They're not taking my money I'll find a way to watch those 4 games. They want to make money off of that crap. The problem is...NOT MY MONEY
I signed up last year for whatever their tiny discount was in December. I used it just a few times over the remaining 5 months. I'd say the value is questionable. The streaming quality itself wasn't much to right home about, but the one main advantage is that you know where you're going to find the game, and you don't have to hunt around through Reddit threads for some dodgy pirate stream. That said, I honestly don't know whether I'll re-up for next season.
When it comes to streaming, I do prefer the DVR control you get with a cable/satellite package, but not to the point where I feel like I'm missing out or considering going back. I have YouTube TV, which is $40/mo. and has been great. That said, if you don't watch something you've DVR'd within a couple days you're usually only be able to access the on demand version due to rights, which forces commercial breaks on you. That's mostly with TV shows, but it's still annoying. If I was a fan of one of the big clubs I absolutely would not pay for PL Pass. $50 for four or five matches against relegation candidates and spread across a nine-month season isn't worth it. I don't mind paying ~$3 per match to see all the Wolves matches behind the paywall, though. Plus I'll watch other matches since I have the access. I don't like that matches disappear after a week, though. If all the matches shown on TV channels disappeared from the NBC Sports app after a week that'd be one thing, but PL Pass subscribers should be able to access any of those matches throughout the season.
ESPN+ is $50/year for everything. NBC Gold is $50 for EPL, $60 for rugby, $50 for cycling, etc. Quite different. Hence the 12 beers for the price of 1 analogy. Also very sneaky by NBC to auto-renew a 1-year membership, although I believe ESPN does the same for their 1 year memberships. Auto-renewing short-term memberships is fair game, IMO - people's situation isn't likely to change in a month. But auto-renew of a 1 year membership is just being a corporate dick.
Fair enough. Obviously ESPN does have more content, but the quality of the content varies greatly depending on viewer needs. Comparing PL Pass to ESPN+ is like comparing the latter to NFL Sunday Ticket. I'm curious to know how many who subscribe to ESPN+ do so for a full swath of programming or do so for a specific sports/league. I know I don't need to watch League 2 matches, cricket, rugby, golf, tennis, etc. I've had ESPN+ for a couple months specifically so I could watch some internationals (soccer friendlies, U-19 Euro, FIBA qualifiers), and I'm glad I can pay on a monthly/as-needed basis. That's something I think NBC Sports should do with PL Pass. Why not let people pay $10 for a one-month pass? They might be able to wrangle the odd Man City fan for a month or two who just wants to see their team when stuck behind that paywall. Overall, though, I'm going to subscribe to ESPN+ off and on depending on the season and programming. All I'll really want to watch on there will be some college football and basketball games as well as UEFA Nations League and a grab bag of other events (like those mentioned above). $5/mo for ESPN+ is a good deal for the months I need it, but $5.56/mo. is a good deal for a league-specific package like PL Pass too. Regarding auto-renew, I wasn't thrilled to see that when signing up for PL Pass, but I'll get an email about it before it goes through and be able to cancel my membership if I'd like. I'm guessing I could also just cancel it after Aug. 1 and it wouldn't impact my standing for this season.
So NBC will auto-renew you by default? How do you stop that from happening? Can you cancel your account easily online? And is 8/1 the deadline for doing so? And I agree that NBC should make this a monthly fee rather than annually or seasonally. I'm perplexed why you would suggest they price it at $10/mo when the competition is $5/mo, and that's already steep enough, when you add up all the various different sports streaming services that charge that.
For me, maybe a USMNT player or former MLS guy is on a certain team and I may want to tune it on. Maybe a certain big team isn't on NBCSN, but on the overflow channel. It was also the thrill of having games end a few minutes off and switching for the final moments of other games. They also had a "raw feed" at parts of halftime and post game which was cool over NBCSN commercials. But then again, I usually don't have much interest until January or February anyway.
How long do fans want to wait? Could you stay away from a result for a week and watch the following game without NBC (TV or online, however you watched) telling you the result or telling you the standings that tell you the result if you knew how many points your favorite club had before? After games, NBC Sports Gold goes to longer highlights than you get on TV along with uncommon statistics including what percent of each club's attacks were down the left, middle, and right.
I can probably avoid learning a result for a few days. But that's not the main case. Sometimes I'll be away and just don't have time to watch a match, so I want to watch it some weeks later, even if I know the result. And other times it will be a great match that I just want to keep around for re-watching another day, or month, or year. [emoji4] That's not exactly NBC doing that but rather the standard international feed from IMG. I think they've been doing that forever… Goes back to the live extra channels, and even maybe Setanta days for those of you who remember that. I love those feeds, including the 5 or 10 minutes of pre-match unnarrated stadium atmosphere that you often get with those feeds.
With a bit of interest in Brighton, Cardiff, Fulham, Huddersfield and some others, I'll probably plop down the money for Gold. It's a debate though. There is no such debate for ESPN+, incredible value at the moment.
Can you remind me what is the incredible value of ESPN+ from a footy point of view? Serious question. All I can remember is EFL Cup.
A bunch of MLS and USL matches. They are also going to show a lot of the UEFA Nations League when it starts up in September.
Anyway, I recently heard that NBC Gold will be offered to commercial establishments this season. I wonder what will be the cover charge for patrons at these Bars and Restaurants. If it is cheap/free then that may be an option for people around here who want to see their Huddersfield -Bournemouth matches without ponying up the $50.
The Championship, League One and League Two (Sky matches), League Cup, all MLS out-of-market matches, all USL, some friendlies. Obviously I love it for EFL stuff but just last week I went on vacation and was able to watch the Audi Field/Rooney opener on + when I would have normally been SOL or forced to find a dodgy stream. ESPN+ is a great, great move for MLS.
I think they were able to show matches last season too, if they had the streaming capability on their TVs. I know some bars did. Can't imagine a cover anywhere being a thing people would pay in 2018. NBC would probably just charge the bar a higher subscription fee for the right to show guests.
I don't quite get the NFL Sunday Night Ticket analogy. Remember, we're pretty much just talking about Hudderfield v Burnley - type matches on the EPL Pass for the most part. In any case, you don't have to watch the full swath of ESPN+ programming for it to be worth the price. If you like MLS just that alone is enough reason and already a better deal than the EPL pass on NBC (since unlike EPL you don't get 70% of MLS games on regular TV without subscribing). But... yeah, I mean you're getting into personal preferences. Obviously if you want to watch all 10 EPL games every week then the NBC pass is well worth it. Objectively though its expensive relative to ESPN+.
God I remember those days. Also reminds me of Setanta which was not cheap for bars to subscribe to, so they charged entrance fees to cover that cost. That would feel like a step backwards, if we return to cover charges. The way I figure it, is that most patrons will buy something from the bar while watching a match. And some people seem to buy enough beers to make up for the few who buy Coke or coffee. So my guess is that the pubs are coming out ahead, even without having to charge entrance fees.
No chance we go back to cover charges. No one would go, they could stay home or go anywhere else with Wifi and watch for less. Covers used to work for PPV broadcasts because they were exclusive. I just hope NBC doesn't overcharge for pub subscriptions because bars won't buy them.