Cutting The Cable

[NCAABound]

Anyone have YtubeTV? Do you get all the sports channels?

Yes, liks Sub said, all sports channels except Bally's.

[WstateU]

Oh yeah, and for those who are into RVing, this device is portable and, as long as you have reception, you can take it camping with you. Kinda cool!

”As long as you have reception”…

[Ted Lasso's Neighbor]

Bally Sports is going to debut their streaming of Royals baseball on Thursday (6/23/22) - https://www.kansascity.com/sports/ml...262692622.html - and it'll be called Bally Sports+. The Royals actually have Thursday off, so their first game on it will be Friday. Cost is $19.99 per month and there are a couple restrictions with the initial launch:

Location -

"The Bally Sports+ app is available only in the Kansas City area, the state of Kansas and the state of Nebraska.

UPDATE: Bally Sports said when the full launch takes place later this year, Royals games are expected to be available in more areas, including mid-Missouri and Iowa."

Devices -

"Games will be available to view on the web and mobile devices, along with Android TV, Apple TV and Amazon Fire. It eventually will be available on Roku and other streaming options."


Sounds like they're doing the soft launch to work out any issues, but from what I read in another article, the company told stockholders they'd be launching something in the 2nd quarter, so they wanted to put something out there by July 1. It'll be interesting to see how things go.

[SubGod22]

And from what I've gathered from following this news online, few are excited for it. It doesn't help that the Royals are currently a dumpster fire with a few bright spots in Melendez and Witt.

It also doesn't help that it's more expensive than most any other streaming service and essentially offers less entertainment. Some will definitely jump on it. I've seen a few people talk about having been paying something like $80 for some DirecTV service that allows them to stream the games so $20 is a big upgrade. But there are many who don't spend that much on any streaming service and see $20 as way too much. Many have also been conditioned over the past couple of years to get used to not seeing games and simply finding highlights on Twitter or FB or whatever.

Bally's has cost themselves a lot either way. By letting the channel drop from most platforms to being way behind on getting a streaming service available for use they've essentially chased a number of fans away. And I know there's a decent sized group that simply doesn't want to give Bally's any money at this point because of the last couple of years.

I will be curious to see how it is received and how many people choose to participate. I won't be one of them. I'm told you can also watch the Blues on it, but I don't think that means much to most.

And I still feel really bad for Iowans who are blacked out from every team in the region and are left off of the initial release of this, which probably won't garner them much love in the state.

[Ted Lasso's Neighbor]

And from what I've gathered from following this news online, few are excited for it. It doesn't help that the Royals are currently a dumpster fire with a few bright spots in Melendez and Witt.

It also doesn't help that it's more expensive than most any other streaming service and essentially offers less entertainment. Some will definitely jump on it. I've seen a few people talk about having been paying something like $80 for some DirecTV service that allows them to stream the games so $20 is a big upgrade. But there are many who don't spend that much on any streaming service and see $20 as way too much. Many have also been conditioned over the past couple of years to get used to not seeing games and simply finding highlights on Twitter or FB or whatever.

Bally's has cost themselves a lot either way. By letting the channel drop from most platforms to being way behind on getting a streaming service available for use they've essentially chased a number of fans away. And I know there's a decent sized group that simply doesn't want to give Bally's any money at this point because of the last couple of years.

I will be curious to see how it is received and how many people choose to participate. I won't be one of them. I'm told you can also watch the Blues on it, but I don't think that means much to most.

And I still feel really bad for Iowans who are blacked out from every team in the region and are left off of the initial release of this, which probably won't garner them much love in the state.

The DirectTV stream price is actually $89 + tax per month to get the level that has the Royals games - they are doing a first 3 months for $79 + tax promotion. I did the promotion and have a few weeks left on it, but I plan to cancel it because I mainly just watch the Royals and a handful of other channels. I can get the other channels I watch via Sling Orange for $35 per month, so that plus the $19.99 per month for a couple months of Bally Sports+ will reduce my streaming bill by almost half. According to the article you'll be able to watch the Blues and OKC Thunder games, but I'm not a fan of either, so I don't plan on keeping it past the Royals season. The price seems kind of high - if I didn't live in the Royals blackout area I'd go with mlb.tv instead - but the Red Sox are charging $29.99 per month for their streaming version and from what I read, only people who live in Boston metro can get it.

[SubGod22]

I thought there was a third team that most don't care about. Not really a big selling point for most. I simply don't follow the NBA and I'm a Red Wings fan.

I'm not sure if I'd pay $20 a month for a service that provided nothing but Shockers content, though that I would consider more than any other sports offer. But I get to pay much less for ESPN+ which is essentially that plus almost anything else I'd want to watch in the sports world, including SKC.

[Ted Lasso's Neighbor]

I thought there was a third team that most don't care about. Not really a big selling point for most. I simply don't follow the NBA and I'm a Red Wings fan.

I'm not sure if I'd pay $20 a month for a service that provided nothing but Shockers content, though that I would consider more than any other sports offer. But I get to pay much less for ESPN+ which is essentially that plus almost anything else I'd want to watch in the sports world, including SKC.

For people who really want to watch Royals games, $20 bucks a month is pretty cheap compared to dishing out $90 per month for DirectTV. Actually if they weren't launching this, I probably would have just started listening to the games on the radio instead. I grew up listening to the games almost every night and I still like listening to them.

ESPN+ is a great deal, but they charge tv providers $10 per subscriber to carry ESPN channels, so they have a way to make money elsewhere. If Sinclair had worked out deals with places other than DirectTV, I imagine the Bally Spots+ pricing would be lower. I wouldn't be surprised if they drop DirectTV stream within a year or two. Bally is likely doing this to try to get their foot in the door because he whole goal of sports streaming services is betting via the apps.

[WuDrWu]

America bashing article I stumbled upon while check tennis scores pushed me over the edge with ESPN. Once and for all cutting the cable and cancelled my plus account. I'm just fed up with these lies being force fed to me 24-7.

[MikeKennedyRulZ]

America bashing article I stumbled upon while check tennis scores pushed me over the edge with ESPN. Once and for all cutting the cable and cancelled my plus account. I'm just fed up with these lies being force fed to me 24-7.

Spot on from Clay Travis. Dude who wrote the woke piece is a wife beater

https://www.foxnews.com/us/espn-hates-america-july-4th-loves-woke-columnist-arrested-choking-wife

But while Bryant’s fealty to woke politics is all too common at ESPN, Bryant is unique in one way: he’s been previously arrested for assaulting his wife in public, in front of his six year old son no less, and also charged with assaulting a police officer who arrived to protect his wife, after he was observed choking her in public. Bryant, a black man married to a white woman he was accused of choking in public, initially offered as his defense that racism was to blame for his arrest before pleading the charges down to six months of probation. Nevertheless you’d think someone making hundreds of thousands of dollars a year despite (allegedly) choking his wife and attacking a police officer and pleading down the charges with six months probation, might be inclined to think America is an incredibly forgiving place. After all, does Disney employ that many (alleged) wife and police assaulters? Not to my knowledge.

But, alas, despite the forgiving nature of a country that has made a woke imbecile like Bryant fairly wealthy compared to the average American, Bryant flails away impotently for thousands and thousands of words without ever managing to strike any target, before collapsing in a final spasm of incompetence.

[Ted Lasso's Neighbor]

ESPN+ will be going up next month to $9.99 per month - https://www.cnbc.com/2022/07/15/disn...ng-aug-23.html

Disney is increasing the price of its sports streaming service ESPN+ to $9.99 per month, a 43% increase.

The previous price of ESPN+ had been $6.99 per month. The increase will kick in on Aug. 23. An annual subscription to ESPN+ will jump from $69.99 to $99.99.

They're not increasing the Disney+ bundle, so for a few bucks more, you can get Hulu and Disney+ as well:

Disney isn’t changing the price of its bundle, which will remain $13.99 per month. It consists of Disney+, advertising-supported Hulu and ESPN+.

[SubGod22]

It may be time to ditch ESPN+. I've been watching it less and less anyway, and for some reason, I was unable to pull up the AfterShocks game late Saturday night as I wasn't able to watch live. I don't really think paying an extra $30 a year is worth what I'm getting from it.

[Ted Lasso's Neighbor]

I mentioned this in the favorite shows thread but figured it'd go better here. Peacock TV is running a special until the end of September 2022 where you can sign up and get it for $1.99 a month for 12 months vs the regular $4.99 a month. You can also get a full year vs the month-by-month and pay $19.99.

Saw this over the weekend - Hulu+Live TV is running a special until October 5, 2022, for the following - "Save $20/month for 3 months on Hulu + Live TV, now with Disney+ and ESPN+" The small print reads - "Offer for Hulu (ad-supported) + Live TV plan only. $49.99/month for 3 months, then auto-renews at $69.99/month or then-current regular monthly price. Price will increase to $74.99/month as of 12/8/22. Cancel anytime, effective at the end of your billing period. Valid for eligible new and returning Hulu subscribers (who have not had Hulu in the past 1 month)". Since you get ESPN+ with the subscription, it's a pretty good deal compared to going with some other service and then buying ESPN+ later on to watch Shocker games. You also get Disney+ with the subscription.

Also, looks like the NFL is getting into the plus stuff now too with something called NFL+ - https://www.nfl.com/plus/learn-more It says you can watch local games on it, but I'm not sure if that means regardless of service. For example, the Chargers vs Chiefs will be on Amazon Prime on Thursday night. If you don't have Amazon Prime, I'm not sure if you could watch the game on NFL+ instead or not. The same would go for ESPN and Monday night games.

[Ted Lasso's Neighbor]

Looks like the parent company of Bally Sports is in financial trouble and may declare bankruptcy next month, or about 2 weeks before opening day for the MLB season. According to this article - https://fox4kc.com/sports/sports-ill...or-some-teams/ - if that happens, MLB may take over the broadcast rights and negotiate with distributors for broadcasts, plus not have them blacked out in the local market so they can be shown too on the MLB.TV app. That could potentially mean others besides Cox and AT&T broadcasting the games again, or on the flip side, those two not broadcasting the games, as well as being able to watch games on MLB.TV while in the KC market area.

[SubGod22]

Fingers crossed this leads to better access.

[Ted Lasso's Neighbor]

I was checking around this weekend to see if there were any updates on the Bally Sports situation and found a couple interesting things:

• Bally Sports is running a promotion through Monday, March 6, where you can sign up to get the monthly rate for their app at $14.99 instead of the usual $19.99. So if you think they'll be okay and you were planning on watching that way, then you can get a discount. It says you can cancel at any time, but nothing about if they go bankrupt. If they do go bankrupt, I wonder if they'll issue refunds or if MLB takes over, if they would honor the rate??
• Starting in early February, Fubo TV has Bally Sports as part of their packages. It make sense because Fubo gets the highest ranks and recommendations in articles if you're mainly looking for a streaming service to watch sports. Their basic package is about $75 per month, but they're passing the cost of Bally Sports on to the consumer by billing them an extra $11 each month in something called a Regional Sports Fee (https://support.fubo.tv/hc/en-us/articles/360046050051). You can't opt out of it either - not bad if you're a Royals fan because it's cheaper than buying the Bally Sports app too, but people who don't watch the channel can't be too happy. I don't know if they're doing the extra fee so they can cancel the fee if Bally Sports tv goes bankrupt, or if the extra fee is something that will become common place with streaming services. As of now, in the Wichita area, Cox still carries Bally sports, but AT&T is the only other streaming service with it and that package starts at $100 per month.