Michigan Radio & TV Buzzboard

Courtesy: The Hill

FCC Eyes Changes To Live Sports Broadcast Rules Amid Fan Frustration

"Consumers who wished to watch every NFL game last season had to pay upwards of $1,000 and subscribe to 10 services to do so, according to estimates by the FCC."

https://thehill.com/policy/keeping-scor ... new-rules/

Good.

The article bemoans the fact that it costs roughly $1,000 a season to watch every NFL game. Watching "every" NFL game has always been a luxury that required a subscription through NFL Sunday Ticket. Historically, everyone was treated to 3-4 afternoon games each Sunday that were determined by location. Sunday Night Football pre-2005 was on ESPN, with Monday Night Football post-2005 has been on ESPN. So in theory a cable subscription was needed to watch one or the other of these games going back to the 1980s (and most people were probably watching the "free" games via a cable sub anyway up to the cord cutting frenzy of the last 10 years or so). Assuming a conservative number of $100/month for a cable subscription over the roughly 7 months of NFL football, people were already paying $700/year to watch a limited selection of NFL games.

I'm all for simplified viewing and paying as little as possible. But these articles always reek of Boomers pissed they have to learn something new.

Ok. But you negate the fact that we are paying H*** money to watch sports. You need a different subscription to watch a different sport, ie; NFL, College, Hockey, MLB. On TOP of cable costs.

My subscriptions are absolutely ridiculous. It’s complete BS and people are sick of it.

All these teams talk about “fan experience” and “engagement,” when the reality is, they just want more money.

Paying big money to watch sports isn't a new concept. Cable TV has been needed since the 1980s to watch many sporting events. Prior to that, you had to rely on radio and the very occasional game on OTA TV. Part of the trade off of having access to all the games is cost. We have more access to the games than ever. It is just a matter if someone wants to pay to access all of them, some of them, or just stick with the free games.

Two resolutions;

Give up on sports (as I have except for a few teams).

Get a VPN and stream just about anything from Czechoslovakia. There are entire Reddit subs dedicated to streaming.

What fool without a life would want to watch every NFL game?

This is beneficial if you are a fan of an out of market team. If you live within range of Detroit TV, you get every Lions game OTA regardless of its original origin. The blackout rule hasn’t applied for several years.

If you wanted to watch all the NASCAR races you would find them on six different channels, most of which are subscriptions.

Honestly, it's one of the major reasons I stopped watching so much sports. Yes, I've become much busier with work and family, but it's a pain in the ass to try and enjoy a season. ONTV was 20 bucks a month (in 1983...get your inflation calculators out for that one), or they were all in one place on cable, PASS or local TV.

It's not like many of the local teams have been worth the search the last 10 years or so.