Board 8 > Cable/watching sports - what do you use?

(+) Yeah! (+)

I'm moving into my house next week and I was curious what you guys use for watching live local sports. I know that, in general, cable is tremendously overpriced and I don't really want to pay $100+ per month for channels I'm not going to use. Primarily, I just want to be able to casually watch sports after work and on the weekend when I'm home.

Obviously, I could just continue what I'm doing and stream online without paying, but I'm willing to pay if the service is reasonably priced and provides what I want. What do you use for watching sports/cable and what do you pay per month?

I signed up for Spectrum internet (only option in my area) and they have a "$30/mo" TV select plan (it's $51 after the broadcast fee) which has local broadcast and 10 or 15 specific channels that I choose. I thought this was a reasonable deal, so I'm gonna trial it for a month. I get: fox, NBC, ABC, CBS, ESPN/2, golf (lol), TNT, TBS, FS1, FS2, NFL Network and a few misc. other channels. Will that cover everything? Notably, I don't have Bally Sports Detroit, so I don't know if I'll be able to watch local Pistons games, for example. Anybody know if Fox Sports 1 will functionally work as Bally Sports?

Follow-up: For anybody that use YouTube TV or Hulu Live or something similar, do you know if these services typically provide some kind of Black Friday yearly rate that may be worth looking into?

Thank you!!

MajinZidane posted...

don't know if I'll be able to watch local Pistons games, for example. Anybody know if Fox Sports 1 will functionally work as Bally Sports?

It will not. Fs1 covers national games but you will need the regional network for regional games.

Bally here has been launching a la carte streaming services for their sports teams for a yearly fee. So that might be something to look into if you dont want to add to your cable package.

But at least here it isn't really any cheaper than cable.

Your best bet is likely to threaten cancelation and try to negotiate a better price with Spectrum.

Unfortunately, last time I checked it really depended on your local area. Depends on the deals nearby teams have

Isn't $51 already a pretty decent rate in terms of Cable services? I don't know, I've never bought it before.

Thanks for the info on FS1. I didn't think so, but I saw a reddit post claiming that FS1=Bally.

I'll look into Bally a la carte.

I use a digital antenna, which only gets what's on the airwaves. If the game isn't airing on ABC, NBC, CBS, or Fox, I don't get to watch it. Usually this is good enough for NFL, and I'm not too interested in other sports. But on the upside, it was a one-time $15 purchase.

Digital Antenna + Random internet streams

azuarc posted...

I use a digital antenna, which only gets what's on the airwaves. If the game isn't airing on ABC, NBC, CBS, or Fox, I don't get to watch it. Usually this is good enough for NFL, and I'm not too interested in other sports. But on the upside, it was a one-time $15 purchase.

Yeah, this is good for NFL. Just make sure you have a window facing the direction that the antenna signal is coming from. My window's on the opposite side, and the signal gets iffy at times.

Mewtwo59 posted...

Yeah, this is good for NFL. Just make sure you have a window facing the direction that the antenna signal is coming from. My window's on the opposite side, and the signal gets iffy at times.

It really depends on where you live. I have to put my antenna in the attic due to geography.

Maybe digital antenna is the move.

Sports on TV is very weird with media rights. Basically, you will get the local games all the time. If you are trying to get national games that are not broadcast on one of the major networks you will need to sign up for one of the exclusive channels like NBA League Pass for NBA games. The list you had in the initial post is very solid and you should get most of what you want.

The NFL also has weird layouts for what is being shown where but just use the website 506sports to see coverage maps for every week and figure out if you need to find other avenues to see your team

Edit - you will get local games if you have the local network. I live in Atlanta and have zero shot of seeing the Jets unless they are being broadcast nationally on Fox/CBS. It gets even tougher with college sports. I can see everyone Georgia game but if I lived outside of Georgia I would need to find other ways to watch games against cupcake teams.

I do that exact plan you mentioned. I literally only use it to watch Magic basketball but it's like the same price as the Bally Sports subscription and comes with more channels. But if you only want it for sports then Bally Sports $20 a month thing may not be bad

What I will say about it is that some of the channels (I think the local ones), you have to be on your actual internet to watch. So like I have the app on my phone and unless I am on my home wifi, the channels I can watch drops drastically.

EDIT: You will get the local games. I had to go back and forth with spectrum reps a lot on this when I signed up as it was the only reason I did it. It doesn't explicitly state it but it falls under local channels and Spectrum for the most part are clueless about what that actually entails. But it does cover Bally Sports.

Oh just remembered the other bad thing about Spectrum plan. Assuming yours is the streaming option like mine, the number of things that actually run the Spectrum app is fucking woeful. I have 3 smart TVs and only one of them had it which is annoying as that was the one that now has damage. Playstation does not have it and I assume Xbox is the same.

The way I actually use it right now is I have an old laptop permanently hooked up to my man cave TV and it's sole job is to just always have the Spectrum website open and whenever there's a Magic game I toggle to that HDMI.

The Spectrum app is available for most of the streaming boxes like Roku, Fire TV, etc.

I do Hulu. It's too expensive but it's extremely reliable. Before this I tried the digital antenna, which was a nightmare, and looked like ****. I lived in a pretty bad area for it though. I also tried sling for a while and it also kind of sucked.

So yeah, given how much I rely on sports for background noise hulu is worth it for me, but it is like... $70 a month, which adds up.

I should add that this also includes add-free Hulu plus content and a ton of basic cable channels, which I theoretically could "enjoy" but never do

Yeah I don't have the boxes, just smart TVs. So it isn't available on 2 of them and isn't available on the any console for whatever reason. The only smart TV it worked on was my Samsung one but that now has a line that appears across the screen intermittently and causing everything below it to do the static shaky thing.

Hulu Live is what I used to use and I think what happened was not only did their prices keep rising(I feel like it went from $40-50 to like $70 over like 18 months), I think they actively took away Bally Sports and the Magic is the only reason I had it so I cancelled it and switched to Spectrum streaming service.

I wish I didnt give a fuck about sports. It would save me so much money/time.

MLB.tv for baseball.
ESPN+ for some soccer, F1, lots of other things
Peacock for Premier League
Paramount+ for UEFA

Its too much! So I just watch less Man City soccer, as Im not paying for Peacock and Paramount just for that.

Youtube tv

They may have a new user sign up bonus of like $10 off for a month or so, but generally the rate is the rate. HuluTV you can get all the disney+ and ESPN+ and regular Hulu with it tho.

Shattered posted...

I do that exact plan you mentioned. I literally only use it to watch Magic basketball but it's like the same price as the Bally Sports subscription and comes with more channels. But if you only want it for sports then Bally Sports $20 a month thing may not be bad

What I will say about it is that some of the channels (I think the local ones), you have to be on your actual internet to watch. So like I have the app on my phone and unless I am on my home wifi, the channels I can watch drops drastically.

EDIT: You will get the local games. I had to go back and forth with spectrum reps a lot on this when I signed up as it was the only reason I did it. It doesn't explicitly state it but it falls under local channels and Spectrum for the most part are clueless about what that actually entails. But it does cover Bally Sports.

@Shattered

How much do you pay for Bally via Spectrum? I dont think I have Bally with my TV Select options.

BTW- I went to the Pistons home opener and Banchero was incredible. Hes gonna be an incredible player. Almost wish we could have Banchero instead of Cade!

Corrik7 posted...

Youtube tv

They may have a new user sign up bonus of like $10 off for a month or so, but generally the rate is the rate. HuluTV you can get all the disney+ and ESPN+ and regular Hulu with it tho.

Im pretty sure YoutubeTV doesnt have local sports. Am I mistaken?

I use YouTube TV. Before that I used PS Vue.

dilateDChemist posted...

I use YouTube TV. Before that I used PS Vue.

oh wow, I totally forgot about PS Vue. I'd say that was slightly better than sling but worse than hulu.

Im old and pay for cable

I use uzzu.tv

You get access to every sports game for all major sports. Every NFL, NBA, MLB, and NHL game, plus dozens of sports channels, all live. You even can choose between the home/away coverage for MLB and NBA games. All for only $10 a month if you sign up for the 1-year deal.

The caveat is that it is all completely live TV. No ability to pause/rewind or DVR any of it. This limitation is intentional though, because that's what makes it legal. There is apparently a loophole in the law that allows uzzu to share content as long as it coincides with the live airing of the broadcast.

Anyway, it's been a big game changer for me since I ditched cable earlier this year. I was able to finally watch baseball again, and I could even play around and watch the Away broadcast just for kicks if I wanted to. Or watch any other baseball game I wanted to. With the NFL underway, you not only can watch any game you want, but you get access to the Redzone channel. And I am now able to watch my favorite NBA team again.

All of this programming available for one very low fee. You can stream the programming on your smartphone, tablet, or computer, or you can stream it to your tv through the web video caster app.

I highly recommend it to any sports fans who have ditched cable. It's a real game changer.

guffguy89 posted...

I use uzzu.tv

You get access to every sports game for all major sports. Every NFL, NBA, MLB, and NHL game, plus dozens of sports channels, all live. You even can choose between the home/away coverage for MLB and NBA games. All for only $10 a month if you sign up for the 1-year deal.

The caveat is that it is all completely live TV. No ability to pause/rewind or DVR any of it. This limitation is intentional though, because that's what makes it legal. There is apparently a loophole in the law that allows uzzu to share content as long as it coincides with the live airing of the broadcast.

Anyway, it's been a big game changer for me since I ditched cable earlier this year. I was able to finally watch baseball again, and I could even play around and watch the Away broadcast just for kicks if I wanted to. Or watch any other baseball game I wanted to. With the NFL underway, you not only can watch any game you want, but you get access to the Redzone channel. And I am now able to watch my favorite NBA team again.

All of this programming available for one very low fee. You can stream the programming on your smartphone, tablet, or computer, or you can stream it to your tv through the web video caster app.

I highly recommend it to any sports fans who have ditched cable. It's a real game changer.

This topic is relevant to my interests as I'm realizing I don't ever watch live TV shows. The only live programing I watch is sports so this sounds like the exact thing I'm looking for. What's the price after the year is up?

Also for reference, I've been using YouTubeTV. It's honestly pretty great with unlimited dvr and the most channels for your buck. I'm just finding that all the shows I record I never watch and I only open the app when I'm watching NFL or playoff hockey/baseball so I'm interested in alternatives!

that's the base price. you can pay weekly, monthy, or yearly. Rates are $7/week, or $20/month, or $120/year (yearly is the best value. Comes out to $10/month).

guffguy89 posted...

I use uzzu.tv

You get access to every sports game for all major sports. Every NFL, NBA, MLB, and NHL game, plus dozens of sports channels, all live. You even can choose between the home/away coverage for MLB and NBA games. All for only $10 a month if you sign up for the 1-year deal.

The caveat is that it is all completely live TV. No ability to pause/rewind or DVR any of it. This limitation is intentional though, because that's what makes it legal. There is apparently a loophole in the law that allows uzzu to share content as long as it coincides with the live airing of the broadcast.

Anyway, it's been a big game changer for me since I ditched cable earlier this year. I was able to finally watch baseball again, and I could even play around and watch the Away broadcast just for kicks if I wanted to. Or watch any other baseball game I wanted to. With the NFL underway, you not only can watch any game you want, but you get access to the Redzone channel. And I am now able to watch my favorite NBA team again.

All of this programming available for one very low fee. You can stream the programming on your smartphone, tablet, or computer, or you can stream it to your tv through the web video caster app.

I highly recommend it to any sports fans who have ditched cable. It's a real game changer.

That doesn't sound legal at all. Just someone's justification to be legal.

MajinZidane posted...

Im pretty sure YoutubeTV doesnt have local sports. Am I mistaken?

I have all local stations. Depends on your market, but I think most local markets are supported.

As far as blackouts, I have never run into a blackout for my local sports teams, but blackout rules are determined by the leagues and teams also so can vary from area to area. You can always use the free trial to test it.

MajinZidane posted...

@Shattered

How much do you pay for Bally via Spectrum? I dont think I have Bally with my TV Select options.

BTW- I went to the Pistons home opener and Banchero was incredible. Hes gonna be an incredible player. Almost wish we could have Banchero instead of Cade!

$25 for TV Select. $17 for broadcast surcharge. So $42. Really it's the internet where they fuck us ($90) but they are literally the only option for my address and the wife's work pays for the internet now she works from home.

Bally won't be an option, it's a local channel. So as long as they say you get local channels included (and I can't see why you wouldn't) then it will be in there. The sucky thing is it doesn't actually list it in channel lineup here (https://www.spectrum.net/channel-lineup) because it doesn't list local channels which was what confused me when getting it. Some people said I would get it, some said I wouldn't since it didn't display. Eventually I had someone at the local Spectrum store confirm I would absolutely get it before pulling the trigger

EDIT: You're supposed to be able to alter your 10 or 15 channels online in your account but I have never ever been able to get it to work. They always want me to call so I've just never changed them. At one point they told me a channel was disappearing and I had to change it, I never did so now I don't know if I only get 9 channels or if they just picked something for me

I believe I pay $65 for Dish's basic plan which is all local channels and like 100+ other channels.

Which isn't as good as it used to be for sports as so many games are on sport specific channels these days, but I don't watch enough to pay the like $10 more a month for that package.

Gonna set up the TVs soon and will post my follow-up thoughts