https://www.nbcsports.com/gold Just a simple poll wondering how many (roughly) Big Soccer members use the service. Looking specifically for fans of the Premier League to participate in the voting. Votes are made public and the poll will close around late-April.
Thanks @unclesox for making this poll. Having prompted this thread perhaps, I just cast a quick vote. But what's notable in my case is that for the first 5 months of this service I avoided it, partly on principle (not wanting to feed the greedy monster). But a few days ago I got a Roku for Christmas, and I decided to take whirl. I ponied up $40 for the remaining 5 months of the season. And I'd say my quick initial exploration of the non-live content and NBC's user interface was a bit underwhelming. My opinion may change if my team slips further down the table and the only way to watch them consistently is via NBC Gold.
I follow the premier league as my number 1 euro league. I don't have a favorite team and generally just watch the most compelling, to me, match in every timeslot. Fortunately, NBC almost always puts the best match on, so no need to purchase gold for me. I'm guessing supporters of mid table teams, who typically get relegated to online only, are more likely to buy.
So far I've resisted, even though I follow Everton and they've slipped down the table, so this would benefit me. (Though, they started *so* badly, I didn't always feel bad about missing them!) Though I wonder--those with a roku, how is the quality? The pre Gold pass NBC extra was bit spotty for me even on a roku. So that's another reason to be hesitant about paying.
I just got a Roku and haven't really used it really. Except I did test streaming one replay show/match from NBC Gold. What I found was that it starts off for the firs 15-30 seconds with poor resolution but then (after it buffers presumably) the visual quality was OK. But that's only 1 test, and NOT a LIVE stream, which would presumably put a greater strain on their servers to pump out quality to a large number of simultaneous customers. I'd love to hear from folks that have streamed LIVE matches from one of the clubs that has a big following in the USA: United & Liverpool being perhaps at the top of that list?
Chelsea have been on this now 4 times since October and will be again this weekend. Initially NBC said that no team would have more than 3 or 4 matches on Gold. Clearly the defending champions getting kicked to the curb for the likes of every single Yanited match has been frustrating. My wife and I are cutting cable here soon and I'll lose my access to beIN which I'm pretty bummed about. We'll likely go with Hulu Live and I'll still get NBCSN and Fox Sports so at least I can watch the Bundesliga. On merit I won't pay for Gold, but if we're going to continue to keep getting screwed by NBC, I may have no choice.
I watched an NHL game yesterday for 10 minutes and ran into the initial 15 seconds of non high def resolution and then it buffered and all was fine.
A Super Mod was able to delete the unnecessary fifth option. It was felt that the "I don't follow much EPL..." option would skew the percentage poll numbers.
I am an Arsenal fan and I have not bought PLP. I have been watching those games later in the day when they are available on reddit. It has been quite frustrating. Since the season is half over, I will just continue what I’ve been doing. Next season I will probably just fork over the money so I don’t have the hassle of streaming any matches
This polls been up for 4 days and there's an extremely small sample size (20 votes) but so far it shows only 20% has bought into PLP on Gold. Also, my second try at using this new streaming platform was far from stellar. I tried to stream a 3 minute feature clip Wenger breaking the 810 games managed record. I tried it on 3 devices, all in the same room in my house: Roku, iPhone, Windows Laptop. All with excellent WiFi connex. On my brand new Roku Ultra (NBC Gold app), it failed every 15-20 seconds. The video stops/crashes back to the menu, or skips ahead to the next clip in the queue, but before it finished the clip I was watching. It was the worst! On my iPhone SE (NBC gold app), it was slightly better, going about 1 minute or so before it crashed saying "Playback is restricted. Please contact customer support". And I made sure I was logged in beforehand! I did note along the way that this app/service gets a 1-star rating in the App Store. Only on my Laptop (NBCSports.com website) did it play smoothly the first time all the way through the 3-minute clip. I wonder what frustrations I'm likely to face when I try to stream a LIVE match, that is widely watched at the time. And I wonder if their streaming platform is really ready for prime-time. Meanwhile, my results with WatchESPN have been largely excellent, with only one notable choppy stream experience on a live match.
I'm going to cut the cord and I'll lose beIN which I'm bummed about. I'll do Hulu which will get me the PL and the Bundesliga. I've thought about sling, but I know the quality is down a bit.
How does Hulu get you the EPL? Does it give you their main TV Channels: NBC, NBCSN, CNBC? This is an honest question... I've never checked out Hulu.
Hulu gets me NBCSN, CNBC, and NBC and FS1, FS2, and Fox. So that covers everything really minus beIN but I'll get that through Sling if I want. You have to get Hulu Plus to get the live TV. It costs $40 a month.