There is nothing like sitting back and watching a good TV show, or a good sporting event. Likewise, there is nothing quite like paying that outrageous cable bill at the end of the month. Luckily, live streaming services showed up and gave people a brief glimmer of hope with low prices and great channels. That is, until they decided to be greedy and ruin the market yet again.
When live TV streaming was first established, you could essentially watch all of the best channels for only around $30. Sports fans rejoiced as they cut down on that extreme cable bill but still could watch every sports game they desired. That is, until about a year ago. Over the past year, streaming services have become quite annoying with both prices and channels.
Streaming services have made everything extremely difficult, specifically for sports fans. There are four main forms of live streaming for sports fans; Hulu, SlingTv, YoutubeTv, and AT&T. It all started when SlingTv (the cheapest option at $25) cut ties with Fox Sports, making all local sports games unavailable to watch. This allowed Hulu (the next cheapest option) to up their prices from $40 to $50. That is, until Hulu decided to cut ties with Fox Sports too!
Let’s backtrack just a second. Sports fans rely on access to their local sports networks because the games are blacked out on the National Stations. They do this for two reasons; so that the local stations such as Fox Sports can still make their money, and to encourage fans to attend the games instead of watching from home.
So it has already been discussed that the cheap options to watch sports have been removed now. All that is left are YoutubeTv and AT&T, who push prices upwards of $80, almost identical to the cable prices fans were trying to get away from. This leaves sports fans stuck between a rock and a hard place. Their local channels are becoming difficult to get access to. The national networks such as MLB, NFL, and NBA TV are blacked out to encourage fans to watch locally (which they essentially can’t do) or go to the game in person, which they also can’t do because of Covid-19.
Avid sports fan Austin Bennett has become frustrated with some of these changes.
“Certain networks have gotten frustrating to deal with.”- Austin Bennett
Bennett claimed, “When I had Hulu, we had everything at a convenient cost, but over the span of the last year they have raised their prices twice. Now it is frustrating because no streaming services have any variety anymore for the money. Streaming is essentially irrelevant now.”
Sports fans are not happy (that’s a first). However, this time it is hard to blame them. They are being forced to throw money at services just so they can watch their sporting events they crave. The sports market has turned into a monopoly of sorts, and it is ruining how fans watch sports. Now fans are forced to deal with that dreaded end of the month bill yet again.
