Watch ESPN online for $20/month with no contract. Yes, No, Maybe?

[Mutilator]

Was actually reading about this yesterday since I was in the process of reducing my cable bill or possibly switching to DirecTV... the article I read was from October though. At the time they were planning on charging $30 for just ESPN vs the $6 average cable/sat subscribers pay and even if 20 million of their hardcore sports fans signed up they would still not consider it being worth it for them to do a la carte stuff. Apparently $600 million per month isn't profitable enough lol.

Sports networks could be most at risk in an unbundled world. About half of the subscriber fees paid each month by consumers go to channels with sports, even though these channels account for less than a quarter of viewership, according to Nielsen data analyzed by Needham.

If ESPN were taken out of the bundle, for example, it might need to cost as much as $30—instead of the roughly $6 per subscriber it currently charges as part of the bundle, according to SNL Kagan—to recoup its losses from reduced distribution and continue to afford its content.

“We believe that only 20 million ‘super fan’ homes would pay $30/month for ESPN’s group of channels”—not enough for ESPN to have a meaningful advertising business, Ms. Martin wrote.

Kinda sad that we're all getting such "a great deal" on all of our channels now because cable and sat providers get bulk discount licensing prices. Guess this is one of those times you cut out the middleman and prices actually go up. Yay.

I use to think a la carte TV would be a good thing... then I started seeing how much the individual channels would actually try to charge. It won't be $1-2/month a piece it'd be closer to $10-20/month each. You'll actually end up paying more every month than the $90/month cable/sat avg monthly price unless you only watch a few channels. And only be able to watch 1 channel at a time - other people in the house have to have their own subscription if they want to watch something different.

What I'd like to see again is something like Turbo HD use to be. Just HD channels and nothing else. It would be nice to just log in to your cable or sat account and check boxes beside the channels you actually want though rather than being forced to have 200 you don't want for the 25 that you do.

 

[cronos]

I would do it but from September to March only.

 

[Humpy]

Maybe, for a portion of the year.

On the other hand, I already pay Comcast $75 a month for access to all of the pirated content I could ever want. So probably/maybe not.

 

[SunnyD]

And this, my friends, is why stand-alone internet costs just about as much as bundled Cable+Phone+Internet from the cableco. They knew it was going to happen sooner or later. Expect stand-alone internet costs to just keep going up. Along with shrinking caps and growing overage costs.

Comcast 50Mbps down around here costs $70/month for stand-alone. Triple-play package: $89.99/mo.

 

[tmc]

yep, too costly for what it is. bundled cable savings will trump this.

 

[edro]

Web only? No way.

I used WatchESPN to stream the college football playoffs and the stream was down for the second half of the Oregon game and intermittent through the OSU game.
They can't handle the traffic.

$20 through my cable line, hell yes.

 

[Homerboy]

Why does this have to be "online"? Offer me a $20 package through my cable box and we'll talk. I don't understand the constant push for "online" TV... I just want ala carte through my existing coax/twisted pair

How are people wit caps going to use such a service?

 

[Homerboy]

Sports is the only thing keeping me from cutting the cord. But I would need my local Fox Sports channel and the Big Ten Network as well.

True.

 

[s0me0nesmind1]

Fuck and no.

I cut the cable cord over a year ago and haven't looked back. I don't even need Netflix or some other streaming shit. Usually shows like Daily Show / Colbert will stream their shows online for free anyways.

As far as other TV - I can pick-up the locals with air antenna.

$20/month - FUCK NO what are you smoking? You are ONE FUCKING CHANNEL. You are not a TV cable package
$5/month - Ok - I would CONSIDER it.

 

[IndyColtsFan]

At first glance, it seems too expensive. However, my understanding is that the $20 monthly fee includes: ESPN, ESPN2, CNN, TNT, Food Network, HGTV, which makes it better. If I could get this package plus History and H2, AMC, and HBO for maybe $50 month, I think I could convince my wife to kill cable tomorrow.

 

[lupi]

None of this stuff is news and its the reason why cart buying isn't coming anytime soon. Most likely change coming first is that the carriers may use this info as a way to get carriage fees reduced by threatening to put some of these higher cost channels into their own block that views must buy into. And as said, in the near turn, all this is doing is jacking up internet access prices.

 

[dank69]

Love sports. Wouldn't pay more than $5 a month.

 

[dank69]

At first glance, it seems too expensive. However, my understanding is that the $20 monthly fee includes: ESPN, ESPN2, CNN, TNT, Food Network, HGTV, which makes it better. If I could get this package plus History and H2, AMC, and HBO for maybe $50 month, I think I could convince my wife to kill cable tomorrow.

Just saw this. $6 max and only because of Giada's tits. Although, she has been really stingy with the cleavage shirts the last few years. Hopefully being back on the meat market this year will bring the girls back out more often.

 

[slag]

No way. They rarely carry Basketball, just a few football games, I am not into all the sports center stuff, so no, I don't think so...

Can't find KU games on anything but ESPN anymore. They rarely broadcast them on network tv (one exception is the UNLV game the other day). I'm in for $20 since I don't have cable.

 

[darkewaffle]

Too much focus on ESPN imo, it's a nifty package altogether I think. If I was moving or something and didn't have cable, I'd think about it though would have to ultimately check how much of a price difference it really works out to be.

Are Adult Swim and Cartoon Network different channels now or are they just marketing that both are included?

 

[slag]

So why comment if you don't watch sports?

Anyways, 20 bucks seems too high. You can get cable with ESPN included for not much more. Only reason I see it worth it is if you travel but even then most hotel rooms have ESPN

I think it depends. I can't get cable with ESPN for anywhere near $20.00. Uverse for the U200 package (the cheapest one with ESPN) would be $46/month before taxes and fees for one set top box on ONE tv in my house. If I want HD (and who doesn't for sports), its another $10.00.

Local cable for me for a package with ESPN is $48.00 pre taxes and fees.

$20.00 for ESPN and food network and the few other stations sounds like a big win.

 

[slag]

Why does this have to be "online"? Offer me a $20 package through my cable box and we'll talk. I don't understand the constant push for "online" TV... I just want ala carte through my existing coax/twisted pair

How are people wit caps going to use such a service?

I don't want it going through my cable box as that limits it only to the rooms that have the box in them. Stream it to your tablet and then use chromecast on whatever TV is in the room or pipe it through your Xbox or media center. Caps are usually pretty generous, so this should have little impact.

 

[Alienwho]

They're finally starting to get it. This is definitely heading in the right direction. I read some other articles where they're going to have supplement packages, so for another $5 per month you can get the "sports" package which should have all the other sports channels. So now for $25 a month you've got a full blown sports package that cuts you away from cable fees and contracts. You've got to admit that's good news.

 

[MustISO]

If I could get a solid stream and you could watch older episodes I would totally do this. I could drop my cable down to basic service and add this service which would give me all the channels I wanted.

I'd still want the DVR capability but if I can watch old episodes that would be fine.

I'm also curious about commercials and the ability to fast forward. Right now I dread using On Demand with Comcast. You can fast forward (at least on the channels I watch) so it's my last resort to watch an older episode.

 

[poofyhairguy]

This is gonna kill Net Neutrality. Enjoy your ESPN throttled to SD quality.

 

[UncleWai]

There are addons on xbmc that lets u watch espn/2 already. If it can stream international, i would consider for like 10 bucks a month. I am already paying 100 for the nba international league pass.

 

[slag]

There are addons on xbmc that lets u watch espn/2 already. If it can stream international, i would consider for like 10 bucks a month. I am already paying 100 for the nba international league pass.

I think you have to log in though and that's a problem.

 

[Carson Dyle]

I don't think anyone has mentioned it yet:

This is a per-user subscription, which would mean only one stream to an account at any one time. It wouldn't work well in most households with kids or roommates, even a couple would require two $20/month accounts if he wants to watch sports while she watches a cooking show.

 

[Ns1]

Just saw this. $6 max and only because of Giada's tits. Although, she has been really stingy with the cleavage shirts the last few years. Hopefully being back on the meat market this year will bring the girls back out more often.

this may be the best post I've read so far this year.

/edit

dear mother of god O_O

 

[TheVrolok]

Sports is the only thing keeping me from cutting the cord. But I would need my local Fox Sports channel and the Big Ten Network as well.

This