Major League Baseball's MLB.TV online broadcasting service encountered serious technical difficulties for the second straight day on Tuesday, as affected paying subscribers fumed about missing games.

At around 7 p.m. EST, minutes prior to the start of Tuesday's first games, MLB disabled its Mosaic media player, the application that gives premium-level MLB.TV subscribers the advanced viewing features they pay for.

Mosaic remained unavailable for about three hours, but even after it became operational again, an undetermined number of subscribers still were unable to watch games because of technical problems affecting MLB.TV's log-in process.

MLB on Wednesday didn't immediately respond to a request for comment about the outstanding technical issues affecting MLB.TV, whose premium-level subscription costs either $19.95 per month or $119.95 per year. A lower-level subscription tier costs $14.95 per month or $89.95 per year.

The Mosaic and log-in problems carried over from Monday, which was the league's opening day, a widely awaited day for baseball fans.

Tom Prendergast, an e-commerce product manager in Canton, Mass., in his second season as a premium-level subscriber, has given up on MLB.TV after the technical problems prevented him from watching games again on Tuesday.

"I am very upset now and plan to call and cancel my service if I can ever get through," he said via e-mail, alluding to the long wait times he has experienced in the past two days when calling MLB.TV's customer support line.

His anger and frustration are echoed by many other MLB.TV subscribers who are sounding off in an official MLB customer support forum and official Mosaic blog.

A common comment among those posting messages in these sites is why an organization with MLB's resources can't get its MLB.TV service ready in time for the start of the season. Others are planning to cancel their subscriptions, while some are voicing intentions to file formal complaints against MLB with consumer protection agencies and even possibly take legal action

Based on the latest information posted by MLB representatives on the official Mosaic blog and on the customer support forum, it seems that Mosaic should be working correctly now. They're also pledging that the log-in problems will be fixed prior to Wednesday's first game, which is scheduled to start at 1:05 p.m. EST.

The IDG News Service is a Network World affiliate.