This is the first season in my lifetime that KMOX radio isn’t the home of the St. Louis Cardinals, which explains why the CBS-owned station feels comfortable advertising the Slingbox as a way to keep up with baseball games from the road. When place shifting came up during a Digital Media Summit session Tuesday, comments from George Kliavkoff, EVP, MLBAM, as reported by CNET, illustrate why those ads are unlikely to show up on the new home of the Cardinals (a station that shares some ownership with the team).  Kliavkoff told Rich Buchanan, VP-marketing for Sling Media, that the company’s users “are violating the scope of their user agreements” for cable or satellite. I gather Buchanan gave the usual Sling response that cable and satellite users have paid for access already and should be allowed to watch their home set from a distance. MLBAM hasn’t sued Slingbox, Orb or any of the other place-shifting enablers. In fact, Buchanan said Sling is in talks with all of the major leagues, including MLB; he called MLB the most protective.
Disclosure: I have a Slingbox and have used it to watch otherwise inaccessible games while traveling.