Q: streaming services
Perhaps late to the party but I think I'm cutting the cable subscription this year.
I'm curious to hear from others how the experience was watching our 15 football games this year on streaming services. Tell me everything I need to know. Any streams go down / get interrupted?
Does it just come down to buying FS1, ESPN+ and B1G+ apps in September and canceling those subscriptions in January? I have a smart TV and Roku
February 17th, 2024 at 5:24 PM ^
HULU for me
February 17th, 2024 at 5:27 PM ^
Games are on: CBS, NBC, Peacock, BTN, Fox. No longer on ESPN.
February 17th, 2024 at 5:38 PM ^
CFP is on ESPN. Also certain non-conference road games and games outside of the B1G that may be of interest. Also Monday Night Football.
February 17th, 2024 at 6:50 PM ^
Sign up for YouTube TV the month of the CFP. Watch the games on ESPN then cancel the next month.
February 17th, 2024 at 7:17 PM ^
I signed up the afternoon of the Rose Bowl and got a 21-day(!) free trial.
February 17th, 2024 at 7:09 PM ^
I watched MNF on ABC.
February 18th, 2024 at 7:09 PM ^
Here's the thing, unless you have reason you need to watch ALL the games a home, sign up for the services that get you the bulk of the games, if you want to go as far as only signing up for a service in the month (or few months) they actually carry a game, you can go that far. When you are left with a tolerable amount of games (2? 3? 4?) that you don't want to bend over backwards to stream at home.......take a small portion of the $$ you are saving not paying cable and avoiding the exorbitant season long blooding from YTTV, get a few friends and go watch those at a fun/dive bar. I did that with some friends here in SF a few times this season and forgot what an absolutely spectacular time it can be (thanks Kezar Pub, RIP Bridgett **UM Alum, Wolverine bartender extraodinaire and slinger of the occasional free shot). Met more than a few stellar M fans that way, had some good natured rivalry banter.
Cut the cord, connect with people ;)
February 17th, 2024 at 5:27 PM ^
My antenna got me all the way to the playoffs.
February 17th, 2024 at 5:28 PM ^
What about ECU? Wasn’t that Peacock only?
February 17th, 2024 at 5:28 PM ^
I do IPTV through my barber. $15/month for everything. Not as easy to record stuff and whatnot but it has everything.
February 17th, 2024 at 5:41 PM ^
does that come with a shave and a lineup?
February 18th, 2024 at 8:40 AM ^
Two bits!
February 19th, 2024 at 10:30 PM ^
Don't you tempt me! I have been considering going this route. But for now its Youtube TV.
February 17th, 2024 at 5:40 PM ^
The + apps are not substitutes for the channels. They offer additional content - back bench stuff.
I used an antenna only until the national championship game, at which point I did a free trial of Fubo.
More than half of the Michigan games were televised until the playoffs, which were on ESPN.
The major streamers seem reliable enough. It's basically the same thing as cable at this point. Channel bloat, prices going up twice a year. There's talk of a sports-only streamer coming online in a year or so at about half the price of other streamers, but I'm sure that will get bloated soon enough.
February 17th, 2024 at 5:40 PM ^
I just use a livestream for the games that aren't on whatever services I have at the time. The quality isn't always great, but it beats the hell out of paying $300 for cable.
Prime has sales on various apps and channels throughout the year, so we binge whatever we want and then cancel it for something else before the price goes up.
February 17th, 2024 at 5:42 PM ^
I use fubu, its expensive but has cbs, abc, nbc. All of which I found to be a problem with slingtv. I don't think you're going to find much value in switching out of your cable package though, annoyingly
February 17th, 2024 at 7:37 PM ^
I also have Fubu. I’m not paying for Peacock and the like. I guess I’m at the age where if they can’t present it in a manner where I don’t have to sign up for multiple apps, I’ll follow another way.
February 17th, 2024 at 6:04 PM ^
Sign up for:
tubi
plex
amazon prime
apple tv
hulu
disney+
espn+
paramount
peacock
shudder
Itll be around $160 plus internet but youll get everything!
February 17th, 2024 at 7:33 PM ^
You can't convince me at least one of those isn't made up
February 17th, 2024 at 10:24 PM ^
Nope, all real
February 18th, 2024 at 8:52 AM ^
When I looked into this option i found that I'd end up paying a few dollars more and getting less than I do now with cable and internet
February 18th, 2024 at 12:42 PM ^
That was kinda my point.
February 17th, 2024 at 6:18 PM ^
I have been collecting streaming services over the years for various purposes -- what is now MAX because of Game of Thrones back in the day; Peacock for the Premier League; Amazon Prime b/c of course Amazon; Hulu and ESPN+ b/c I have kids = Disney plus package; Netflix b/c well it used to be the only game in town. I just never cancelled anything.
But I refuse, refuse, refuse to go to Paramount plus. So there. I do have limits, apparently.
February 17th, 2024 at 6:32 PM ^
I got Paramount+ as a who-cares throw-in with my Walmart+ subscription and now it's become essential because of Paw Patrol and Blaze. It's all my 2 year old wants to watch.
February 17th, 2024 at 6:41 PM ^
I cannot stand Paw Patrol but I do like Blaze. Neither can hold a candle to Bluey though.
February 17th, 2024 at 6:48 PM ^
I like the STEM focus of Blaze even if I giggle every time they say, "Let's blaze!"
February 17th, 2024 at 6:52 PM ^
Is Peppa Pig still a thing?
February 17th, 2024 at 7:15 PM ^
They had to move to Only Fans for financial reasons,
February 17th, 2024 at 9:31 PM ^
Hell yea it is! My daughter has a bitchin’ English accent because of it.
February 17th, 2024 at 10:37 PM ^
My kids are on holiday in America because of this show
February 17th, 2024 at 8:47 PM ^
I got Paramount+ because of Tulsa King.
February 17th, 2024 at 6:21 PM ^
I didn't think anyone still had cable these days, but welcome to the dark side!
I use YTTV during college football season and Disney+ and Amazon Prime. More than enough for me and the kids.
February 17th, 2024 at 6:25 PM ^
ESPN+ and BTN+ don't get you access to the ESPN and BTN channels and there is no FOX network streaming service.
If you want access to all games via streaming, your best bet is either YouTube TV or Hulu + Live TV (plus Peacock since at least one game will be on that platform), but don't expect it to be much, if any, cheaper than your cable subscription.
A $30 OTA antenna will get you all of the games on FOX, CBS, and NBC for free, and with Roku you can pause live TV for up to 2 hours with a USB drive (Roku uses the drive to cache the live TV until you unpause).
February 17th, 2024 at 6:48 PM ^
Peacock is really bad at college football. Which is weird because NBC is so good on Sundays. Bad announcers. Bad studio bad graphics also you are stuck inside peacock hell during breaks
we get everything else from YouTubeTV which is amazing
can watch key plays. Can get stats. Can also dvr which is unlimited and saves for 9 months
its also reasonable v cable
February 17th, 2024 at 6:49 PM ^
I’ll comment on quality.
Peacock started rough, but has gotten much better.
Aside from that, I personally recommend keeping at least one live tv source during football season, and most highly recommend Hulu w/ live tv.
I had to get Youtube TV while Spectrum and Disney were having their little fuck fuck. I was a bit surprised by the gameday glitches, but I did like the interface.
Regardless of what you do, I encourage you to cancel unnecessary services once the season ends. The only reason I don’t is because I’m getting most of my streaming for free thanks to Amex and Verizon.
EDIT: If you won’t otherwise use Peacock, maybe just plan to watch that game at a local bar.
February 18th, 2024 at 7:55 AM ^
What do you mean by free through Amex and Verizon?
February 18th, 2024 at 7:22 PM ^
Most cell service providers and credit card companies offer some sort of streaming perks. Check your plans and cards. I get the following..
Free from Verizon (plan I got a few years back):
- Disney+
- Hulu
- ESPN+
From Amex Platinum Entertainment credit:
- Commercial-free Peacock
- Commercial-free Hulu upgrade
- Paramount Plus (via free Walmart plus)
I’ve leveraged these to get Starz, Prime, and HBO from friends. The golden ticket is to get a spectrum, comcast, or DirecTv password from an older family member. That’ll get you past almost any sports related paywall.
Streaming really is a team effort.
February 17th, 2024 at 7:09 PM ^
I will put in another vote for Youtube TV. It is nice that you can easily cancel during the offseason. I will cancel soon since the basketball team won't be playing much longer, and I am not sure about paying for extra months just for the Michigan hockey team this season.
The unlimited DVR is nice. The only downsides are that I can't watch overseas, and the restriction of local stations causes issues sometimes. Even though I live between two viewing areas (DC, Baltimore) for which cable included both stations, when I go to Dulles airport, I can't start watching from the beginning of a live football game on local channels until the game is over. This latter issue seems unnecessary and is annoying since Michigan football was the main reason I subscribed.
February 18th, 2024 at 2:02 PM ^
YouTube Tv is the way to go. You probably won’t save any money, but you can very easily pause or cancel your subscription once the season ends. It also has the benefit of a great mobile app and ability to record shows for later time.
February 17th, 2024 at 7:11 PM ^
I have never had cable and have never had an issue, but between all my family I have access to any streaming service including directvstream, plus I can find illegal streams really easily in the worst case scenario.
February 17th, 2024 at 8:07 PM ^
Keep in mind that the B1G+ app does NOT include the main BTN content, and the ESPN+ app does not include the main ESPN content.
February 17th, 2024 at 8:11 PM ^
I subscribe to YouTube.tv and it‘s generally reliable for about 3/4 of the football games, perhaps more, and maybe 1/4 or 1/2 of the hockey games (thank you, Pettiti for relegating us to B1G+).
Their interface is frankly awful but they have a nifty split screen/multiple games feature that I like when I‘m doing something in the garage and just want to see what‘s going on. It takes a little while to figure it all out but it‘s not bad once you do.
February 17th, 2024 at 8:33 PM ^
Yttv gets you everything you need for football...except for peacock. If you just want M FB and don't want to pay for YTTV even, 10 of our 15 games last season were available with an antenna. The exceptions - the CFP games, the opening game against ECU on peacock, BGSU and Rutgers (both on BTN). Next year Texas will almost certainly be in broadcast, but I imagine we still have a couple of conference games on BTN or FS1, likely 2 of IU, Minny, NW and Illinois
February 17th, 2024 at 8:38 PM ^
I go to my favorite local cigar bar (Lake Oswego, Oregon) where they have the B1G network, Peacock, and Hulu as well as Comcast. I pay for B1G minus. On Gameday it’s a Digger and bourbon(brought from home)…and it’s “game on”.
they know I’m a Wolverine grad and an ardent fan and they support my fandom. They watch the Rose Bowl trying to find me in the crowd.
If you ever get lost in Oregon on Gameday…come join us!
February 17th, 2024 at 9:29 PM ^
Fubo.tv because wanted bally sports, but we use peacock for some things so we ended up getting all 15×games zero issue.
February 17th, 2024 at 10:27 PM ^
I dropped DirecTv about 5 years ago. I subscribe to YouTube TV from beginning of football season (end of August/early September) and suspend after college basketball ends. I find the YTTV DVR to be better than what we had with DirecTV since they seem to (mostly) adjust recording times to ensure you get all the game you want (even if it goes to 3x OT, etc. or has long weather delay). Also the unlimited storage makes it easy to just record EVERY college/NFL game and pick up whichever one seems interesting at any time.
Being able to drop YTTV during summer when we would not be watching any live TV (still have antenna) saves hundreds of dollars every year vs. what we paid for DirecTV and the monthly charge is less too (although YTTV has gone up a lot and dropped channels since I originally signed up).
For non-sports entertainment we have some combination of Netflix (mostly included with T Mobile but that is changing now), MAX (i.e. HBO - included with AT&T internet), AppleTV, Disney (stopped subscription waiting for new content kids would like).
February 17th, 2024 at 10:32 PM ^
My parents have cable and I watch the games over there. My dad and I watch the game and my mom gives my kids piano lessons or makes cookies or something. My wife gets the house to herself for a few hours. Everybody win. Or I wait until Mathew Loves Ball come out with the 25 minute highlights.
I have tmobile which gets me Netflix and Apple tv. I do Max, and every thanks giving Hulu does a $1.99 per month promotion with adds. I also got Paramount + for a while because I am a big fan of Star Trek. That Lower Decks/ Strange New Worlds cross over was amazing. We also do Disney + for the kids. Youngest loves bluey, and I am currently rewatching the X-Men cartoon. They have some great episodes I can appreciate more now that I am older.
February 18th, 2024 at 5:36 AM ^
X men 97 is going to be wild.
February 17th, 2024 at 11:00 PM ^
Hard to beat YoutubeTV. Their multi-game view is amazing.
February 18th, 2024 at 5:35 AM ^
One caveat, you can't choose your own games. I read that you may be able to soon, but at this point being spoonfed games that frequently do not match what you're trying to watch is not fun.
All's I wants is to just watch Michigan in one screen, ABC in another, FOX in another and NBC or ESPN on the 4th. But no, they always throw in a game nobody cares about. The logic behind some of those multiview games stinks.