A comment on the WaPo article "Can’t watch ESPN? Try these alternatives to watch or listen to sports.
A blackout of TV channels for 15 million cable customers is a glimpse at the pain coming for anyone who watches or streams."
Somebody else says: "My favorite strategy is to wait until after the game is over, then youtube "description of the game highlights". I get a great 15 minute highlight reel, feel the vicarious surge of endorphins and move on with my day. It's awesome and free. Love it."
The article itself offers the old-timey alternative: local radio.
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Is ESPN back to covering sports?
It’s easy to find live streaming sports on the internet. At this point, most of us have smart TVs and can stream from the phone or computer onto the TV.
It’s illegal, but I’m happy to pay a fair price to live stream the sports I’m interested in, but the various corporate entities that control sports won’t let me do that. So I turn to piracy. I’m not costing them anything because it’s their choice not to let me pay them for what I’m watching.
This household is affected by this spat. But I'm not too interested in alternatives, I'll just wait it out. It's OK to miss a few football games that might be interesting, and it's certainly OK to miss a lot of games that can't be interesting, so we're patient.
At some point this is going to trickle down to less $ for the sports leagues. Waiting to see the fun when those league/union fights happen.
Bob Iger is the driving force behind both the blackout and the strike intransigence. What could he possibly be up to as his stock tanks and the Grand Old Statesman rep he'd established before stepping down has been obliterated by his actions since coming back?
I did that with the series "Stranger things"
Watched the entire highlight real of the entire show in about 40 minutes. Felt good that I understood the silly plot without the need to suffer thru the show one painful hour at a time.
(opposite of Mrs. Maisel - which should be savored)
I thought ESPN was a political show now? You know - more red-guard loyal narrative pimping BS for The Party.
And, if you use Firefox to view YouTube you can install Ad Block +, U-Block Origin, No-Script, and Privacy Badger.
Then Google can't get paid for tracking your activity and de-platforming your comments on such sites as Althouse.
That's the best part of it. Why arm your country's mortal enemies?
I’m not costing them anything because it’s their choice not to let me pay them for what I’m watching
The traditional argument we hear regarding piracy is: count the number of pirates times the current price of what was stolen, which equals we lose x every year to online piracy. Of course it is an illiterate argument what ignores Ec10 economics- most of those pirates would never pay that much for your product…
Watching sports consumes an immense amount of time. Here's a chance to find out what other things you might do if you had hours of new free time added to your week. Maybe these things would be better. If not, sports will come back and you can safely go back to spending time profligately on this utter meaninglessness.
I have an MLB subscription for my dad. And then MLB started to sell Apple TV+ the most highly rated games. I added that $ervice, so if my dad wants to watch the RedSox against the Yankees he can watch. My father is in his 90s.
Idk Anne. Not every moment has to have meaning. Watching Djokovic beat Shelton or Man City play whoever with my 13 year old is fun and meaningful.
It’s a clear moment. The studios need ever more revenue from the carriage fees, and they insist that all of their cable channels be bundled including shitshows that nobody watches except lonely old white ladies. All or nothing. At the same time more and more consumers leave the cable universe in favor of only internet service. A cable system in Ohio, in a similar carriage dispute, simply dumped offering video services altogether. Iger, Zaslav, and Roberts clearly heard that bell when it rang.
Sling is a very good alternative while Spectrum and Disney grip each other’s throats. And in this other ring of the circus, the WGA is in a death lock with the studios and streamers that in my opinion will not end any time soon. The WGA wants the streamer viewing secrets that are kept in a vault in the box next to the Coca Cola formula on one side and the US Mint paper process on the other.
- Krumhorn
"Lem the misspeller said...
I have an MLB subscription for my dad. And then MLB started to sell Apple TV+ the most highly rated games. I added that $ervice, so if my dad wants to watch the RedSox against the Yankees he can watch. My father is in his 90s."
MLB TV is free it you have T-Mobile. I get the local market blackouts, I'm a Cubs fan living in Milwaukee, I'm blacked out when they play the Brewers in Milwaukee or Chicago. But the Apple and Peacock blackouts are bullshit.
reel
I cut the cable years ago, streamed my baseball on mlb.tv. Moved back to my hometown - mlb.tv blacks out my hometown team because they sold the local rights to the cable company, who make their money by charging a monthly fee to people who don't even want to watch the games. So I have this screwball streaming service that plays some soccer matches from Italy, Argentina and Brazil for free, and I'll watch a couple of those per week for a sports fix. I can't help wondering if there aren't old Italians, Argentines, and Brazilians watching my baseball for free.
Just like all comment sections on political subjects eventually devolve to a Hitler reference (Godwin's Law), all posts about television are shortly filled with asshats virtue-signaling that they "don't watch television" (or for the still-more virtuous, that they do not own a television).
We have YouTube tv, so are able to watch the games and the US Open. So far, it's been a great alternative.
"spending time profligately on this utter meaninglessness"
No more meaningless than most other human activities. Real aficionados, as spectators and especially players, experience it as search for and sometimes consummation of meaning--order out of disorder, conflict channeled into beauty, mere events merging into flow, etc. Homo ludens doing his thing.
We cut the cable cord so many years ago I can't count. Now, though, we subscribe to different channels -- Netflix, Amazon. We just bundled Hulu and Disney, which got us ESPN for free. Last night we clicked on the US Open Semifinals live. I haven't watched sports in forever. It was fun to catch a match.
"My favorite strategy is to wait until after the game is over, then youtube "description of the game highlights"."
I do something similar. Googling "NFL scores" brings up a free highlight reel, usually 10-15 minutes. A real time saver. If I advert my eyes to the score, then there is the suspense of who's going to win.
I guess I am showing my age, but I will actually even listen to Yankee games on the radio, if that's all I can find.
Sports is valuable in that it's a place where you are still relatively free from condemnation.
Fans from opposing teams sit side by side, and for at least a few hours, they have a chance to acknowledge each other's existence, with the regularity they might with their own neighbor.
It's probably for the good, that watching at home is increasingly difficult.
#TheBrughtSide
The cable companies had their day. Like the high cost of long distance calling, the internet has disrupted their unique selling point of connectivity. In our home, the cable company now provides the broadband but not the TV channels. Direct to consumer is simply too profitable to ignore for Disney and everyone else of scale.
I remember the HORROR of those Sunday’s growing up as a kid in the 70’s when America’s Team failed to sell out and my Dad started hitting the ole rotary dial for family and friends outside the black out bubble for plans on the big game. College ball was mostly background noise back then unless Texas, Nebraska, Notre Dame or Alabama were playing. Adjust for your locale… I’m sure USC and Miami had followings, too. America’s past time was an in person thing or the Yankee’s v someone. We had the poor lil Texas Rangers but tickets were cheap and available. And Baseball is meant to be heard on radio if in person isn’t an option.
Speaking of radio, there is a build up of suspense and definitely heightened anticipation when all one has is an AM broadcast to listen to a sporting event. I remember evenings with an elderly neighbor who’d watch me when my Dad was away and we’d sit at her kitchen table, with our yellow legal pads and pencils and a grid meticulously drawn to show balls, strikes, hits, outs, scores and a variety of other parts of the game worthy of tracking. And high school ball, the pinnacle of in demand sporting events in the Lone Star state was all in stadium only except for certain games of the week or playoffs that hit the AM airwaves. Texas being so big, the entire playoffs could move around the state, well beyond a reasonable days drive sometimes. My school was oftem the featured playoff nemesis for the Odessa Permian “Mojo” in Friday Night Lights and when playoff matches were 5 1/2-6 hours drive away at 55 mph highway speeds, the options were only AM radio and there would be listening parties where 20-30 or more kids and parents would sit around for 3 hours going from absolute quiet as a play developed to cheers or moans depending on the outcome.
There was an article in Outkick that was very, very pessimistic about the long term future of sports for cable, streaming, broadcast, etc with the current ESPN, Disney, Spectrum kerfuffle. Total collapse may or may not happen, but we somehow managed to be fanatics back in the days of 3 network channels and I suspect we’ll manage going forward. Might even be a good reset as everything is tied to money and it is well beyond absurd what some athlete’s are making for their brief (relative to a plebe’s career span grinding it out in a factory) careers.
Plus, if you are listening to AM in the confines of your own home, no one can see you sipping that can of Bud Light so you know there are some folks out their rooting for a total collapse of Big Sport.
@Althouse 8:42AM
You read WaPo, NYT, New Yorker, and TikTok. Perhaps you shouldn't throw such stones.
I don't cable anything, I stream live just as most watchers are doing. And Hulu with ESPN+ gives you more sports programming than you can watch, so if you want to watch two games, you watch #1, and record #2, or you can wait for the reruns.
My understanding is that football is the sport most gambled upon in the US. Is there any other reason to watch an excruciatingly long NFL game, other than to experience the momentary rush of winning or losing a bet?
I came to same conclusion. Just wait till the game is over, and watch the highlights. Baseball is actually better on the radio and you can listen and do other things. Hockey needs to be watched in person. THe NBA is boring and who cares? The NFL is on free TV.
Tennis can be enjoyable, but its too repetitive to sit down and watch start to finish. Its the perfect sport for a hightlight reel.
Probably the only sports that I want to watch Live are the NCAA BB tournament, the College Bowl games, and the majors in the Golf.
After cutting cable, my interest in watching sports is way down. I'll never go back.
I love love love watching sports — everything from the most popular to the most obscure. In 1987 I chose to live my life without cable, and in 1999 I disposed of the television altogether.
BTW, I was amazed at the quality of our radio announcers for the local College football team. They pack a lot of analysis and informed commentary into one broadcast. By contrast the TV announcers are dummies.
This is a problem in golf too. The days of Peter Allis are over. Non-stop dumb chatter and lots of wimmen announcers hired for diversity and not talent. Tennis has always been a disaster area. Remember the annoying bud collins? I used to watch the BBC wimbolten coverage just to get away from him.
The last sporting event I watched on television for more than 5 minutes was the 2019 US Open golf tournament's final round (I watched for 3 hours that day). I only watched because someone was going for a 3rd straight Open win (Koepka, I think it was). I used to be a faithful March Madness watcher, but I haven't watched more than a minute of a game in almost 7 years now. I haven't put the television on ESPN in the last decade a single time. I am just done with televised sports altogether.
If not, sports will come back and you can safely go back to spending time profligately on this utter meaninglessness.
Try giving up blogging for a month, Ann...
Perish the thought but now you know what you're dealing with...
This is the future. I agree with Spectrum ONCE. they want Alacarte & you pay for ESPN regardless whether you want to or not if you have cable. My guess is Spectrum is going 100% streaming.
I wouldn't give a shit, but ESPN & SEC network do college football coverage & I want to watch Saturday football until they completely fuck it up with the transfer portal and NIL, turning it into NFL Saturday.
But the Apple and Peacock blackouts are bullshit.
The streamers still let you record content and watch it 'live' away from home so our 'home network' is the desktop computer's IP address at the office in the market where we want to watch sports. Voila!- the regional sports network to my Apple TV in my home home 1,000 miles away...
Sports was one of my escapes, until all the major sports leagues told me to go **** myself and I decided that when they said they did not want my money they really meant it.
Baseball radio is great, as the sport's format lends itself nicely to the medium. The game is slow enough that you can cover everything and the location of the players is easy to imagine as there are a limited number of options. There are also rarely situations when the announcer has to keep up with a quickly developing play that turns into just screaming with very little actual description of the events. Plus, if you have good announcers, they can weave all sorts of stories into the downtime. The announcers can very much feel like your friends. Radio for all other sports is not as good. To really understand what is happening at a basketball game or a hockey game really requires to see it yourself. Boxing is far worse.
"spending time profligately on this utter meaninglessness"
I have similar feelings about the hours I spend at Althouse. Yet, I continue.
I think its the regular put-downs of the things I find interesting and the "meaningless" bloviations about art and fashion and sex and the latest agitprop from the Times that draw me in.
A well designed and executed screen play is as beautiful as anything Manet ever swabbed on canvas.
rehajm said...
The traditional argument we hear regarding piracy is: count the number of pirates times the current price of what was stolen, which equals we lose x every year to online piracy. Of course it is an illiterate argument what ignores Ec10 economics- most of those pirates would never pay that much for your product…
9/9/23, 8:37 AM
They may not all pay but a significant number will:
"Netflix adds nearly 6 million paid subscribers amid password sharing crackdown"
The big stink here this weekend in Happy Valley is that the Penn State - Delaware game is only available on Peacock. I have a Peacock+ subscription for the ASO cycling races (primarily the Tour de France and the Vuelta a España), watched Vuelta stage 14 this morning while riding Zwift on the trainer to avoid the football traffic and rain outside. So I could watch the game, but I have no connection to PSU besides my professor wife so I'm not.
Week 2 of PSU beating up on weak teams (ahead by 20 after 2 quarters). The Big Can't-Count-That-High season will be starting soon, though, so games will be more difficult.
I remember evenings with an elderly neighbor who’d watch me when my Dad was away and we’d sit at her kitchen table, with our yellow legal pads and pencils and a grid meticulously drawn to show balls, strikes, hits, outs, scores and a variety of other parts of the game worthy of tracking.
My mom taught me to score baseball when I was a kid. I was dugout mom, keeping the score book, for all three of our kids when they played, and I am still thrilled at how clearly you can "see" a game from a well kept score book - it's like "hearing" a piece of music from its score once you become sufficiently adept at reading music.
tommyesq, so far I'm counting one commenter who has eschewed tv altogether (unless I missed someone), plus our host, who has shared her opinion that watching sports is a waste of time. To each her own, I suppose... but I'm with the many commenters who enjoy watching sports and especially watching with other people, whether they're for my team or not. There just aren't that many areas of life where you can gather with nominal "enemies," take the game quite seriously if you're inclined, engage in trash talk, have one side win, and still have everyone be friends at the end. Plus there's the whole "vicarious enjoyment of human endeavor" thing.
"If not, sports will come back and you can safely go back to spending time profligately on this utter meaninglessness."
If not, walking to the lake and taking photos will come back and you can safely go back to spending time profligately on this utter meaninglessness.
Everyone has different joys/interests in life.
Judge not...
Ann Althouse said...
"... spending time profligately on this utter meaninglessness."
Unlike fashion shows?
Earnest Prole said...
"in 1999 I disposed of the television altogether."
I did too. I use my computer monitor to watch videos now. Apparently you have that same ability.
'This is a problem in golf too. The days of Peter Allis are over. Non-stop dumb chatter and lots of wimmen announcers hired for diversity and not talent.'
Alliss was a treasure.
The women announcers aren't terrible, especially if they are just doing interviews.
But the on-course women can't relate to the mens' game, even if they were LPGA pros back in the day...
There is something in humans that craves competition, cheering on an ally or good performance, and rooting against a perceived foe. Without sports, I fear Americans will turn to politics-as-news-as-sports-as-entertainment more than they already do.
I dont get the notion of watching highlight reels of games.
I follow the players, and live the game situation live. Baseball the game shifts subtly on every pitch. Football, has a have dozen match ups or more every snap. Basketball is runs and droughts. Maybe if you never played the game at a competitive level, you never learned to love the process.
Just like the journey is as important as the destination, the process of the match up is as important as the final outcome.
My understanding is that ESPN has strayed from its original charter and has morphed into left-wing political commentary. For this reason alone they should wither and die.
“Watching sports consumes an immense amount of time. Here's a chance to find out what other things you might do if you had hours of new free time added to your week. Maybe these things would be better. If not, sports will come back and you can safely go back to spending time profligately on this utter meaninglessness.”
And women’s shows are any less immense wastes of time? How about soap operas, group talk shows (like the View, Talk, etc), Hallmark romances, Lifetime mysteries (my partner spends much of her weekend time watching them, and I marvel at how female the fears that they stoke are), etc.? For many men, watching sports in the evenings and weekends is how they get through the work week. They need the downtime. The release. And spending it in female approved activities doesn’t work. Sorry, Ann, but men and women are different. They have different wants, and esp needs.
That all said, I never got into spectator sports, except maybe for skiing. Raced through HS and college. I grew up in the west Denver suburbs, where we tended to hike, climb, ski, and ride horseback, more than played organized sports. Definitely not baseball and basketball, which were urban sports. We didn’t play pickup games. Just didn’t. Some football. Sometimes watch the local team (Denver Donkeys, unless they were in the playoffs). Indeed, that was my last football game I watched, was their last Super Bowl win. Some college hockey - my two alma maters have had competitive Div I teams for decades. A decade ago the two met in the quarter finals to determine the national championship (my grad school won both). Here in Las Vegas, this year, in a bar, I watched the Golden Knights win the Stanley Cup this year (and watched the Avs win their first one year earlier). My undergrad college was hockey mad, with every other member of my fraternity house playing at some level, from varsity down to intramural Z League. I didn’t. So, what is left? Golf? Maybe more boring than baseball? UFC? I should have some loyalty there, since I was their patent attorney. But you really don’t get a true appreciation on TV. You need to see it live, and preferably up close.
So I have 2 SILs who love watching sports on TV, and esp football. One played OL through college, and that makes sense, but the other hasn’t played since Jr High, and is the fanatic. His wife is a Football Widow. Don’t understand how she puts up with it.
I re-upped my FUBO subscription from temporary suspension to watch the PSU-WVU game last week. Now to find out the Big 10 brain trust signed an agreement with Peacock (aka Commie-Pinko NBC) for a sprinkling of Big 10 games including this week's PSU game. Fools.
I enjoyed 2 1/2 months of very limited TV watching via free live-streaming. That could be in the offing again.
"It’s illegal, but I’m happy to pay a fair price to live stream the sports I’m interested in, but the various corporate entities that control sports won’t let me do that. So I turn to piracy. I’m not costing them anything because it’s their choice not to let me pay them for what I’m watching."
Yeah well, who cares about the Rule of law? The President, the Congress, the Left, the media, and the law professors dont. You're a fool to care if something is "Illegal". Is it immoral? No.
As you say these greedy motherfuckers in the Sports/Entertainment industry aren't satisified with $Billions, they'd stab their mother in the back for an extra Five cents. I owe them nothing. You're just a gullible rube if you think different.
"It’s illegal, but I’m happy to pay a fair price to live stream the sports I’m interested in, but the various corporate entities that control sports won’t let me do that. So I turn to piracy. I’m not costing them anything because it’s their choice not to let me pay them for what I’m watching."
Yeah well, who cares about the Rule of law? The President, the Congress, the Left, the media, and Academia don't. You're a fool to care if something is "Illegal". Is it immoral? No.
As you say these greedy motherfuckers in the Sports/Entertainment industry aren't satisified with $Billions, they'd stab their mother in the back for an extra Five cents. I owe them nothing. You're just a gullible rube if you think different.
Ann Althouse said...
"If not, sports will come back and you can safely go back to spending time profligately on this utter meaninglessness."
Are sports more or less meaningless than taking endless pictures of Lake Mendota? Or reading a book by Robert Kennedy Jr?
Just got back, from spending the day hiking.. and fishing..
Serious Question: Are there REALLY people that STILL watch sports on TV? WOW!
Netflix adds nearly 6 million paid subscribers amid password sharing crackdown
That’s not piracy but no matter. To your point- our family is still sharing one password- I think four households. where’s the crackdown? Also 6 million would be…what? Less than 1 percent of their subscriber base…worldwide…
The last ten years, I found a succession of broadcast subchannels for my dad to watch recorded 2nd or 3rd tier college sports. Thankfully, he didn't mind having them on mute. Within a couple of years, they all degenerated into sports talk stations. The NFL channel on free Pluto has fewer and fewer games (all recorded).
I quit watching the NFL when most of the players started taking a knee to the US national anthem. That resulted in my losing interest in the NFL games. I do watch an occasional college game and a very few minutes of the Super Bowl if they weather's bad. Otherwise, I'm likely to be riding my bike.
Sorry. You've got an axe to grind on a particular issue then work on that particular issue. Don't insult our national anthem.
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