Hope you have a Peacock subscription. NFL playoff game exclusively on Peacock, Jan 2024.

[frostbitmic]

Eventually, every game will be PPV.

[Mr. WEO]

13 hours ago, Mark Vader said:

Playoff games should be free to view on television.

 

I've been told here many times that network TV is not free--we all pay for it via increased prices of beer, insurance products and pickup trucks.....

[bigK14094]

13 hours ago, Roundybout said:

To me this is a sign that the streaming fad is never ever going to work for sports. They are desperately trying to force people to watch sports on streaming services. 

ESPN Plus works to watch most Sabers games while in Florida.  So, I pay the fee.  (just not the games played in Florida)

[T master]

14 hours ago, Draconator said:

 

 

I miss the days of ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox & it all being free across the air waves ... 

[Heavy Kevi]

13 hours ago, QCity said:

 

 

13 hours ago, arcane said:

It is comically easy to watch any game I want for free at this point. I don't know or care what peacock is

 

Yup they are so dumb. If you make it harder to watch legally, people will take the path of least resistance.

 

I pay for several streaming services, but let me put it this way: I'm not signing up for peacock AND I'm not missing a playoff game.

[TheFunPolice]

it's fascinating watching this shift to streaming...

 

In the early days the streamers were loud and proud about how cheap it was. Now, once you add in all the different services, plus your high speed internet access you need to use these services, you end up basically right back where you were with cable. 

 

If only there was a service where you got all of these streaming platforms bundled together, for one price... In other words, what cable was, except through the internet. And just as expensive (or more) and very difficult if you live in a rural area where "high speed internet" connections are trash and getting cable isn't an option at any price. 

 

There was a little window where people gamed the system and found a way to get a la carte cable essentially and pay a fraction of the cost, but it was inevitable that the networks and content producers would close that gap, and they have/are. Unless you have a very narrow interest in one type of content, you are going to need multiple streaming services. 

 

As far as the NFL goes, turning down over $100M for ONE GAME would be financial malfeasance. 

Edited May 16, 2023 by TheFunPolice

[Sammy Watkins' Rib]

15 hours ago, Roundybout said:

To me this is a sign that the streaming fad is never ever going to work for sports. They are desperately trying to force people to watch sports on streaming services. 

have to disagree with this. Streaming is here to stay. and the percentage of streaming only household is only going to grow every year.

 

there’s no satellites to hook up no cables to run through walls.

I do agree with another poster who mentioned it makes for a terrible customer experience to force the customer to have a bunch of different streaming services and/or apps to watch the games.

 

and the confusion is compounded now with games on all different days of the weeks and many different start times. Monday night doubleheaders where you might not be sure if the teams playing at 7 PM, 8 PM or 9 PM kick off. Is it ABC or ESPN? Or both? Is it on NBC or Peacock? Prime or NFL Network?

 

we will see if that gets cleaned up over the coming years.

 

[Rc2catch]

Normally I wouldn’t mind this but I’m kinda fuming now. I live down south, we have Comcast/Xfinity and they of course aren’t cheap. For years I have had peacock free from xfinity. 
Few days ago I opened the app and a message popped up saying the free version ends in June xfinity will no longer offer it, and of course it all makes sense now that they announced the game. 
Peacock isn’t expensive but I won’t lie, I normally turn it on for my dogs to watch when we are out of the house a long time since I don’t have normal tv. Xfinity is pricey on its own and now they lost the one free perk they offered with internet which sucks. Not end of the world type stuff but enough to agitate me. 

[sullim4]

The NFL overplayed their hand on this one.  I suspect if it was Amazon or YouTube that got it, there'd be less backlash as those services are at least already streaming some games.

 

The funny thing is that you don't even have to pirate the game in the traditional to see it if you have something like YoutubeTV.  VPN + F12 to change your lat/long to one of the local markets that gets the game over-the-air should be enough.

[BigDingus]

I hope this backfires entirely, and they hit record low numbers. Sure, they get the money from NBC & Peacock gets some extra subs, but all that ad revenue would fly out the window when they see the small amount of eyes they're advertising to. 

 

And even that boost in subs will be temporary. Peacock will have shelled out that boatload of money for a 1 month boost consisting of mainly free trials. 

 

Oh, and even worse if the 2 teams involved are from small markets. Diehards will begrudgingly sign up to see their team, but that's about it. 

[jethro_tull]

16 hours ago, PromoTheRobot said:

 

The entry tier of Peacock is free anyway.

yes, not a big deal to sign on, no credit card needed.  just a smart tv, Roku box or other and you can watch much of NBC's programming.  

still kind of a pain.  

my question is will they require a paid subscription to watch the NFL.  if so, this is getting ridiculous.  

 

[PBF81]

16 hours ago, machine gun kelly said:

It’s around $5 a month when I started and you can cancel pretty much anytime.  It’s not that big a deal.  I use as I like some of the nbc shows and I typically watch them the next morning at 5 at the gym without commercials.

 

I wouldn’t stress over it.  You’d pay the same for a Starbucks.

 

Agreed.  And last year they had a $1.99/mo. for 12 months intro deal.  I got it for the SNF games which they carried.  We had two I think, so even $24 for the two games is fine.  As with you, if you can't find a free feed, you're not looking.  LOL 

 

 

[Matt_In_NH]

3 hours ago, frostbitmic said:

Eventually, every game will be PPV.

3 quarters of people pay nothing and just steal content.

[KGun12TD]

17 hours ago, Mark Vader said:

Playoff games should be free to view on television.

THIS RIGHT HERE!!! 

[FloridaSnow]

5 hours ago, SoMAn said:

Assume that Peacock will only be necessary for out of market cities. I'd think that the 2 participant cities local networks will bid for the local broadcast as they do for preseason and other streaming games.

 

Free trial or worse case scenario, pay $5 an cancel - big deal.

 

My concern is not the current cost but rather how this escalates in coming years once they've gotten smart TVs or firesticks in every house and we become slaves to these viewing habits.

Will we start to get gauged for a single-month of service to incentivize us to get 3, 4, or 5 month bundles? I can see that happening.

 

Will the $72/month YoutubeTV fee inch it's way towards $140/month once they wrangle a few million subscribers more than they have now? Count on it.

 

At that point we're almost back to the pre-cut the cord days.

 

I'm keeping Directv. At least they have actual humans to talk and negotiate with.  $60/month for a fairly comprehensive package with HBO and Max. 

Luckily, at least 10-13 regular season games are just about guaranteed in this market.  

 

I'm keeping DirecTV as well. I live out in the sticks a bit, so the internet is not always reliable. 

[Ned Flanders]

I have a feeling this Peacock game will be the one hosted by the irrelevant AFC South champion, the former Houston Texans Invitational.  

[PromoTheRobot]

1 hour ago, jethro_tull said:

yes, not a big deal to sign on, no credit card needed.  just a smart tv, Roku box or other and you can watch much of NBC's programming.  

still kind of a pain.  

my question is will they require a paid subscription to watch the NFL.  if so, this is getting ridiculous.  

 

Eventually I'm sure. This year they might let that go.

[mjt328]

17 hours ago, machine gun kelly said:

It’s around $5 a month when I started and you can cancel pretty much anytime.  It’s not that big a deal.  I use as I like some of the nbc shows and I typically watch them the next morning at 5 at the gym without commercials.

 

I wouldn’t stress over it.  You’d pay the same for a Starbucks.

 

My problem isn't paying to watch games.

 

My problem is that I need to pay $390 for Sunday Ticket... and I'm still missing a big chunk of the Primetime matchups.  I still need to get Amazon Prime for all the Thursday nights.  I still need some kind of TV subscriber with ESPN for all the Monday nights, and NFL Network for the international matchups.  And now I need to add Peacock for at least one Bills game and one playoff game.  

 

Because of my wife and kids, I'm already stuck with paying for Netflix and Disney Plus monthly.  At some point, the cost to have all these subscriptions just isn't worth it.

[wppete]

So basically we need regular cable, an Amazon prime account, a peacock account? Anything else? 

[BillsPride12]

4 hours ago, frostbitmic said:

Eventually, every game will be PPV.

And the NFL product just keeps getting worse and worse and will make it easier to part ways when that day comes instead of shell out extra $$$