More Changes Coming In TV Broadcasting Of NFL Games

[RiverDog]

No, I'm talking about the air travel experience having gotten so much worse over the years. It used to be you bought a ticket and that included all bags checked in, a meal, soda pop, etc.., and to top it off, you could show up a half hour before your flight, breeze right to the gate and aboard. Nowadays they nickel and dime you to death for everything, the entire experience much much worse than when I was younger.

Ahh, OK. Sorry for the misunderstanding. It makes a little more sense now that you've straightened me out.

I'm pretty neutral on the overall air travel experience. I wish they would allow one checked bag for free like they used to as it has resulted in longer boarding and de-boarding times as everybody brings their carry-on to store in the overhead. And I agree with all the nickel and diming for stupid stuff like choosing your seat or boarding early. They're doing it to lower their fares. So as far as the flying experience goes, I agree with you.

But on the other hand, as far as I am concerned living in the Tri Cities, I have lots better options for a better price than I ever had before. When I first moved here in 1989, you could drive to Seattle or Portland, pay to park your car, and fly Southwest vs. flying out of Pasco on Alaska. Alaska and Delta had monopolies: Alaska for everything on the west coast, Delta for anything east of the Rockies. All they flew direct to was SEA and SLC. Now, they've added United and American along with the el cheapo Allegiant and Avelo, giving us direct flights to SFO, DEN, MSP, LAX, LAS and PHX. Today, both Alaska and Delta fly into SEA. And, due to the increased competition, the prices are very close to what it costs to fly out of SEA or PDX. So, from my POV, the service has improved tenfold.

I wish the airline industry would get together and agree to some minimum standards, like allowing one checked bag, forcing all the airlines to bake into their fares the cost of handling the additional checked bags. However, from my POV, I'm lots happier with the service we get vs. what it was 25-30 years ago and is worth the relatively minor inconveniences like the cluster phuck boarding and deboarding process.

 

[OneLofaTatupu]

Society of suckers

 

[jeremiah]

How does it save money?

When games were on ABC, NBC, CBS, and Fox, you just need basic cable or YouTube TV subscription to get all the games. Now you need that plus a subscription to Peacock, Amazon, Netflix, and Paramount.

You put up with commercials because they paid the freight for the broadcast. NOW, you get commercials and you have to pay out the hoglixm to do that. 250+ a month for streaming plus internet. We are all suckers. The worst part is, the Networks hold broadcasting licenses to put a signal out to antennas, yet they cut it back so the only signal I can get is 13 FOX, CBS is very weak, so I have to subscribe to a streaming service. Old Fogies have a point, all of you suckers are paying the equivalent of ticket to a game every month, because REAL seats are triple of that for two in the nosebleed section.

 

[jeremiah]

You Tube and NFL ticket which I had for the first and last time are not
what I consider cheap.
I found a way cheaper alternative and my previous free streamer is back
again.
The NFL can go stick it because they are NOT getting any more of my $$$.

What are you using? Us "OLD FOGIES" or I should say I, cannot afford to be a fan. If it is not on Peacock, Paramount or OTA on 13, I am SOL. I can't stretch it out further than that. I barely get to watch NCAA games.

 

[Trackhawk]

I’m, thankfully, in a financial position that the cost of the having multiple streaming services is not a problem. (Of course the fact that I am the type to not have multiple streaming services, despite being able to easily afford them, might be part of why I am in this financial position to begin with.)

The issue for me is that I don’t want to have to try and figure out which streaming service is airing which game on any given day. Worse, trying to figure out if it is a streaming service that allows me to cast the signal to my TV, so I can have several friends over for a watch party.

I used to do the Sunday Ticket thing, but it just wasn’t worth it. Now, if I want to watch football with a group, we just go to a sports bar, which is probably what the NFL prefers. Higher revenues for them and the bars.

The NFL could help, somewhat, by having a portal on their homepage, that lists every game, with where it will be broadcast/ streamed, with a link to the game stream for the streamed games.

 

[Trackhawk]

Let's put a pencil to this. When I was growing up in the 60's, we got to see two games a week for free. Well, it really wasn't free as I lived in Walla Walla and the OTA TV signal wasn't very strong, so my parents bought a cable subscription for $5 a month to get just 3 network stations. We got to see two professional football games each week, the NFL on Sunday mornings the AFL on Sunday afternoons. There was no MNF, SNF, or TNF. It was a 12-game season for both the NFL and the AFL, so that's 24 regular season games we got for free. Each league had 2 playoff games and in 1967, they added the Super Bowl. That's 5 playoff games. Add it all together and that's 29 games we got for free if we ignore the cost of the cable subscription.

There are still at least three and most of the time 4 NFL games on network TV that you can get for free if you have decent OTA reception. We have a 17-game season, including the byes makes it 18 weeks of football. That's well over 60 games, over twice the number of free games we got when I was a kid, and that's just in the regular season before we start counting playoff games and ignoring the $5 cable subscription, about $50 in today's money.

I can piss and moan about a lot of changes that has happened over the course of my 70 laps around the sun, but the entertainment value we're getting out of televised football isn't one of them.

At the peak of OTA, I could watch Thursday Night Football, choose between two Sunday early games, have at least one Sunday late game, watch Sunday Night Football, and watch Monday Night Football.

That’s 5-6 games per week plus any Thanksgiving and Christmas broadcasts.

I think that’s what people are comparing to.

I think that ultimately we will be in a better place, but the evolution from that much OTA to fully streaming is not going to be a seamless process.

 

[NoGain]

At the peak of OTA, I could watch Thursday Night Football, choose between two Sunday early games, have at least one Sunday late game, watch Sunday Night Football, and watch Monday Night Football.

That’s 5-6 games per week plus any Thanksgiving and Christmas broadcasts.

I think that’s what people are comparing to.

I think that ultimately we will be in a better place, but the evolution from that much OTA to fully streaming is not going to be a seamless process.

Exactly. Just like you said, I got at least three games on Sunday, the two Thanksgiving Day games, the late season Saturday games, any other holiday game, eventually Monday Night Football, and all the playoff games for free on regular TV for much of my youth and young adulthood. That included any pregame or post game broadcasts. Hell, I could make the argument that the announcers were even better, as they weren't spread so thin.

Personally speaking, it was cheaper back then (free), the quality of the broadcasts were just fine by me, and I didn't feel that I was missing out on anything. I got my football fill. Again, for me personally, the ONLY thing that's really gotten better for me when it come to being an NFL football from my couch is the quality of the TV sets themselves. The picture quality is that much better. Everything else... only very marginally better on the periphery about things I don't care that much about, and a lot more expensive than free. More confusing as well.

 

[Trackhawk]

I should point out that I believe that, as the move to streaming matures, the confusing part of figuring out which service, and what capabilities that service offers, will be largely fixed. It would be in the best interest of all to make things as clear as possible. A portal page on NFL.com would be ideal.

 

[Ostatehawk]

I'll never stop watching, ever.

Agreed - and I will eat whatever mountain of crap I am forced to in order to watch. I'll bitch about it to be sure - but in the end........I'll pay.

Because - Football.

 

[SoulfishHawk]

Oh yeah, all the bitching, and the freaking out.

 

[BirdsCommaAngry]

Somehow this is going to result in more gambling ads. Gambling is awful for sports and no one should do it. I would bet all kinds of money on gambling being awful for sports.

 

[Ostatehawk]

Somehow this is going to result in more gambling ads. Gambling is awful for sports and no one should do it. I would bet all kinds of money on gambling being awful for sports.

I'll take that bet.

Even lay the points.

 

[CPHawk]

Netflix is stepping it up in sports. Rumor of landing the ufc also

 

[RiverDog]

At the peak of OTA, I could watch Thursday Night Football, choose between two Sunday early games, have at least one Sunday late game, watch Sunday Night Football, and watch Monday Night Football.

That’s 5-6 games per week plus any Thanksgiving and Christmas broadcasts.

I think that’s what people are comparing to.

I think that ultimately we will be in a better place, but the evolution from that much OTA to fully streaming is not going to be a seamless process. for free. ESPN has had it since 2006. Over the past couple of seasons, ESPN started sharing their telecasts with their parent station ABC, telecasting 21 games last season alone. With a few exceptions, MNF is free.

MNF is now basically free as ESPN has started sharing games with their parent network station ABC. Last season, ABC televised 21 games in which the ESPN crew worked. That's an improvement over past years as ESPN has televised it exclusively since 2007.

SNF started out on ESPN and ran on that cable network from 1987-2005. Now, SNF is free on NBC. Again, that's an improvement that's getting overlooked.

Thursday Night Football started out on NFL Network in 2006 and televised it exclusively until 2014 when they started sharing some games with CBS and NBC through 2017 after which Fox took over and had it until Amazon Prime got it in 2023. So, with a few exceptions, TNF has not been a game televised for free.

We still get 3 free games in the 10am and 1pm PT time slots on Sundays. Occasionally, we'll get an international game, usually on NFL Network, in the 7am PT slot. All 3 Thanksgiving games are free. NFL Network started out televising the late Turkey Day game in 2006, but for the past few years, NBC has been televising it for free. That's another improvement that's getting overlooked.

Again, I don't get all the complaining. People are looking at a few games, like one or two SNF games exclusively on Peacock and one or two on Netflix (Xmas day) without putting it in context of the overall free vs. pay games. There are lots of things we can complain about with regard to increased prices, but getting our football fix isn't one of them.

 

[Trackhawk]

Netflix is stepping it up in sports. Rumor of landing the ufc also

Anything to get UFC out of the awful clutches of ESPN plus is a good thing, in my book. The ESPN plus experience has been awful.

 

[Chukarhawk]

Cable and broadcast are dying. The sooner you old fogies accept it, the easier it'll be.

the problem is it never delivered on the promise of being easier and cheaper. its more expensive and far more difficult to watch a game now. Games are all over the place, often listed on the wrong streaming service. It's a cluster fock.

 

[RiverDog]

the problem is it never delivered on the promise of being easier and cheaper. its more expensive and far more difficult to watch a game now. Games are all over the place, often listed on the wrong streaming service. It's a cluster fock.

It is cheaper if you consider the subscription price for the traditional cable/satellite package vs. streaming services.

Up until the start of the 2023 season, I had Charter Spectrum as my provider and was paying upwards of $180/month for their package that included the Red Zone and my ISP. Just prior to the start of the football season, Charter got into a contract dispute with Disney (ABC and ESPN) and they dropped them for the first couple of weeks. It motivated me to start looking for another provider.

I've since dropped Charter, kept their internet at $80/month, and signed up with Fubo for $106/month for the package that includes regional sports, or about a push. The difference is that I can stream it on up to 10 devices simultaneously and share my subscription with others, so both my brother and daughter are getting the same services as I am for free, so divide that $106 a month by 3 and it's just $35/month.

Plus, with internet streaming, you don't need extra equipment which includes a receiver, an additional remote control, and if satellite, a dish hanging on your house. You can also change your subscription level very easily. I pay the extra $20/month from Sept.-Dec. for the package that includes Red Zone then drop it to the lower priced package after the regular season. So, in that sense, it is easier.

But I agree that it is complicated in the sense that games are scattered all over hell and gone. You might try ESPN's schedule for information about which games are on which networks. I've never found them to be wrong.