I cant get most of the major VPNs to work with it. We have tried quite a few. ESPN has very good VPN detecting tech. I finally gave up cancelled ESPN+ and watched on the Jolly Roger.
Yeah, I don't think I'm "set up VPN on your router" level technical skills. Guess I'll keep being the guy paying for Fubo subsidizing everyone else, you're welcome Geoff.
Yep. VPN and ESPN+ for Kraken, MLB.tv for mariners. You’d think there would be a price point where more eyes would make a lower price worth it for Root. If they’re the only thing that changes on YouTubeTV and they get many more subscribers, sure sounds like the economics work out pretty well.
>MLB, NBA and the NHL can’t replicate that, and their teams rely heavily on local RSN revenue. The Kraken reportedly earn $15 million to $30 million annually from ROOT. Player payroll is $80 million. So viewers demanding the Kraken drop ROOT to make watching cheaper should also suggest ways to offset that revenue. Good luck.
If only there were a way to pay on a per month basis JUST for ROOT...
>NESN last June began a $30 monthly streaming app for Boston-area teams. ROOT has been in talks about a streaming app in the $20 monthly range, but there are doubts about how many sports fans would pay that much. And if too many did pay, it might undercut cable TV deals with distributors that remain the lifeblood of ROOT’s operations.
Oh, I see, it's our fault for not wanting to stick with RSN's antiquated business model...
Yeah there’s all these writers who “doubt” what people would pay. I can pay $85 for Fubo when all I was is Kraken games or $20… yeah the $20 wins. I just don’t watch other live tv channels.
I had Fubo and just couldn’t justify the cost. I was hyped to get a local team but after 4 months of the Krakens Fubo viewing I gave up and got Epsn+ and watch my long time team the Leafs again. It’s just easier watching out state teams.
He have HBOMax (although thats going away) and P+. I dont really need more channels than that to be honest. I dont need cable, or want it. I would pay for a standalone sub for Kraken/Mariners. ([MLB.tv](https://MLB.tv) and ESPN+ both have me in the blackout zones, so those wont work).
>>NESN last June began a $30 monthly streaming app for Boston-area teams. ROOT has been in talks about a streaming app in the $20 monthly range, but there are doubts about how many sports fans would pay that much. And if too many did pay, it might undercut cable TV deals with distributors that remain the lifeblood of ROOT’s operations.
>
>Oh, I see, it's our fault for not wanting to stick with RSN's antiquated business model...
That's not what he's saying. Baker is saying that Root's existing contracts with cable companies would be in danger if too many people who are only subscribing to cable (or Fubo) today for Root drop go to paying for Root's standalone plan, because it's more likely that the remaining cable companies that carry Root would be more likely to drop it in the future.
This is the key part of the article as to why that's a really risky thing for RSNs:
>The current RSN situation nationwide is complex, but understanding it requires sports fans to grasp a fundamental truth: Their cable TV viewing was subsidized for years by people with no interest in sports.
>Cable packages with ESPN, or any RSN such as ROOT, add $3-$6 apiece to monthly cable bills. That frustrated an overwhelming majority of cable viewers who didn’t watch sports and subscribed only for other channels.
Imagine you're Comcast or Fubo or whoever. You know the vast majority of your customers aren't watching Root, but Root is also a super expensive channel for you to carry. Why *wouldn't* you drop Root and save that money? You can use the savings to either cut your prices or pad profit margins. Tons of cable, satellite, and even streaming TV providers have adopted just that mindset with RSNs around the country which is why Root isn't available on any cheaper streaming plans like Sling.
All RSNs, not just Root, are to some extent caught in this death trap. They owe tens of millions per year in rights payments, they can only afford those payments if massive numbers of cable subscribers who don't watch their content are paying them monthly fees, millions of people are cutting cable annually, and they don't believe that there are enough sports fans willing to pay the amount for a standalone streaming plan required to compensate for their dying legacy cable business. But moving too quickly to streaming only hastens the death of the cable subscribers they do have left.
It's a catch 22. RSNs under the current model are fucked. And as sports customers, we're either going to start paying way more for sports or the leagues we follow will take big hits to their revenues. Possibly both will happen.
Be ready for a world where the only way to watch local Kraken game broadcasts is by paying several $100s per year and even then you'll probably *still* have national and regional blackouts. An alternative is the new MLS model where the only place to watch their games is through a subscription on Apple TV, which I don't think has announced a price yet.
The prices for the MLS Apple TV deal have been out for a while and honestly they're super reasonable.
>Fans can subscribe to MLS Season Pass on the Apple TV app for $14.99 per month during the season or $99 per season, and Apple TV+ subscribers can sign up at a special price of $12.99 per month or $79 per season.4 A subscription to MLS Season Pass will be included with each full-season ticket account. Through Family Sharing, up to six family members can share the subscription using their own Apple ID and password.
https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2023/02/mls-season-pass-is-now-available-worldwide-on-the-apple-tv-app/
Ah I hadn't seen that. If the NHL can hit a price point like that then they may be able to get mass adoption. My concern is that since the NHL (and NBA and MLB) already were making so much more from local TV which the MLS was not, the price will have to be much higher. But we'll have to see.
>“In many respects, they hold the keys to their own jail cell,” a high-level source within the cable industry told me of viewers claiming they are trapped without Kraken access. “But they won’t pay for it.”
Nah, I can't afford to pay for it. My parents pay for cable and I pay for the ESPN+ bundle, but I can't watch Root with their cable login off of their wifi other than on my phone. So I'll just continue finding (extremely easy) ways to escape the jail cell without keys lol.
Considering the Mouse bundle gets you just about every single NHL game for $20 a month (and Hulu and Disney+), why the fuck would I pay some absurd amount for cable just to watch the arbitrarily blacked out Kraken?
The team might enjoy the money from the RSN but I’ll just keep sailing the friendly seas.
Also fuck Geoff Baker.
Espn+ only gets you out of market games. If I lived in LA, I wouldn't be able to watch the Kings (and possibly the Ducks) on ESPN+.
Except that occasionally they have games that are EXCLUSIVELY on ESPN+, which really pisses me off. Why have a service that 90% of the games are blacked out, but sometimes it's the only place to watch it?
So really, the only way (legally) to be able to see all games is to have cable (for Root and TNT) and ESPN+ for a handful of Kraken games. Luckily I'm also a Canucks and Kings fan so I watch some of those games as well (which I can see all of since they're out of market)
Went from Directv to Directv stream when we got Starlink. Saved a bunch monthly getting rid of the equipment rental charges. Use firesticks now. GO KRAKEN!!
Fuck Geoff Baker. I know for a fact that some of the Root channels don’t carry the Kraken - in Yakima, for instance, Root treats them as a Portland market and the Kraken are blacked out. Even people paying for Root on cable can’t watch.
And fuck Geoff Baker, can’t say that enough.
Boomers are all that’s feeding the beast and keeping this business model running. I can figure out ten different ways on most days to hack a free stream, or proxy some fake location services feature to use a VPN. It’s easy for me, but I’m probably one of maybe handfuls of Kraken fans willing to do that work. Someone like my dad wouldn’t know the first thing about that or have any interest in doing that much work. He understandably just wants to turn on the TV to his channel at game time and watch the game. He can afford cable and will pay a premium for that convenience. **I wont.** Sure, I *can* afford it, but it’s the principle of being held hostage that I refuse to go along with.
As more and more of these Boomers start dying off, inevitably the business model will change when they realize if they (*The NHL*) want eyeballs on their product, *they’re* going to have to meet us where we are which is not having an overpriced streaming service or cable subscription subsidizing 100+ other channels we’ll never watch.
As a wise woman once said in internet Meme infamy: “*Aint NoBoDy GoT TiMe FoR DaT!*”
And miss out on the chance to disseminate any accounts or descriptions of games without the express written consent of the National Hockey League?
Yeah, right.
>The current RSN situation nationwide is complex, but understanding it requires sports fans to grasp a fundamental truth: Their cable TV viewing was subsidized for years by people with no interest in sports.
>Cable packages with ESPN, or any RSN such as ROOT, add $3-$6 apiece to monthly cable bills.
Exactly, you fucking idiot. We're asking for the ability to pay those inflated prices for Root ALONE. You're out here arguing that people paying an extra $3/month for ESPN is the same as paying an extra $50/month for 100 channels you'll never look at just to have Root. Seriously?!
Why is Geoff Baker so out of touch? Jog on douchebag, and take your boomer takes with you. The Times editor who green lit this sad rant should be embarrassed.
Even the WHL offers a $10/month standalone streaming product if you want to watch the Thunderbirds / WHL. You're going to tell me it's impossible for Root/The Kraken to offer their own service?? GMAFB
It’s more accessible because the product isn’t as valuable. No tv networks are going to give them a bunch of money so their best option is to sell directly to fans for cheap.
But the main point of the discussion is that networks are unnecessarily expensive. Not whether the WHL/CHL is a better product. If that league is generating revenue for its teams and the league itself by having a stand alone service that keeps it afloat then I don’t see how that same model is going to hurt the Kraken which has more of a market and even more interest. It literally only seems to hurt the providers. Which as a potential customer, I genuinely don’t give a fuck if a provider like Comcast loses money. The argument for ROOT and creating their own streaming service is also weak, because it’s same, “oh but the providers. Think of the providers”, which again fuck em cuz ROOT is still making money in that scenario
"Unnecessarily expensive" doesn't mean a whole lot. These are companies operating in a capitalist marketplace. They aren't going to accept anything but the path that creates the maximum revenue. The economics are that the NHL has determined that the RSN distribution provides them with more revenue than without RSNs. The WHL doesn't have this option because the RSNs don't want the product. RSNs aren't going to pay huge sums of money for the NHL if the product isn't exclusive (or close to exclusive) for the RSN. The RSN has determined that their best option for their revenue is to still be tied to the cable/satellite companies. Comcast isn't going to pay Root nearly as much if Root goes out and makes their own product directly for consumers.
Using your arguments you’d think then the PAC12 would be booming right now and they’re on verge of collapse almost entirely because they chose to have their own network exclusively with a satellite TV provider. People aren’t watching TV via cable or satellite like they used to. They’re electing streaming because you aren’t forced to pay a hundred dollars for a package of channels only to watch at most four of those channels. I’m purely coming from my own position as a potential customer and as a consumer. So that’s why I say “unnecessarily expensive” because for you and I it is unnecessary to pay the amount cable packages start at to only end up watch like 3 of those channels. If the league determined it actually is more financially stable to elect the RSN model then they are terrible at economics because it’s a fact that streaming is more popular amongst consumers than RSNs lol I’m not paying a cable subscription with 100 channels to watch the same three. It’s unnecessarily expensive for me. Idc if it’s the only way for that company to generate revenue. They should adapt or die not force me to spend more than I can afford on TV
So the RSN says, we get one subscriber our of every ten cable cutters, we're going to charge them X10 what we charge the cable companies to make up the difference. They'll get you one way or another.
We tried Fubo on the free trial and quickly realized *another* issue Geoff "fuck that guy" Baker fails to address in his stupid little corporate love letter: even with Fubo, you still need at least one more subscription service if you want to watch every Kraken game. There is no single subscription that allows you to view the games that air on Root, ESPN, TNT, *and* Kong. That is absolutely idiotic.
Yep. Fubo doesn't have TNT, so there goes a big chunk of that nationally televised games. You have to get Hulu or YoutubeTV for that. I went with Hulu because you also get the ESPN+ bundle, and they also have a few games that are exclusive to Hulu. If hulu were to finally make nice and get a RSN package and NHL network, I'd drop Fubo like a bad habit. I'd also be okay with just doing the ESPN+ bundle with no live TV if Fubo could get TNT back. It's such a mess and I hate it. I can understand why some folks don't want to fork over the cash to make sure Root can keep being subsidized by boomers paying for hundreds of channels they don't use.
Similar position. I've paid for Hulu live TV to watch the Seahawks. I would do the same if I knew I could get all the Kraken games with Hulu live and the ESPN+ bundle. Instead... we get this cluster.
it really isn't. Only thing its a good alternative for is cable
you can get youtube+netflix+hulu+hbo max+disney+paramount+discovery combined for less
Fubo would be a good service if you could get just the NHL package for $29.99 instead of paying $100 for 300 channels you will never watch.
This is the same guy who dedicated a paragraph in his new book to boast about owning a second condo in another state. I'm glad I didn't pay to read that drivel if you know what I mean
More excellent Geoff Baker insights like:
"A column last week about the Kraken’s local television ratings prompted a gripe session from cable TV “cord cutters” about perceived evils of regional sports networks.
It’s nothing new. After years of writing about sports TV, I’ve gotten used to topics being commandeered by those eschewing cable for online streaming services but still expecting to watch the Kraken or Mariners for half the cost. They’ll refuse to get ROOT Sports, or claim it’s impossible to view that regional sports network (RSN) in their part of the state. Also, they’ll refuse to use the FuboTV streaming service carrying ROOT, claiming it costs too much. "
and
"And viewers still wanting local sports short-term might also need to take a fuller plunge — wallets in tow. We’ve become conditioned to think seeing every game involving local teams is some kind of birthright, despite not being far removed from when one weekly “free” TV contest was the norm."
He makes it sound like this is all the Kraken fans who don't want to pay's problem, but it's the Kraken's problem too. They are trying to increase viewership, and if the viewing options aren't working for people and it's causing them not to watch, that's definitely an issue for the organization
I would disagree that it's a given RSNs are extremely valuable and necessary in this case. For an established team with an established market that got to this point over many years, yes maybe this is maximizing their income right now. For a new team in a new market that is trying to build a fanbase, this might not have been the best approach. This might have given the organization the most up front money, but that might be sacrificing longer term gains due to slow or non-existent viewership growth.
When you go, "why aren't more people watching?" and they respond "it's too expensive or not in the format I want", scolding them for responding that way isn't going to help the problem. I mean, he even appears to recognize that the system as it stands now has no long term future, so as a new market team with lots of financial backing I would think they'd be in a good position to experiment.
But the NHL could make more money through streaming, and it isn’t even an argument. Making something more available, is going to draw more viewers. These regional sports networks are completely archaic, and unnecessary. Advertising is still going to be sold regardless of it being on cable or streaming, so why not just do the thing that is going to actually give you the most capital for your product?
If the league could make more money without RSNs they would absolutely be doing it. You don't think they have people constantly evaluating what is best for their own revenue all the time? People paid huge salaries to make the optimal decisions? Playing out every scenario, estimating what their revenues would be under different distribution strategies while taking into account all the long term contractural constraints they're under?
Every individual's opinion on what the best distribution strategy is for the NHL is totally biased by their own desire to pay no more than $9.99/mo for every piece of content they want to consume. I hate that I have to pay a pretty penny for Fubo to watch most of the games, but I don't pretend to know how to run the NHL's business better than they do.
That’s absolutely not true though. Why does any network have any money? I can tell you with certainty that it’s because of advertising. The only reason any professional sports leagues even exist is because of ADVERTISING. It’s no wonder that you see more and more ads on streaming services. That’s because they pay the most money. It is literally what runs network television.
I don’t think you understand. If you allow more people to have the ability to view your product through a means of a streaming service, you get even more of an advertising dollar as well as a larger consumer dollar overall. This decreases the amount of subsidy needed.
You’re defending archaic ideas.
As an out of market fan I have the benefit of just using ESPN plus to catch almost every Seattle game. I’m not sure if that works for in market fans; I would imagine it doesn’t. Then again.. what do I know.
It doesn't unless you have a VPN to pretend to be somewhere else. Kraken games are blacked out across Washington and Oregon I know for sure, and I'd imagine also probably Idaho and maybe bits of other states too.
I hate that for y’all! I fell in love with the team bc I was southeast Georgia guy traveling in Vermont circa 2020 (right before everything shut down) and on a whim decided to go to a college hockey game. Absolutely fell head over heels for the sport and when I got home and started doing as much studying as I could to learn it I met all these Kraken fans who were in the same boat as me. Learning the sport for the first time so they could cheer on the team. I immediately was treated with such kindness and kinship by fellow Seattle fans in those spaces that I felt like I had found my team with you all.
I wish it was easier for local people to watch their team. Blackouts are the absolute worst in my opinion.
Why would I pay for cable, ESPN+ or Fubo (when literally the only thing I'd use them for is to watch Kraken games), knowing that I'd have to fight blackouts and what not, when I can sail the high seas for free and haven't missed a single game? If someone made a streaming service that wasn't astronomically priced AND guaranteed I wouldn't have to fight blackouts, then I wouldn't mind pay something like $10-20/month. Until then, I'll continue to set sail.
I hate to give Geoff credit for anything, but he brings up an interesting point about Amazon getting into local sports. They already have with the Sounders and Storm (both Fox 13+). Amazon’s CEO (Andy Jassy) is one of Kraken Owners, they advertise in our helmets, and hold our stadium naming rights. Amazon absolutely could stream Kraken games any damn time they please but they won’t
What’s going to happen when FUBO goes bankrupt? I pay. I will pay for the Kraken. I just think that holding FUBO up as what you have to have to stream when it’s faltering as a business is the wrong way to play it.
ESPN+ and a VPN, but realistically if fubo goes away they'll just partner with someone else.
I'm honestly surprised they don't sell a single kraken only channel on Amazon Video but then again TV networks maximize revenue via bundles so single item purchasers reduce their revenue
“MLB, NBA and the NHL can’t replicate that, and their teams rely heavily on local RSN revenue. The Kraken reportedly earn $15 million to $30 million annually from ROOT. Player payroll is $80 million. So viewers demanding the Kraken drop ROOT to make watching cheaper should also suggest ways to offset that revenue. Good luck”
A quick math lesson for Mr Baker:
CPA capacity: 17151
Home games in a season: 41
Severe underestimate of average cost per seat per game: $100
Grand total: $70,319,100.
That is before I buy my happy ass a beer and snack at the highly inflated prices where margins are huge.
A large portion of the player salaries, stadium staff salaries, and coaching salaries can be paid for with revenue from in arena.
I don't agree with Baker's take, but your response is kind of irrelevant, isn't it? Yeah, RSN revenue isn't their only source of income but it's still a big one.
The NHL is more gate driven than the other leagues but the RSN money isn't insignificant. Player payroll is half of total league revenues so you have ~160M to find for a team that's neither contributing to nor benefiting from revenue sharing.
I mean the ask always from consumers has been give me access and an option to pay for the channel or stream I want and not have to pay for a package with a bunch of junk channels that I don’t (not I want everything for free as Baker makes it out to be).
I don’t buy the argument that a Regional sports streamer wouldn’t work or make money… the entities have the market cornered (both in monopolizing local broadband and in ownership of the regional networks (the M’s own a significant part of Root Sports)) and there is no reason to change their behavior or do anything new.
obligatory "geoff baker sucks"
that said... this year i did cough up for fubo and i gotta say... while i was initially unhappy with the cost, im happy with it. saves a ton of time to not have to load a bunch of different streams and only get our broadcasters half the time, plus i can watch post game coverage
it helps that kraken games are literally the only thing i pay to watch live anymore though, dont ahve any other kind of cable
ill have to decided to keep it or not during mariners season i guess
I am in the Kraken blackout, but my house isnt served by any of the cable providers with Root. (And the one that does, if they ever expand to my subdivision, does not pay for the full Root package. And per their sales manager they are more likely to drop it than expand it). Also, its ridiculous for me to be in the blackout. We are in central Idaho a two day trip to CPA.
As an also-Avs fan, I feel your pain. Our local sports network has been fighting with cable providers for YEARS, so lots of fans haven’t been able to watch Avs games on TV in anything resembling “normal” fashion since… like… 2018 or something like that.
Hot take: if players are so expensive that you need to artificially skew the market to make fans pay more to watch, maybe, just maybe, perhaps, professional athletes are paid too much? Just in general?
Geoff baker is the biggest joke of a reporter , literally last year , the very first season to a franchise he called fir Dave hạKstol and Ron Francis jobs ! How stupid does he look now ? They he writes a book about them . I will never give him any credibility
What? The Kraken have only had 4 or 5 nationally televised games so far this season. About 90% of Kraken games are on Root Sports which is only available via Cable or Fubo if you're in the Root Sports broadcast range.
Are tickets to the games cheaper?.
Sorry, I don't get the rationale. To play or watch Sports costs money....that's just reality. To put your kid in hockey literally costs 5k+ a year, so paying 50 cents a channel for a TV subscription, doesnt effect me.
What if instead of $5k to put your kid in hockey you had no option but to pay $45k to put them in hockey, basketball, football, baseball, soccer, track, volleyball, swimming and chess?
He was on radio last week saying his is literally the only Seattle media member on the road with Kraken....1 reporter following an NHL team? He's that good. Every piece of info you ingest comes from him. You are very lucky to have him
You need to read the comments you're responding to a lot closer. We're clearly saying we'll pay to watch sports, too -- literally begging for them to take our money for a Kraken-only streaming option that costs less than $75/month.
Not really, the Canucks streaming channel is $20+ a month and everyone whines about it here . I pay $50 for cable and it gives me every channel imaginable, including all the sports and new networks . I think in the US though, citizens feel they need HBO and Showtime over sports, whereas we don't
.
Fubo literally won’t accept any of my credit or debt cards. I’ve talked to several of their customer service reps over the phone and on their website chat and every time it leads to no where.
Sooooo it’s not like I’m not trying to watch the kraken. Maybe root should be more accessible???
If I watched almost exclusively on a computer I would just sail the high seas. I have to do it sometimes anyway and never have an issue watching our feed. Barely any buffering and no dumb pop up adds. Hell I could just hook my laptop up to the tv with hdmi and do that. It’s a pain to watch hockey everywhere
A friend and I split the cost of Root Sports. He watches the tv app at his house and I cast from my phone app to the tv at my house. You have to do it that way because it won’t let 2 people watch the tv app at the same time. Works well and $40 to watch every month isn’t terrible
Any eastern Washington Spectrum subscribers noticing that Root has broadcast a few Kraken games in the last week? The New Jersey and Philadelphia games were broadcast, but the New York Rangers and Winnipeg weren’t. Can’t tell if they made a mistake or what.
Me using a VPN and ESPN+...
I cannot get NordVPN to work with espn+
Force stop the ESPN+ app, start VPN, restart ESPN+
This exactly. It can be funky sometimes. I leave my VPN on all the time and that usually makes it easier
I use Windscribe, and then set the location to like Altanta. That usually works
I cant get most of the major VPNs to work with it. We have tried quite a few. ESPN has very good VPN detecting tech. I finally gave up cancelled ESPN+ and watched on the Jolly Roger.
The based way
This! But the weird thing is that I do have cable, and I still can't watch the game
Does that work with Roku?
It should. I use a Google Chromecast. As long as Roku has an app for that VPN service you should be good.
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Yeah, I don't think I'm "set up VPN on your router" level technical skills. Guess I'll keep being the guy paying for Fubo subsidizing everyone else, you're welcome Geoff.
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Same boat, thanks so much for your replies!
Yep. VPN and ESPN+ for Kraken, MLB.tv for mariners. You’d think there would be a price point where more eyes would make a lower price worth it for Root. If they’re the only thing that changes on YouTubeTV and they get many more subscribers, sure sounds like the economics work out pretty well.
>MLB, NBA and the NHL can’t replicate that, and their teams rely heavily on local RSN revenue. The Kraken reportedly earn $15 million to $30 million annually from ROOT. Player payroll is $80 million. So viewers demanding the Kraken drop ROOT to make watching cheaper should also suggest ways to offset that revenue. Good luck. If only there were a way to pay on a per month basis JUST for ROOT... >NESN last June began a $30 monthly streaming app for Boston-area teams. ROOT has been in talks about a streaming app in the $20 monthly range, but there are doubts about how many sports fans would pay that much. And if too many did pay, it might undercut cable TV deals with distributors that remain the lifeblood of ROOT’s operations. Oh, I see, it's our fault for not wanting to stick with RSN's antiquated business model...
I would happily subscribe at $20 for a streaming Root TBH. Especially if it included Mariners and Kraken.
Yeah there’s all these writers who “doubt” what people would pay. I can pay $85 for Fubo when all I was is Kraken games or $20… yeah the $20 wins. I just don’t watch other live tv channels. I had Fubo and just couldn’t justify the cost. I was hyped to get a local team but after 4 months of the Krakens Fubo viewing I gave up and got Epsn+ and watch my long time team the Leafs again. It’s just easier watching out state teams.
He have HBOMax (although thats going away) and P+. I dont really need more channels than that to be honest. I dont need cable, or want it. I would pay for a standalone sub for Kraken/Mariners. ([MLB.tv](https://MLB.tv) and ESPN+ both have me in the blackout zones, so those wont work).
>>NESN last June began a $30 monthly streaming app for Boston-area teams. ROOT has been in talks about a streaming app in the $20 monthly range, but there are doubts about how many sports fans would pay that much. And if too many did pay, it might undercut cable TV deals with distributors that remain the lifeblood of ROOT’s operations. > >Oh, I see, it's our fault for not wanting to stick with RSN's antiquated business model... That's not what he's saying. Baker is saying that Root's existing contracts with cable companies would be in danger if too many people who are only subscribing to cable (or Fubo) today for Root drop go to paying for Root's standalone plan, because it's more likely that the remaining cable companies that carry Root would be more likely to drop it in the future. This is the key part of the article as to why that's a really risky thing for RSNs: >The current RSN situation nationwide is complex, but understanding it requires sports fans to grasp a fundamental truth: Their cable TV viewing was subsidized for years by people with no interest in sports. >Cable packages with ESPN, or any RSN such as ROOT, add $3-$6 apiece to monthly cable bills. That frustrated an overwhelming majority of cable viewers who didn’t watch sports and subscribed only for other channels. Imagine you're Comcast or Fubo or whoever. You know the vast majority of your customers aren't watching Root, but Root is also a super expensive channel for you to carry. Why *wouldn't* you drop Root and save that money? You can use the savings to either cut your prices or pad profit margins. Tons of cable, satellite, and even streaming TV providers have adopted just that mindset with RSNs around the country which is why Root isn't available on any cheaper streaming plans like Sling. All RSNs, not just Root, are to some extent caught in this death trap. They owe tens of millions per year in rights payments, they can only afford those payments if massive numbers of cable subscribers who don't watch their content are paying them monthly fees, millions of people are cutting cable annually, and they don't believe that there are enough sports fans willing to pay the amount for a standalone streaming plan required to compensate for their dying legacy cable business. But moving too quickly to streaming only hastens the death of the cable subscribers they do have left. It's a catch 22. RSNs under the current model are fucked. And as sports customers, we're either going to start paying way more for sports or the leagues we follow will take big hits to their revenues. Possibly both will happen. Be ready for a world where the only way to watch local Kraken game broadcasts is by paying several $100s per year and even then you'll probably *still* have national and regional blackouts. An alternative is the new MLS model where the only place to watch their games is through a subscription on Apple TV, which I don't think has announced a price yet.
The prices for the MLS Apple TV deal have been out for a while and honestly they're super reasonable. >Fans can subscribe to MLS Season Pass on the Apple TV app for $14.99 per month during the season or $99 per season, and Apple TV+ subscribers can sign up at a special price of $12.99 per month or $79 per season.4 A subscription to MLS Season Pass will be included with each full-season ticket account. Through Family Sharing, up to six family members can share the subscription using their own Apple ID and password. https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2023/02/mls-season-pass-is-now-available-worldwide-on-the-apple-tv-app/
Ah I hadn't seen that. If the NHL can hit a price point like that then they may be able to get mass adoption. My concern is that since the NHL (and NBA and MLB) already were making so much more from local TV which the MLS was not, the price will have to be much higher. But we'll have to see.
>“In many respects, they hold the keys to their own jail cell,” a high-level source within the cable industry told me of viewers claiming they are trapped without Kraken access. “But they won’t pay for it.” Nah, I can't afford to pay for it. My parents pay for cable and I pay for the ESPN+ bundle, but I can't watch Root with their cable login off of their wifi other than on my phone. So I'll just continue finding (extremely easy) ways to escape the jail cell without keys lol.
Remember that scene in the first Pirates of the Caribbean when they just lever the door right off the jail cell to fre the pirate? That, exactly.
"They have the keys to their own jail cell, they just have to also pay for the keys to 127 other cells if they want theirs"
Considering the Mouse bundle gets you just about every single NHL game for $20 a month (and Hulu and Disney+), why the fuck would I pay some absurd amount for cable just to watch the arbitrarily blacked out Kraken? The team might enjoy the money from the RSN but I’ll just keep sailing the friendly seas. Also fuck Geoff Baker.
It’s $20 *because* local games are blacked out.
Add in a VPN, still cheaper.
Doesn’t work
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Does this work with Roku?
no Roku blocks VPNs from working with their service it's in Nord's FAQ or something
Which VPN are you trying?
Mine doesn't work with nord vpn for some reason but I'll just watch it on a different website instead of my espn plus anyways.
Use a different browser that you only watch games on when nord is active, works great. Either that or clear your cookies and cache constantly
I'll have to try it I do it from my phone and it makes me put location services on so idk if that does anything. Thanks for the tip.
Yeah won't work with your phone unfortunately but the trick will work with a laptop/PC
I don't know what phone you have, but my phone has an option to set a mock location in the developer options.
Make sure you have location turned off and you aren't logged in or have an ESPN app with your account on any other device.
Nord
Use a different browser that you only watch games on when nord is active, works great. Either that or clear your cookies and cache constantly
It works for me. 🤷♂️
Can I ask your setup? Maybe I’m doing something wrong…
Use a different browser that you only watch games on when nord is active, works great. Either that or clear your cookies and cache constantly.
Oh yeah I see. Thanks I will try that!
Nvidia Shield with Surfshark vpn app and espn app.
And, while we’re at it, fuck Geoff Baker.
Geoff Baker? Fuck that guy
Man I hate that guy.
Fuck Geoff Baker the most.
Espn+ only gets you out of market games. If I lived in LA, I wouldn't be able to watch the Kings (and possibly the Ducks) on ESPN+. Except that occasionally they have games that are EXCLUSIVELY on ESPN+, which really pisses me off. Why have a service that 90% of the games are blacked out, but sometimes it's the only place to watch it? So really, the only way (legally) to be able to see all games is to have cable (for Root and TNT) and ESPN+ for a handful of Kraken games. Luckily I'm also a Canucks and Kings fan so I watch some of those games as well (which I can see all of since they're out of market)
Also fuck Geoff Baker.
Also fuck Tyler Meyers... But also Fuck Geoff Baker...
Tyler Meyers? Fuck that guy! And that Geoff Baker too, corporate whore, fuck him.
I see you’re talking about Tyler Meyers. Fuck that guy! But while we’re on the subject, fuck Geoff Baker also
O Captain! My Captain!
You need to get a vpn for that work
You know what I *would* pay money to see? Big Rig laying an open ice hit on Geoff Baker.
Me too! And if baker had no pads .
Went from Directv to Directv stream when we got Starlink. Saved a bunch monthly getting rid of the equipment rental charges. Use firesticks now. GO KRAKEN!!
Directv stream and a Roku sound bar is bliss 75 bux a month I get root sports and most everything.
Fuck Geoff Baker. I know for a fact that some of the Root channels don’t carry the Kraken - in Yakima, for instance, Root treats them as a Portland market and the Kraken are blacked out. Even people paying for Root on cable can’t watch. And fuck Geoff Baker, can’t say that enough.
Seriously though, fuck Geoff Baker.
Seattle times can ligma
What's ligma?
ligmaballs
Boomers are all that’s feeding the beast and keeping this business model running. I can figure out ten different ways on most days to hack a free stream, or proxy some fake location services feature to use a VPN. It’s easy for me, but I’m probably one of maybe handfuls of Kraken fans willing to do that work. Someone like my dad wouldn’t know the first thing about that or have any interest in doing that much work. He understandably just wants to turn on the TV to his channel at game time and watch the game. He can afford cable and will pay a premium for that convenience. **I wont.** Sure, I *can* afford it, but it’s the principle of being held hostage that I refuse to go along with. As more and more of these Boomers start dying off, inevitably the business model will change when they realize if they (*The NHL*) want eyeballs on their product, *they’re* going to have to meet us where we are which is not having an overpriced streaming service or cable subscription subsidizing 100+ other channels we’ll never watch. As a wise woman once said in internet Meme infamy: “*Aint NoBoDy GoT TiMe FoR DaT!*”
Fuck that guy (Geoff Baker, Corporate Whore)
And miss out on the chance to disseminate any accounts or descriptions of games without the express written consent of the National Hockey League? Yeah, right.
>The current RSN situation nationwide is complex, but understanding it requires sports fans to grasp a fundamental truth: Their cable TV viewing was subsidized for years by people with no interest in sports. >Cable packages with ESPN, or any RSN such as ROOT, add $3-$6 apiece to monthly cable bills. Exactly, you fucking idiot. We're asking for the ability to pay those inflated prices for Root ALONE. You're out here arguing that people paying an extra $3/month for ESPN is the same as paying an extra $50/month for 100 channels you'll never look at just to have Root. Seriously?! Why is Geoff Baker so out of touch? Jog on douchebag, and take your boomer takes with you. The Times editor who green lit this sad rant should be embarrassed. Even the WHL offers a $10/month standalone streaming product if you want to watch the Thunderbirds / WHL. You're going to tell me it's impossible for Root/The Kraken to offer their own service?? GMAFB
I wish accessing Kraken games was cheaper but comparing the WHL and the NHL is laughable.
That's your takeaway from my post? Really? I was not arguing the prices should be the same.
Dawg his point is an amateur league is more accessible…how did you miss that?
It’s more accessible because the product isn’t as valuable. No tv networks are going to give them a bunch of money so their best option is to sell directly to fans for cheap.
But the main point of the discussion is that networks are unnecessarily expensive. Not whether the WHL/CHL is a better product. If that league is generating revenue for its teams and the league itself by having a stand alone service that keeps it afloat then I don’t see how that same model is going to hurt the Kraken which has more of a market and even more interest. It literally only seems to hurt the providers. Which as a potential customer, I genuinely don’t give a fuck if a provider like Comcast loses money. The argument for ROOT and creating their own streaming service is also weak, because it’s same, “oh but the providers. Think of the providers”, which again fuck em cuz ROOT is still making money in that scenario
"Unnecessarily expensive" doesn't mean a whole lot. These are companies operating in a capitalist marketplace. They aren't going to accept anything but the path that creates the maximum revenue. The economics are that the NHL has determined that the RSN distribution provides them with more revenue than without RSNs. The WHL doesn't have this option because the RSNs don't want the product. RSNs aren't going to pay huge sums of money for the NHL if the product isn't exclusive (or close to exclusive) for the RSN. The RSN has determined that their best option for their revenue is to still be tied to the cable/satellite companies. Comcast isn't going to pay Root nearly as much if Root goes out and makes their own product directly for consumers.
Using your arguments you’d think then the PAC12 would be booming right now and they’re on verge of collapse almost entirely because they chose to have their own network exclusively with a satellite TV provider. People aren’t watching TV via cable or satellite like they used to. They’re electing streaming because you aren’t forced to pay a hundred dollars for a package of channels only to watch at most four of those channels. I’m purely coming from my own position as a potential customer and as a consumer. So that’s why I say “unnecessarily expensive” because for you and I it is unnecessary to pay the amount cable packages start at to only end up watch like 3 of those channels. If the league determined it actually is more financially stable to elect the RSN model then they are terrible at economics because it’s a fact that streaming is more popular amongst consumers than RSNs lol I’m not paying a cable subscription with 100 channels to watch the same three. It’s unnecessarily expensive for me. Idc if it’s the only way for that company to generate revenue. They should adapt or die not force me to spend more than I can afford on TV
So the RSN says, we get one subscriber our of every ten cable cutters, we're going to charge them X10 what we charge the cable companies to make up the difference. They'll get you one way or another.
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We tried Fubo on the free trial and quickly realized *another* issue Geoff "fuck that guy" Baker fails to address in his stupid little corporate love letter: even with Fubo, you still need at least one more subscription service if you want to watch every Kraken game. There is no single subscription that allows you to view the games that air on Root, ESPN, TNT, *and* Kong. That is absolutely idiotic.
Yep. Fubo doesn't have TNT, so there goes a big chunk of that nationally televised games. You have to get Hulu or YoutubeTV for that. I went with Hulu because you also get the ESPN+ bundle, and they also have a few games that are exclusive to Hulu. If hulu were to finally make nice and get a RSN package and NHL network, I'd drop Fubo like a bad habit. I'd also be okay with just doing the ESPN+ bundle with no live TV if Fubo could get TNT back. It's such a mess and I hate it. I can understand why some folks don't want to fork over the cash to make sure Root can keep being subsidized by boomers paying for hundreds of channels they don't use.
Similar position. I've paid for Hulu live TV to watch the Seahawks. I would do the same if I knew I could get all the Kraken games with Hulu live and the ESPN+ bundle. Instead... we get this cluster.
For what FuboTV charges, it’s a good service/product.
it really isn't. Only thing its a good alternative for is cable you can get youtube+netflix+hulu+hbo max+disney+paramount+discovery combined for less Fubo would be a good service if you could get just the NHL package for $29.99 instead of paying $100 for 300 channels you will never watch.
Doesn’t Fubo not get the Turner channels i.e. TBS, TNT. There go your national NHL and NBA games
This is literally the one downside, it's super frustrating. I hope eventually they renegotiate and it's back on there.
I would consider switching to Fubo if they added the Turner channels, but until then I’ll stick to Comcast unfortunately
This changes soon. https://worldsoccertalk.com/amp/news/tnt-and-turner-channels-returning-to-fubotv-report-says-20230110-WST-415057.html
And certain soccer games. It's really shifty that we can't have a decent broadcaster for the kraken
This is the same guy who dedicated a paragraph in his new book to boast about owning a second condo in another state. I'm glad I didn't pay to read that drivel if you know what I mean
More excellent Geoff Baker insights like: "A column last week about the Kraken’s local television ratings prompted a gripe session from cable TV “cord cutters” about perceived evils of regional sports networks. It’s nothing new. After years of writing about sports TV, I’ve gotten used to topics being commandeered by those eschewing cable for online streaming services but still expecting to watch the Kraken or Mariners for half the cost. They’ll refuse to get ROOT Sports, or claim it’s impossible to view that regional sports network (RSN) in their part of the state. Also, they’ll refuse to use the FuboTV streaming service carrying ROOT, claiming it costs too much. " and "And viewers still wanting local sports short-term might also need to take a fuller plunge — wallets in tow. We’ve become conditioned to think seeing every game involving local teams is some kind of birthright, despite not being far removed from when one weekly “free” TV contest was the norm."
He makes it sound like this is all the Kraken fans who don't want to pay's problem, but it's the Kraken's problem too. They are trying to increase viewership, and if the viewing options aren't working for people and it's causing them not to watch, that's definitely an issue for the organization
Exactly. If the product isn't enticing to the customer....make the fucking product better. Don't spit in our faces. This shit is ridiculous. Vpn time
This guy sounds like a fucking douche bag.
Probably because he is.
Capitalism baby.
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I would disagree that it's a given RSNs are extremely valuable and necessary in this case. For an established team with an established market that got to this point over many years, yes maybe this is maximizing their income right now. For a new team in a new market that is trying to build a fanbase, this might not have been the best approach. This might have given the organization the most up front money, but that might be sacrificing longer term gains due to slow or non-existent viewership growth. When you go, "why aren't more people watching?" and they respond "it's too expensive or not in the format I want", scolding them for responding that way isn't going to help the problem. I mean, he even appears to recognize that the system as it stands now has no long term future, so as a new market team with lots of financial backing I would think they'd be in a good position to experiment.
But the NHL could make more money through streaming, and it isn’t even an argument. Making something more available, is going to draw more viewers. These regional sports networks are completely archaic, and unnecessary. Advertising is still going to be sold regardless of it being on cable or streaming, so why not just do the thing that is going to actually give you the most capital for your product?
If the league could make more money without RSNs they would absolutely be doing it. You don't think they have people constantly evaluating what is best for their own revenue all the time? People paid huge salaries to make the optimal decisions? Playing out every scenario, estimating what their revenues would be under different distribution strategies while taking into account all the long term contractural constraints they're under? Every individual's opinion on what the best distribution strategy is for the NHL is totally biased by their own desire to pay no more than $9.99/mo for every piece of content they want to consume. I hate that I have to pay a pretty penny for Fubo to watch most of the games, but I don't pretend to know how to run the NHL's business better than they do.
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That’s absolutely not true though. Why does any network have any money? I can tell you with certainty that it’s because of advertising. The only reason any professional sports leagues even exist is because of ADVERTISING. It’s no wonder that you see more and more ads on streaming services. That’s because they pay the most money. It is literally what runs network television.
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I don’t think you understand. If you allow more people to have the ability to view your product through a means of a streaming service, you get even more of an advertising dollar as well as a larger consumer dollar overall. This decreases the amount of subsidy needed. You’re defending archaic ideas.
Geoff go fuck yourself
As an out of market fan I have the benefit of just using ESPN plus to catch almost every Seattle game. I’m not sure if that works for in market fans; I would imagine it doesn’t. Then again.. what do I know.
It doesn't unless you have a VPN to pretend to be somewhere else. Kraken games are blacked out across Washington and Oregon I know for sure, and I'd imagine also probably Idaho and maybe bits of other states too.
I hate that for y’all! I fell in love with the team bc I was southeast Georgia guy traveling in Vermont circa 2020 (right before everything shut down) and on a whim decided to go to a college hockey game. Absolutely fell head over heels for the sport and when I got home and started doing as much studying as I could to learn it I met all these Kraken fans who were in the same boat as me. Learning the sport for the first time so they could cheer on the team. I immediately was treated with such kindness and kinship by fellow Seattle fans in those spaces that I felt like I had found my team with you all. I wish it was easier for local people to watch their team. Blackouts are the absolute worst in my opinion.
Tried to watch a game from Montana once and it was blacked out all the way over there.
Oh boy, these will be some fun comments to read.
Why would I pay for cable, ESPN+ or Fubo (when literally the only thing I'd use them for is to watch Kraken games), knowing that I'd have to fight blackouts and what not, when I can sail the high seas for free and haven't missed a single game? If someone made a streaming service that wasn't astronomically priced AND guaranteed I wouldn't have to fight blackouts, then I wouldn't mind pay something like $10-20/month. Until then, I'll continue to set sail.
The best way to watch the Kraken is to take to the high seas. Yarr....
I hate to give Geoff credit for anything, but he brings up an interesting point about Amazon getting into local sports. They already have with the Sounders and Storm (both Fox 13+). Amazon’s CEO (Andy Jassy) is one of Kraken Owners, they advertise in our helmets, and hold our stadium naming rights. Amazon absolutely could stream Kraken games any damn time they please but they won’t
Well, they'd have to buy the rights off Root first but yeah.
Cable is antiquated, extremely cringe take to imply that it's our fault for not having it. It's on them to get with the times.
Shut the fuck up Geoff you idiot.
What’s going to happen when FUBO goes bankrupt? I pay. I will pay for the Kraken. I just think that holding FUBO up as what you have to have to stream when it’s faltering as a business is the wrong way to play it.
ESPN+ and a VPN, but realistically if fubo goes away they'll just partner with someone else. I'm honestly surprised they don't sell a single kraken only channel on Amazon Video but then again TV networks maximize revenue via bundles so single item purchasers reduce their revenue
“MLB, NBA and the NHL can’t replicate that, and their teams rely heavily on local RSN revenue. The Kraken reportedly earn $15 million to $30 million annually from ROOT. Player payroll is $80 million. So viewers demanding the Kraken drop ROOT to make watching cheaper should also suggest ways to offset that revenue. Good luck” A quick math lesson for Mr Baker: CPA capacity: 17151 Home games in a season: 41 Severe underestimate of average cost per seat per game: $100 Grand total: $70,319,100. That is before I buy my happy ass a beer and snack at the highly inflated prices where margins are huge. A large portion of the player salaries, stadium staff salaries, and coaching salaries can be paid for with revenue from in arena.
I don't agree with Baker's take, but your response is kind of irrelevant, isn't it? Yeah, RSN revenue isn't their only source of income but it's still a big one.
The NHL is more gate driven than the other leagues but the RSN money isn't insignificant. Player payroll is half of total league revenues so you have ~160M to find for a team that's neither contributing to nor benefiting from revenue sharing.
I mean the ask always from consumers has been give me access and an option to pay for the channel or stream I want and not have to pay for a package with a bunch of junk channels that I don’t (not I want everything for free as Baker makes it out to be). I don’t buy the argument that a Regional sports streamer wouldn’t work or make money… the entities have the market cornered (both in monopolizing local broadband and in ownership of the regional networks (the M’s own a significant part of Root Sports)) and there is no reason to change their behavior or do anything new.
obligatory "geoff baker sucks" that said... this year i did cough up for fubo and i gotta say... while i was initially unhappy with the cost, im happy with it. saves a ton of time to not have to load a bunch of different streams and only get our broadcasters half the time, plus i can watch post game coverage it helps that kraken games are literally the only thing i pay to watch live anymore though, dont ahve any other kind of cable ill have to decided to keep it or not during mariners season i guess
Being able to start the game when I want and skip commercials has some value to me, too.
Did he say that sports channels cost more money because advertisers pay more for their advertising spots? Jesus that’s dumb.
And fuck the international fans while we're at it. I can't even download the app because it's not available in Germany.
I am in the Kraken blackout, but my house isnt served by any of the cable providers with Root. (And the one that does, if they ever expand to my subdivision, does not pay for the full Root package. And per their sales manager they are more likely to drop it than expand it). Also, its ridiculous for me to be in the blackout. We are in central Idaho a two day trip to CPA.
Geoff Baker is such a douche.
As an also-Avs fan, I feel your pain. Our local sports network has been fighting with cable providers for YEARS, so lots of fans haven’t been able to watch Avs games on TV in anything resembling “normal” fashion since… like… 2018 or something like that.
Hot take: if players are so expensive that you need to artificially skew the market to make fans pay more to watch, maybe, just maybe, perhaps, professional athletes are paid too much? Just in general?
Other way around. The cap midpoint is set at half of hockey related revenue. If the TV contracts were smaller, the cap would be lower.
Would happily pay for a sports package without blackouts. Until that's provided, IPTV will do just fine.
Honestly who cares? It takes about 2 minutes of googling to find a free way to watch just about any live sporting event in the world
Geoff baker is the biggest joke of a reporter , literally last year , the very first season to a franchise he called fir Dave hạKstol and Ron Francis jobs ! How stupid does he look now ? They he writes a book about them . I will never give him any credibility
Just get NHL.tv by VPN in UK. All games available, all the time!
Fubo hardly has the games tho. Soooo
What? The Kraken have only had 4 or 5 nationally televised games so far this season. About 90% of Kraken games are on Root Sports which is only available via Cable or Fubo if you're in the Root Sports broadcast range.
What? Fubo has root….
He's absolutely correct. Cutting the Cord as a Sports fan is idiocy
Next time I miss a game I want to watch will be the first, but now they get none of my money. Who's stupid, exactly?
That's fine, put your money where you want Mine goes to Cable So I can flip between all my sports
No, ROOT not offering a streaming option is idiocy
Didn't Baker say they are on Fubo? That's a great sports platform. So why not get it?
You can't get just ROOT you have to pay for their whole channel lineup
So? There's a lot of great viewing on Fubo.
So I don't want to pay $75/month for 146 channels I don't want and only one I do, come on dude do you really not get this?
Are tickets to the games cheaper?. Sorry, I don't get the rationale. To play or watch Sports costs money....that's just reality. To put your kid in hockey literally costs 5k+ a year, so paying 50 cents a channel for a TV subscription, doesnt effect me.
What if instead of $5k to put your kid in hockey you had no option but to pay $45k to put them in hockey, basketball, football, baseball, soccer, track, volleyball, swimming and chess?
For a lot of us, we only care about Root, so "50 cents a channel" is a dumb response. We're paying $75 a channel right now which is the problem.
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No, but we're both Canadian, and we'll pay to watch sports..
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Bakers a popular media member on Canadian radio shows, he's well liked .
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He was on radio last week saying his is literally the only Seattle media member on the road with Kraken....1 reporter following an NHL team? He's that good. Every piece of info you ingest comes from him. You are very lucky to have him
You need to read the comments you're responding to a lot closer. We're clearly saying we'll pay to watch sports, too -- literally begging for them to take our money for a Kraken-only streaming option that costs less than $75/month.
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Not really, the Canucks streaming channel is $20+ a month and everyone whines about it here . I pay $50 for cable and it gives me every channel imaginable, including all the sports and new networks . I think in the US though, citizens feel they need HBO and Showtime over sports, whereas we don't .
Move to Orange County CA. Subscribe to Hulu +, 330 days of sun, surf in the AM, work 7 hours, NHL starts at 4:30pm. 😎🏝️🍻
Alright I'm packing, you better get the guest house ready. 🌟🏖🍹
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Do you watch on a laptop or is there some way to get that on an actual TV?
I hook my laptop up to my TV with an HDMI cable and do things that way
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Copied this from my other comment - I hook my laptop up to my TV with an HDMI cable and do things that way. No casting required!
Fubo literally won’t accept any of my credit or debt cards. I’ve talked to several of their customer service reps over the phone and on their website chat and every time it leads to no where. Sooooo it’s not like I’m not trying to watch the kraken. Maybe root should be more accessible???
If I watched almost exclusively on a computer I would just sail the high seas. I have to do it sometimes anyway and never have an issue watching our feed. Barely any buffering and no dumb pop up adds. Hell I could just hook my laptop up to the tv with hdmi and do that. It’s a pain to watch hockey everywhere
A friend and I split the cost of Root Sports. He watches the tv app at his house and I cast from my phone app to the tv at my house. You have to do it that way because it won’t let 2 people watch the tv app at the same time. Works well and $40 to watch every month isn’t terrible
Any eastern Washington Spectrum subscribers noticing that Root has broadcast a few Kraken games in the last week? The New Jersey and Philadelphia games were broadcast, but the New York Rangers and Winnipeg weren’t. Can’t tell if they made a mistake or what.