Bozzlife: What the heck Youtube?!!
Right before I went to bed last night I got a disappointing bit of news... In an email YouTube TV was letting me know that my regional Fox Sports channels would no longer be available.
I know stuff like this happens all the time with different channels on different providers, but this one just really ticks me off for a couple of reasons.
First, despite the fact that the Detroit Tigers, Pistons, and Red Wings are finished playing for the year, there are still a lot of great sporting events coming up that you won't be able to catch on the major networks.
Most notably, the high school football finals that happen every year around Thanksgiving. It would be a miracle if the school I work for made it to the finals, but it is cool being able to watch some of the better teams in the state show their talent. I know my father in law looks forward to it every year and since he hasn't cut the cord on cable yet, I may have to go over there to watch.
Additionally, there are a fair number of college bowl games that often get shown on those regional Fox Sports networks. I am not sure how college bowl season is going to look this year, but if they play and I miss games because of this debacle, I will be pretty bummed.
I understand that YouTube TV has to keep their costs down, but with more and more people cutting the cord, you would think they would be either creating ala carte packages or doing everything they can to keep their users happy. Especially since they just hiked the price up to $65 per month!
"What? You are raising my monthly fee? Oh, but I get some channels I don't care about? Wait and now you are taking away my regional sports channel?
Talk about a pain in the butt. I am not really in the mood to jump to a new provider every couple of months, but it would appear YouTube TV might be forcing me to head that way.
Finally, I need these regional sports channels because quite frankly I can't stand ESPN. They are the massive conglomerate that knows they are a massive conglomerate and the unapologetically act however they want because of that.
Thankfully baseball is all but finished (as far as I am concerned), that we won't have to listen to the sports casters dote over and make achingly obvious their unabashed bias towards the New York Yankees. The fact that they made it to the playoffs is even worse. I am surprised ESPN hasn't already started making payments for the parade.
I liked having that option of getting my news from a source other than ESPN from time to time. Those regional Fox Sports networks were a great reprieve from the constant fan-boying over there. About the only good thing about ESPN is Rachel Nichols, I do like her.
In the end, I think it is just a lose-lose situation for all of us. For the better part of 2020 we didn't get to watch any sports besides the crazy stuff they were showing on ESPN 3 like Axe Throwing, Spike ball, and Cornhole. Now that sports are finally back, YouTube TV pulls the rug back out from under us.
With the list of ever increasing options, you would think they might care a little more about retaining subscribers. Hopefully they can pull their heads out and get some kind of deal squared away with Sinclair (owners of Fox Sports) before too much damage is done.
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These services are trying to satisfy as many people are possible at the lowest price. Something has to fail at some point. Maybe there is scope for more focused services that give you exactly what you want. Perhaps that could be built on a blockchain-based platform!
I have yet to pay for any Youtube services, but then we pay for Netflix and Disney+. Other TV we have is free.
I may need to go back to an antenna at some point. It still won't get me Fox Sports back...
If you don't want to support Conglomerates why go with YouTube TV, that's Google, aren't they the one of the four biggest companies in the world?!?
Doesn't surprise me. TBH I'm glad I'm not that much of a sports fan, it does seem they've got you over a barrel these media companies!
Yeah, but I love Google. I think what bugs me the most is the fact that Google is huge and everyone knows it, but they still do a good job of making things accessible for most people. It is disappointing they are pulling this stuff with YouTube TV. Especially since it gained notoriety for being outside the norm...
Hulu is still providing me what I want/need. Most of the time anyway:)
Not that they aren't corporate. Disney, which means ESPN. But as of right now I'll be able to watch the Pac12 play in November and the Cardinals NOW. They do good with the CBS affiliation so March Madness is good to go. If Gonzaga wins this year do you think they can call it back to back? They'd have won last year almost for sure :)
But speaking of corporate idiocy: My assigned Pac12 channel is the Mountain Channel which means Colorado and Utah. Not Arizona or California. Jeeze. I can't change it, it's a Pac12 decision. WTF? Like I care about some buffalo named Ralph?
That is pretty nuts about your PAC 12 channel. Last year was so up in the air, I don't know as though a blind monkey could have predicted who was going to win. It is just too bad it got cancelled and we will never know. I hope this year brings us just as many upsets and top 10 moves. If they get rid of BIG 10 network I will for sure be done!
It is shaping up to be a pretty weird start of the season, but who knows. I'm looking forward to a couple of the 'bubble tournaments' that are going to be part of the preseason. It could be a whole lot of fun.
The Pac12 is going to schedule their 7 games from Friday night to Saturday night so I should be able to see the Cougs play at least 6 of theirs (thankfully both Colorado and Utah this year :)) I get all the PAC12 network shows except football games which are another price increase I refuse to pay.
Is Colorado State in the PAC12? They have a beautiful campus in Fort Collins. I visited there a couple times in high school. I haven't watched much college football this year. Been busy on Saturdays plus Big Ten hasn't started up yet.
Nope. Colorado State is in the Mountain West. We have Colorado. A pretty place as well.
Maybe one day decentralized streaming platforms will be able to replace the centralized versions we currently have. Till that happens we will have to deal with this types of situations. I am youtube consumer as well, and tbh haven't found a better alternative yet.
Thanks for the feedback. I think it will take changes at the federal level before we actually see some progress. The FCC has struggled to adapt to the times. Especially with the current guy running it.
Yeah, this is why I no longer watch TV in general.
Probably the better choice!
I must admit that I have resorted to mostly "illegal" methods of viewing sports these days. I don't have the time or energy to keep up with all the subscriptions. In dire cases, i will avoid all social media on gameday and then download the games after they hit some sort of torrent site.
I was looking at NFL pass (or whatever that is called) and it was outrageously expensive.
It is really expensive, but then again so are tickets. I know there are a variety of reasons but it is crazy I can get baseball tickets for $18 a piece and football tickets are no less than $100.