YouTubeTV drops Fox Sports North

Livingat45north

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Looks like YouTubeTV has gone the way of Dish and now has parted ways with Fox Sports North. Anyone have any inside knowledge on if this is going to last a while? Is it time to switch to Hulu?
 

Do they still carry Fox Sports? Not exactly sure how it works with having YouTubeTV as a provider....but if you have Fox Sports....you should be able to use your credentials to log into Fox Sports Go....where I'd think you'd be able to stream Fox Sports North (fire stick, chromecast, roku).
 

Do they still carry Fox Sports? Not exactly sure how it works with having YouTubeTV as a provider....but if you have Fox Sports....you should be able to use your credentials to log into Fox Sports Go....where I'd think you'd be able to stream Fox Sports North (fire stick, chromecast, roku).
Yes, they have Fox Sports, but not the Sinclair regional sports networks, which includes "Fox Sports North".

 


Right. Try using your YouTubeTV credentials to sign into Fox Sports GO. You might be able to stream FSN through their app.
This might be a sneaky bypass, if it works.

But on paper, your login credentials should only "unlock" the content under the brands that you're paying for in the channel package under your login. So it "shouldn't" unlock FSN branded content.
 


For me, FSN means next to nothing. I just don't watch much or follow that much of Twins, TWolves, Lynx, Wild, or Loons. Those game broadcasts are the only reason to have FSN.
 

For me, FSN means next to nothing. I just don't watch much or follow that much of Twins, TWolves, Lynx, Wild, or Loons. Those game broadcasts are the only reason to have FSN.
Thanks for letting us know that you don't know anything about the subject of this thread and don't have any interest in the subject of this thread. Everyone of course is concerned about your views on everything, and knowing that you don't know and don't care really helps add to the conversation...

 

Few things give me as much pleasure on this board as each new time 45 or DPO (yes, I saw his heart eyes) re-confirm how much I get under their skin.

Truly, ear to ear. :)
 




Looks like YouTubeTV has gone the way of Dish and now has parted ways with Fox Sports North. Anyone have any inside knowledge on if this is going to last a while? Is it time to switch to Hulu?

Maybe, but it's all pretty fluid. YouTube signed a deal for the stations just last March. Think that Hulu signed their deal in February.

!
 

Maybe, but it's all pretty fluid. YouTube signed a deal for the stations just last March. Think that Hulu signed their deal in February.

!
It's always going to be a game of who will blink first -- in this case Sinclair saying pay us more or you'll lose subscribers and YouTube saying you'll lose 100% of our revenue if you don't agree to our terms. Sinclair will always need at least one provider (e.g., Hulu) so they can have the leverage of viewers jumping from whatever provider just dropped (e.g., YouTube), so maybe that's the answer for those of us that want to watch regional sports, just keep moving to whatever platform currently has it in their lineup...
 

I switched from YouTube TV to Xfinity in July and then back to YTTV when they added NFL Network & Red Zone.

Now that they’ve dropped Sinclair if YTTV doesn’t sign a new deal with Sinclair by the time the Wild start up its back to Xfinity. Hopefully YTTV & Sinclair can reach an agreement by January 1.
 
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How many subscription services do you pay for? A study by the tech consulting firm West Monroe found that the average American spends $237 a month on autopay subscriptions, or $2,844 for the year, and most of them underestimate what they think they owe. If you’re not sure what you’re spending, it’s time to audit your subscriptions.

There’s a reason why auto-renewal subscription payments are referred to as “evergreen.” At the end of either a monthly or annual subscription term, these services renew automatically unless you choose to cancel. Of course, this is why they’re so hard to track. If you stop using the service, you tend to forget the service exists and not notice the charges adding up. As an example, 84% of respondents in the West Monroe survey underestimated their subscription expenses, with 51% getting it wrong by $100 or more..


 
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Where they get people with autopay, is people who don't track their expenses much if barely at all.

You probably won't notice a different in your accounts from when your promo rate of $50/month jumps up to $85/month, because the promo expired and now you're paying full price.



At least with TV, it's trending (probably more quickly than the industry predicted) to 100% hardware-less, interenet-delivered subscriptions. YouTubeTV, Hulu Live, Sling, etc. style services I guess will be the majority in, maybe 10 years from now? A "cable box" or "satellite box" underneath your TV, will be a thing of the past for most people. If you have even a decent internet connection, and a smart TV (or a smart dongle connected via HDMI), then you automatically have access to several "cable" providers that you can switch on the fly, with no cancellation fees.
 

Where they get people with autopay, is people who don't track their expenses much if barely at all.

You probably won't notice a different in your accounts from when your promo rate of $50/month jumps up to $85/month, because the promo expired and now you're paying full price.

At least with TV, it's trending (probably more quickly than the industry predicted) to 100% hardware-less, interenet-delivered subscriptions. YouTubeTV, Hulu Live, Sling, etc. style services I guess will be the majority in, maybe 10 years from now? A "cable box" or "satellite box" underneath your TV, will be a thing of the past for most people. If you have even a decent internet connection, and a smart TV (or a smart dongle connected via HDMI), then you automatically have access to several "cable" providers that you can switch on the fly, with no cancellation fees.

True but doesn't negate the first part. Most of the services don't even have a cancellation penalty. Unless a person has only 1-3 monthly charges, as you said, they just forget about them.
 

From Hulu...

Starting on October 23, 2020 Hulu will no longer have the rights to distribute certain Regional Sports Networks (RSNs) that are currently included with your Hulu + Live TV plan.

While we were unable to reach an agreement with Sinclair Broadcast Group to continue offering channels like your Fox Sports RSN, YES Network, and Marquee Network, the good news is that you will continue to have access to a wide variety of sports from other popular channels including ESPN, TNT, and TBS, as well as FS1 and FS2.
 

From Hulu...

Starting on October 23, 2020 Hulu will no longer have the rights to distribute certain Regional Sports Networks (RSNs) that are currently included with your Hulu + Live TV plan.

While we were unable to reach an agreement with Sinclair Broadcast Group to continue offering channels like your Fox Sports RSN, YES Network, and Marquee Network, the good news is that you will continue to have access to a wide variety of sports from other popular channels including ESPN, TNT, and TBS, as well as FS1 and FS2.

Comcast is laughing. But with sports ratings way down, regional sports are asking for too much and/or this streaming companies are betting they wont lose customers because of the appetite for sports goin down
 

I am cynical enough to wonder if this is somehow being orchestrated to drive people away from streaming and back toward traditional cable - at least the sports fans.
 

"Hulu joins YouTube TV, Sling TV, and fuboTV as streaming outlets currently not offering the Sinclair RSNs as part of their packages. (YouTube and Sinclair reached a temporary agreement in March, which lasted through the end of the NBA, NHL, and MLB regular seasons.)

According to Cord Cutters News, the lone streaming provider left carrying Sinclair’s Fox Sports regional networks is AT&T TV Now in a package that costs $80 per month compared to the $54.99 Hulu charged subscribers, $64.99 for YouTube TV, $54.99 to $64.99 for fuboTV, and $30 to $45 for Sling TV.

It seems likely that these carriage disputes will be resolved before the new NBA, NHL, and MLB seasons begin in 2021. But in the meantime, this alienates subscribers who may have remained with a service and could perhaps lead to some cancellations (even if temporarily). And when streaming providers reach agreements to carry Sinclair’s RSNs again, it’s probable that price increases in monthly rates will be part of the overall package."

 

On the other hand: https://www.cordcuttersnews.com/sling-is-bringing-back-big-ten-network/


Big Ten Football is back and Sling is helping football fans keep up with their favorite teams by adding Big Ten Network.

Back in December, Sling shared that NBTN would be added to its channel lineup ahead of the 2020-2021 college football season, after the channel was removed from Sling’s parent company Dish during a dispute with Fox.

Sling says the channel will officially launch on the streaming service tomorrow, October 22, ahead of Big Ten games kicking off this weekend. You can get the channel by adding the Sports Extra ($10/month) to a Sling Blue ($30/month) subscription, making it one of the most affordable options for watching BTN.

If you’re new to Sling TV, you can try it out with a three day free trial.

Here’s the BTN schedule for this weekend:
Friday, October 23
  • Illinois at #14 Wisconsin at 8 p.m. ET
Saturday, October 24
  • Rutgers at Michigan State at 12 p.m. ET
  • Iowa at Purdue at 3:30 p.m. ET
  • Maryland at Northwestern at 7:30 p.m. ET
 

"Hulu joins YouTube TV, Sling TV, and fuboTV as streaming outlets currently not offering the Sinclair RSNs as part of their packages. (YouTube and Sinclair reached a temporary agreement in March, which lasted through the end of the NBA, NHL, and MLB regular seasons.)

According to Cord Cutters News, the lone streaming provider left carrying Sinclair’s Fox Sports regional networks is AT&T TV Now in a package that costs $80 per month compared to the $54.99 Hulu charged subscribers, $64.99 for YouTube TV, $54.99 to $64.99 for fuboTV, and $30 to $45 for Sling TV.

It seems likely that these carriage disputes will be resolved before the new NBA, NHL, and MLB seasons begin in 2021. But in the meantime, this alienates subscribers who may have remained with a service and could perhaps lead to some cancellations (even if temporarily). And when streaming providers reach agreements to carry Sinclair’s RSNs again, it’s probable that price increases in monthly rates will be part of the overall package."

Will Sinclar be an add on to a streaming service vs. included in the package? Guess we'll see.
 

I am cynical enough to wonder if this is somehow being orchestrated to drive people away from streaming and back toward traditional cable - at least the sports fans.
The content providers (studios, channels) don't care who pays them. They demand $X per subscriber to the channel tier where the channel is on. They ultimately care about money, no matter which pipes their content gets to those subscribers.
 

On the other hand: https://www.cordcuttersnews.com/sling-is-bringing-back-big-ten-network/


Big Ten Football is back and Sling is helping football fans keep up with their favorite teams by adding Big Ten Network.

Back in December, Sling shared that NBTN would be added to its channel lineup ahead of the 2020-2021 college football season, after the channel was removed from Sling’s parent company Dish during a dispute with Fox.

Sling says the channel will officially launch on the streaming service tomorrow, October 22, ahead of Big Ten games kicking off this weekend. You can get the channel by adding the Sports Extra ($10/month) to a Sling Blue ($30/month) subscription, making it one of the most affordable options for watching BTN.

If you’re new to Sling TV, you can try it out with a three day free trial.

Here’s the BTN schedule for this weekend:
Friday, October 23
  • Illinois at #14 Wisconsin at 8 p.m. ET
Saturday, October 24
  • Rutgers at Michigan State at 12 p.m. ET
  • Iowa at Purdue at 3:30 p.m. ET
  • Maryland at Northwestern at 7:30 p.m. ET
YouTubeTV needs to kick off SEC and ACC networks from my package here in Minnesota! No one gives a crap here about stupid southern schools.
 

YouTubeTV needs to kick off SEC and ACC networks from my package here in Minnesota! No one gives a crap here about stupid southern schools.
I respectfully disagree. I only pay for TV during the college football and college basketball/hockey season. I love getting those channels, as there may be a way more interesting game on than watching Bama/Georgia or Bama/LSU or Bama/Auburn on the "main" channels. Not really applicable this year, but I'm bummed they don't carry Pac12 network. They have some games on P12 network that start at 9/10pm cst, which makes for some good late night football watching.
 


Last week, we discussed the challenges for Sinclair at the Fox-branded regional sports networks they bought from Disney in 2019, including a potential bondholder-led debt restructuring and one analyst (Steven Cahall of Wells Fargo Securities) calling the RSNs “Sinclair’s Achilles heel” and saying that they should be spun off. Well, Sinclair’s third-quarter results further illustrate the issues there, as the company took a $4.23 billion charge “related mostly to the regional sports networks business” (which is under their subsidiary, Diamond Sports Group) and posted a $3.21 billion loss for the quarter..

.these financial numbers are more bad news for Sinclair’s RSNs, and they illustrate the magnitude of the challenges they’re facing. And the pandemic hit RSNs particularly hard, with missed games not only hurting their audience and advertising numbers, but also their net fees (as they had to pay more in rebates to distributors than they got back in refunds for unplayed games). So for the moment, at least, these RSNs aren’t looking all that great for Sinclair. But we’ll see if the “Achilles’ heel” part comes true.
 

They're paying too much for rights to mid-week professional sports games, which I think have fairly limited audiences. The model must've made financial sense at one point. Maybe it still can.
 

Sinclair's RSN are planning to go direct to consumer and cut the YouTubeTV's and Hulu's out of that market segment. Per this article, coming soon we'll be able to purchase a "Fox Sports North" plan direct from Sinclair. I'm guessing you'll see this happen with other sports networks such as B1G and SEC. The big losers in this deal are the current large sports networks (e.g., ESPN). The days of them getting $9/subscriber from large service providers are history.

 

Sinclair's RSN are planning to go direct to consumer and cut the YouTubeTV's and Hulu's out of that market segment. Per this article, coming soon we'll be able to purchase a "Fox Sports North" plan direct from Sinclair. I'm guessing you'll see this happen with other sports networks such as B1G and SEC. The big losers in this deal are the current large sports networks (e.g., ESPN). The days of them getting $9/subscriber from large service providers are history.


Looks like a big announcement that Sinclair will partner with Ballys and carry their gaming and sports betting offering.

As for that direct-to-consumer sports programming? More of a "we're working on it"
 

It all comes down to price. How much will they try to charge, and how much are people willing to pay?

If the only way to get Fox Sports North was a streaming deal, for me at least, it all depends on the price point. And - will there be an alternate channel like FSN Plus available as part of the deal, or would that be an extra fee?

I had Netflix and dropped it in favor of the Disney+ bundle because I could get 3 channels in the bundle (Disney+, ESPN+ and Hulu) for less than I was playing for Netflix.
 

Looks like a big announcement that Sinclair will partner with Ballys and carry their gaming and sports betting offering.

As for that direct-to-consumer sports programming? More of a "we're working on it"
Yep, it could simply be a "shot across the bow" from Sinclar to the YouTubeTVs of the world, basically saying we don't need you so agree to our terms or we'll just cut you out. We'll see what happens. The trend is moving away from big bundlers of channels (e.g., DirectTV or Dish) and towards multiple subscription feeds for smaller channel selections (e.g., Disney+ and such).
 




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