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How to watch the Kings on TV this season

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shuchukfan

shuchukfan

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Mar 11, 2015
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I've been a bit out of the loop this offseason and I was wondering if there were any changes on how to watch the games from home this coming season. I cut cable several years back, so I've mainly been relying on my buddy to log me in to the Bally Sports app, but it seemed to ask for verification way more than in the past when it was Fox Sports Go. When I couldn't watch on there, I was doing ESPN+ with a VPN, but it could take some tries to get access that wasn't blocked.

I don't mind paying to watch legitimately, but there's no way I'm paying for cable again. I don't mind subscribing to some NHL/team package, but I assume those still have blackout restriction (which are seriously stupid nowadays). If there's nothing legit and not stupidly expensive, then I guess I'll keep doing what I did last year.
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shuchukfan said:
I've been a bit out of the loop this offseason and I was wondering if there were any changes on how to watch the games from home this coming season. I cut cable several years back, so I've mainly been relying on my buddy to log me in to the Bally Sports app, but it seemed to ask for verification way more than in the past when it was Fox Sports Go. When I couldn't watch on there, I was doing ESPN+ with a VPN, but it could take some tries to get access that wasn't blocked.

I don't mind paying to watch legitimately, but there's no way I'm paying for cable again. I don't mind subscribing to some NHL/team package, but I assume those still have blackout restriction (which are seriously stupid nowadays). If there's nothing legit and not stupidly expensive, then I guess I'll keep doing what I did last year.
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FanDuel Sports Help Center - Home Page

www.ballysports.com www.ballysports.com
 
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Well, looks like I might be sticking with what I've been doing (or sailing the high seas). I don't watch other sports besides hockey, so Bally Sports + is more money than I want to spend. Also, they aren't making it clear if we'd have to pay extra to get the Ducks games (I know, I know...) on BS SoCal, but it sounds like it with the wording below.

Q: How much is Bally Sports+?
Subscribers can purchase a monthly subscription for $19.99, or an annual subscription for $189.99, with the option for a seven-day free trial.
Q: I live in a market with two Bally Sports regions, will I have to pay double the amount?
Additional pricing options will be made available closer to launch.
 
As of right now, Direct-TV stream still has Bally's and also has the Dodgers' Spectrum sports channel. I think it is $89 a month

I despise AT&T but the service has been solid for me so far
 
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Herby said:
Amazing how much easier (and cheaper) it is to follow the team living out of the market than in it.

This can't be good for business for it to be this much of a struggle for so many local fans to watch the games.
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I have two older teenaged boys. Both have lost interest in the Kings the past 2-3 years due to us no longer having the games on TV (zero interest now). Neither cared much about winning/losing, so it's not that. They liked watching with me and learning the game. Now it's onto other things. It's just out-of-sight, out-of-mind for them. Likely two additional LA are fans that the Kings have lost forever due to this issue. Shrug
 
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Schrute farms beets said:
I have two older teenaged boys. Both have lost interest in the Kings the past 2-3 years due to us no longer having the games on TV (zero interest now). Neither cared much about winning/losing, so it's not that. They liked watching with me and learning the game. Now it's onto other things. It's just out-of-sight, out-of-mind for them. Likely two additional LA are fans that the Kings have lost forever due to this issue. Shrug
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LA Sports fans have been screwed over so badly by the sports network situations, I assume the leagues hands are completely tied and it's all on the teams themselves. I know your situation is not unique.
 
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Schrute farms beets said:
I have two older teenaged boys. Both have lost interest in the Kings the past 2-3 years due to us no longer having the games on TV (zero interest now). Neither cared much about winning/losing, so it's not that. They liked watching with me and learning the game. Now it's onto other things. It's just out-of-sight, out-of-mind for them. Likely two additional LA are fans that the Kings have lost forever due to this issue. Shrug
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What's the issue though? Didn't you always have to have a cable provider (FSW) in order to watch? Now, you don't even need that, you can get the ESPN package that basically shows all the games -- I don't know, seems much easier to watch a game now than it has ever been.
 
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Herby said:
LA Sports fans have been screwed over so badly by the sports network situations, I assume the leagues hands are completely tied and it's all on the teams themselves. I know your situation is not unique.
Click to expand...
The Pac-12 Network was another genius move by west coasters overvaluing the product they have to offer. The soon to be Pac-10 has no chance of becoming the #3 conference in America behind the B1G and the SEC. The Big 12 will likely be the #3 football conference when the dust settles.

The Kings blew it too with this Bally's deal. Very few people get this network.
 
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Axl Rhoadz said:
What's the issue though? Didn't you always have to have a cable provider (FSW) in order to watch? Now, you don't even need that, you can get the ESPN package that basically shows all the games -- I don't know, seems much easier to watch a game now than it has ever been.
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You don't get the Kings games with the ESPN package if you are in Bally's market area. ESPN+ is way better than the old days of Center Ice when it comes to watching out-of-market games since you also get so much other content but it doesn't help you if your carrier doesn't carry Bally's.

I pay for DISH. Haven't had FSW/Bally's since the 2019-20 season because DISH stopped carrying most RSNs. Used the FSW/Bally's app via my parents DTV log-in (horrible app if trying to watch from the beginning mid-game) but that stopped this season as their garbage app stopped acknowledging the log-in, even though it would show me as logged in.

Got ESPN + and a VPN. That works via my Fire Stick but it takes a whole bunch of cache clearing and connecting to various VPNs before it sticks: can take up to 20 minutes. I finally gave up on that and just use NHL66 via my Xbox...which doesn't allow me to utilize all of my big screen TV.

It's a f***ing joke. Now Bally's wants $19.99 a month for what I assume will be a shit show clown college of an app? Yikes. No wonder carriers balked at carrying them.

It is all the millennials fault though. They wanted to cut the cord, have options and not pay to subsidize channels they don't care about: the latter is what's killed the RSNs. Big contracts were signed, people cut the cord and the carriers had to make tough decisions. Of course, this same type of shit simply moved over to the streaming TV services that have all seemed to have issues with RSNs as well so you aren't necessarily safe even if you move over to one of them.

I'm still absolutely floored that it is more difficult to watch my local team in 2022 than it was with a Prime Ticket/KTLA combo in like 19 f***ing 89. What progress we have made.
 
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Axl Rhoadz said:
What's the issue though? Didn't you always have to have a cable provider (FSW) in order to watch? Now, you don't even need that, you can get the ESPN package that basically shows all the games -- I don't know, seems much easier to watch a game now than it has ever been.
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No cable -- streaming. I followed FSW through various streaming options over the years, moving to another as FSW/Bally would go away from them one-by-one until no more dance partners left. Honestly, i'm not interested in the ESPN package route. It really should not be that difficult for a fan to watch their local team. Even moreso here in LA when we have so many entertainment options available to us. Guys like me, i'm a Kings lifer. But my kids -- drifted away and never to give a crap going forward. Nor will their kids down the road either since they won't have it in their household growing up. It's just bad long-term business.

Maybe in Pittsburg, Minnesota, St. Louis, Canada, etc. it's fine because there is not much to do and entertainment options. Winter time even more so.
 
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So, what's wrong with the DirecTV Stream option? I'm still not following the issue here unless someone expecting to watch every Kings game for free.
 
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Axl Rhoadz said:
So, what's wrong with the DirecTV Stream option? I'm still not following the issue here unless someone expecting to watch every Kings game for free.
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Well, it appears that you have to get the package one level up to get NHL Network so now you are at $104.99 a month. Not Kings related but no NFL Network or Red Zone option is pretty brutal as a sports fan.

Nobody is expecting to watch them for free: the expectation is that the channel should be available on every carrier. If you go with DirecTV stream, there is probably a good chance that there is a channel you want that isn't carried apart from Bally's. This is what I went through when originally looking in to cutting the cord back in 2019. Maybe it is better now but each service seemed to have a "I do get this but I don't get this one" aspect to them. Even worse is that ones like YouTube TV that carried the Kings now don't so you would have to jump around to another service--one that is perhaps worse--just to get the Kings for eight months.

The Bally's app is probably the answer if you like your service provider and don't want to leave them just for the Kings. Problem is that $19.99 a month is pretty exorbitant IMO...it's like paying for NHL Center Ice back in the day but now it is just so you can watch your local team! I have serious reservations about the quality we can expect from the Bally's + app so that is a major concern as well.
 
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BigKing said:
Well, it appears that you have to get the package one level up to get NHL Network so now you are at $104.99 a month. Not Kings related but no NFL Network or Red Zone option is pretty brutal as a sports fan.

Nobody is expecting to watch them for free: the expectation is that the channel should be available on every carrier. If you go with DirecTV stream, there is probably a good chance that there is a channel you want that isn't carried apart from Bally's. This is what I went through when originally looking in to cutting the cord back in 2019. Maybe it is better now but each service seemed to have a "I do get this but I don't get this one" aspect to them. Even worse is that ones like YouTube TV that carried the Kings now don't so you would have to jump around to another service--one that is perhaps worse--just to get the Kings for eight months.

The Bally's app is probably the answer if you like your service provider and don't want to leave them just for the Kings. Problem is that $19.99 a month is pretty exorbitant IMO...it's like paying for NHL Center Ice back in the day but now it is just so you can watch your local team! I have serious reservations about the quality we can expect from the Bally's + app so that is a major concern as well.
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FWIW, when I used the Bally's app last season, never had an issue -- I was impressed with the quality.
 
BigKing said:
You don't get the Kings games with the ESPN package if you are in Bally's market area. ESPN+ is way better than the old days of Center Ice when it comes to watching out-of-market games since you also get so much other content but it doesn't help you if your carrier doesn't carry Bally's.

I pay for DISH. Haven't had FSW/Bally's since the 2019-20 season because DISH stopped carrying most RSNs. Used the FSW/Bally's app via my parents DTV log-in (horrible app if trying to watch from the beginning mid-game) but that stopped this season as their garbage app stopped acknowledging the log-in, even though it would show me as logged in.

Got ESPN + and a VPN. That works via my Fire Stick but it takes a whole bunch of cache clearing and connecting to various VPNs before it sticks: can take up to 20 minutes. I finally gave up on that and just use NHL66 via my Xbox...which doesn't allow me to utilize all of my big screen TV.

It's a f***ing joke. Now Bally's wants $19.99 a month for what I assume will be a shit show clown college of an app? Yikes. No wonder carriers balked at carrying them.

It is all the millennials fault though. They wanted to cut the cord, have options and not pay to subsidize channels they don't care about: the latter is what's killed the RSNs. Big contracts were signed, people cut the cord and the carriers had to make tough decisions. Of course, this same type of shit simply moved over to the streaming TV services that have all seemed to have issues with RSNs as well so you aren't necessarily safe even if you move over to one of them.

I'm still absolutely floored that it is more difficult to watch my local team in 2022 than it was with a Prime Ticket/KTLA combo in like 19 f***ing 89. What progress we have made.
Click to expand...
Their definition of progress and our definition of progress are two different things. They have progressed further into the bank accounts of fans.
 
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Vamos Rafa said:
Seriously, the best thing that ever happened to NHL fans who are out of their home teams’ markets. Center Ice costs $25 a month and ESPN + is only $9.99.
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Yup.

For $15 a month I get almost every NHL game with broadcast feed choice, tons of college football and other ESPN+ content, Disney+ for my kid (good shows for adults too), and Hulu. So less than $200 a year.

As someone who has spent most of his adult life out of the market the introduction of streaming wars and cord cutting has been a huge improvement for me. And it just keeps getting better, as a returning grad student I just found out I can get Sunday Ticket for $100 for the whole season.

If I were still in SoCal I’d probably be using the illegal streams. I hate to do it, but they leave people almost no choice. I’m not going to watch much of anything on cable, satellite or a neo-cable streaming, it’s a huge waste of money.

$90 a month to basically watch NHL and MLB. It’s BS. Even $20 a month for one team seems ridiculous when people out of market get every team for less.
 
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I'm using ESPN+ and a Chromecast with NordVPN installed. It can be finicky and I typically attempt to connect 30 minutes prior to game time, expecting failures before it works. Occasionally I will give up and watch it on a browser stream on a computer. But way more often than not I can get it to work and watch it on my TV. There are a lot of cool things to watch on ESPN+ besides hockey though. So it's worth it for me.
 
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