I normally don't turn on the television on weekend mornings but happened to on Sunday.
I was shocked to say the least. ES*N had the pre-game like normal, then shortly before the game they threw it to the booth announcers when the lead guy said, "you're watching a live look-in" and to see the game tune into es*n plus.
They were magnanimous enough to show us the Kickoff and first play from scrimmage and then back to the studio where they then told us how we could subscribe to their streaming service. I actually sensed some tension when that announcement was being made, like they knew how stupid the whole thing was.
Now I'm solidly in middle age but I remember when I was younger being treated like that by one or two female "friends"
, I think there's a phrase for that with a color in it, but I digress.
Never thought I'd experience that from a sports broadcaster but here we are. This is just a taste of what's to come.
People may not want to hear a soccer story here but bear with me. For a long time (and continuing for a while) NBC has had the domestic rights to Premier league soccer from England. At first they did a great job. Very fair, would talk about most every team, relatively equally, show a lot of games and all the best teams and matchups.
This was back when they had NBC Sports Network, which used to be Versus, which used to be Outdoor Life Network that always showed bicycle racing, again, but I digress.
For a few years before they shut down NBCSN they started to move some games, and many really good ones, behind the paywall on Peacock. Once they shut down NBCSN they moved to USA and sometimes CNBC. This really isn't an excuse for me because NBC has so many networks under them, including USA, Bravo, CNBC, MSNBC and a handful of others. They have the ability to show literally 10 games and would do this on the last day of the season when all the games are played simultaneously and the final order and relegation for the bottom three is determined. So NBC has no excuse.
I'm an Arsenal fan, there's this rivalry with a team called Tottenham, located literally a few miles from one another in North London. If you think Bears/Packers is a long-standing, fierce rivalry seperated by 130 miles or whatever you should check this rivalry out. Or really any of the long-standing and highly tense rivalries that exist in English soccer.
But for 2 whole YEARS I wasn't allowed to watch those 2 yearly games without Peacock. Could you imagine a broadcaster like Fox/CBS taking Bears/Packers or Steelers/Browns, or Dallas/Washington off the air and behind a paywall? Or other big matchups like Chiefs/Bills or Dallas/San Francisco.
Would people take it? I suspect a lot of people would just pony up the cash but I never did for Peacock.
Result: I never pay attention to the Premier League and haven't for several years. I used to watch almost every game, 4-6 every weekend, for years, and now I never watch. It wasn't just the North London Derby but other big matches between the bigger teams.
It's just that I can't depend on seeing a good game I'm interested in so I figure why try anymore. In fact, the NL Derby was just played this weekend and again, behind the paywall.
So #$% you NBC, you've lost a fan forever. I assume this is only going to happen more frequently. Isn't one of this years NFL Wild Card games behind a paywall?
I know I have no interest in having so many different streaming services. MLB has done this as well with exclusive games on both Peacock and Apple TV.
I'd really like to lessen my sports watching and have been doing that for a while now. Sports just aren't the great thing with all the commercials and reviews and hype instead of just the games. There's a clear lack of fundamentals, in the NFL little pre-season, o-line play is terrible, and in baseball we're celebrating a guy who might hit 35 homers but has an average below .200. And yet a player like Stan Musial never made more than $100,000 in a year.
Sports has gotten a bit ridiculous.