How are you watching ESPN and Pro Sport WITHOUT cable?
 

Like the title says, what are the best solutions for watching Sports Center and Pro Sports for someone that wants to cancel cable?

Is YouTubeTV considered cable?

Cheapest option is Sling. I sign up for one month every year when the Chiefs play MNF. You can get just the orange for $25/ month

I don't watch espn anymore. Dufu sports app let's me watch games

I don't use it and there's definitely some gray area legally, but IPTV is probably the most comprehensive option by far.

I personally share someone's YouTubeTV and then have an ESPN+ subscription.

When I had cable, I almost never watched ESPN. When I ditched cable, that number went to zero. My life has not been impacted at all.

ESPN+ is nice, there's all the live options like hulu live or youtube tv...if you know someone that has cable you can use their login to watch things on the app, I use my parents account for that.

Or you can use an amazon box/stick or your pc to download an app called kodi and it has alot of options to watch any sports you want.

I pay $100 a year for the NFL app, I have an antenna that gets NBC and ABC.

What if I told you I watch any NFL game I want for 0 dollars...

If you want the Royals games - DirecTV Stream or Fubo.
For about everything else - YouTube TV or Hulu

It's basically cable but the feels of saying you cut the cord

Can you watch Sports Center and live sports on ESPN+?

The two things I miss most since cutting cable are NFL Network and My Lottery Dream Home on HGTV.

$100/year isn't bad.

It airs live games?

My cable bill is $320 a month. No cell phones attached.

I'd be willing to sell you my streaming log in for $10 a channel but if i catch you on ESPN, it's double.

I'll be interested in his answer.

I've bought a couple of different NFL products specifically to watch games, and then they never work. There's always some fine-print rule that blocks me, like "Games unavailable in states that include the letters A, E, or O", or "Games unavailable if the quarterbacks have more then 10 career wins". It's really annoying.

imagine paying for sports in this modern age where everything is online and free

why not just burn your cash instead

$320 a month? For that amount, it better be showing you live feeds of your neighbors' bedrooms.

I'll try to stay off ESPN, but if ESPN27 starts showing sumo, I'll have to make a counteroffer.

JFC how?!

I had to double check this wasn't a BWillie post because that really doesn't seem possible.

Sportscenter no, you can watch the things that stream on ESPN+ and are listed that way, if it's airing on ESPN, ESPN 2 etc then no you need a cable login to stream that.

If you have cable+ internet it's possible depending on the package you have.

Shit I'm net only and I'm at 100 a month.

I’d like to be able to reliably watch on any of my TVs and have DVR abilities so I can start late and skip commercials.

I've never hit close to $200 and I had a bunch of sports channels on top of the regular channel lineup... around $140 for Dish + shitty ISP. Before that around $130 for TWC cable + internet. I'd have to call about once per year to knock down the cable/satellite.

$300+ sounds like $150 for Starlink and also being raped by DirecTV with Sunday Ticket, plus I guess a bunch of movie add-ons or something, and never calling them to reduce the bill or negotiate. :shrug:

That's why I cut the cord. Mine was running $260 or $270 with no premium channels (but including internet), and if I went a month without screaming absolutely vulgar profanities at their non-English speaking customer service line they'd try to bump it up a few more dollars.

I'm now paying $96 just for internet access.

Dumbest flex ever.

Regular monthly charges
APR 27, 2023 - MAY 26, 2023

$282.74
TV
185+ Channels
Internet
Download as fast as 1200 Mbps
Voice
US & Int'l Calling

Plus Netflix is billed on the account.

You may be able to get ESPN free with hulu or sprint/tmobile.

Not sure though.


it is like you need a spreadsheet to understand all of it

at least a few if/then statements

That's just nuts. TWC and Dish would both bump cable from ~$90 to $140+ alone, but each year it would basically come back down to where I might be paying $5-10 more.

Of course, do that long enough and I guess that's how they end up taking $250 every month. Dish one wanted to sign me up for some "screen tapestry" something and I said if it's free, whatever.... oh yeah, free forever. And then had to call them the following month to take the $5/month off my bill.... assholes scamming people over a measly $5. :shake:

I dumped Dish several months ago and the following weekend they dumped ESPN over a CFB/NFL weekend and ticked off a bunch of people... definitely a satisfying experience. 💯

Only the 2nd worse, tyvm.

https://www.chiefsplanet.com/BB/images/icons/flex.png

Whew, you people paying this much are crazy:

Disney + Hulu + ESPN+= $20
Window Mounted TV Antenna = $25 one time

That's it yall.

Yeah, I got one of those little window antennas for about $17 or so, and it's a winning purchase. I should've done it years earlier.

Aside from that, we have a Netflix subcription for some unknown amount of money and Amazon Prime. It's a workable system even if I miss NFL Network and Lottery Dream Home. If the Chiefs game is on ESPN, then I'll go to a sports bar.

How do you get Disney + Hulu + ESPN+ for $20?

I live 60 miles from the nearest broadcast tower. 100 away from the main ones. A window mounted TV antenna ain't getting me shit.

I don't know what mine is but its alot. We have YouTube TV, Direct TV (GF needs like two channels from it? Iono and the bundle gets internet), Hulu, Paramount+, Netflix, AppleTV, Amazon.

There are cheaper ways to get access to all that stuff...

The NFL is moving a PLAYOFF game entirely to streaming?

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">NFL announced that Peacock will be the home for the first-ever exclusive live streamed NFL Playoff game, presenting an NFL Wild Card Playoff in primetime on Saturday, Jan. 13, 2024.</p>&mdash; Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) <a href="https://twitter.com/AdamSchefter/status/1658217092183646208?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 15, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

If you have comcast peacock is free so they have a large base to begin with.

It's a Disney+ package but wait RainMan.
Make a new account.
If you already have a hulu account it wont connect to your Disney+ account. You'll be stuck in s perpetual customer service nightmare until you make a new account.

It was a promo. I'm sure it will go up eventually.

I have the digital antenna deal. I tried YouTube TV and it was pretty-much a bust. I guess I should ha known it wouldn't give me the Royals, but that's not an issue this year. I'll wait for there being something remotely worth the price of this "a'la Carte" crap before I pay good money to watch bad teams.

But I do miss the NHL...

Hulu

I have Ballys due to having Direct TV I think, but nowadays Im just too lazy to relog in. After about 4 days of not using it it will make me jump thru hoops. Go to a link on a diff device, fetch the code, enter code. Just so ****ing stupid. So I just dont watch the Royals anymore

Does Hulu have ESPN Sports Center and live NFL and NBA games?

I just hire a bitch on Chaturbate and have her point the camera at the Chiefs game

Of all the things I strive to watch, ESPN is no longer close to the top.

Also, so many free internet streams.

Yeah, for all the bravado of "saving you money because you only get what you want" (which is hardly true, by the time you piece together all the services you need in order to watch the 10 channels you pretty-much always watch, you're at least back to what you were paying before this new paradigm.

It's all good, I've saved a lot of cash not giving in to the temptation to play the a'la carte bullshit shell game. At least so far...

I have ESPN+ and NFL+ but as far as I know, the thing that allows me to watch MNF is that I have a FiOS login, which is technically cable TV.

I saw something last week that said ESPN is going to be off of cable by 2025. Everything will be put into the ESPN+ app.

I can here to ask why the NFL doesn’t just own their own broadcasting. Like why not set up your own Julie/Netflix streaming service and all things NFL are there for an annual subscription?

I have one of them HD antenna's for anything that on regular network tv, but ill either stream it from "somewhere" or a buddy of mine streams all the Dodger games for me on discord pretty much everyday even if he isnt there, he will turn it on stream it and leave! lol

It's not a shell game. When I first got rid of the dish and started all streaming about 4-5 years ago, I got Youtube TV. Sure, it was cheaper then, about $45-$50/mo. Now, it's up over $70. But so is everything else. But the thing is that all of these other options are mostly newer options that you didn't have in the past. I had Amazon Prime before so that's not anything I added. I got HBO Max a year or two ago for free as part of my ATT plan. I was sharing my son's Netflix and Hulu while he was using my YTTV and HBO. I was already paying for ESPN+ mainly for KU games but only during basketball season and now football, as well. I did add Paramount+ and Apple TV but that was for more programming that I like. I don't need them for sports.

One thing that I noticed right away when switching to streaming was there are no contracts. And they always give you a trial period. Unlike cable or especially Dish/Dtv, they don't require you to sign a 1 or 2 year contract. If I decide I no longer want to pay for any of these services, I can cancel any time with no further costs. That is huge, IMO.

Sry, dude. You just sound like an old man yelling at clouds. And this is coming from a fellow old man. ;)

Wouldn't that kill them on ad revenue?

I think the Peacock deal ups the ante.... it's annoying to move on from being able to watch every KU game to missing a few non-con games, because KU vs Colorado isn't worth even a single month of espn+ (I have it now though for hockey), just like the new CBB deal with Paramount exclusive games, TNF largely not being worth a Prime subscription alone, NHL Network largely not being worth another subscription to the few options out there, etc.

And now we have playoff games to figure out.

If I really needed to sign up for a trial or one month at $10, then whatever.... but if I wanted to see the best NFL games on top of CFB, NHL, CBB, etc, I'd probably have to sign up for both YouTubeTV and Sling or fubo, plus espn+, and then trial/short term now for Peacock, Paramount, potentially NFL+ to help with blackout/location bullshit.

And all of that used to be on Dish for $95/month, and that was just a few years ago.

Sling and Peacock will get you most things. I mainly have peacock to watch EPL.

Those two will get you most NBA, various NFL games, NHL, and EPL and some other soccer leagues. I am a prime customer, gladly. Teh Disney bundle will get you Hulu with ESPNplus

I have zero interest in paying for sling.

Thanks for letting us know

That's no different than cable though, here I know you cut the cord so lets give you a streaming cable plan!

It's owned by Dish and Dish hates sports... they "fight for the customer against higher fees!" and then will go weeks without NBC, Fox, CBS, ESPN, etc.

I've never tried Sling, but don't have much interest in giving them any more money.

Well yea, sports rights fees are where all the money is so if they are trying to cut money it'll immediately involve not showing sports.

Yeah, totally get dumping ESPN at times as it's the most expensive by far... but for a company already losing subscribers by the millions, a couple years ago they dumped NBC for 4+ months (the entire NFL season), so now you're pissing off non-sports fans, too, because they don't even get all the local stations.

All the different layers wanting the chance to hump the cash cow.

I’ve had a great experience with Sling TV. Highly recommend.

Switched from Dish to Fubo, and don’t miss Dish one bit. We get all the locals, Bally Sports to watch the Royals to play bad baseball live (their app doesn’t work with Apple TV - no audio), NFL Network, full suite of ESPN channels, etc. Really solid option for sports.

I watch a lot of ESPN and pro sports by myself, so I’m cool.

Fubo would be my choice if I have to sign up for something in the near future, so that's good to hear.

While I'm not young, it doesn't take a rocket surgeon to figure out all those services you just listed that it took to replace what used to be. Heck, some of then you're "sharing", so thst's an added perk.

So yelling at clouds or not, this is the new normal, at least admit that you put together a patchwork quilt of services to try to replicate what used to pretty darn simple for people, and it's messy at best.

But I no longer have to watch shit when it's actually "on" other than sports. Or be beholden to where the cable wire comes through the wall when placing my stuff.

After the wife and I figured out that YTT wasn't the foshizzle (she likes to have the Royals games playing in the background at night while she works), we decided we'd do our next trial with FUBO, and we'll do that when the Royals don't make you want to throw things at the TV.

Youtube TV & free streaming sites hooked up to Chrome cast on a 65 inch flat screen

Tell us about your deal and experience, please?

What's the deal with Youtube TV?

What do you mean "what's the deal?"


It's an online TV service. It has channels that you watch.

100+ channels can record programs get 6 accounts 73 bucks a month. I get channels like NFL Red Zone, B1G Network, SEC, pretty much all the sports. You can add on things like HBO and stuff too. I stream my from my phone to chrome cast the picture quality is just as good as on cable

I love that part. There is this alcove built into my living room for a TV...WTF...I have to put my YV there? I can only have one? **** that

Now I use two 60 inch TVs on a different wall to watch sports and movies at the same times...or video games. Its nice.

That just sounds like cable though.

YouTube TV

You get much more for that price than what cable costs IMO

This is a good point. It was worse with satellite. At least with cable, you could route your cable somewhere else. With satellite, that wasn't an option. But yes, it is wonderful to be able to do this with streaming. You can watch your programming wherever you can get internet.