Cutting The Cord on Cable/Satellite TV Service?

Ale Xander

Hamilton
SoSH Member
Oct 31, 2013
72,430
Why won't the advertisers push NESN to allow free streaming on a Roku?

Why do you need a NESN included cable package or buy it a la carte?

I don't get it. There's a lot of other content and it's a substitute good. There's only so many hours.
 

RSN Diaspora

molests goats for comedy
SoSH Member
Jul 29, 2005
11,345
Washington, DC
Why won't the advertisers push NESN to allow free streaming on a Roku?

Why do you need a NESN included cable package or buy it a la carte?

I don't get it. There's a lot of other content and it's a substitute good. There's only so many hours.
I suspect NESN would have measurably less leverage with cable providers if they offered their product as a stand-alone streaming service.

I'm strongly thinking about canceling DirecTV. Without the sports packages, I still pay $150/mo. Since I'm out of market, I need to pay for Boston sports anyway, and now that I can stream Sunday Ticket I'm having a hard time justifying the cost delta.

Since I can't get live sports on NESN anyway, is there any reason to go with Fubo over YTTV?
 

gtmtnbiker

Member
SoSH Member
Jul 15, 2005
1,724
My plan is to pick up a cheap MLB TV subscription for $5 from someone on Slickdeals later this month. I don't need to watch Sox games in real time. Have too much in my life to devote 3 hours to a game. Will just watch the highlights on MLB TV and read the news articles. Maybe I'll think about listening to it on a streaming device ("radio" on phone) while I'm doing work around the house but I usually prefer music.
 

RSN Diaspora

molests goats for comedy
SoSH Member
Jul 29, 2005
11,345
Washington, DC
On week two of the YTTV trial, and we just canceled DirecTV. The savings are almost exactly $100/mo. The only channel I ever use with regularity that I won't have is Game Show Network, and even then it's on as background noise while I dick around on my phone since there is effectively nothing else on.
 

daburgaman

New Member
Apr 3, 2007
298
On week two of the YTTV trial, and we just canceled DirecTV. The savings are almost exactly $100/mo. The only channel I ever use with regularity that I won't have is Game Show Network, and even then it's on as background noise while I dick around on my phone since there is effectively nothing else on.
Welcome to the the club! $100 a month is some legit savings. Makes all the sense to cut bait on cable.
 

cornwalls@6

Less observant than others
SoSH Member
Apr 23, 2010
6,247
from the wilds of western ma
Why won't YTTV simply offer a premium tier, that includes NESN(and RSN's in general), for 5$ more a month, but still maintain a standard tier for those that don't care? I'd pay it in a minute, and immediately cancel FUBO. As it stands now, I've got YTTV on pause until July, in the hopes that they figure something out. Is their branding too identified with one price only?
 

RSN Diaspora

molests goats for comedy
SoSH Member
Jul 29, 2005
11,345
Washington, DC
Why won't YTTV simply offer a premium tier, that includes NESN(and RSN's in general), for 5$ more a month, but still maintain a standard tier for those that don't care? I'd pay it in a minute, and immediately cancel FUBO. As it stands now, I've got YTTV on pause until July, in the hopes that they figure something out. Is their branding too identified with one price only?
Don't RSNs typically insist on being placed on the basic tier? Obviously streaming is a whole new world, but a lot of cable negotiations have stalled over the balance of tiers and carriage fees. That might answer your question.
 

Vinho Tinto

Member
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Dec 9, 2003
7,046
Auburn, MA
Don't RSNs typically insist on being placed on the basic tier?
This was a big part of FSG’s play when they bought the Red Sox. By getting NESN on basic tiers, they were now collecting fees from everyone in New England who paid for cable. By removing the barrier of a fee to watch NESN, a larger audience could watch games. Higher ratings led to higher ad rates for games.

A majority of people I knew did not pay for NESN in the 80s and 90s. You would watch the over the air games on WSBK.
 

Ale Xander

Hamilton
SoSH Member
Oct 31, 2013
72,430
This was a big part of FSG’s play when they bought the Red Sox. By getting NESN on basic tiers, they were now collecting fees from everyone in New England who paid for cable. By removing the barrier of a fee to watch NESN, a larger audience could watch games. Higher ratings led to higher ad rates for games.

A majority of people I knew did not pay for NESN in the 80s and 90s. You would watch the over the air games on WSBK.
/raises hand

Weekend games on WSBK, Old Hickory in the Globe, and talking to friends and strangers (who had it) in card shop and with teammates in the two years of LL minors.
 

Hendu for Kutch

Member
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Apr 7, 2006
6,920
Nashua, NH
I finally cut the cord a few weeks ago and signed up for Fubo. Maybe it's because I didn't have YTV first, but it seems fine to me.

Ironically, the TV part of my cable bill cost exactly the same as Fubo - $65. But Comcast was tacking on an extra $67/month in fees. A $10 HD fee in 2021? GTFO.
 
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RSN Diaspora

molests goats for comedy
SoSH Member
Jul 29, 2005
11,345
Washington, DC
/raises hand

Weekend games on WSBK, Old Hickory in the Globe, and talking to friends and strangers (who had it) in card shop and with teammates in the two years of LL minors.
When I was a kid, Cambridge didn’t even have cable access: the city couldn’t agree on a provider. WSBK had every road Bruins game, and occasional Sox games. WLVI had a good number of Celtics games, but SportsChannel had the lion’s share.

Fast forward to today, and DirecTV was charging a $10/mo. “Regional Sports Fee” that presumably covered the cost of having these channels on a basic tier.
 

cornwalls@6

Less observant than others
SoSH Member
Apr 23, 2010
6,247
from the wilds of western ma
Don't RSNs typically insist on being placed on the basic tier? Obviously streaming is a whole new world, but a lot of cable negotiations have stalled over the balance of tiers and carriage fees. That might answer your question.
Yeah, I'm sure you're right. In that case, why not just raise the basic rate like FUBO did. It's coming anyway, the sooner the better. I much prefer everything about YTTV, but NESN is still a deal breaker for me.
 

Vinho Tinto

Member
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Dec 9, 2003
7,046
Auburn, MA
Yeah, I'm sure you're right. In that case, why not just raise the basic rate like FUBO did. It's coming anyway, the sooner the better. I much prefer everything about YTTV, but NESN is still a deal breaker for me.
There is belief these stations are expensive and don’t move the subscriber needle like they have for the last 20 years. So they’re pushing back on cost vs just endlessly pushing the cost down to the customer.
 

ctsoxfan5

Member
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Jan 13, 2004
809
I’m a YouTube TV subscriber and I’ve been assuming that YouTube and Nesn would work this out prior to the start of the Sox season.
But we’re getting closer to opening day and still nothing.

I’m debating whether to switch to Fubo but I assume that if I do, I lose everything I DVR’d on YouTube TV?

This is annoying. I’d happily pay for an extra tier on YouTube that included NESN.
 

Marceline

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Sep 9, 2002
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Canton, MA
I’m a YouTube TV subscriber and I’ve been assuming that YouTube and Nesn would work this out prior to the start of the Sox season.
But we’re getting closer to opening day and still nothing.

I’m debating whether to switch to Fubo but I assume that if I do, I lose everything I DVR’d on YouTube TV?

This is annoying. I’d happily pay for an extra tier on YouTube that included NESN.
You can suspend your YouTube TV service for up to 6 months where they will retain all your DVR content and settings if you come back.

While it's not ideal, you could at least do that for now and switch to Fubo while the YTTV/NESN situation plays itself out.
 

SumnerH

Malt Liquor Picker
Dope
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Jul 18, 2005
31,888
Alexandria, VA
I’m a YouTube TV subscriber and I’ve been assuming that YouTube and Nesn would work this out prior to the start of the Sox season.
But we’re getting closer to opening day and still nothing.

I’m debating whether to switch to Fubo but I assume that if I do, I lose everything I DVR’d on YouTube TV?
Yes, relying on a provider for playback is more like a limited On Demand than actual DVR. You could get a real DVR and record things before terminating your service.
 

bluefenderstrat

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Dec 16, 2002
2,587
Tralfamadore
I have an offer from Amex for $20 back on Fubo for 3 months, so I suspended my YouTube TV subscription and will move over to Fubo for the season. I think my Wells Fargo card had a similar but lower promo, so if you're going to switch, check to see if your credit cards have any Fubo offers.
 

Jim Ed Rice in HOF

Red-headed Skrub child
SoSH Member
Jul 21, 2005
8,252
Seacoast NH
I’m a YouTube TV subscriber and I’ve been assuming that YouTube and Nesn would work this out prior to the start of the Sox season.
But we’re getting closer to opening day and still nothing.

I’m debating whether to switch to Fubo but I assume that if I do, I lose everything I DVR’d on YouTube TV?

This is annoying. I’d happily pay for an extra tier on YouTube that included NESN.
I’m sticking with YTTV and the NESN app with a friend’s cable log in. If the app is too glitchy I’ll have to reevaluate.
 

Madmartigan

Member
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May 1, 2012
5,664
Pausing YTTV for 6 months and going with Fubo. After not watching a single game last season I feel like I need baseball in my life this year. It is $5 more per month than YTTV, as it appears that Fubo charges $5 as a regional sports fee.
 

HoyaSoxa

Member
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Dec 4, 2003
1,252
Needham, Mass
I have an offer from Amex for $20 back on Fubo for 3 months, so I suspended my YouTube TV subscription and will move over to Fubo for the season. I think my Wells Fargo card had a similar but lower promo, so if you're going to switch, check to see if your credit cards have any Fubo offers.
Thanks for this tip. I am also going to give Fubo a 7 day trial with plan to suspend YTTV. Major drawbacks to Fubo seem to be worse DVR capacity and a few missing channels (CNN, MLBTV) that I otherwise would have with YTTV's basic tier. I hope stream quality and user interface are decent. But for $50/month, I am likely to give it a go for a few months and hope it sends a message to Youtube that people do want the RSNs.
 

RSN Diaspora

molests goats for comedy
SoSH Member
Jul 29, 2005
11,345
Washington, DC

passle

Member
SoSH Member
Jul 15, 2005
136
Erie, PA
I live in PA and subscribed to YTTV using a friend's address in Boston, and switched to Fubo last month. A big difference between YTTV and Fubo - when I had YTTV as long as each month someone logged in to my account from Boston, my devices anywhere in the country could receive NESN. Fubo requires that each device log in from Boston each month to continue to view NESN.
 

begranter

Couldn't get into a real school
Silver Supporter
SoSH Member
Jul 9, 2007
2,344
I’m sticking with YTTV and the NESN app with a friend’s cable log in. If the app is too glitchy I’ll have to reevaluate.
I've had better luck when I stream from NESN.com rather than the NESN android app (same log-in). Still not great, skips here and there, some weird distortions, but largely it's a cohesive stream. My App experience, casting to the TV, was consistently horrendous.


On a slight tangent, the thing that gets me is that YTTV originally was $40/month. It didn't have everything, like nickelodeon and comedy central or whatever, but it did include all the sports you could conceivably want. Their entire market campaign was "watch like a fan" and it was a total no brainer. Then it incrementally went up twice to where it is now as they added new channels (ones honestly I don't really care about). Now, as adoption is up, they cut the one service that got me to buy in originally, and don't pass those cost savings onto the consumer. Kind of like how my experience with Project FI became more like my experience with the cell phone companies as their adoption grew and they rebranded to Google Fi, the experience with YTTV is slowly becoming more like the experience with the major cable providers. I'm largely glad in the ways google moves these markets forward, but it's disappointing the way they've evolved the business model. You could say that, I'm not a fan.
/end rant
 

bradcote

Member
SoSH Member
Jul 27, 2005
3,150
Keepin' it real in Maine
I've had better luck when I stream from NESN.com rather than the NESN android app (same log-in). Still not great, skips here and there, some weird distortions, but largely it's a cohesive stream. My App experience, casting to the TV, was consistently horrendous.


On a slight tangent, the thing that gets me is that YTTV originally was $40/month. It didn't have everything, like nickelodeon and comedy central or whatever, but it did include all the sports you could conceivably want. Their entire market campaign was "watch like a fan" and it was a total no brainer. Then it incrementally went up twice to where it is now as they added new channels (ones honestly I don't really care about). Now, as adoption is up, they cut the one service that got me to buy in originally, and don't pass those cost savings onto the consumer. Kind of like how my experience with Project FI became more like my experience with the cell phone companies as their adoption grew and they rebranded to Google Fi, the experience with YTTV is slowly becoming more like the experience with the major cable providers. I'm largely glad in the ways google moves these markets forward, but it's disappointing the way they've evolved the business model. You could say that, I'm not a fan.
/end rant
I agree with this 100%. My family is too used to YTTV to switch away now. Instead, I purchased the MLB At Bat audio option for $20/season. This will allow me to listen to all MLB games, which for me makes more sense. I have 2 kids and busy evenings, so it is easier to listen to games than park in front of the TV on a regular basis.
 

ctsoxfan5

Member
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Jan 13, 2004
809
Thanks for this link--I just exchanged a $4 Amazon Gift Card for a year's worth of MLB.tv myself.
Can you explain how this works? My wife has a T-Mobile account, but I'd like to get the MLB.TV subscription on my MLB account (so I can have it on my phone, etc.). So she can somehow go on and get a code that I can then use?
 

Marceline

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Sep 9, 2002
6,441
Canton, MA
Can you explain how this works? My wife has a T-Mobile account, but I'd like to get the MLB.TV subscription on my MLB account (so I can have it on my phone, etc.). So she can somehow go on and get a code that I can then use?
Have her download the T-Mobile Tuesdays app. The deal is in there. It will provide a one-time-use link to redeem the offer that can be sent to you (or anyone).
 

gtmtnbiker

Member
SoSH Member
Jul 15, 2005
1,724
Can you explain how this works? My wife has a T-Mobile account, but I'd like to get the MLB.TV subscription on my MLB account (so I can have it on my phone, etc.). So she can somehow go on and get a code that I can then use?
In my case, I had an existing MLB account. I changed the password and sent the account details to the seller who activated the code on his phone. Then he got back to me and I changed the password back after verifying that it worked.
 

RSN Diaspora

molests goats for comedy
SoSH Member
Jul 29, 2005
11,345
Washington, DC
Can you explain how this works? My wife has a T-Mobile account, but I'd like to get the MLB.TV subscription on my MLB account (so I can have it on my phone, etc.). So she can somehow go on and get a code that I can then use?
I think you got this answered in the MLB.TV thread, but I sent a PM via Slick Deals' message board to someone who had posted that they had a code to sell. I bought a $4 Amazon GC, sent him the GC code, and he send me the link and code for the T-Mobile MLB.TV subscription, logged in with my existing MLB account, and the free year was posted to that account. It was actually much smoother than I anticipated.
 

staz

Intangible
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Dec 2, 2004
20,659
The cradle of the game.
Seller had to log in a me, but got er done... just in time for the COVOID in today's schedule, but beggars can't be choosers.

Condensed game of Ryu mowing down MFY is a suitable consolation.
 

tbrown_01923

Member
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Sep 29, 2006
780
Question for you folks - what are you using and paying for internet fees to enable you to cut cable. Cable is a "wife" expense, so I don't get too involved - but she insists the internet is as expensive as cable.
 

Hendu for Kutch

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Apr 7, 2006
6,920
Nashua, NH
I pay $65/month for Comcast internet. A bit cheaper when you sign a contract, but since they're the only game in town why not?

I'm also paying $65/month for Fubo to basically replicate the cable experience, which is about the same price as Comcast was for TV. However, I'm not getting killed by the EXTRA $70 Comcast was also charging for HD access, DVR, box rentals, fees, etc. So my savings was about 33% and I'm really only down a couple of channels for that.
 

gtmtnbiker

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Jul 15, 2005
1,724
Question for you folks - what are you using and paying for internet fees to enable you to cut cable.
$70/month for 600Mbs Comcast internet, taxes included. I'm also paying $22.50/month for YTTV and yearly for Amazon. Was paying for Netflix but it's currently on hold.
 

JerBear

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Nov 11, 2006
1,582
Leeds, ME
Question for you folks - what are you using and paying for internet fees to enable you to cut cable. Cable is a "wife" expense, so I don't get too involved - but she insists the internet is as expensive as cable.
$70/month for 100/15 internet through Spectrum (all my discounts have lapsed, considering trying the game again to get on promo rates)
$8/month Netflix
$120/year Amazon Prime
Disney+ included with Verizon Cell Phone
Local TV via broadcast (NBC, ABC, CBS, PBS, FOX, CW)
 

Dollar

Member
SoSH Member
May 5, 2006
11,086
$50/month for Comcast Xfinity 200/10 Mbps. After a year they tried to raise it to $75/month, but I contacted them on Twitter and they dropped the price back down to the promo rate of $50.
Netflix free through T-Mobile
YoutubeTV shared with family, paying $27/month after the upcoming $10 off coupon from T-Mobile
 

Bunt4aTriple

Member (member)
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Jul 15, 2005
4,347
North Yarmouth, ME
Goddamnit. Just got the roku/hbo max stuff settled:

Dear Roku Customer,

We are sending this email to update you on the possibility that Google may take away your access to the YouTube TV channel on Roku. Recent negotiations with Google to carry YouTube TV have broken down because Roku cannot accept Google’s unfair terms as we believe they could harm our users.

Ensuring a great streaming experience at an exceptional value is the core of our business. We will always stand up for our users, which is why we cannot accept Google's unfair and anticompetitive requirements to manipulate your search results, impact the usage of your data and ultimately cost you more.

While we are deeply disappointed in Google’s decision to use their monopoly power to try and force terms that will directly harm streamers, we remain committed to reaching an agreement with Google that preserves your access to YouTube TV, protects your data and ensures a level playing field for companies to compete. We encourage you to contact Google and urge them to reach an agreement to continue offering YouTube TV on Roku and to follow standard industry practices pledging not to require access to sensitive search data or to manipulate your search results.

Thank you,

Roku