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Cutting the Cord (Ditching TV, not having a baby)

Sinclair (Bally Sports) broadcast licensing deal with Direct TV will be over in the middle of 2023, so those of us who follow teams whose broadcast rights are owned by Sinclair may be forced to subscribe to the standalone Bally app if no stream service carries it.
 
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Sinclair (Bally Sports) broadcast licensing deal with Direct TV will be over in the middle of 2023, so this of us who follow teams whose broadcast rights are owned by Sinclair may be forced to subscribe to the standalone Bally app if no stream service carries it.

Braves aren’t currently available on the Bally standalone app. Apparently it’s region by region.
 
Braves aren’t currently available on the Bally standalone app. Apparently it’s region by region.

I believe what you are referring to are MLB regional blackout rules, which aren’t determined by Bally. From my understanding if there is a regional blackout for any reason then the game will not be available on the app either. Currently in West Winston I am in the Braves and Reds market so both of their games appear on the Bally broadcast network and on the app, but if I drive a few miles east I leave the Reds coverage region and I only get Braves coverage.
 
According to the article, Bally Sports made $2.47 billion on carriage fees from 52 million households in 2020. If they aren't on any platform, they'll need about 11.5 million people to pay $19.99/month.

If this works for Bally, ESPN+ will be next. ESPN+ may be next anyway.
 
I believe what you are referring to are MLB regional blackout rules, which aren’t determined by Bally. From my understanding if there is a regional blackout for any reason then the game will not be available on the app either. Currently in West Winston I am in the Braves and Reds market so both of their games appear on the Bally broadcast network and on the app, but if I drive a few miles east I leave the Reds coverage region and I only get Braves coverage.

This is from an article in the Atlanta Journal Constitution this week regarding a meeting with investors.

An investor asked why the Braves haven’t joined the small number of MLB teams (five) that currently allow Bally Sports to offer their telecasts on a new direct-to-consumer streaming service, especially given that the Bally networks aren’t carried on popular streamers YouTube TV and Hulu.

Schiller said the Braves first prefer to see how the initiative works in some of the other markets and “then to look at what the league can do to support the best efforts and practices with that.” But he conceded it’s an issue that the Braves and MLB at large must solve.
 
mlb didnt give ballys permission yet to stream all the teams on ballys sports+ yet. all the NBA and NHL teams have already given them a green light however if ballys is that local markets RSN

i think that price point is pretty spot on too. $9.99 would be no brainer (ie too cheap), any more and it's not worth it. but $19.99 for 6 months just to watch all the hornets/hurricane/wake (insert your local teams) games probably sneaks in.
 
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I just hope that you will still be able to use regular cable logins on the Bally app.
 
I cut the cord like 5-6 years ago and then went back to Comcast Xfinity about 6 months later because the experience sucked (was using SlingTV).

Love Xfinity, but the cost continues to increase and my usage of it is declining.

I think I'm going to do it again, this time w/ AT&T Fiber and YouTubeTV.

Sucks about Bally, but that's not a reason to pay $40 more each month.

Any regrets, ConnorEl? Sounds like you and I are in similar situations.


So far I’m happy. I think I’m saving about 90 bucks a month. Including the savings from giving up the landline at the same time.
 
I’ll add that the cloud dvr service built into yttv is way better than the physical box spectrum rented out.
 
This is from an article in the Atlanta Journal Constitution this week regarding a meeting with investors.

I was at that meeting and I know both the Liberty Braves and Sinclair stocks pretty well.

Sinclair wants to roll this out ASAP because the deal they made to buy the RSNs from Fox Sports has been a dud. They are de-consolidating the Diamond Sports business (where the RSNs are) because it carries negative equity on their books. They aren't planning on dropping carriage with the cable companies... This app would be a stand alone product (ostensibly for those fans that have cut the cord and have no other access). Sinclair has league-wide rights to the NBA & NHL... But MLB is team by team. The issue is that only 5 MLB teams have agreed to do this (Miami, TB, Detroit, KC, & Milwaukee). Most teams are taking the wait and see approach that the Braves have communicated... Especially because Sinclair has some ideas about making the service unique (and not just like their cable broadcasts). To me, that sounds like incorporating gambling more heavily.

They've put out a wide range of sub estimates for 5 years from now... high single digit millions to teens millions.

The whole thing is a huge cluster and likely to end up a failure. Will be interesting to see what happens to the RSNs if it all falls apart in a few years. Fox had to sell them and I'm pretty sure ESPN wouldn't be allowed to buy them.
 
This is from an article in the Atlanta Journal Constitution this week regarding a meeting with investors.

Yeah, I thought you were referring to the current Bally App, which just piggybacks off your directv account, and is still subject to MLB blackout restrictions. As far as I’m aware the BallySports+ standalone service hasn’t launched yet. Currently if you have a DirectTV account and use it to log into the Bally Sports app, any regional programming owned by Bally Sports will be available on their app, even if it’s not available on Direct TV. So regarding Braves coverage, if you are in the Braves coverage area and the game is being broadcast on a Bally Network, then it should be available on the app.
 
Yeah, I thought you were referring to the current Bally App, which just piggybacks off your directv account, and is still subject to MLB blackout restrictions. As far as I’m aware the BallySports+ standalone service hasn’t launched yet. Currently if you have a DirectTV account and use it to log into the Bally Sports app, any regional programming owned by Bally Sports will be available on their app, even if it’s not available on Direct TV. So regarding Braves coverage, if you are in the Braves coverage area and the game is being broadcast on a Bally Network, then it should be available on the app.

Yes. I know how Regional Blackouts work. The sole reason I got rid of YTTV was because they didn’t have Bally and so the app wasn’t a solution.

Now, Braves games are probably disproportionately important to me because there aren’t many things I can watch with the kids around that I actually want to watch.
 
Dozens of people will be excited enough to pay $20/month just for Bally’s with a recession heading their way.
 
ESPN+ just raised prices to $9.99 from $6.99.

Feels like Bally’s probably should have done $12.99-$16.99 range.
 
Bally’s recently reupped their deals with 16 NBA teams. So they’re the only way for about half of NBA fans to watch their local team.
 
Recording shows on YouTubeTV is extremely easy. After years of doing it, I can’t imagine going back.
 
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