Alright team - a few weeks ago, I decided to pause my subscription for Hulu Live. I got to the point that I decided I could not justify $90 a month to watch maybe one 30 minute live show per week. Now, with the college football and NFL seasons right around the corner - I'm trying to figure out what my best options are going to be, and hoping you dudes might be able to give some input.
I've grown away from the days where I would watch any and all college football that I can. These days, I'm pretty much interested in watching VT games, and don't have time for much else. And of course NFL as well.
So - are there any streaming services that you all have first hand experience with that are a) better for watching live sports than others; b) have the ability to record and watch games later (I'm not always able to catch the noon games live); and c) isn't going to cost me damn near $100/month
Comments
Let me ask some follow up questions:
In what state do you live?
North Carolina (Outer Banks, so Norfolk/VB tv market)
Do you care what NFL games you watch? Do you have a team or do you just want to have football on every Sunday? Eagles. Other games I'll typically put on and have in the background, but gotta watch my Birds
How 'perfect' does your viewing experience need to be? On a scale 1-10 where 10 is you can watch every game every where and 1 is you can watch some games but it has to be on a computer with a bunch of pop ups
Maybe a 7, I don't own a working computer right now, so its gonna have to be on my TV
How much are you willing to spend on devices?
Just bought a smart TV in February, so $0.
What devices do you prefer to watch games on?
TV
Here's your options IMO:
Sounds like some combination of option 3 and 4 might be the best for you.
Yeah, unfortunately I think of I'm going to want to watch sports I'm gonna have to pay. I've looked into the antenna thing and from what I've found i think we're just out of range for norfolk
Youtube does have an offer running for new customers at 49.99 for the first 3 months, so that would at least get me through November
Closest family is in chesapeake, and I dont think I can talk my parents into sharing it, not exactly tech savvy
I also often see credit card offers of cashback on YoutubeTV, so worth checking depending on what you have.
Also want to add that YouTubeTV has unlimited DVR so you can set it to record NCAAFB and NFL and it will record every single football game that is on.
It also has Multiview so you can watch up to 4 games on one screen. Sometimes they limit the options for this, though.
multiview is so huge for college football saturdays. it alone is worth the price of admission
OBX, huh? Got a spare bedroom?
Seriously though, I feel your pain. We live about the same distance north of the Norfolk area and the over the air antenna didn't do doodley squat for me when I tried to watch the Hokies on our "local" CW station as provided to me by Dish. WAVY acquired the station, but their live sports only go out over the air so I'm stuck with reruns of shows nobody watched in the first place, like Judge Judy on CW. Calls to complain weren't effective, either to Dish or to WAVY. Too far from Richmond to get their broadcasts also. We pony up for Dish, and Direct TV before it because the streaming thing just didn't serve our needs and until very recently, we had crappy wifi and it still is often spotty. Out yesterday for 8 or 9 hours. Have to record shows, that's a priority. Add in the regional sports package, which I do every fall and cancel after MBB season, and it comes up to a ten spot over a hundred or so.
youtube tv. Can do a family plan and split it
Reading a bit on that - sounds like it is intended for same household and after a few months someone trying to login from elsewhere gets blocked from using it?
If that is the case, sharing it with my wife and my zero income 11 year old son isn't gonna save me much 😅
Sounds like he needs a job! /s
You bet he does! I suggest he sell loosies in the parking lot of Biscuits 'n Porn every morning when the construction workers are getting breakfast. He's too young to get in much trouble, right?
This is basically the same thing as a paper route.
Yeah, but tobacco had a much longer life than paper routes for kids. Not a good trade off in my book, but i also have my addictions.
I've got some friends that live in Southern Shores, on one of the roads that google maps is sending people as a back way, or short cut up to Duck and Corolla. On Saturdays sometimes when it gets backed up, their kids set up with a cooler at the end of the driveway selling icy pops for $1 a pop, they have raked in hundreds in a day
That road is evil on checkin/checkout days.
First of all, Go Birds
Secondly, you can share it. Whoever has the 'home' account just needs to log in with the other(s) periodically after the access gets removed. Just have the 'away' person set up a temporary password when this happens, have the 'home' person log into their computer with that account and start to stream any channel at tv.youtube.com from the home location. That's all you need to do, log out have the 'away' person set the password back and you're good to go. Wash, rinse, repeat.
With that said, if you have YTTV, NFL Sunday Ticket is only running at around $190 or so right now for the season. But given how often the Eagles are going to be on national broadcasts this season, might not be worth it, to be honest.
Also as an aside, the MLB blackout rules are ridiculous. Couldn't watch the Phils last night because Raleigh is somehow in the broadcasting regions of DC, Baltimore and Atlanta, with only Atlanta being the team you can even remotely get reliably. Just so dumb.
Be prepared for that Sunday Ticket price to rise. It was announced today that ESPN is acquiring the NFL Network, including Red Zone and most other NFL digital media rights. NFL gets a 10% stake in ESPN as part of the deal.
FTFY.
It's insane how much they're charging for it.
The Super Bowl will be pay per view within 10 years. It will be played outside of the United States within 15 years.
Probably in Russia
In Soviet Russia, you not play football. Football play YOU!
As sad as this may sound, you might save money going with Cable (at the sacrifice of horrific customer service).
The idea of Streaming being ala carte has been completely crushed. They are all around $90/month and are clearly heading towards $100. YouTube TV (which I have) will have short-term intro or teaser rates but thats about it.
Sling's combined package is (for now) still $55/month but has no local channels so if you don't have an antenna or good broadcast reach, you are SOL for national CFB games or NFL.
Over the course of the last few years, I have had Sling, Hulu, and YTTV...none deliver on what was once the lure of Streaming...cheaper TV access without having to scroll thru 38 channels you never watch....Hallmark channel's daily viewership can probably be calculated by a show of hands. The last Streaming service I had that was worth the cost was Playstation Vue..despite the horrible name it was great.
Without getting political and violating TOS, we have allowed media conglomerates to buy up (Disney->Hulu) and dictate policy to the point that streaming is essentially just Cable without a box. More money to support 25+ channels that have little reason to exist and just play re-run Sitcoms all day and the Consumer loses...yay...
If you look at what cable was/is paying for channels, ot was always going to give you hallmark. ESPN was like 50% of the cost of cable. The rest of the channels were less than 50% because the cable company has to make money too. So a la carte was never going to really work because 1) most channels cant afford their own service and 2) the laws haven't kept up so you get blackouts when you can go to the game but could watch and other issues like commercials going to a wider audience.
A la carte doesn't work primarily because TV executives don't make money for Networks that don't exist. So even if their rights deals are minimal compared to ESPN, all of these fluff channels just add cost with no real benefit.
If anyone has a rational argument for why MTV2, Hallmark Family, Dove Channel, TruTV, or FXX exist, I would love to hear them. Even ESPNNews is largely pointless now that ESPN has turned into all-day SportsCenter.
None of the above Networks have anything that resembles original or compelling content. I will try to tight-rope the political line again but....
The fact that this country is shortly losing PBS yet MTV2 continues to exist solely to siphon money to Execs at Paramount (or whatever they are called now) so that people can watch re-runs of Nick Cannon Wild 'N Out at 3:30PM on a Tuesday is completely asinine.
Amen to this.
To be fair at this point regular MTV is little more than wall to wall Ridiculousness only broken up periodically by The Challenge, Teen Mom and the Jersey Shore somehow still going.
Ah the days in my high school years when MTV actually played MUSIC videos....
I think this was a better way of making the point i was trying to make.
If PBS could get execs that could negotiate a contract, they'd flourish.
I don't know - I commented on the Hallmark channel to my wife and was informed that it's a serious chick thing, like Target, TJMaxx, Crumbl Cookie, and the Aldi Aisle of Shame. Must be the alter-ego of sports channels for men.
ESPN is launching a direct to consumer option beginning August 21st. No idea of the cost but I believe it will be like Disney+ for sports. You won't need a cable type bundle to access it.
$30/month from what I'm seeing.
Here's where ESPN really screwed the pooch by putting all their eggs in the sec basket. If I didn't already know which 6 teams were going to be propped up all year long and felt that my team had even a remote chance at making it to a championship game then I would absolutely pay $30 for the privilege to watch.
But since ESPN has manipulated the sport to tip the scales so heavily in favor of a select few, the sport in general is so uninteresting to me that I wouldn't even consider paying $10 to watch football games that I just don't give a hoot for.
I know I can't be the only non-sec fan who feels this way. I think they're going to wind up losing viewers by the droves because a lot of fans who aren't sec alumni just aren't going to care much longer.
I'll have to look into that!
Sling is launching a "day pass" for their orange package. It is $4.99 for a single day or $5.99 if you add in the additional ESPN channels.
It notably omits Fox, FS1/2, B1G, etc, but if your game is on an ESPN variant, it is a good price point.
That's definitely cheaper than a trip to the sports bar to catch the game!
You know, what?
This is a really good business move by Sling. I can't tell you how many people I know that will likely be doing this. Solid CFB fans who don't lock in all day or even every week necessarily. Additionally, I think people will appreciate the flexibility and continue to come back.
And, as mentioned below, much cheaper than the bar!!
I just cancelled my DirecTV, and I'm not real thrilled at the prospect of having to subscribe to ESPN whatever for $30 a month, so there's what I'll be doing.
I still miss my DTV after 2 years of Dish, but they priced me out of the market and I've adapted. Direct was superior in our estimation, for several reasons. We watch too many different things to not have a comprehensive provider.
It got to the point where the only thing we were watching on DTV was college football in the fall, plus Big Brother and Sister Wives. That was it. And it had gone from $100/mo to $140. It just wasn't worth it. We also have some streaming service subs through our Verizon account. I can adapt, borrow logins, or pay seasonal subs to see what I need to see. The Sling day pass sounds amazing.
I get it for sure. When I was working and living in the boonie sticks in a holler you could throw a baseball across kind of deal, satellite was all there was, no cell service or over the air tv reception. We started with a giant dish, hand cranked with scores along the mechanism to mark the different satellites.
I'm an old man now, and being retired, we watch a fair amount of tv of all sorts so it's still worth it to me. I do add the regional sports package come fall, drop it in the summer after small ball is over, giving me the ACCN. My problems with CW where I live now I've bemoaned, and DTV would correct that, but for now, Dish is it.
Do ACC Network games come on Sling? I'm guessing that's where most of our games will get dumped
If you get the expanded sports package, yes. It's an extra dollar on the day pass
Sweet - I'm sold then
Hopefully this is successful for them and more of the live streaming services realize that they are hitting that tipping point where they are pricing people out. Something needs to change