On Tuesday night, there was frustration abound for some Detroit sports fans as they tried to watch Michigan Wolverines and Michigan State Spartans basketball games, along with the Detroit Red Wings taking the ice in the NHL. Although the basketball teams lost, the Red Wings were able to solidify a 5-3 victory over the Buffalo Sabres, moving their record to 6-1 since playing two games in Stockholm, Sweden as part of the league’s International Series. Mike Stone was watching, but with an additional cost incurred.
All of these games were on streaming services and required consumers to have a subscription in order to watch the action. Since Mike Stone subscribes to the Disney bundle, he is able to access Disney+, Hulu and ESPN+, giving him the ability to watch Tuesday night’s Red Wings game. The only reason he has Peacock is because it comes with his subscription to Xfinity. Moreover, he shared that he is aware that people just paid for Peacock to watch Michigan and Michigan State football games during the college season.
“Coming up, there’s going to be some NFL playoffs – there’s going to be a Wild Card game that’s going to be on Peacock,” Mike Stone said Wednesday morning on 97.1 The Ticket. “Are you willing to pay for a Wild Card game? If the Lions are in it, they’ll show it locally but whatever.”
“I’m kind of at my limit on this seriously,” Stoney and Jansen with Heather executive producer Tom Millikan replied. “Last night, you couldn’t watch any of the teams play unless you had streaming platforms. I’ve accepted Amazon Thursday Night Football; it’s become a routine…. This has all turned into you end up paying more for all this garbage than what you paid for cable.”
Stone agreed with this point, questioning whether cutting the cord has truly saved consumers any money. Co-host Jon Jansen added that people still pay for their home internet using cable providers, another way for these outlets to obtain revenue.
“The only thing cable has right now is live sports,” producer Greg Hargrave said. “That’s the only thing they have over streaming services.”
Jansen proceeded to recollect on an experience of trying to sign up for NFL Sunday Ticket without purchasing a subscription to YouTube TV and how it was complicated enough that he gave up after 20 minutes of trying. While he does not want to watch every single game around the NFL, he wants to have the flexibility to choose to watch a contest when he wants to. Looking at the YouTube TV iteration of the out-of-market broadcast package, Stone has heard that people like it better because of the options it provides users.
“But that’s a product that you paid for before; it was just on satellites instead,” Tom Millikan said. “….The problem I have is to not be able to watch your local teams without multiple streaming platforms; [it] is just a turnoff and I’m not doing it.”
Under the new media rights deal the NFL began this year with its broadcast partners, Millikan feels that the diffusion of coverage is ultimately rendering increased profits. Furthermore, he wondered why Peacock was awarded a playoff game instead of Amazon, an inquiry to which Mike Stone replied that he did not pay enough money.
“It’s all about money,” Stone said. “It’s corporate America, baby!”
