NBC Sports Networks thread

Discussion in 'TV, Satellite & Radio' started by SirFozzie, Aug 8, 2015.

  1. Kryptonite

    Kryptonite Fancy Title Here

    Apr 10, 1999
    Columbus
    Club:
    Columbus Crew
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Well, the way the rights change hands and channels launch and fold, the picture could be totally different 5-10 years from now. Then again, the global game is definitely more popular than it was in 2005. If it's a common league, any bar can easily find it. If it's something like Portuguese second division or Belarusian, well...

    (I picked two leagues at random. Yes, Belarus puts teams into UEFA CL group stage on a regular basis, but I can't imagine the demand for league play is too high. Either way, I'm sure you get the idea.)


    Just making sure I understood. :)
     
  2. NorthBank

    NorthBank Member+

    Arsenal; NYRB
    United States
    Mar 29, 2006
    Connecticut
    Club:
    Arsenal FC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Tomorrow is a little taste of next season, with 100% of the matches plus pre/post-game shows streaming on the Cock.
     
  3. Renzi

    Renzi Member

    Arsenal
    United States
    Aug 4, 2019
    And it's not very good. Haven't managed to catch any of the studio shows and its beyond me how Peacock cannot just autostart the next PL game stream. I have literally never watched anything other than PL on Peacock, autoplay the next match! It's like EPSN without much commentary, but an absolute trash app!
     
  4. Frankball

    Frankball Member+

    Sep 11, 2010
    Club:
    Arsenal FC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    #2154 Frankball, Feb 2, 2021
    Last edited: Feb 2, 2021
    Six days ago, the World Soccer Talk discussed on the pending shutdown on NBCSN and its implications on the sport programs portfolio and what it means to USA Network. Both hosts broadly believed more shutdown beyond this sport channel since the media companies are moving to streaming. They quickly tackled on the upcoming Premier League TV rights bidding (the current "Premier League TV rights" period ends at the end of the 2021-22 Premier League season) where some competitors are certainly going to challenge NBCUniversal/Comcast for the package(s) — there's multiple twist on this subject.

    Could ESPN, CBS and Fox partner to overthrow NBC's Premier League bid? [Upload date: January 31, 2021]
    https://podcasts.google.com/?feed=a...y5jb20vP3Bvc3RfdHlwZT1wb2RjYXN0cyZwPTMyNDM4MQ


    Timeline (hh:mm:ss)

    00:00:00 - 00:43:10 Pending shutdown on NBCSN, the Premier League reaction, and Premier League TV rights bidding

    00:43:10 - 00:56:32 ESPN/La Liga TV rights?

    00:56:32 - 01:25:05 TV ratings numbers, letters, and closing comments
     
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  5. BocaFan

    BocaFan Member+

    Aug 18, 2003
    Queens, NY
    And what's up with the Peacock app still not being available on Smart TVs?

    One thing I like about the Peacock app is that when I launch it the Premier League stuff is always right there up front. It's probably because its the only thing they have that isn't filler or trash material, but its still nice.

    With the ESPN app it doesn't matter that all I ever watch through the app are soccer matches and espnFC, when I launch the app I am still bombarded by a bunch of basketball and boxing crap, and have to scroll down 10 rows to find the latest espnFC episode.
     
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  6. NorthBank

    NorthBank Member+

    Arsenal; NYRB
    United States
    Mar 29, 2006
    Connecticut
    Club:
    Arsenal FC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Thanks for that. They highlighted NBC’s bait-n-switch business plan. Sadly They’re not the only ones to do that.
     
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  7. Kryptonite

    Kryptonite Fancy Title Here

    Apr 10, 1999
    Columbus
    Club:
    Columbus Crew
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    What part about EPL on NBC/NBCSN was guaranteed?

    If ESPN buys the rights to something, it could be on ABC, ESPN or ESPN+. When they've launched new channels, they tend to put popular stuff on that new channel. It's certainly their right to do so.

    If a 3:15pm game doesn't get high ratings, wouldn't it make more sense to put it behind a paywall so they can run commercials on TV?
     
  8. NorthBank

    NorthBank Member+

    Arsenal; NYRB
    United States
    Mar 29, 2006
    Connecticut
    Club:
    Arsenal FC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Not much is "guaranteed" in this world except death & taxes.

    What they said in this podcast was how NBC publicized a plan for how they would air matches both on TV and streaming this season, and then they switched their plan midstream, making it both more complicated online, and more costly overall.

    To me this is sadly just a given with how media companies like NBC are proceeding, and are likely to continue to proceed in future.
     
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  9. Kryptonite

    Kryptonite Fancy Title Here

    Apr 10, 1999
    Columbus
    Club:
    Columbus Crew
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    The companies know they can overbid and recoup costs via paywalls, especially if those paywalls include a wide variety of content like CBS All-Access and Peacock. The serious fans will pay. The casuals will be happy with what they can get.

    I remember a time in which I was watching UEFA CL:
    FS1 main TV
    FS2 Slingbox on laptop
    ESPN3 had 4 screens on laptop
    ESPN2 was on my phone.

    I also realize those days for me are done, although with CBS All-Access, I could probably do it...but since that's during the middle of the workday, I now just watch what I can. I also have a lot of other apps. (

    If NBC says: "Four games per week on NBCSN" that's one thing. If they say: "Up to five games per week on NBCSN" that's something else. That could be three games per week.

    But yeah, the new thing is streaming. Everyone says the future is streaming and it'll all be via the internet. The companies are embracing that. They're realizing the shift towards individual apps and away from traditional channels. If the rush towards "everything's streaming" never happened, then games would definitely still be on NBCSN, CNBC/USA and EPL Extratime or whatever those channels were...and it wasn't a PITA to flip between games. (Oh look... Manchester City went up by 2...and you're there in under 1.5 seconds.)

    It definitely stinks for people who need every major league...but at least canceling is an option like it was during the days of Setanta.

    I'd love games to be across FS1, FS2, ESPN2, NBCSN, CNBC, USA, the regular apps...but that's not feasible.
     
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  10. NorthBank

    NorthBank Member+

    Arsenal; NYRB
    United States
    Mar 29, 2006
    Connecticut
    Club:
    Arsenal FC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Started watching the AVL-ARS match on my iPhone NBCSports app, then switched to my laptop Chrome NBCSports.com. Both say that they are "Live" and I clicked the "Go/Live" button just to be sure. And yet the Chrome/website stream is a full 20 seconds behind the iPhone/app stream.

    Obviously it is not an example of good, consistent, timely service to the customer, and I have no real clue as to why it would have to be this way technically. But perhaps the more important question is whether NBC knows and cares about this issue, and "fixing" it.
     
  11. FoxBoro 143

    FoxBoro 143 Member+

    Jan 18, 2004
    MA
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    That's true for all apps really. ESPN is the same way, as is Xfinity stream on Roku app/ website. Im sure there is a technical answer pertaining to bandwidth or ISP or illuminati that someone can answer.
     
  12. Kryptonite

    Kryptonite Fancy Title Here

    Apr 10, 1999
    Columbus
    Club:
    Columbus Crew
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    I've been experiencing this "problem" for about 20 years. I'd be in soccer chatrooms listening to a game PbP online. If I didn't start the broadcast early, I'd be several seconds (maybe a minute or more) behind others. Obviously, those with actual AM/FM radios were well ahead of everyone else.

    I was in a Zoom party for the recent USMNT game and it was the same thing. People with cable/satellite/fiber were ahead of Hulu/YTTV/others.

    When TV channels were sending out two feeds (HD and SD), I noticed that HD was behind SD. Now that "SD" channels are really downsized HD, the delay really isn't there.
     
  13. NorthBank

    NorthBank Member+

    Arsenal; NYRB
    United States
    Mar 29, 2006
    Connecticut
    Club:
    Arsenal FC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    That’s all true but that’s not what I was talking about.

    I was comparing two streaming clients that varied by 20 seconds.

    That doesn’t make a whole lotta sense to me.

    Ps. Of course I tried to restart the browser-based stream to see if that would help. Nope, still 20 secs behind the app.
     
  14. socceraction

    socceraction Member+

    Oct 20, 2000
    Found a great article about 2 years ago on streaming latency. I'm 99% sure I posted the link right here on BigSoccer but can't find it now. In simplest terms, the delays we are experiencing are due to not having a "standard" deliver for streams. Different devices use different encoding (mac vs windows; phones vs computers; android boxes vs smart TVs, etc.). All the encoding and delivery is being delayed to ensure there is no buffering. That buffering is the KEY to why things get delayed on streaming. Supposedly, if each delivery conversion did it's own thing, different people with different devices would be experiencing buffering on the stream. As the article explained, the data is literally being held back in order for it to always be "caught up with itself" no matter what final device is showing it so there is no buffering. The article did a much better job of explaining it but hopefully that made sense...

    SA
    www.soccertvblog.com
     
  15. NorthBank

    NorthBank Member+

    Arsenal; NYRB
    United States
    Mar 29, 2006
    Connecticut
    Club:
    Arsenal FC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    So, in my example, the 20-second delay between the NBC app on iOS client and the NBC webpage on Windows/Chrome would be attributed to a fundamental difference in the "codecs" used between the 2 platforms?

    And if that's it, do you think that there might be someone who's in charge of Windows/Chrome who might also think that 20-seconds delays is worth fixing? ;)
     
  16. alexolympiacos

    Mar 5, 2010
    Club:
    Olympiakos Piraeus
    Just received the email that makes it official.

    Peacock is getting the track and field (aka athletics) package too.

    With WWE network coming, Peacock is now tops for sports streaming.
     
  17. NorthBank

    NorthBank Member+

    Arsenal; NYRB
    United States
    Mar 29, 2006
    Connecticut
    Club:
    Arsenal FC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Well if they're adding more sports/content without forcing the customer to pony up for separate package subscriptions, the way it used to be with Gold, then that's a positive development. Is that what they just announced?
     
  18. NorthBank

    NorthBank Member+

    Arsenal; NYRB
    United States
    Mar 29, 2006
    Connecticut
    Club:
    Arsenal FC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    #2168 NorthBank, Feb 13, 2021
    Last edited: Feb 13, 2021
    For anyone out there who hasn't had the relative joy of using a good DVR, or more importantly to the folks who are responsible for the new streaming platforms, here's a little glimpse of what I did this morning, which is basically what I've been able to do for years and years...
    • Started watching LCFC-LFC about 1 hour after it started... no problem and no spoilers (a very good match BTW)
    • It took me just 4 clicks on my main Tivo remote and within 10 seconds I was watching it... from start of game of course!
    • Note: that Tivo remote used to be the only remote I needed, until I had to buy a Roku to connect to various streaming platforms
    • Watched the game using Tivo's "QuickMode" which plays at 25% faster, but cleverly frequency-shifts the audio down by 25% so that the voices don't sound like chipmunks... nice feature!
    • Was able to visually rewind and fast-forward as often, as far, and as fast as I wanted to... even while the match was streaming live... and all the while being able to see the game state visually as I skip back and forth so I knew precisely when to stop
    • At FT whistle I paused playback to go for a 2 hour dog walk, then I came back to pick up right where I left off... there's no timeout, it stays at that spot forever until I click play or exit... just as I want it to do
    OK, I get it that the future delivery model is all about Internet streaming, and there are certainly some advantages to that. But the overlords of the new streaming platforms and devices should try to make their systems as easy and user-friendly as what we've had for decades with the old delivery and playback model. AFAIK, none of the above is generally possible with Peacock, ESPN+, etc, etc. And I'm sure it's not trivially easy, but come on... are you gonna at least try?
     
  19. Lovac1

    Lovac1 Member

    Jun 6, 2012
    Watching Lille-Brest on bein xtra on roku and the stream is 3 minutes behind livescore app commentary. I’ve never seen a live stream that far behind, normally 60-90 seconds at most, so NBC is doing well.
     
  20. NorthBank

    NorthBank Member+

    Arsenal; NYRB
    United States
    Mar 29, 2006
    Connecticut
    Club:
    Arsenal FC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Ha ha. Low bar I guess.
     
  21. NorthBank

    NorthBank Member+

    Arsenal; NYRB
    United States
    Mar 29, 2006
    Connecticut
    Club:
    Arsenal FC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    On a 100% Peacock day...

    1:57pm ET Rebecca Lowe signs off from the AFC-MCFC stream telling me to make sure to switch to the other MUFC-NUFC stream... but when I try, I find no such stream is running. Huh?

    2:02pm ET My Roku shows MUFC-NUFC under Live & Upcoming and when I click it, it says "Today at 1:30pm" as if it should already be in progress... but no apparent way to start that tile. WTF. KO was at 2pm.

    2:07pm ET Solved my problem by moving out of the "Sports" tab temporarily then back to that tab... et voila! Now it shows that the MUFC-NUFC is live and already in progress. Clicked it and picked up the match in the 7th minute.

    So who or what is causing that lack of dynamic refreshing of the Sports tiles? Roku or NBC/Peacock/app?

    Either way, someone really shoudl fix that if they want streaming to be anywhere near as easy & reliable as TV has been for decades.
     
  22. Renzi

    Renzi Member

    Arsenal
    United States
    Aug 4, 2019
    Beyond me why the don't just have one continuous stream all morning. Why am I flipping over streams every match, missing a few minutes here and there. So bizarre, just have one damn stream! I also have the same problem of the feeds not refreshing, I close the app and restart it and it usually updates properly.
     
  23. Kryptonite

    Kryptonite Fancy Title Here

    Apr 10, 1999
    Columbus
    Club:
    Columbus Crew
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    #2173 Kryptonite, Feb 21, 2021
    Last edited: Feb 21, 2021
    Yeah, why they don't have one stream is mystifying. If they're archiving stuff, I'm sure they could grab the feed from walkout to shortly after the final whistle for the archive.

    I saw a bit of the MCFC game on my Samsung tablet with no issues. When I selected that game well before it ended, I also saw the icon for the MUFC game. After MC ended, I exited out and went into the MU game with no issues.

    In true Peacock fashion, I'm sure it said the game "started at 2:30" or whatever, but anyone selecting it at that time would have seen a "This Match Has Not Yet Started" screen. If they insist on having mutiple clickables, they should sign off the one game and give people 2-3 minutes.

    Have game 1 wrap up at the stadium and studio. Then give people a few minutes to get out of that stream and into the other. It's not like flipping channels from say, ESPN to ESPN2 when something on ESPN2 runs long and they can simulcast for a little bit once the ESPN2 game ends.

    But yeah, have a seamless transition from one game to the next. It's not that hard. Likewise, if someone wants to watch game 2, they should see it pop up. If someone keeps it on after game 1, they could.
     
  24. KensingtonSC

    KensingtonSC Still Lazy After All These Years

    FC Vaduz / Philadelphia Union
    Jan 7, 2010
    Andalusia, PA
    Club:
    FC Vaduz
    Because of the way it's stored for on demand purposes, it has to be one stream at a time. Also, quality may be effected by a stream that goes on for a really long time, and they probably don't have the resources to compress it properly. ESPN can do things like that because they have the infrastructure to do so, but I wouldn't bet on Comcast to be able to do that.
     
  25. NorthBank

    NorthBank Member+

    Arsenal; NYRB
    United States
    Mar 29, 2006
    Connecticut
    Club:
    Arsenal FC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    I'm tired of excuses. For me it's simple: as a baseline they should replicate the ease & reliability that was the old TV+DVR model... then any added functionality beyond that, which digital streaming can do and TV/DVR's can't do, well then that's gravy and a great sales pitch. But there are just too many backward steps in the new streaming landscape at this point.
     

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