You won’t be able to watch Blue Jays games on MLB.tv in Canada this year

The nightmare has become reality. The Blue Jays will be blacked out for Canadian viewers on MLB.tv this season as Rogers is trying to force viewers to pay for their Sportsnet NOW streaming service (which costs $19.99 per month).

This honestly isn’t really that surprising but it’s still incredibly disappointing. Blackouts are something sports fans are all too familiar with as TV and streaming rights over geographical areas get in the way of fans simply being able to, ya know, watch games.

In this instance, Rogers is using the Blue Jays, a key part of their brand, to sway people into purchasing their streaming service, Sportsnet Now. Why would you pay to watch only the things Sportsnet offers when you can pay to watch literally all of the baseball games instead? If you’re a big baseball fan, you’d obviously go the MLB.tv route for your streaming. But, now that the Jays are blacked out in Canada if you want to watch the Jays without access to cable television, MLB.tv isn’t an option, and people will just go ahead and pay for Rogers’ service.

It’s a shitty, unfortunate thing, but, again, not surprising at all. I’m honestly shocked Rogers allowed Jays games on MLB.tv for this long without blackouts. I guess they really want to push Sportsnet NOW this year.