Man your battle stations! The Netflix password sharing crackdown craze has brainwashed the decision makers of your favorite professional sports leagues. They’re drunk on their power and looking to squash any and all opposition.
The real issue at hand is how expensive the conventional routes have gotten. All of a sudden, it feels like cable is only for the wealthy. If you have cable on multiple TVs, I’m going to safely assume you live in a gated mansion on top of a hill with a moat surrounding the property. When you’re not enjoying fiber optics in the comfort of your own estate, you can be found at the yacht club, sipping on scotch with a splash of soda.
The next best option is the legal streaming services – YouTube TV, Hulu, Sling, Fubo etc. The monthly cost of these options isn’t on the same tier as cable TV, but still enough to raise the blood pressure. They have all these different bundles, offers, and promotions, meant to confuse and frustrate you to the point of punching in your credit card information and clicking submit to be done with it. The worst part is these services don’t even work 100% of the time, when they absolutely should, since you’re paying a pretty penny. “Local blackouts” is this aggravating excuse they’ll use when they’re unable to broadcast a specific game in a specific area. More often than not, your favorite team is “local”, which means you’re paying hard earned dollars to not watch the game you’re most interested in.
It’s all so backwards and astonishing to me that there isn’t a no brainer way to watch sports in 2023. With all that’s going on in the world right now, can we just please watch football at a reasonable price in peace? Has that become too much of an ask Roger?
The good news is I have no idea how they’re going to enforce this. If Adam Silver, Roger Goodell and the powers that be think they can outsmart a tech savvy Cowboys fan living in his mom’s basement with enough free time to drive the average American clinically insane, they are sadly mistaken. I’m sure there will be workarounds and I’ll be cheering on those courageous trailblazers from the sidelines.
When it’s all said and done, this might pour gasoline on what they’re trying to eradicate. It’s like when there’s a fancy room in your friend’s house that you’ve been informed is off limits. You were never curious about it before, but now it simply must be explored.
Who knows, there might even be a renaissance. The average Joe starts to realize how much money they’ve been unnecessarily forking over and decide to jump aboard the pirate ship. Veterans of the game start to share the lesser known, reliable streams instead of gatekeeping them. The underground world of sports fandom achieves harmony and Silver is left shaking his fist.
There’s also a part of this that’s very ironic, in my personal case. I have a secret I need to get off my chest. A secret that sort of undermines the whole point of writing this blog. To be clear, I’m up in arms about the principle. The big guy picking on the little guy. Snake oil salesmen from up above wanting to squeeze every last cent out of the unassuming consumer. That’s my real qualm here. My secret though, is these illegal streams stink and I barely use them.
It’s truly never an enjoyable experience. It feels like I’m walking on a tightrope over a canyon. Everything is fine until it’s not. Either you’re in fear of being a trojan horse to the mother of all computer viruses or you’re in fear of a buffering feed as time is winding down in the 4th quarter. I always prefer the most legitimate way to watch the game and seek it out at all costs. Julius Randle whining to the refs in pursuit of his 16th technical foul is stressful enough as it is.
The point is that there’s a boatload of people that regularly use livestreams off the beaten path. The legal methods of viewership are either too pricey or faulty in the most unacceptable way. Something just has to give. Instead, you have already massive businesses looking to increase their bottom line at the expense of the loyal fan. Read the room!
Luckily, an imminent change isn’t coming. I’m sure the greedy elites of the NFL, NBA, and UFC wish it was. Right now, all they’ve done is a sent letter to the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). It’s now a waiting game for the government to take action. I’m holding out hope someone in the White House doesn’t have cable, is in one too many fantasy football leagues and drags their feet on purpose.
geryblogs 
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