I've been a DC United fan for awhile. I live in Baltimore area, and basically, I am a TV FAN. I've only been to one game in person. But what is pissing me off is, I used to get ALL OF THEIR GAMES on Comcast! Now they have gone to a pay streaming service, so according to the schedule, there will now be only 13 DCU games on regular TV between FS1 and ESPN and Unimas? So how exactly do they grow the sport if it's on some obscure streaming service that you have to pay for? I'm also a Baltimore Blast fan, and you know what, I have more access to that, through free YouTube MASL Channel (FREE!) than to MAJOR LEAGUE Soccer? Basically I'd think only people that are already fans will pay for this, it won't grow the fan base. I'll just watch the 13 games available on TV. even MAJOR Arena Soccer has a better streaming deal for the fans.
Yep - it sucks - and not in a good way I'm hoping DirectKick will show the away feeds without blacking them out. Otherwise I guess I'll follow the scores on twitter - though even there the DCU twitter account that used to do that seems to have disappeared. It's a great way to drive fans away from your team, I'll give them that.
Myself, I'm not a big enough fan to be looking at Twitter wondering what's happening. When they're on TV though, I watch, and DVR it if I'm busy at that time. So now, basically, I'll just watch the 13 games, that's it.
For $5/month you can watch all the games if you really want to with espn +. You have options if you really want to watch the games. This assumes Baltimore is not apart of the blackout market*
Are you sure about that? I thought under the FLO deal the "in market area" was Virginia (from Richmond north), DC, all of MD, and all of DE.
Considering that DCU hasn't been on Comcast for several years, I guess you haven't been watching much. I understand the consternation over the FloFC deal, but your post almost appears to be trolling. Using the Blast as an alternative for "free" access really isn't relevant. If MLS is somehow a "niche sport" (I don't believe it is), well human pinball certainly is, that's why its free. No one would pay for broadcast rights.
The annoying thing is that the price of cable continues to rise, what the (subjective) quality of what the networks offer via cable continue to decline in value. 2 years ago, all the EPL games were free. Now half of them are on NBCSports Gold. You got a lot of Serie A games that are no on ESPN+. Fox had tons of Champions and Europa League games on cable. Now you pay 80 bucks and it doesn't get you any Europa League coverage. The Flo thing is just a joke. There's no recognition on the part of of the cable company that Red Bull cliff diving, bobsledding and motorcycle racing make the cable package less valuable.
I don’t think anyone will truly know until the first Flo game. Last year I watched several games on ESPN+ live, and I’m in Germantown, so we’ll just have to wait and see.
LOL. Full disclosure, we're planning on our 3 yo making the Olympics as a skeleton slider. Baby girl is flat out crazy.
MLS TV rights news in @sbjsbd:MLS has instructed all of its clubs to not have any local broadcast deals go beyond 2022, as the league looks to potentially bundle any combo of its national, international & local rights to maximize its next b'cast dealhttps://t.co/0Kk5HewFgG— Ian Thomas (@byIanThomas) March 4, 2019 Maybe in 2023 DCU will be on TV again
paywall for entire article. This might be good. Right now supporters can watch the away FLO games for $6/mo (join the SE's or Barra to get the discount). Or go on the interwebs and watch every game for free..... DCU likes FLO because 1) FLO is paying and 2) they can know immediately exactly who is watching, what (games only or all the other content, too?), when, where and for how long. That kind of CRM data is very valuable. They can potentially get that info from the cable/internet providers also but it is much less convenient and more expensive. Will be interesting to see what the league comes up with. Me? I will continue to watch any/all games via the interwebs for free.....
If the DC United test case works out well for Flo I can see them putting a bid in for all local rights, same with youtube tv.
They will not have enough VC money to play for an MLS wide contract. We'll be on FOX or ESPN most likely.
Flo apparently has the money to chase after another MLS team's local rights, though: D.C. United's first match on digital platform @flosports is this Sunday away at NYCFC. Meanwhile, another Eastern Conference organization is taking a hard look at signing with FloSports. No details yet. #mls— Steven Goff (@SoccerInsider) March 4, 2019
How much is the data worth if no-one buys the FLO package? I'm a die hard - don't miss a home game for nothin* and I'm not buying it ... what does that tell them *unless, of course, my wife tells me I can't go
I have not yet subscribed to FLO. I don't know why, it could be a basic hesitation to subcribe to yet another streaming service. I do feel like I am starting to get buried by all the "small" subscriptions. I watch the games religiously and I love re-watching particulalrly interesting matches so that may end up being the forcing function for me. It's going to be interesting to monitor Twitter this weekend to see how many DCU fans still are not aware of the FLO deal.