ESPN Cleaning House

[JayhawkerStL]

Would be nice if we are a step closer to allowing streaming of local sports. Yes, I would pay ESPN to stream their content if it added the Cardinals and Blues games that I cannot get now without Fox Sports Midwest.

That's the next step sports programming needs to take.

[SPTO]

Quote: Originally Posted by JayhawkerStL

Would be nice if we are a step closer to allowing streaming of local sports. Yes, I would pay ESPN to stream their content if it added the Cardinals and Blues games that I cannot get now without Fox Sports Midwest. That's the next step sports programming needs to take.

There's a risk to that monetarily though because you bet your butt Disney is going to bundle the ESPN and local sports net packages together so if you want your local network you have to take ESPN as well. Prices will definitely go up for traditional cable/satellite and i'm sure there will be an additional fee for streaming as well.

[JayhawkerStL]

Oh, there is going to be a cost. But at some point there will be a shift in where rights holders believe they can make the most money. As most people cut the cord, and ESPN, along with other cable networks, continue to hemorrhage viewers just based on people opting out of cable and dish TV, Disney may adjust and begin selling local sports online. Cable TV really is dying.

I started to cut the cord, but Spectrum made an offer I couldn't refuse. After refusing all of their offers, they finally offered me local OTA channels plus 10 national cable channels of my choice for just $11 a month, to go up to $23 a month later. I grabbed ESPN and ESPN2 as my only sports channels. Fox Sports Midwest was not eligible for the deal, because it is not a national channel.

So whether I keep the deal or decide to full on cut the cord later, I would still need a way to access FSMW if I want to watch the Blues and Cardinals. I may jump to one of the streaming options (PSVue, Hulu Live, Youtube TV, Slingbox, or something else, to get local sports, but so far, I'm not sure the pricing and available channels, as well as DVR functionality are what I want.

I use Spectrum cable and a TiVo now. Not only do I love TiVo as a DVR service, it's what my wife is comfortable with. If I make a change that loses us TiVo, there needs to be a good easy way to deal with that.

Honestly, if Hulu Live had AMC, we would probably be there already.

But local sports programming is a huge deal. They have lost me as a viewer because I don't want to pay for everything else just to get it. There is math there that should tell rights holders how much I might be willing to pay, and what I'm not.

[ImTellinTim]

If they're going to charge more and more, I just hope they can never figure out a way to completely squash the free streamers. Because right now you can watch pretty much any sporting event you'd ever want to for free in HD if you know where to look. These streams are miles more reliable and less virus-laden these days than they were even a couple years ago too.

For example, NBCSN put a bunch of EPL matches behind a paywall this year. All that did was make me stream less from NBCSN's site...

[ProfessaPackMan]

Looking like John Buccigross and Matthew Berry might be to get let go if this gets more attention:

https://www.bostonglobe.com/sports/2...yGM/story.html

Apparently, the network released her text messages as well to I guess "discredit" her:

http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/es...icle-1.3699855

[dubcity]

Quote: Originally Posted by ImTellinTim

If they're going to charge more and more, I just hope they can never figure out a way to completely squash the free streamers. Because right now you can watch pretty much any sporting event you'd ever want to for free in HD if you know where to look. These streams are miles more reliable and less virus-laden these days than they were even a couple years ago too. For example, NBCSN put a bunch of EPL matches behind a paywall this year. All that did was make me stream less from NBCSN's site...

An easy fix: they'll have ISPs slow your connection to certain sections of reddit down to a crawl, or completely block access to it.

[SPTO]

Quote: Originally Posted by dubcity

An easy fix: they'll have ISPs slow your connection to certain sections of reddit down to a crawl, or completely block access to it.

Indeed, that's one of the troubling things about no more net neutrality. In fact, i've read that if you want relatively reliable speed people may have to pay for access on top of the existing internet billing.

[ImTellinTim]

Quote: Originally Posted by dubcity

An easy fix: they'll have ISPs slow your connection to certain sections of reddit down to a crawl, or completely block access to it.

Like I said, I don't think this will be any time soon. And we'll see if there is some kind of bill through Congress to prevent this kind of nonsense. This has incredible popular support and would be an easy political win across party lines.