Sinclair Announces Details of “Bally Sports+” Streaming Service

Marlin Rays Royals Brewers and Tigers are the only teams so far that are going to. Be streamed.. I wouldn’t get hopes up to high for other teams. MLB was trying to figure out how they could do it.

Extremely disappointed in Bally Sports coverage of Twins games so far this season on my local broadcast network. The Guide shows that the Twins game is scheduled to be broadcast only to find other programming instead. I will not pay additional fees to watch Twins games in addition to my local network fees. I am sure my local network, supplying the Bally Sports channels is paying their fair share to have them available to their customers. Now it feels like we are being targeted for more fees just to get what we already are paying for. The Twins organization needs to take a long hard look at this. Alienate your fan base and your customers and they will go elsewhere. 

I have just resigned myself to the fact I will have to continue to pirate my local teams. If you are consistently de-incentivizing fans to watch your product, you are the problem. Bring the content back to Youtube TV and others, or continue to wonder why your streaming numbers are ass and no one tunes into your games.

The Dave Benz thing is just a kick in the face. Bally is the worst.

Since Sinclair is an evil corporation that has treated the fans with zero respect over the last couple of years, they've burned their bridges with me. I've found alternatives that do the job, and at the price point they're charging I'll stick with my present setup. Also, you know it won't be long before they start jacking the rates.

Ugh. The best part about cable was you had everything you needed in one spot and for one price. But cable has been getting worse and worse (prices keep climbing, service is dreadful, you realize that you have 400 channels but rarely watch more than 15 of them, it's a huge pain and expense to just set up to watch in multiple rooms of a house, etc). With streaming, it's become terribly balkanized and to get all of the stuff you want, you end up paying a heck of a lot more than you think going in...especially if you need to get internet service from somewhere separately.

$20/month for Bally Sports North? That's a big nope, especially since we know their corporate overlords are slime, and every analyst in the business said they vastly overpaid for the FoxSports affiliates they collected and now they're trying to desperately grind the dollars back after treating their fans like garbage.

The Benz move is pretty clownish: he was a quality announcer (it's remarkable how many local play-by-play guys simply aren't very good) and he did a good job with a color man in Jim Petersen that talks A LOT. (YMMV on whether he says enough that's worth listening to, I think, but Petersen talks a lot for an analyst easily more than most) is it on Ballys or the Wolves? Because some of that seems to be a "new owner needs to put their own stamp on the team" feel about it, since they claim to have consulted with the team on it. Of course, if Ballys had a damn clue they would have simply renewed the contract and not asked for the opinion...

Dave Benz is the worst play by play announcer I've ever heard*.  The only "respect" the duo gets is due to Petersen.  (Frankly, even he was difficult to listen to this year with his huge bias and complaints about the officiating)

*Temporarily forgot about John Gordon.  Neither did the basic job of describing the action.

Since I’m paying $90 month to watch BSN this is great news. I will drop ATT and save $70 month. 

At $20 a month, they priced themselves way too high for most people to pick it up. I have Hulu and have been waiting for this, but I am not paying that much a month. $10 a month is my limit.

Honestly, I just don't see how Bally and Sinclair can afford to keep going at this rate. It has been nothing but bad press and angry customers since they took over. At some point, MLB will have to step in because fans that can't watch the games won't keep being fans. 

Interesting.  Also expect this is a small step towards eventually having a menu and being able to choose what channels/packages you want to pay for.

Will be interested in seeing what their package will include.  I don't understand what 'out of market' is.  Is their package only Twins home games?  Or is out of market all the other games in MLB or Sinclair/Ballys?

Switched from Hulu to Direct TV last month for the sole purpose of getting the Twins this year (and the Wild).  

I will not send a dollar to Sinclair.  Their ethics leave me listening to the radio.

25 minutes ago, Otto von Ballpark said:

If the Twins sign on, this new service in the Twins market would offer all of the Twins games carried on Bally Sports North.

The speculation about “out-of-market” is whether the Bally Sports North games would also be available in, say, Detroit, and whether the Bally Sports Detroit games would be available in Minnesota. I would be surprised if that was true.

No way MLB will let it happen. They're not going to end MLB.TV or Extra Innings and lose all that money.

I heard the target market is someone who wants local sports, doesn't get (or want the extras on) cable, and likely trends younger. That absolutely nails me!!! (Well, two out of three, because 63 ain't the new 28.) I'll probably give it a wing for a few months.

(Though I risk losing the time advantage I have over my TN friend. We watch (him)/listen (me), and I seem to have about 20 seconds to get 'future peeks/teasers/spoilers' in before he sees it happen.)

Bally Sports and Sinclair are a joke!  Maybe the Twins/Wild/ Wolves et.al/ share in some of the blame idk.  Because don't you hurt your own product if you cut off the people from watching your product.  The situation is ridiculous and filled with greed.  Fans are left out in the cold as normal.  

13 hours ago, TheLeviathan said:

I hope it's a great solution....Until you realize piracy is free and way more ethical than giving Sinclair money! 

That last part does give me pause enough that I wouldn't sign up for the annual deal, but in all seriousness, producing the telecasts isn't free, and ultimately piracy isn't either (it just relocates the costs/incomes, or if that fails to happen then the business fails). If I don't like it, or watch much, I'll just revert to radio.

But I do like to kick in for businesses I use, because I want them to stick around. Like Twins Daily! (My favorite discovery of 2022!)

So all of you reading this, consider becoming a Caretaker!

I hope when that contract ends the Twins will find something that allows 1-2 games a week on a local channel. Fox 9+ or 45. If fans are losing interest, give it to them for free! That's how you'll get kids invested. Then when they are adults they'll spend money on the greater array of products. Full season streaming, season ticket packages, merchendise, etcetera.

On 5/5/2022 at 3:06 PM, snyder said:

At $20 a month, they priced themselves way too high for most people to pick it up. I have Hulu and have been waiting for this, but I am not paying that much a month. $10 a month is my limit.

Honestly, I just don't see how Bally and Sinclair can afford to keep going at this rate. It has been nothing but bad press and angry customers since they took over. At some point, MLB will have to step in because fans that can't watch the games won't keep being fans. 

Please, the people running MLB are just as bad. They're probably exchanging notes.

NESN announces their pricing

Red Sox broadcaster to offer streaming service outside of cable bundle (cnbc.com)

Quote

Starting Wednesday, NESN will charge $29.99 a month for streaming access to its network’s programming, which includes live Red Sox and Boston Bruins games. The first month will cost $1 as a promotional price. An annual subscription costs $329.99 and comes with eight tickets to any Red Sox game in 2022.

Update:  https://www.startribune.com/bally-sports-north-standalone-app-set-to-launch-on-sept-26/600199056/  No Twins as yet. I had to get Bally's online (and it took them a while) for them to come up with the streaming quality --- 1080p. $19.99/mo or  $189.99/yr.