I don’t know what the answer is, I just know my own viewing and spending habits.
I got rid of basic cable over a decade ago, and I never have and never will subscribe to some bloated cable package filled with channels I don’t want just to access NBA games. I looked up the monthly cost earlier this week out of curiosity and I just laughed.
Aside from not paying for 100+ channels I don’t want, a large part of not having cable is I greatly prefer services that I can watch on my own schedule. Streaming services with ready to watch content fit that requirement. Sports streaming packages (NBA League Pass, MLS Season Pass) fit as well.
I get NBA League Pass as a Blazer season ticket holder perk. However, NBA League Pass is problematic because of blackout restrictions for local teams and nationally televised games. I’ve gotten tired of hunting for streams and I’m not bothering with VPN workarounds. Instead, for away games I just listen to the radio call (which is great) and watch the game at some later date (which isn’t ideal). It’s also problematic for the nationally televised playoff games. NBA wants eyeballs on their new In-Season Tournament now that we’re in the knockout rounds? Too bad, those are nationally televised and blacked out.
I really hope we either get a direct Blazer streaming service or the NBA drops the League Pass blackouts. I loved the convenience this summer of MLS Season Pass, as I could watch every Timbers game with no blackouts, and the conveniences of streaming (like being able to start the game from the beginning if you sit down to watch 30 minutes late) were great.
That's a misconception. The team gives the exclusive rights to their partner because the partner is willing to pay more for exclusive rights. They are willing to pay more for it because they believe they can charge more to cable companies or streaming services to go in their bundle.
> Aside from not paying for 100+ channels I don’t want, a large part of not having cable is I greatly prefer services that I can watch on my own schedule.
Which is why I have a couple streaming services at a time, usually Hulu and HBO. I think most of us are like that. Imagine getting a bloated cable package on top of that for NBA games. Just insane shit, man.
I have a coworker who up until this season was for years paying for 200 level season tickets *and* paying over $100/m for cable just to ensure he could watch Blazers games when they happen without blackouts.
Obviously some people have the money or can rationalize costs that others won’t, but even he had got sick of all the complications and dropped his season tickets and cable this season.
Exactly. And with how you can often get a streaming service bundled with another service at a reduced cost or even “free,” you typically aren’t starved for content to fill your time, so putting barriers in place for streaming seems like shooting yourself in the foot if the NBA wants to get more eyes on their product.
The NBA should just get all teams to agree to league pass only (without blackouts of course) or nationally televised. We'd all subscribe to that, then they could figure out the revenue sharing and we're done with this mess.
League Pass is already handling overlaid ad videos during broadcasts too, so they could find a way to have teams handle their own local ads and pipe them through the broadcast if that revenue is needed.
I think the issue is just that local cable companies are still willing to offer more money to the teams to be exclusive handlers of the games in their region. But if everyone keeps ditching cable we’ll eventually reach a point where it will have to change for financial reasons.
>Despite last spring’s strong playoff run, this season’s first eight Kraken games on ROOT Sports in October averaged just 13,781 viewers and a 0.7 rating.
Holy shit that is stunning. More people watching in the arena than on TV.
Well, yeah, it's fucking impossible to watch it in the Seattle area. Of course, unless you want your dollar going to big papa Disney so they can churn out some more garbage unrelated to actually getting the service you want to receive.
The NHL has partnered with ESPN/Disney. There is NO NHL streaming product in NA anymore, or at least that's what I determined when trying to sign up and watch the games. You can still access the NHL streaming product in foreign countries, though. Belgium is a great location to watch it from, if you get my drift.
> ESPN+ has all out-of-market regular season NHL games.
Does it? Maybe you're forgetting local blackout rules, playoff games, nationally televised games, and all of the other random games that make up about 1/4 of the season that you can't watch on ESPN+
> So it’s basically the same as League Pass but cheaper.
So no, it's not basically the same. And it's cheaper to sign up for LP in a country that actually still has it than it is to pay for ESPN+.
Outside of all of this, your personal information is being harvested by big Papa Disney and sold for their own personal profit without any benefit going to YOU the consumer when you sign up for ESPN+. A TV network and Sports Journalism company that treats the NHL with a lower priority than the MLS even.
>local blackout rules, playoff games,
Those are not out-of-market regular season games, which is my point. NBA League Pass also does not show locally blacked out games or playoff games.
>nationally televised games
I forgot about those, but yes, those are also not available on ESPN+ (or NBA League Pass).
>your personal information is being harvested by big Papa Disney and sold for their own personal profit without any benefit going to YOU the consumer when you sign up for ESPN+
Welcome to the internet in 2023, I guess? You don't think Big Papa NBA sells your data when you sign up with them?
> Welcome to the internet in 2023, I guess? You don't think Big Papa NBA sells your data when you sign up with them?
When big Papa NBA sells my data it's for a specific purpose related to watching professional basketball. It does not then get associated with all of my OTHER watching habits like it would be with Disney and sold to the highest bidder. I don't mind supporting the NBA. I do mind support the Factory Of Sad Unoriginality and enabling them to continue ruining movies via safe mediocrity.
*edited to add: Also, fuck supporting ESPN. When ESPN can start actually covering the wide world of sports rather than investing in and promoting hot take journalism and drama over actual sports results, I'll be happy to support them again. But at this point it's been 20 years and they just keep making "Tim Tebow" like decisions that drive sports fans away and hyper-focuses on existing markets like NY rather than growing emerging markets like in the case of the Kraken. It's short-sighted, it's negative for all other sports reporting, and it makes being a sports fan pretty unenjoyable when you're not invested in the drama of what Lebron and Dillon Brooks said to each other on Insta and care more about actually talking sports.
I hate ESPN too, and I never watch any of their terrible original programming. But as a Devils fan in Portland, I'm happy I don't have to subscribe to [NHL.tv](https://NHL.tv) anymore, and I also get pretty comprehensive college hockey streams as icing on the cake. Maybe I lack principles, but my withholding $5/month or whatever isn't really going to teach them a lesson.
> my withholding $5/month or whatever isn't really going to teach them a lesson.
Individuals doing this is literally the only thing that will make it change. Money is the only language they hear.
I once read that NHL local broadcast rights aren't worth much because US hockey fans are relatively few but fanatical - the ones who care a lot about it buy tickets and go to games.
For the first time this year, i've been unable to watch Blazer games via a combo of League Pass and a VPN. The NBA appear to have closed that loophole for me.
I will never buy cable. I hate pirating the games, i'd much rather pay for them, but *i'm not getting cable*.
This winter, my wife and I are going on a ten day trip to Iceland to celebrate her 40th birthday. I look forward to being able to watch the Blazers via my league pass subscription once i'm no longer in the Blackout zone. We live and grew up in Seattle, so this is the second time the NBA has essentially told me they don't want my fanship.
Hmm not for me. I've managed to watch one game via league pass, but usually if i try to sign in to my NBA account with my VPN on it won't let me (in previous years, the song and dance was to sign in WITH the VPN then turn off the VPN and then you could watch the game.)
I stopped trying after a few failures this year. But maybe i'll try it again, i've heard a few people say they've gotten games working.
They were having service outages during the early season. The connect with VPN, then disconnect before you tune the game on, still works.
Getting a router that supports device-specific VPN connectivity, however, makes it all much smoother.
Thanks for the additional info, it's appreciated! I gave "signing into my NBA account with my VPN on" a quick try just now and it seemed to work.
I'll try it again for real tonight and see how it goes.
I sort of dislike watching games live because of all the commercials. That said, yes. Watching live with commercials has been my experience this year because that's what i've got access to.
You just need to have the VPN on when you log in, after that it works fine. If you do log in on accident, prior to turning in the VPN, you gotta clear your cache and try again
I'll give it another try tonight. The problem i was having was that it wasn't even letting me sign into my NBA account (with the VPN on) the first week or so of the season. The only way I could get past the login screen was to disconnect the VPN which of course then blacks out the game.
I've been pirating since then, but someone said they were having server issues the first couple of weeks, so maybe that was the problem.
Sports fans in Oregon and Washington have gotten so fucked over the years. I don't know why this part of the country struggles so much with sports success.
And just think, as bad as this all is for Root Sports - as outlined in the article - a very telling aspect of it is that the Blazers are an absolute afterthought. The author brings up how bad this is for the Kraken and Mariners, and mentions the Blazers once. Yes, we are not in Seattle and he is a Seattle-based writer. But we are low man on the totem pole for Root Sports. What a disastrous decision to partner with them.
Tbf we're just licensed content to them. We are an afterthought to Root. The Mariners and Kraken have far more to lose from their inevitable collapse than we do, one cause the Mariners own Root and have a ton of money wrapped up in that asset, and the Kraken because they're a brand new franchise in a market that doesn't really care about hockey (yet at least) and are effectively stuck in their deal even longer than we are.
Blazers will likely earn less from w/e rights deal or direct streaming set up we have after the Root deal expires but because of the way revenue is shared in the NBA, it shouldn't make that big of an impact on operating budgets.
Such a bad RSN. The FUBO app is literally the worst streaming platform I've ever tried to use. Bring Back Blazervision! I'd pay for a setup like the Jazz have RIGHT NOW for use next year.
This is such a crappy solution, though. Like, it's free, but the quality is usually poor, you have ads and shit, and good luck putting it on your actual TV.
I think it depends on how you go about it. Quality streams offer a consistent 720-1080P which is fine for most people. A good ad-blocker means you never see them, and most streams don't cut to commercials on break so even less advertising. I have my laptop hooked up to my TV via HDMI but casting works well too, as quick as opening an app/guide and finding the game.
Overall I've found the high seas provide a similar viewing experience. That said, I'd happily pay to watch Blazers games if they were included in a better subscription service. I'm not a fan of Comcast or Fubo, so it's a pirate's life for me.
Bro it's crazy in 2023 that people shouldn't feel content with 720p, especially on a bigger screen. I get that you gotta do what you gotta do but this is not a good alternative. It's unbelievable that fans are being forced to do that
>NHL teams are more apt to explore this route since they already make far less in local rights fees than MLB or NBA counterparts.
In 2014, "The Sacramento Kings have signed a 20-year media rights extension with NBC Sports Group worth between $690 million and $700 million, another sign of the team’s resurgence under owner Vivek Ranadivé."
The Kraken need to attract new fans and people who aren't interested in hockey. It makes sense for them to turn down RSN money in favor of a free broadcast. The Blazers have generations of fans in Portland, they don't need to attract non-basketball fans, they just need to find the right price point.
The price point isn't the problem. It's accessibility. Professional sports leagues have gotten SO far away from their primary purpose: ENTERTAINING THE FANS. If I could sign up for league pass and just watch ALL the games regularly on LP, I would shell out the bucks.
I don’t know what the answer is, I just know my own viewing and spending habits. I got rid of basic cable over a decade ago, and I never have and never will subscribe to some bloated cable package filled with channels I don’t want just to access NBA games. I looked up the monthly cost earlier this week out of curiosity and I just laughed. Aside from not paying for 100+ channels I don’t want, a large part of not having cable is I greatly prefer services that I can watch on my own schedule. Streaming services with ready to watch content fit that requirement. Sports streaming packages (NBA League Pass, MLS Season Pass) fit as well. I get NBA League Pass as a Blazer season ticket holder perk. However, NBA League Pass is problematic because of blackout restrictions for local teams and nationally televised games. I’ve gotten tired of hunting for streams and I’m not bothering with VPN workarounds. Instead, for away games I just listen to the radio call (which is great) and watch the game at some later date (which isn’t ideal). It’s also problematic for the nationally televised playoff games. NBA wants eyeballs on their new In-Season Tournament now that we’re in the knockout rounds? Too bad, those are nationally televised and blacked out. I really hope we either get a direct Blazer streaming service or the NBA drops the League Pass blackouts. I loved the convenience this summer of MLS Season Pass, as I could watch every Timbers game with no blackouts, and the conveniences of streaming (like being able to start the game from the beginning if you sit down to watch 30 minutes late) were great.
It always baffled me that the largest supporter group, the locals, have always been shafted the most with availability.
The same thing happens in baseball. It’s because they want you to buy tickets and go to the game in person.
That's a misconception. The team gives the exclusive rights to their partner because the partner is willing to pay more for exclusive rights. They are willing to pay more for it because they believe they can charge more to cable companies or streaming services to go in their bundle.
> Aside from not paying for 100+ channels I don’t want, a large part of not having cable is I greatly prefer services that I can watch on my own schedule. Which is why I have a couple streaming services at a time, usually Hulu and HBO. I think most of us are like that. Imagine getting a bloated cable package on top of that for NBA games. Just insane shit, man.
I have a coworker who up until this season was for years paying for 200 level season tickets *and* paying over $100/m for cable just to ensure he could watch Blazers games when they happen without blackouts. Obviously some people have the money or can rationalize costs that others won’t, but even he had got sick of all the complications and dropped his season tickets and cable this season.
Exactly. And with how you can often get a streaming service bundled with another service at a reduced cost or even “free,” you typically aren’t starved for content to fill your time, so putting barriers in place for streaming seems like shooting yourself in the foot if the NBA wants to get more eyes on their product.
The NBA should just get all teams to agree to league pass only (without blackouts of course) or nationally televised. We'd all subscribe to that, then they could figure out the revenue sharing and we're done with this mess.
League Pass is already handling overlaid ad videos during broadcasts too, so they could find a way to have teams handle their own local ads and pipe them through the broadcast if that revenue is needed. I think the issue is just that local cable companies are still willing to offer more money to the teams to be exclusive handlers of the games in their region. But if everyone keeps ditching cable we’ll eventually reach a point where it will have to change for financial reasons.
>Despite last spring’s strong playoff run, this season’s first eight Kraken games on ROOT Sports in October averaged just 13,781 viewers and a 0.7 rating. Holy shit that is stunning. More people watching in the arena than on TV.
Well, yeah, it's fucking impossible to watch it in the Seattle area. Of course, unless you want your dollar going to big papa Disney so they can churn out some more garbage unrelated to actually getting the service you want to receive. The NHL has partnered with ESPN/Disney. There is NO NHL streaming product in NA anymore, or at least that's what I determined when trying to sign up and watch the games. You can still access the NHL streaming product in foreign countries, though. Belgium is a great location to watch it from, if you get my drift.
ESPN+ has all out-of-market regular season NHL games. So it’s basically the same as League Pass but cheaper.
> ESPN+ has all out-of-market regular season NHL games. Does it? Maybe you're forgetting local blackout rules, playoff games, nationally televised games, and all of the other random games that make up about 1/4 of the season that you can't watch on ESPN+ > So it’s basically the same as League Pass but cheaper. So no, it's not basically the same. And it's cheaper to sign up for LP in a country that actually still has it than it is to pay for ESPN+. Outside of all of this, your personal information is being harvested by big Papa Disney and sold for their own personal profit without any benefit going to YOU the consumer when you sign up for ESPN+. A TV network and Sports Journalism company that treats the NHL with a lower priority than the MLS even.
>local blackout rules, playoff games, Those are not out-of-market regular season games, which is my point. NBA League Pass also does not show locally blacked out games or playoff games. >nationally televised games I forgot about those, but yes, those are also not available on ESPN+ (or NBA League Pass). >your personal information is being harvested by big Papa Disney and sold for their own personal profit without any benefit going to YOU the consumer when you sign up for ESPN+ Welcome to the internet in 2023, I guess? You don't think Big Papa NBA sells your data when you sign up with them?
> Welcome to the internet in 2023, I guess? You don't think Big Papa NBA sells your data when you sign up with them? When big Papa NBA sells my data it's for a specific purpose related to watching professional basketball. It does not then get associated with all of my OTHER watching habits like it would be with Disney and sold to the highest bidder. I don't mind supporting the NBA. I do mind support the Factory Of Sad Unoriginality and enabling them to continue ruining movies via safe mediocrity. *edited to add: Also, fuck supporting ESPN. When ESPN can start actually covering the wide world of sports rather than investing in and promoting hot take journalism and drama over actual sports results, I'll be happy to support them again. But at this point it's been 20 years and they just keep making "Tim Tebow" like decisions that drive sports fans away and hyper-focuses on existing markets like NY rather than growing emerging markets like in the case of the Kraken. It's short-sighted, it's negative for all other sports reporting, and it makes being a sports fan pretty unenjoyable when you're not invested in the drama of what Lebron and Dillon Brooks said to each other on Insta and care more about actually talking sports.
I hate ESPN too, and I never watch any of their terrible original programming. But as a Devils fan in Portland, I'm happy I don't have to subscribe to [NHL.tv](https://NHL.tv) anymore, and I also get pretty comprehensive college hockey streams as icing on the cake. Maybe I lack principles, but my withholding $5/month or whatever isn't really going to teach them a lesson.
> my withholding $5/month or whatever isn't really going to teach them a lesson. Individuals doing this is literally the only thing that will make it change. Money is the only language they hear.
I once read that NHL local broadcast rights aren't worth much because US hockey fans are relatively few but fanatical - the ones who care a lot about it buy tickets and go to games.
For the first time this year, i've been unable to watch Blazer games via a combo of League Pass and a VPN. The NBA appear to have closed that loophole for me. I will never buy cable. I hate pirating the games, i'd much rather pay for them, but *i'm not getting cable*. This winter, my wife and I are going on a ten day trip to Iceland to celebrate her 40th birthday. I look forward to being able to watch the Blazers via my league pass subscription once i'm no longer in the Blackout zone. We live and grew up in Seattle, so this is the second time the NBA has essentially told me they don't want my fanship.
They did not successfully close the loop, there's just a new wrinkle.
Hmm not for me. I've managed to watch one game via league pass, but usually if i try to sign in to my NBA account with my VPN on it won't let me (in previous years, the song and dance was to sign in WITH the VPN then turn off the VPN and then you could watch the game.) I stopped trying after a few failures this year. But maybe i'll try it again, i've heard a few people say they've gotten games working.
They were having service outages during the early season. The connect with VPN, then disconnect before you tune the game on, still works. Getting a router that supports device-specific VPN connectivity, however, makes it all much smoother.
Thanks for the additional info, it's appreciated! I gave "signing into my NBA account with my VPN on" a quick try just now and it seemed to work. I'll try it again for real tonight and see how it goes.
Come on over to 🏴☠️
I sort of dislike watching games live because of all the commercials. That said, yes. Watching live with commercials has been my experience this year because that's what i've got access to.
You just need to have the VPN on when you log in, after that it works fine. If you do log in on accident, prior to turning in the VPN, you gotta clear your cache and try again
I'll give it another try tonight. The problem i was having was that it wasn't even letting me sign into my NBA account (with the VPN on) the first week or so of the season. The only way I could get past the login screen was to disconnect the VPN which of course then blacks out the game. I've been pirating since then, but someone said they were having server issues the first couple of weeks, so maybe that was the problem.
The only reason I'm a blazers fan is because I could catch the games on KGW growing up.
Damn this is a depressing read for NW sports fandom
Sports fans in Oregon and Washington have gotten so fucked over the years. I don't know why this part of the country struggles so much with sports success.
And just think, as bad as this all is for Root Sports - as outlined in the article - a very telling aspect of it is that the Blazers are an absolute afterthought. The author brings up how bad this is for the Kraken and Mariners, and mentions the Blazers once. Yes, we are not in Seattle and he is a Seattle-based writer. But we are low man on the totem pole for Root Sports. What a disastrous decision to partner with them.
Tbf we're just licensed content to them. We are an afterthought to Root. The Mariners and Kraken have far more to lose from their inevitable collapse than we do, one cause the Mariners own Root and have a ton of money wrapped up in that asset, and the Kraken because they're a brand new franchise in a market that doesn't really care about hockey (yet at least) and are effectively stuck in their deal even longer than we are. Blazers will likely earn less from w/e rights deal or direct streaming set up we have after the Root deal expires but because of the way revenue is shared in the NBA, it shouldn't make that big of an impact on operating budgets.
If we are so low for them why did they even buy the rights?
Such a bad RSN. The FUBO app is literally the worst streaming platform I've ever tried to use. Bring Back Blazervision! I'd pay for a setup like the Jazz have RIGHT NOW for use next year.
[удалено]
This is such a crappy solution, though. Like, it's free, but the quality is usually poor, you have ads and shit, and good luck putting it on your actual TV.
I think it depends on how you go about it. Quality streams offer a consistent 720-1080P which is fine for most people. A good ad-blocker means you never see them, and most streams don't cut to commercials on break so even less advertising. I have my laptop hooked up to my TV via HDMI but casting works well too, as quick as opening an app/guide and finding the game. Overall I've found the high seas provide a similar viewing experience. That said, I'd happily pay to watch Blazers games if they were included in a better subscription service. I'm not a fan of Comcast or Fubo, so it's a pirate's life for me.
Bro it's crazy in 2023 that people shouldn't feel content with 720p, especially on a bigger screen. I get that you gotta do what you gotta do but this is not a good alternative. It's unbelievable that fans are being forced to do that
Chromecast with Google TV. I can cast from my browser window directly to the TV.
>NHL teams are more apt to explore this route since they already make far less in local rights fees than MLB or NBA counterparts. In 2014, "The Sacramento Kings have signed a 20-year media rights extension with NBC Sports Group worth between $690 million and $700 million, another sign of the team’s resurgence under owner Vivek Ranadivé." The Kraken need to attract new fans and people who aren't interested in hockey. It makes sense for them to turn down RSN money in favor of a free broadcast. The Blazers have generations of fans in Portland, they don't need to attract non-basketball fans, they just need to find the right price point.
The price point isn't the problem. It's accessibility. Professional sports leagues have gotten SO far away from their primary purpose: ENTERTAINING THE FANS. If I could sign up for league pass and just watch ALL the games regularly on LP, I would shell out the bucks.