Yes, that's been the theory. Still a ban on 3pm Saturday live TV coverage. So the Premier League is trying to move around that with more TV windows.
"Last Train to Russia" is now on ESPN+ with English subtitles (first 6 episodes, at least). Great show!
NBCSN has had Atlantic 10 Basketball at 12:30 P.M. when the EPL is on NBC, with three games so the 2:45 P.M. time is taken. During a significant part of the season, a 2:45 P.M. game will have to compete with NCAA sports to be on NBC or NBCSN. NBC probably has many Saturdays at 2:45 P.M. unavailable due to golf or Notre Dame Football. I also like the EPL games ending before American games start except for the Saturday 12:30 P.M. I don't like having a Saturday 2:45 P.M. game and the second Sunday game pushed back to 11:30 A.M. The later Sunday start conflicts with NFL and MLB from 1:00 P.M. to 1:30 P.M.
NBC will bend the Atlantic 10 for Premier League. Or make CNBC available. Though I would imagine a 2:45 Saturday Prem kickoff would be very appealing to NBCSN, great nationwide ratings opportunity. Probably 4x what A10 hoops would get. NBC will always prioritize Notre Dame though. And golf. Plenty of cable options available.
The only thing I don't like about ESPN+ is that its accessed through the same app as the regular ESPN app, meaning you have to dodge scores if you're going there to see a replay.
I'm not using it, but that would/will annoy the crap out of me (and presumably others) if they don't come up with a way of avoiding spoilers.
I'm not sure the properties on ESPN+ are big enough to hit the main page of espn spoilers wise unless it's the League Cup Final or something. Could definitely be a problem if you like baseball.
Yup, that's what I do. Although still need to be careful because they show scores of games in progress even within the "Watch" tab. So far I've only seen scores of other games, not the one I happen to be watching at the time. But still... don't fully trust it.
The delayed viewing "no spoilers" market in sports is financially insignificant. In fact, it's probably a waste of money to change anything to appeal to them.
It's not the cost to make it happen, it's the benefit of having it. The no spoilers and DVR for live sports market is puny, so much so that even spending any time on it is not worth it. Even for European sports in western timezones. Only the hardest core fans watch without knowing the result now, with so much live coverage available. You really think ESPN is going to alter the interface of their main sports update app with a 'don't update me' button? Also, if you care about spoilers, just use the http://www.espn.com/watch/ browser interface.
Feel like you're underrating how easy it is to do and how many people it affects. Most of the league apps have it because it makes no sense to alienate even 5% of your base for a fairly easy option.
I'd say the ESPN streaming audience who a) are interested in those leagues b) want to watch a replay without knowing the score and c) want to do that in the app is probably more like 0.5% of their app users. I guess one thing they could do is add a preference to open the app straight to the Watch screen. Still, they won't bother to do that.
You can hide the scores in the NFL, NHL, MLB and NBA apps. If it’s not worth spending anytime on it, then why did those leagues incorporate that into their apps? There are other ones as well that let you stay free from spoilers.
Exactly. And doesn't NBC do a better job of hiding spoiler than ESPN Seems to do? At least in last season's Gold app?
I don't use apps, but NBC Sports lets you open Premier League games without seeing scores. Then the top of the screen said scores will start unless you clicked within 10 or 15 seconds (I don't remember). Once you know how the site works, it's sufficient time to click to keep the scores hidden. It may not be as good as a permanent option to keep scores hidden whenever a person is logged in, but it's sufficient.
One thing people need to keep in mind is that the ESPN app isn't designed for people to hide scores. People utilize it expressly to find scores. It's literally just a one-stop shop to find scores from all manner of sports. That is the reason for its existence. Everything attached to it is just an addition. The NBC Sports app isn't expressly used for this purpose, but it would be antithetical for the ESPN app to put in a feature to hide scores since the exact opposite is its primary basis. The good thing about the app is that you can tailor it to show what you do or don't care about. Set the home page to show golf, tennis, rugby, whatever else you don't care about, so that's what will show up. After selecting the Watch part, just jump to the calendar. If all you care about is watching soccer, you won't see soccer scores. I've never had a soccer score spoiled for me on the app, and I watch everything on demand since that's all my schedule will allow.
Yup. I have been waiting decades for major American companies to show soccer scores from around the world and treat it like it is main stream Now I finally get it and people complain about it.
Spoilers aside, not really impressed with MLS on ESPN+. Highlights are edited by someone who's got no idea how to edited highlights. And of course the highlights may or may not actually be available. Sometimes they literally disappear, and other times when there are highlights they can be far behind. Threw it on this morning to see last night's highlights. Highlights from only one match yesterday. The MLS Live app was a lot better.