ESPN buys stake in Bamtech

http://espnmediazone.com/us/press-releases/2016/08/walt-disney-company-acquires-minority-stake-bamtech/



A Direct-To-Consumer Video Streaming Company that can set up a streaming service for Big12 network.

So, people have been saying BYU could help build this online network as a reason for inclusion. Is it still a positive given this move by ESPN?

I think we could but would that help Big12? I would guess so.

I love this. 95% of the reason I have satellite is to get live sports.

For those looking to cut the cord and still get their sports, I've been with Sling TV for 18 months now and have been making it work quite well. It is Internet based so you need a good fast reliable ISP and router and you have to watch almost everything live. They now have 2 different options:



Orange - $20 gets you ESPN/ESPN2, TNT (NBA), TBS (March Madness). For an extra $5 you get a sports packages that gets you all of the ESPN channels plus some channels to watch soccer in Spanish and the SEC Network and Longhorn Network. With that you get Watch ESPN and ESPN 3 so you can watch replays.



Blue (this is new) - $25 gets you Fox Sports (select markets), FS1, FS2, NBC SN, TNT, TBS, Tru TV (March Madness).



Between the two, one should be able to watch all of BYU football. Now you can get both for $40, but I also think there should be no problem switching between the two. For example, I've been on the legacy Orange plan with the Sport package, but just this week switched to Blue, mostly to watch the Olympics on NBC SN and because our first game will be on FS1. Within minutes of making the subscription change online I was able to view my new content and start watching the Olympics (USA men's bball!). I believe I should have no problem switching back to the Orange plan for the UCLA game.



No cord. No contract. Consider it! I tell all of my coworkers and friends about Sling TV. I love it! I've watched all of March Madness this way and all of BYU football and basketball should just about be covered! (except maybe for some PAC-12 network games)



https://www.sling.com/



They have a free 7 day trial. I'm not a sales person for them, I just love Sling TV. I was paying $90 before for Direct TV and now pay $25!! It was a big deal for me at first to not be able to DVR sports events and watch them after the kids go to bed, but I've gotten to use to it and love saving the money and having no contract!!

I would also like to add that Playstation Vue has been getting rave reviews lately as well and I've been told by many people that it's even better than Sling, but I haven't tried either. I'm too reliant on DVR, which I don't feel that any streaming service does well enough at this time to make the switch.

How does one watch local NBA games with Sling or Vue?

stuckinbig10country wrote:
How does one watch local NBA games with Sling or Vue?

You're pretty much stuck with the national TV schedule. Your best bets would be local channels via digital antenna which is free or NBA League Pass which is expensive and may require a cable subscription.

byufan4ever wrote:

How does one watch local NBA games with Sling or Vue?

You're pretty much stuck with the national TV schedule. Your best bets would be local channels via digital antenna which is free or NBA League Pass which is expensive and may require a cable subscription.

This is the advantage of living in an area where the local NBA team betrayed its fanbase and its values when the owner died. We don't care about catching local games on TV anymore :D

Schmoe wrote:

stuckinbig10country wrote:
How does one watch local NBA games with Sling or Vue?

You're pretty much stuck with the national TV schedule. Your best bets would be local channels via digital antenna which is free or NBA League Pass which is expensive and may require a cable subscription.

This is the advantage of living in an area where the local NBA team betrayed its fanbase and its values when the owner died. We don't care about catching local games on TV anymore :D

If you're talking about the Jazz's deal with Root, you're wildly misinformed about what happened. Also, it happened before Larry died. Larry congratulated Randy Rigby personally for completing the deal. Almost all, if not all, of the NBA teams are shown exclusively on cable, partially dictated by the NBA itself (it has to do with league pass and televising every game).



League Pass blacks out local games, even though you can get it as a streaming service. If the NBA changes that rule and allows people to by a specific team's games, I'd cut the cord no problem.

stuckinbig10country wrote:

byufan4ever wrote:

How does one watch local NBA games with Sling or Vue?

You're pretty much stuck with the national TV schedule. Your best bets would be local channels via digital antenna which is free or NBA League Pass which is expensive and may require a cable subscription.

This is the advantage of living in an area where the local NBA team betrayed its fanbase and its values when the owner died. We don't care about catching local games on TV anymore :D

If you're talking about the Jazz's deal with Root...

I'm not. I'm talking about letting a diva player run a HOF coach out. Sloan's too classy (and maybe embarrassed) to say it, but that's what happened, and I've never rooted for the Jazz since. It used to be a classy organization, run by a man with values, and it bred success. Now it's just another garbage small-market team content on barely making the post season (or barely missing it) and is run by a silver-spoon know-nothing who hasn't had to lift a finger a day in his life. In more recent bungles, they brought in a coke snorting buffoon for a coach instead of Jazz legend Jeff Hornacek.

I've been looking into Playstation Vue more and it looks like you get access to a "cloud DVR." That's huge. I'm going to try the free 7 day trial and then see about switching from Sling TV to Vue.

byufan4ever wrote:
I've been looking into Playstation Vue more and it looks like you get access to a "cloud DVR." That's huge. I'm going to try the free 7 day trial and then see about switching from Sling TV to Vue.

Let me know what you think, so far everyone I know who's tried both has found the Vue superior, but I haven't done it yet myself.

So I've made the switch from Sling TV to Playstation Vue. Here is my review:



Interface: Sling TV wins this one easily. The old Sling TV is better than what Vue has now and Sling has updated theirs recently so it's even better. It's a bit of a chore to find channels on the Vue and what's playing and there's a complete lack of a guide. I've read that if you have an actual Playstation then the interface is better with an actual guide. I don't have a Playstion, but maybe'll they'll update this in the future.



Channels & Price: Ultimately where we want to get is that we pay just for each individual channel that we want, right? We're not there yet, but both of these services are much better than cable and satellite TV. Vue starts at $30 but you really need the $35 package for sports. It covers both all of the ESPNs and Fox (including FS1/FS2) and NBC Sports. With Sling, they have two separate totally different packages, blue and orange. One gets you the ESPNs and one gets you the Fox and NBC Sports, each for $25 stand alone or $40 combined. So if one is willing to constantly switch between the blue and orange packages, Sling is cheaper. However, Vue has them both together for cheaper with less hassle.



Performance: Overall I felt that the Vue streaming looked a bit crisper and clearer than the Sling stream. But not a huge difference. I did notice that when switching to a new channel it seemed to load faster (maybe 1 sec vs 3 secs) and there was definitely much fewer buffering. You could say that the buffering is a result of the ISP and not the streaming service. But this past week I only encountered buffering once on Vue while I experienced it multiple times on my other Roku channels such as BYUTV.



Technology: Vue has Cloud DVR. Sling has a few things on demand and with WatchESPN (which Vue has as well) you can watch replays, but it's not the same. The only knock against Vue's Cloud DVR is that it's not like a TiVO where you can find a show 2 weeks in advance and set it to record and forget about it. I have only been able to record the next 7 upcoming shows on a given channel. So when I wanted to record my EPL game that was going to start early Saturday morning I could not set it to record before I went to bed Friday night. Maybe with the Playstation interface this is possible, but I could not. So, Cloud DVR is not as good as TiVO, but it's better than no DVR (Sling).



Conclusion: They are both great services. I started with Sling and have now switched to Vue. But I can easily switch back to Sling if they sweeten the deal and make improvements. Both Sling TV and Playstion Vue have 7 day free trials. Both have no contracts. It really can't hurt to try them. But if you like wasting money...then keep your cable/satellite (and maybe you should work for the government too...).

byufan4ever wrote:
But if you like wasting money...then keep your cable/satellite (and maybe you should work for the government too...).

Ouch. ;)

DVR is enough of an incentive for me to stay with DirecTV for now.



I was just watching some shows from my DVR that were recorded in November, so 30 days just won't cut it.

Cougarfan87 wrote:

But if you like wasting money...then keep your cable/satellite (and maybe you should work for the government too...).

Ouch. ;)

That was written TIC. :D My dad worked for the government and I work for a defense contractor.

hawkwing wrote:
DVR is enough of an incentive for me to stay with DirecTV for now.



I was just watching some shows from my DVR that were recorded in November, so 30 days just won't cut it.

Spoiled, aren't we?! :D

byufan4ever wrote:

DVR is enough of an incentive for me to stay with DirecTV for now.



I was just watching some shows from my DVR that were recorded in November, so 30 days just won't cut it.

Spoiled, aren't we?! :D

Very!