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Sports is the anchor by which unbundling won’t happen for a long time, especially with linear TV. This is partially because it benefits the conglomerates busin

Sports is the anchor by which unbundling won’t happen for a long time, especially with linear TV. This is partially because it benefits the conglomerates business models to have as many channels and content streams as possible to sell ad time on, and partially because for sports teams they can functionally name their price. In seattle, the brand new hockey team is only available through Root Sports, a smallish production company owned by Warner media and the baseball team. You can only watch the new hockey team if you subscribe to a cable package or online cable package (YouTube tv etc). Why would a brand new team with no established fan base want to not be in front of as many eyeballs as they can? Because they earn more money when someone pays them to put them behind a cable company. At no point does this “competition”, which it isn’t, benefit consumers. We used to regulate things like this.

mrweasel 5y ago
I've not looked into how the US cable market is doing, but here in Denmark it feels like we're very close to cable/bundling snapping. The cable companies are forced to raise prices each year, mostly because of sports and people are cancelling in droves. In 2015 93% of Danes had cable, in 2019 less than 80% had cable and during 2020 - 2022 the largest provider lost at least 250.000 subscribers, pushing them well below 1 million subscribers. Many others have downgrade their subscription to the bundles that doesn't include sports channels. At some point the remaining subscribers can't pay the cost of the ridiculous fees charged for the major sporting events. When that happens the fees must come down, or the sporting companies must find a different solution. Honestly a great solution for the major sports, like football in Europe, would be to great something like what the MLB did in the US. I know a lot of football fans who'd love to get a subscription for all the Champions League games. Just a fixed price and then watch any game you like. Why pay for Formula 1, hockey or even the Bundesliga, if you only care about the Danish Superliga and Champions League.
- taurath 5y ago
  In the US American football only recently became available on streaming - it is currently $450 or $500 per season. You can go to a bar every week and have several drinks and a meal for that money. It’s a little crazy.
  - mrweasel 5y ago
    $500 a year is still at around half the price of cable tv where I live, if you want any sport, largest cable package would be $1213 per year. So you could get all the games you wanted to see, rather than just the ones the TV stations decided to buy, and still have money left over to subscribe to a few streaming services. Edit: Something something, cost of living. $500 is 3300DKK, which would let you go to a bar, have a meal and four or five beers only seven times.
    - Ar-Curunir 5y ago
      A meal and 5 beers cost $70 in Denmark? That's expensive.
      - mrweasel 5y ago
        Sorry, haven't been out for a while, I was wrong about the price of beer. It has gone up. The five beers (0.5L) is $43.95, leaving $26 that's going to be a rather cheap meal, you're certainly not eating at the bar on game day at that point. You could get ribs or a burger at a restaurant, but you're a little short if you want steak.... And you don't exactly have money for a drink with your meal.
      - matwood 5y ago
        All the Scandinavian countries are expensive (when converting from USD), especially for alcohol.
  - lotsofpulp 5y ago
    Where is this streaming option available for $500? I do not see it on nfl.com If it is subject to blackouts, it does not count. https://www.nfl.com/ways-to-watch/ https://www.nfl.com/ways-to-watch/
    - alborzb 5y ago
      I'm not OP, but the NFL's streaming service is called 'NFL Sunday Ticket' ( https://nflst.directv.com/ https://nflst.directv.com/ ) and costs $99 per month. For that price, you get all the NFL games except Monday night and Thursday night games...
sofixa 5y ago
Regarding sports, there are companies such as DAZN and Amazon which break the bundling. They get the rights for a certain sport/league in a country, and if you want to watch, you pay only for that, directly.
ocdtrekkie 5y ago
In the Chicago area I just about lost my crud with the new "Marquee Sports Network". It's a $7 a month price hike that every subscriber in the area has to suffer on every single cable provider because the Cubs struck a deal with Sinclair to create the channel. I don't understand how it's legal. Imagine if Netflix could force everyone in a geographic area to subscribe or lose the ability to stream all non-Netflix stuff. It wouldn't even make sense, but this is what happened here. I think we should kick the Cubs out of Chicago for pulling a stunt like this during a pandemic when most people are barely able to pay their existing bills. Sports teams are absolute vampires that abuse the local population in the name of obscene profits.
- owlninja 5y ago
  Sinclair also ruined us here in DFW. Suddenly the Texas Rangers, Dallas Mavericks, and Dallas Stars are only available on Bally's network which the big streamers do not carry. We used to be able to watch all games on the regional Fox Sports network which was a huge selling point for me switching to streaming. Now the word is Bally's expects to release their own app and subscription service in like 2023...sigh...
brewdad 5y ago
>> In seattle, the brand new hockey team is only available through Root Sports, a smallish production company owned by Warner media and the baseball team. You can only watch the new hockey team if you subscribe to a cable package or online cable package (YouTube tv etc). It's actually worse than that. I've looked into it, because I'd like to watch Mariners and Kraken games in Portland (blacked out here too). Root Sportsis only available through cable providers and FuboTV or Directv Stream. No other streaming services offer it and there is no way to subscribe directly. It's a mess, so I generally don't watch the games or pirate them.

mrweasel 5y ago

I've not looked into how the US cable market is doing, but here in Denmark it feels like we're very close to cable/bundling snapping. The cable companies are forced to raise prices each year, mostly because of sports and people are cancelling in droves. In 2015 93% of Danes had cable, in 2019 less than 80% had cable and during 2020 - 2022 the largest provider lost at least 250.000 subscribers, pushing them well below 1 million subscribers. Many others have downgrade their subscription to the bundles that doesn't include sports channels. At some point the remaining subscribers can't pay the cost of the ridiculous fees charged for the major sporting events. When that happens the fees must come down, or the sporting companies must find a different solution. Honestly a great solution for the major sports, like football in Europe, would be to great something like what the MLB did in the US. I know a lot of football fans who'd love to get a subscription for all the Champions League games. Just a fixed price and then watch any game you like. Why pay for Formula 1, hockey or even the Bundesliga, if you only care about the Danish Superliga and Champions League.

taurath 5y ago
In the US American football only recently became available on streaming - it is currently $450 or $500 per season. You can go to a bar every week and have several drinks and a meal for that money. It’s a little crazy.
- mrweasel 5y ago
  $500 a year is still at around half the price of cable tv where I live, if you want any sport, largest cable package would be $1213 per year. So you could get all the games you wanted to see, rather than just the ones the TV stations decided to buy, and still have money left over to subscribe to a few streaming services. Edit: Something something, cost of living. $500 is 3300DKK, which would let you go to a bar, have a meal and four or five beers only seven times.
  - Ar-Curunir 5y ago
    A meal and 5 beers cost $70 in Denmark? That's expensive.
    - mrweasel 5y ago
      Sorry, haven't been out for a while, I was wrong about the price of beer. It has gone up. The five beers (0.5L) is $43.95, leaving $26 that's going to be a rather cheap meal, you're certainly not eating at the bar on game day at that point. You could get ribs or a burger at a restaurant, but you're a little short if you want steak.... And you don't exactly have money for a drink with your meal.
    - matwood 5y ago
      All the Scandinavian countries are expensive (when converting from USD), especially for alcohol.
- lotsofpulp 5y ago
  Where is this streaming option available for $500? I do not see it on nfl.com If it is subject to blackouts, it does not count. https://www.nfl.com/ways-to-watch/ https://www.nfl.com/ways-to-watch/
  - alborzb 5y ago
    I'm not OP, but the NFL's streaming service is called 'NFL Sunday Ticket' ( https://nflst.directv.com/ https://nflst.directv.com/ ) and costs $99 per month. For that price, you get all the NFL games except Monday night and Thursday night games...

sofixa 5y ago

Regarding sports, there are companies such as DAZN and Amazon which break the bundling. They get the rights for a certain sport/league in a country, and if you want to watch, you pay only for that, directly.

ocdtrekkie 5y ago

In the Chicago area I just about lost my crud with the new "Marquee Sports Network". It's a $7 a month price hike that every subscriber in the area has to suffer on every single cable provider because the Cubs struck a deal with Sinclair to create the channel. I don't understand how it's legal. Imagine if Netflix could force everyone in a geographic area to subscribe or lose the ability to stream all non-Netflix stuff. It wouldn't even make sense, but this is what happened here. I think we should kick the Cubs out of Chicago for pulling a stunt like this during a pandemic when most people are barely able to pay their existing bills. Sports teams are absolute vampires that abuse the local population in the name of obscene profits.

owlninja 5y ago
Sinclair also ruined us here in DFW. Suddenly the Texas Rangers, Dallas Mavericks, and Dallas Stars are only available on Bally's network which the big streamers do not carry. We used to be able to watch all games on the regional Fox Sports network which was a huge selling point for me switching to streaming. Now the word is Bally's expects to release their own app and subscription service in like 2023...sigh...

brewdad 5y ago

>> In seattle, the brand new hockey team is only available through Root Sports, a smallish production company owned by Warner media and the baseball team. You can only watch the new hockey team if you subscribe to a cable package or online cable package (YouTube tv etc). It's actually worse than that. I've looked into it, because I'd like to watch Mariners and Kraken games in Portland (blacked out here too). Root Sportsis only available through cable providers and FuboTV or Directv Stream. No other streaming services offer it and there is no way to subscribe directly. It's a mess, so I generally don't watch the games or pirate them.