You turn on the TV to follow your favorite baseball team on MLB.TV, and instead are greeted with a cryptic message forbidding you to watch it, "This game is subject to local blackout restrictions".
If you signed up for an annual subscription to MLB.tv, and are now just finding out about these restrictions, here are some ways around National and also Local blackouts.
This affect teams the MLB decides are local to the area you live in and can't be watched. All games are visible to anyone living outside the USA and Canada and there are no blackout restrictions in place.
The way MLB.TV blacks out certain games for your area is by your IP address. When you log into their server, they know exactly what part of the country your IP is from. They then filter out these areas based on their blackout rules and block you from accessing their content. This is called "geoblocking” a term used when a website or server only gives access to visitors according to their geographical location> Many sites will actually use this.
If you can hide your IP address and make it look like it's coming from any another country besides Canada, you can watch any game on MLB.TV and not ever need to deal with blackouts again. One way to do this is with a good VPN like ExpressVPN. This will hide your internet IP address and make it look like your logging into MLB.TV from another country like Germany or Spain. They even let your choose from up to 60 additional countries as well. This is one best ways to avoid MLB blackouts and ensure you will never miss another exciting baseball game.
VPNs cost additional money each month, or can be paid for once annually for a significant discount. Fortunately VPNs are not that expensive. They also work with other websites and allow you to watch additional content on websites normally blocked from US access like the BBC channel.
A VPN can be setup either on each device or on your router. We recommend setting it up on your router if using the MLB.TV channel on Game Boxes or media streamers like Roku or Apple TV. Once set up on the Router, any device on your home network will be able to connect and get around the MLB blackouts.
ExpressVPN also has dedicated software apps for PC, Linux, Mac and iOS devices and can be configured directly to work on Android Devices.
For more instructions setting up your particular device, click on the small "Community" tab located at the top of their website.
When using a VPN, your internet provider will no longer be able to snoop on you or see what you download. All your online activity goes through the VPN server and is hidden from your IP provider's prying eyes. This provides an additional level of privacy and security that is not available when you visit a website directly as everything is logged by your internet provider.