. Then, as the games progress, we hear from frustrated fans in the comments section.
Amazon has 21 Yankee’s games this season
Perhaps no other market has suffered from blackouts and confusing streaming rules more than New York. The Yankees are part owner of their regional sports network, the Yankee Entertainment and Sports Network (the “YES Network“), along with Sinclair Broadcasting and Amazon. For the 2022 season, Amazon Prime carved out 21 games that would broadcast locally on Amazon Prime in the Yankees viewing territory, but not on the YES Network. If you’re a Yankee fan in Los Angeles, you’re subscribed to MLB.TV and you get the YES Network broadcast with no interruption. Even cable subscribers can watch the Yankees out-of-market with MLB Extra Innings.
Amazon games hurting seniors
However, if you live in Brooklyn, or northern New Jersey, and are used to watching the Yankees on the YES Network, say with your cable provider, the Amazon games are blacked out locally. In order to watch these 21 games, you have to sign in to your Amazon account, sign-up for Prime, and stream the games. There is no non-streaming option. For in-market fans, it has become much more complicated to watch the Yankees and the fans who seem to suffer most are seniors. We have received a number of comments like the ones below from long-time Yankees fans who pay for the YES Network through their cable provider and expect to have access to all the games.
My mother is 94 and pays way to much for her spectrum and the package with yes network. She loves watching the Yankees and gets upset when they should be on. This is BS she likes to watch with me since I recently retired and now we miss weekend games so money hungry people can make more money. We are very unhappy.
Stan
I’m a 76 year old lady senior citizen who has been a Yankee fan since before I could walk. I live in CT and can’t afford to go to a game. I enjoy watching on the Yes network. I watch every game, except for Friday nights. Now for some dumb reason, I can’t watch my game on Friday. I pay for YES thru my cable package. Why did this happen? Because of my age and health I can’t do as much as I used to, but I do enjoy my Yankees. Why does it always come down to money? No one cares about the fans that don’t have much money and can’t afford streaming networks. Please bring my Yankees back on Friday nights!!!
Rosann
When Yankee fans learn the Yankees are being broadcast on Amazon, and not the YES Network, they’re not happy.
We don’t blame them.
I am a Yankee fan as well as many other seniors, I’ve been a Yankee fan since childhood. They are hurting the most devoted fan base. I love my Yankee players but
I feel that ownership is only interested in making more MONEY. What a disgrace to all
of us who can’t afford to add Prime or the others. We’re on fixed incomes, my only hope is they will consider us and do the right thing next season so we can enjoy every
Yankee game. Hate to feel that it is all about the BUCKS. But I guess it is!
We are yankee fans also and besides ourselves that we can’t watch our yankees. How could they possibly do there to there fans. Always all about the money . How about it be all about your fans. What a shame
Even if you pay and pay and pay again you are blocked from viewing. I spend many summer 3 day weekends in Dingmans Ferry which is in Pike County, northeastern PA. This is officially in the NYC metropolitan region and I pay for the privilege of watching the Yankees both on YES and Prime Video. It worked fine until this season. Suddenly Amazon is blocking the Friday game there and insists I have to watch it on MLBTV. I spent an agonizing evening explaining to their “support” I am in the exclusion zone and MLBTV will NOT broadcast the Yankees here. Their answer was simply: “You have to buy MLBTV to watch” but the problem is that I can’t use that service because I’m in the exclusion zone.
They had no idea what I was talking about.
SO they are breaking the rules and excluding valid viewers. Demanding even more money and not caring that it can’t work.
I do not have access to Amazon Prime & miss 21 Yankee games. These games used to be on WPIX. Fans like me are deprived & cannot see these games live. Shame on the Yankees for this. Met games are on SNY & WPIX.