Big Ten media days: BTN expanding to Internet streaming services

Gopher07

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Good news for us cord cutters, BTN will be available through most major streaming services this fall (previously it hadn't been available on some). No word on where it'll fall in their tiers.

http://www.omaha.com/huskers/blogs/...cle_da184808-7090-11e7-87fa-67e7011bbf8a.html

>> BTN will be available on Hulu, YouTube TV, PlayStation Vue, Sling and DirecTV Now — all over-the-top, Internet broadcasters — coming in the fall, a decision that addresses the declining numbers in cable subscribers, particularly those younger Americans who are “cutting the cord” or not signing up for cable at all.
 


Would love to see them added to Amazon Channels. Getting HBO over that service has been great for Game of Thrones this season, especially after I cancelled cable over the summer.
 


You have to pay for each of those services in one way or another, but it is certainly cheaper than cable as a whole, and you most likely can drop your subscription to those at anytime and rejoin at any time with little difficulty.
 


I bought Playstation Vue last fall ($35/mo level) pretty much exclusively for the Gophers. I canceled as soon as the season was over. I am curious if there will be cheaper options this year.
 

Sling TV was a misquote. It's not coming to Sling.
http://cordcuttersnews.com/sorry-btn-not-coming-sling-tv/

DTVN, Vue, Hulu, and YouTube already have it and have had it since launch, so this isn't necessarily new information.

Cool. Gives me a reason to keep Hulu.

Hulu with Live TV is an add on service to Hulu. It starts at $39.99 and includes the traditional Hulu subscription as well.

I bought Playstation Vue last fall ($35/mo level) pretty much exclusively for the Gophers. I canceled as soon as the season was over. I am curious if there will be cheaper options this year.

Vue raised their prices by $10 across the board, so that $35 plan is $45 now. Cheapest option to get BTN is YouTube TV at $35. But YouTube TV is kind of a pain right now in that it doesn't have Roku, Fire TV or Apple TV apps. You have to cast it from your phone to a TV with a Chromecast. An Android TV app is coming but no word on any support for boxes that people actually use yet.

Or if you have the ATT Wireless unlimited data plan you get $25 off DirecTV Now and can get BTN for $25 a month. Without the discount, the cheapest option to get BTN with DTVN is $50.

Lastly, if you already pay for Hulu, adding on Hulu Live TV is only $31 extra and has BTN.
 

Sling TV was a misquote. It's not coming to Sling.
http://cordcuttersnews.com/sorry-btn-not-coming-sling-tv/

DTVN, Vue, Hulu, and YouTube already have it and have had it since launch, so this isn't necessarily new information.



Hulu with Live TV is an add on service to Hulu. It starts at $39.99 and includes the traditional Hulu subscription as well.



Vue raised their prices by $10 across the board, so that $35 plan is $45 now. Cheapest option to get BTN is YouTube TV at $35. But YouTube TV is kind of a pain right now in that it doesn't have Roku, Fire TV or Apple TV apps. You have to cast it from your phone to a TV with a Chromecast. An Android TV app is coming but no word on any support for boxes that people actually use yet.

Or if you have the ATT Wireless unlimited data plan you get $25 off DirecTV Now and can get BTN for $25 a month. Without the discount, the cheapest option to get BTN with DTVN is $50.

Lastly, if you already pay for Hulu, adding on Hulu Live TV is only $31 extra and has BTN.

Thanks for the breakdown -- that's good stuff. I used Vue for a few weeks while my Tivo was on the fritz, and it was pretty sweet. I liked that it had a quasi-DVR feel to it in that you could "subscribe" to shows and quickly pull up episodes. That said, nothing beats Tivo and cable for convenience. Price is another story, of course...
 

Great writeup, mnsportsgeek. I think I will probably stick with iheartradio for the season.
 



Sling TV was a misquote. It's not coming to Sling.
http://cordcuttersnews.com/sorry-btn-not-coming-sling-tv/

DTVN, Vue, Hulu, and YouTube already have it and have had it since launch, so this isn't necessarily new information.



Hulu with Live TV is an add on service to Hulu. It starts at $39.99 and includes the traditional Hulu subscription as well.



Vue raised their prices by $10 across the board, so that $35 plan is $45 now. Cheapest option to get BTN is YouTube TV at $35. But YouTube TV is kind of a pain right now in that it doesn't have Roku, Fire TV or Apple TV apps. You have to cast it from your phone to a TV with a Chromecast. An Android TV app is coming but no word on any support for boxes that people actually use yet.

Or if you have the ATT Wireless unlimited data plan you get $25 off DirecTV Now and can get BTN for $25 a month. Without the discount, the cheapest option to get BTN with DTVN is $50.

Lastly, if you already pay for Hulu, adding on Hulu Live TV is only $31 extra and has BTN.

I desperately want to cut the cord, but this is a prime example of why I haven't yet. The streaming industry is too fragmented and immature at this point. I'll ride out my Comcast contract for another 18 months and see if there's a consolidation so I don't have to patchwork together multiple services to get the channels I want.
 

I desperately want to cut the cord, but this is a prime example of why I haven't yet. The streaming industry is too fragmented and immature at this point. I'll ride out my Comcast contract for another 18 months and see if there's a consolidation so I don't have to patchwork together multiple services to get the channels I want.

This is the biggest deterrent. Most services don't include all 4 major locals. And every service is missing some cable network. DirecTV Now is probably the closest to having everything, but it's also one of the priciest and is still missing NFL Network, CBS Sports Network, BeIN, CBS, and NBC in the Twin Cities for example.

Until everyone at least gets locals everywhere, most people will not jump on to these services. The majority are simply not going to mess with antennas and I don't blame them. I would bet that 18 months from now these services will be much more complete, maybe even in the next 6 months. AT&T has made some pretty bold claims about the future of DirecTV Now, going so far as to say that U-Verse, DirecTV, and DirecTV Now will all eventually share the same next generation platform, and that DirecTV Now will be the first one to get it this fall.
 

The best option is to buy a laptop and then go to the college football streams reddit and watch all your favorite games for free.
 




Looks like I'll try out PS Vue this fall. Works with a lot of devices and is the only one I can tell that provides access to all the BTN alternate channels.
 

I desperately want to cut the cord, but this is a prime example of why I haven't yet. The streaming industry is too fragmented and immature at this point. I'll ride out my Comcast contract for another 18 months and see if there's a consolidation so I don't have to patchwork together multiple services to get the channels I want.

I am curious to those of you who still have Comcast - how much do you pay for your subscriptions? I am paying $200 plus per month for Internet, Phone, and cable TV service. Everytime I threatened to quit, they lower the cost by bundling. They don't seem to want to volunteer the cheapest option available. What is stopping me is my wife has preferential shows like Food Network, Hallmark channels, etc... For me, I am happy if I get my SPORTS thru BTN, ESPN, and ESPNU, and all the local TV stations. I gave up on Fox Sports. The thing I hate about Comcast is they keep raising the fees on everything. Now I have dropped HBO. But, the thing that gets me is 90 % of the TV channels is garbage. Who cares about the self-evolved Kardashians? No wonder why we are producing a lot of dumb people.

I too would like to cut the cord. But, I don't know what the best alternative options are. Don't you still need to subscribe to an Internet Service Provider? What are the alternatives - Comcast, Century, and I heard something about Frontier making something available.

I heard from people that cut cords there are definitely tradeoffs. Does anybody know anything about Frontier offerings?
 

I desperately want to cut the cord, but this is a prime example of why I haven't yet. The streaming industry is too fragmented and immature at this point. I'll ride out my Comcast contract for another 18 months and see if there's a consolidation so I don't have to patchwork together multiple services to get the channels I want.

I'm curious as to which channels you want. I've had the Vue for over a year and I have every channel I want. The only minor annoyance is that you can't get ABC or NBC live. If you watch any original programming from those channels, you can watch them on-demand. I don't watch those channels 99.9% of the time anyway, but the only time it's irksome is, for example, if the Vikings are playing on Sunday Night Football, I can't get it on Vue and have to watch it through the NBC Sports app, which doesn't let you stream live from your phone for some bizarre reason (only from a computer), so the quality sucks. Other than that, I have zero complaints.
 

I'm curious as to which channels you want. I've had the Vue for over a year and I have every channel I want. The only minor annoyance is that you can't get ABC or NBC live. If you watch any original programming from those channels, you can watch them on-demand. I don't watch those channels 99.9% of the time anyway, but the only time it's irksome is, for example, if the Vikings are playing on Sunday Night Football, I can't get it on Vue and have to watch it through the NBC Sports app, which doesn't let you stream live from your phone for some bizarre reason (only from a computer), so the quality sucks. Other than that, I have zero complaints.

The solution to this is an indoor antenna. It's about $15-20 and depending on location can pick up HD signals of all the local channels for free.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

The solution to this is an indoor antenna. It's about $15-20 and depending on location can pick up HD signals of all the local channels for free.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

This is what we do for the local channels. The picture isn't too bad either.
 

I think sling is pretty good, too bad it doesn't carry btn otherwise I would have a subscription. Currently living off of netflix and HBOGo, sports will be interesting this year.
 

I think sling is pretty good, too bad it doesn't carry btn otherwise I would have a subscription. Currently living off of netflix and HBOGo, sports will be interesting this year.

The advantage something like Vue has over Sling is it has the ability to record. You also only need one subscription for use on up to 5 TVs at once. It's a little more expensive but still much cheaper than cable. Between Vue, Netflix, and internet, we pay less than $110 a month.
 

I'd throw in Youtube TV as well. Has BTN, along with all the ESPNs, FSN, CBS Sports Network, FS1, and all the MN locals for $35. Unlimited DVR storage. What I found out last night is you may run into local blackouts though, like last night's Vikings preseason game. Still, was able to DVR and watch the FSN replay at midnight.
 

I tried to talk myself into cutting the cord earlier the summer but didn't for some of the reasons other posters have mentioned. There are still good deals to be had for the traditional cable/satellite services, you just have to shop around and make a call when they raise the prices. If you're paying over $200 a month for Comcast, you're doing it wrong.

I currently have DirecTv for $60 a month, and 85 mbps internet for $30 a month.
 

I'd throw in Youtube TV as well. Has BTN, along with all the ESPNs, FSN, CBS Sports Network, FS1, and all the MN locals for $35. Unlimited DVR storage. What I found out last night is you may run into local blackouts though, like last night's Vikings preseason game. Still, was able to DVR and watch the FSN replay at midnight.

I had the same problem when trying to watch the Vikings game on the NFL mobile app on my phone, I was stuck watching Denver @ Chicago. The past couple years, at least during the regular season, the games I got on the NFL mobile app were the same games that were on the MN local channels which last night should have included the Vikings.

We are planning on trying YouTube TV out this fall after fall shows start up and football season is in full swing.
 

I had the same problem when trying to watch the Vikings game on the NFL mobile app on my phone, I was stuck watching Denver @ Chicago. The past couple years, at least during the regular season, the games I got on the NFL mobile app were the same games that were on the MN local channels which last night should have included the Vikings.

We are planning on trying YouTube TV out this fall after fall shows start up and football season is in full swing.

Seemed like it was a KMSP-forced blackout, because even the local pregame show was blacked out.
 




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