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Here's what you need to do at minimum to watch NBA games in the US: - Buy a cable package and make sure it has both ESPN and TNT (different providers will incl
by paxys 3y ago
Here's what you need to do at minimum to watch NBA games in the US:
- Buy a cable package and make sure it has both ESPN and TNT (different providers will include them in different subscription tiers, so you have to check).
- ESPN and TNT will each only broadcast a select number of primetime games, so for the rest you need NBA league pass. This may be offered as an add-on by your cable provider, or you may need to buy it directly from the NBA's own site (and use a separate app for those games).
- However your local or regional teams' games won't be available on League Pass, so you have to figure out which company has bought local rights for that particular team (e.g. Bally Sports for Knicks games in the NY area) and pay for that channel as well.
- Sometimes that regional network and your cable provider will be unable to strike a deal. If that happens - too bad, you literally cannot watch home games of your local team legally.
The situation in the NFL is even worse.
So yeah, it's no surprise that a large number of fans who would otherwise have paid for games choose to just stream them illegally with one click.
- wombat-man 3y agoThe NFL is at least merciful to fans of local market teams. If you live close enough to where your favorite team is based, you can watch most games for free, over the air, or with a basic TV subscription. It's unfortunate for the NBA or MLB fans that they need to figure out what local cable channel has the rights to their team. The real pain is if you're a fan of an out of market NFL team, in which case... - Cable with ESPN for MNF (if your local team is playing, this should be free on ABC) - Prime for TNF (iirc the local market gets this on fox??) - NFL Sunday ticket I think the only exceptions this year were the two games exclusive to peacock, and the London games. I don't know if they show the London game for free to the local market.
- paxys 3y agoThe problem there is that most of the OTA broadcasts are in glorious 720p.
- alexb_ 3y agoThis is literally not true. OTA broadcasts are in HD and look great.
- paxys 3y ago720p is HD in broadcasting terms.
- tracker1 3y agoTru enough. Of course God 720p can look better than bad 1080p (overcompressed stream). And one's vision and distance from the display. In my living room I barely notice the difference between fhd/1080p and qhd/4k on a 65" screen at 10' distance.
- wombat-man 3y agoI just checked. my local ABC and FOX are 720p, but NBC and CBS are 1080i Idk why, but this hasn't really seemed bad to me. Maybe my TV has been upscaling and that's why I don't notice? Reading around it's unclear if they broadcast above 720p anywhere, even over cable: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Broadcasting_Company https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Broadcasting_Company . Maybe the cable companies upscale? Whatever the case may be, I'd rather have 720p for free than have to pay.
- JamesSwift 3y agoOTA broadcasts look fantastic compared to the streaming counterparts likely due to the bitrate. It is extremely noticeable. source: I used to be a cord-cutter