Around the League 36-But Who's Counting...

[tarheelhockey]

When it’s national I just do a free trial of one of those streaming services like fubo or YouTube tv.

When it's national I give the NHL a free trial of Go **** Yourself

 

[Derailed75]

I pay for ESPNplus. I have a lot of other services where games pop up from time to time. I also have ways of watching what Im not paying for. I try I really do and am happy to pay for services I want but sometimes the leagues/networks/ect. make it impossible to view what I want to view even if I am willing to pay. In those case I resort to some form of illegal streaming.

 

[DaveG]

Quite a bit of drop off in one year. It would be helpful if they could offer a more simplified viewer experience for retention purposes if nothing else.

So looking further in a breakdown article on The Ahtletic part of the problem is that ESPN put the NHL up against Sunday Night Football this season, which is where broadcasting goes to die. And for god knows whatever reason TNT games get blacked out in certain markets for whatever reason (Boston, New York, and Pittsburgh notably).

The real problem with the NHL's TV ratings

You should think twice before internalizing the ESPN/TNT deal as a failure just yet.

theathletic.com

so yeah, that'll skew things.

But I'm also on the ESPN+ and VPN train. Bally was too late to the game with theirs to keep me from going that route, and ESPN+ w a VPN is still cheaper.

 

[AD Skinner]

The high seas be pretty friendly mateys

 

[chaz4hockey]

I also don't think shipping out a much loved guy like Jarvis for a rental would be likely to do wonders for the room. What you're giving up matters a lot too.

Seriously, why the ever loving f*** are we talking about that? A young cost controlled high end talent, because he's in a bit of a slump at age 20? What are y'all smoking?

And I like I said a few days ago, Jarvis has a bobblehead day scheduled near the end of the season. Can’t trade a bobblehead

 

[HisIceness]

Regarding the ratings, I mean the freaking Flyers have like 15 nationally televised games, ditto Chicago. It's not 2010 anymore, both of these teams are not interesting.

The general public can only watch so many Pens vs Flyers vs Caps vs Original 6 before it gets old.

 

[tarheelhockey]

And I like I said a few days ago, Jarvis has l a bobblehead day scheduled near the end of the season. Can’t trade a bobblehead

Ask Tomas Kaberle if you can't trade a bobblehead.

 

[Canes]

Regarding the ratings, I mean the freaking Flyers have like 15 nationally televised games, ditto Chicago. It's not 2010 anymore, both of these teams are not interesting.

The general public can only watch so many Pens vs Flyers vs Caps vs Original 6 before it gets old.

The national media thinks all the Chicago and Philadelphia fans will tune in no matter what. Or that they can sell them "well your team f***ing blows, but if you suck enough Connor Bedard could be yours. Please watch!"

 

[Derailed75]

Regarding the ratings, I mean the freaking Flyers have like 15 nationally televised games, ditto Chicago. It's not 2010 anymore, both of these teams are not interesting.

The general public can only watch so many Pens vs Flyers vs Caps vs Original 6 before it gets old.

Also tins of people watch in ways that aren't counted. I did tge Nielsen survey a few years ago after I started streaming and their setup is not streamer friendly and you mostly have to write in the source

 

[WreckingCrew]

The high seas be pretty friendly mateys

I mean the logistics make no sense..."hey come PAY for our streaming service and you can watch all your favorite sports!! ...unless it's your local team...which is probably your favorite...and the only one you'd pay to watch...but you can watch all the sports games you want of the 95% you don't care about!! What a deal huh!?!?"

 

[Canes]

I mean the logistics make no sense..."hey come PAY for our streaming service and you can watch all your favorite sports!! ...unless it's your local team...which is probably your favorite...and the only one you'd pay to watch...but you can watch all the sports games you want of the 95% you don't care about!! What a deal huh!?!?"

Bally Sports filing for bankruptcy is too funny. There are only so many boomers and elder millennials (like me) you can price gauge for cable for so long. We pay for it because we can and because we're used to it but younger millennials and newer generations just don't do cable. Hell even a lot of Gen X and elder millennials have had enough. NHL will shoot themselves in the foot ignoring streaming options and all the sudden in a decade they will look up and realize their average fan is in the 50/60s like the MLB. If anything NHL should be the league on the cutting edge, and this is probably Bettman's biggest failing (no it's not Southern markets or lockouts).

 

[htdoc]

Ballys streaming app blows chunks. And is outrageously expensive.

I pay for ESPN+ and use a vpn. Well technically I upgraded my cell phone plan and now get the Disney+ bundle for free…. So I stopped directly paying each month for it…. But I’m still paying for it with the crazy high monthly charge for unlimited cell service plan…. so I’m still paying for it… it just says my cell phone company as the charge on my credit card not Disney+ bundle as the charge description haha

The nhln and tnt games are annoying since I can’t see them with this setup…. and the less than legitimate online sources have been less than reliable this season having a working stream during these few instances where the ESPN/vpn combo isn’t an option…

The proliferation of 7564534243 different streaming services and needing to sign up and pay for 345664 to still not get all the content you want in one place annoys me more than words can say…. not to mention more often than not paying for all these things and then realizing there is nothing on you want to watch on nights there isnt a Canes game :/


***insert “bah humbug” “get off my lawn” and other grouchy cliche statements that date me and make me sound like an out of touch Luddite uncool old fart****

edited to add…. It could be worse…. I got sucked in like a lot of folks when I stumbled on the “welcome to Wrexham” documentary on Hulu and became a fan of a football club in a tiny town in Wales…. I was trying to find ways to watch and annoyed at the lack of streaming options… the league the team plays in finally released a streaming service to watch the games and instead of another flat monthly fee to watch any games that month kind of like an English football league ESPN+, they instead charge *per game* and charge more per game stream than ESPN charges a month…. Actually I think you can buy a ticket to the game in person for less than what they charge to stream the game…. I want to watch the games but not that badly…. I’ll watch the FA Cup streams on ESPN for free since I already am paying for that…. So as bad as ballys service is I guess it could be worse…….

 

[WreckingCrew]

Ballys streaming app blows chunks. And is outrageously expensive.

I pay for ESPN+ and use a vpn. Well technically I upgraded my cell phone plan and now get the Disney+ bundle for free…. So I stopped directly paying each month for it…. But I’m still paying for it with the crazy high monthly charge for unlimited cell service plan…. so I’m still paying for it… it just says my cell phone company as the charge on my credit card not Disney+ bundle as the charge description haha

The nhln and tnt games are annoying since I can’t see them with this setup…. and the less than legitimate online sources have been less than reliable this season having a working stream during these few instances where the ESPN/vpn combo isn’t an option…

The proliferation of 7564534243 different streaming services and needing to sign up and pay for 345664 to still not get all the content you want in one place annoys me more than words can say…. not to mention more often than not paying for all these things and then realizing there is nothing on you want to watch on nights there isnt a Canes game :/


***insert “bah humbug” “get off my lawn” and other grouchy cliche statements that date me and make me sound like an out of touch Luddite uncool old fart****

edited to add…. It could be worse…. I got sucked in like a lot of folks when I stumbled on the “welcome to Wrexham” documentary on Hulu and became a fan of a football club in a tiny town in Wales…. I was trying to find ways to watch and annoyed at the lack of streaming options… the league the team plays in finally released a streaming service to watch the games and instead of another flat monthly fee to watch any games that month kind of like an English football league ESPN+, they instead charge *per game* and charge more per game stream than ESPN charges a month…. Actually I think you can buy a ticket to the game in person for less than what they charge to stream the game…. I want to watch the games but not that badly…. I’ll watch the FA Cup streams on ESPN for free since I already am paying for that…. So as bad as ballys service is I guess it could be worse…….

We've come full circle. People switched to streaming bc they were tired of paying for massive cable bundles just to get the 5-10 channels they cared about, so they've switched to streaming over the years where they could get more content for less. Now EVERYONE has their own streaming service with their own programming to the point you now need 10 streaming services to get the content you used to get on 1-2 just to watch the handful of things on each you want to see

 

[Boom Boom Apathy]

We've come full circle. People switched to streaming bc they were tired of paying for massive cable bundles just to get the 5-10 channels they cared about, so they've switched to streaming over the years where they could get more content for less. Now EVERYONE has their own streaming service with their own programming to the point you now need 10 streaming services to get the content you used to get on 1-2 just to watch the handful of things on each you want to see

Yep. Streaming services was never about saving the consumer money, or even giving better options. Streaming services were always about cutting out the middle man (cable providers) and content providers keeping all the money for themselves.

 

[Joe McGrath]

Ask Tomas Kaberle if you can't trade a bobblehead.

They only traded him because people would’ve pelted him with said bobbleheads for being so terrible.

 

[Stickpucker]

I mean the logistics make no sense..."hey come PAY for our streaming service and you can watch all your favorite sports!! ...unless it's your local team...which is probably your favorite...and the only one you'd pay to watch...but you can watch all the sports games you want of the 95% you don't care about!! What a deal huh!?!?"

What's really odd about this is they've added vpn detection....which you can get around but they definitely blacklist certain addys.

I feel like if they turned a blind eye they'd more easily sell their service. There are a lot of posts online in various forums/reddit of people trying it and not getting it to work and canceling.

 

[Boom Boom Apathy]

What's really odd about this is they've added vpn detection....which you can get around but they definitely blacklist certain addys.

I feel like if they turned a blind eye they'd more easily sell their service. There are a lot of posts online in various forums/reddit of people trying it and not getting it to work and canceling.

When I'm on my mobile device, ESPN+ doesn't allow me to access games without location services being turned on, so the VPN hasn't helped. Not sure if others have the same issue. I've not spent much time trying to work around it though.

 

[tarheelhockey]

When I'm on my mobile device, ESPN+ doesn't allow me to access games without location services being turned on, so the VPN hasn't helped. Not sure if others have the same issue. I've not spent much time trying to work around it though.

I don’t have this problem with ESPN+ on mobile. Sometimes it gives me the “content not available in your region” message, but if I just keep switching locations it eventually fails to keep up.

The minute they make a serious crackdown on VPNs, I’ll cancel. Just let me pay you for what I want, for ****s sake.

 

[Navin R Slavin]

When I'm on my mobile device, ESPN+ doesn't allow me to access games without location services being turned on, so the VPN hasn't helped. Not sure if others have the same issue. I've not spent much time trying to work around it though.

Yeah, once they went to ESPN+, I gave up. Radio is good enough, and I'll watch the less-than-10-minute highlight packages.

 

[Svechhammer]

I don’t have this problem with ESPN+ on mobile. Sometimes it gives me the “content not available in your region” message, but if I just keep switching locations it eventually fails to keep up.

The minute they make a serious crackdown on VPNs, I’ll cancel. Just let me pay you for what I want, for ****s sake.

You goddamn well know the new Netflix model of IP tracking, wifi scraping, and location mandating will become the industry standard going forward, barring governmental intervention.

 

[tarheelhockey]

You goddamn well know the new Netflix model of IP tracking, wifi scraping, and location mandating will become the industry standard going forward, barring governmental intervention.

I’m sure it will, but it’s all so nonsensical. ESPN has no reason to care whether people are using VPNs. The pressure comes from the NHL, which wants to protect their ability to sell exclusive rights to regional providers. But the regional providers are going bankrupt because consumers are no longer buying that product, which is about to lead to massive unplanned losses for the NHL.

The model is broken, and what we’re really waiting for is the day when the Netflix/Amazon/Uber of broadcasting comes along and hits the reset button.

 

[Svechhammer]

I’m sure it will, but it’s all so nonsensical. ESPN has no reason to care whether people are using VPNs. The pressure comes from the NHL, which wants to protect their ability to sell exclusive rights to regional providers. But the regional providers are going bankrupt because consumers are no longer buying that product, which is about to lead to massive unplanned losses for the NHL.

The model is broken, and what we’re really waiting for is the day when the Netflix/Amazon/Uber of broadcasting comes along and hits the reset button.

I personally think the leagues are just hoping and waiting for Bally to go tits up so they can buy back those rights on the cheap and bundle within their existing streaming plans (at a noticeable markup) to create a true one stop shop for their content.

That's the end game. It'll be convenient for the end user, will probably be slightly more expensive, but eliminates a lot of hands in the cookie jar which ends up with the leagues making far more money in the end.

 

[tarheelhockey]

I personally think the leagues are just hoping and waiting for Bally to go tits up so they can buy back those rights on the cheap and bundle within their existing streaming plans (at a noticeable markup) to create a true one stop shop for their content.

That's the end game. It'll be convenient for the end user, will probably be slightly more expensive, but eliminates a lot of hands in the cookie jar which ends up with the leagues making far more money in the end.

I expect so. This is the same reason all the other corporations are jumping on the streaming bandwagon. Sell direct to the customer and use that as a platform for upgrading them into other purchases.

Content production is delicate and expensive, so I’m guessing they outsource it rather than trying to do it all in-house. So we have to hope that ends up in good hands.

 

[Svechhammer]

I expect so. This is the same reason all the other corporations are jumping on the streaming bandwagon. Sell direct to the customer and use that as a platform for upgrading them into other purchases.

Content production is delicate and expensive, so I’m guessing they outsource it rather than trying to do it all in-house. So we have to hope that ends up in good hands.

I know they have been talking among themselves about this. I wouldn't be shocked if there is interest for the NBA and NHL to copy the MLB streaming setup where its all done in house, but they are able to sell it to the networks to include on their packages, if need be. And the dream is to buy back those regional rights to eliminate blackout restrictions so that they can significantly markup the price because it includes everything, which the fans will be willing to pay because it includes... well,... everything

 

[WreckingCrew]

When I'm on my mobile device, ESPN+ doesn't allow me to access games without location services being turned on, so the VPN hasn't helped. Not sure if others have the same issue. I've not spent much time trying to work around it though.

I have this issue as well on Mobile...there apparently ARE ways around it, but they're pretty complex for your average Joe and you have to get into rooting your phone and a bunch of other stuff that could really mess it up if you don't do it right.