ESPN3 coverage - are they going to start charging now?

[tornado]

ESPN is starting this new subscription streaming service...
right now they are starting it out at $4.99/month, but everyone know how subscription services always work - as soon as you get to like it and use the service, they start jacking up the prices to gouge people as much as they can.

I understand free enterprise...but there's at least some hint that this is what will replace ESPN3.

"Live Sports Lineup Includes: Hundreds of MLB, NHL, MLS Games, Thousands of College Sports Events...
...including football, basketball....from over a dozen conferences across the country including the America East, ASun....Missouri Valley...and many more.....* Blackouts apply"

https://espnmediazone.com/us/press-releases/2018/04/espn-to-launch-april-12-bringing-sports-fans-more-live-sports-exclusive-originals-and-on-demand-library-all-for-4-99-per-month/?DB_OEM_ID=9800

so...what does everyone hear....
it certainly appears that ESPN3 will no longer offer games and you will have to pay to see them on ESPN+

https://www.cordcuttersnews.com/espn-is-moving-games-from-espn3-to-espn/

[Da Coach]

Subscription or pay-per-view video streaming is clearly the future of televised sports. A lot of younger people rarely even watch TV any more, they get everything they want on their smartphones or iPads.
We'll have to wait and see if this will replace the ESPN3 deal the MVC has with ESPN. It may not right away, though it probably will eventually. The fact that they have the disclaimer about "blackouts apply" suggests that it might not compete with programming that is already available to each viewer, but will offer other events that they would not otherwise have access to. In other words, probably Cubs, Cardinals, White Sox, Bulls, etc. will be blacked out to viewers in Peoria area. That reduces the appeal to most sports fans significantly.
Either way, for $4.99 per month or $50 per year, it is not a bad deal.

Here is a bit more about it-

https://www.digitaltrends.com/movies/everything-you-need-to-know-about-espn-plus/

[bradleyfan124]

That is why it was free to start. Get people to liking it. I think sometimes these sports stations end up ruining the sport by keeping people away. I don't think it will happen with basketball but I saw it happen with boxing. Sugar Ray Leonard fights were prime time and people flocked to their TV's. Then they started charging for big time bouts. The people said no and then boxing took a backseat to other things. I saw interest in boxing drop tremendously

[Fyrebyrd]

This looks to be the same model NBC Sports introduced this year with NBC Sports Gold. Prior this year, all content on NBC Sports Live was available via streaming as long as you had a TV subscription. This year, all programming that was being aired on one of their channel networks (NBC, NBC Sports, USA) was free via NBC Sports Live to stream. Any other additional streaming content such as Premier League games that were not being aired on TV were shifted to NBC Sports Gold under a paid subscription.

[tornado]

the cable companies use all sorts of tricks...the will start off billing you every other month, then after you sign up for a while they raise prices but change to monthly billing so the bill looks the same!

a few years ago I switched to the new fiberoptic system in our neighborhood for phone, internet & TV - it was a real steal - the whole package for around $100 which was $40-50 less than we were paying for phone, internet & TV separately thru 3 other companies...
BUT - with gradual, sneaky price increases, they now are over $150/mo - so I see that was the plan all along...

PJS does the same, they keep hiking your re-subscrip fees til finally they were pushing $200 for a 3 MONTH RENEWAL!!! ( $2 a day!!)
...then when you cancel they call you endlessly with deals that are lass than half what you were paying to try to lure you back -- but I am not biting this time, I know they will just jack the costs back up where they were when they lost me..

[SycamoreFanatic]

The Sycamore baseball games this weekend with Dallas Baptist now say ESPN+. My early guess is the ESPN3 free-ride is already long gone ? ISU played Purdue at home Tuesday & it was already changed to ESPN+. They played at Purdue yesterday & it was BTN+ so no more for free it seems....... too bad I enjoyed watching all Valley teams at times whether basketball, Volleyball, baseball, softball even when some terrible amateur commentators were doing it.

[tornado]

Todd Golden, the beat writer for Indiana State shares his feelings on the ESPN deal the MVC has..

he says it took a while but he got used to the ESPN3 deal and liked it...even calling it a godsend for MVC fans...

but he obviously hates the new ESPN+ deal...
calls it a shame...predicts most fans will not sign up

http://www.tribstar.com/sports/todd-aaron-golden-isu-mvc-and-fans-lose-with-espn/article_b4bea5d7-99d0-55c2-9e36-097f8bf3eb5d.html

[battlebasset]

For the most part, the only reason I have ESPN in my satellite package is to watch Bradley games via authentication. If I could step down to a lesser satellite package and just pay for streaming ESPN+ standalone for $4.99 a month for five months (Nov thru March) that would be $25 per year. Might be a better deal.

Give me another way to watch Bradley in high quality HD and I'll dump ESPN altogether. I remember watching before ESPN3 however, and it was a toss up between watching a very poor quality product or listening to the games via WMBD internet stream. The pictures in my head are 4K!

[Da Coach]

Good points. Throughout the past 50 years, there has never been ideal TV broadcast coverage of Bradley games. For many years, the local TV stations fought with each other to buy the TV rights, but then they picked and chose a handful of games to broadcast, leaving fans unable to see most games. By the end of the over-the-air broadcasts of games by local TV, they were doing only a couple games a year (like the ISU game), because it was not profitable enough. Then the webcasts gradually phased in, but at first they only did home game because they didn't have the rights to away games, and we all recall the frequent connection problems and terrible low-quality video of those early video streams.
Overall, the ESPN3 deal has been good for fans. If they switch Bradley and MVC games to the new ESPN+ format, I'd gladly pay the $4.99 per month for 4 months. You'd likely only need to purchase the package for Nov., Dec., Jan., and Feb. (the March games will probably continue to be on CBSSports Network) to see high-quality video of every game (plus archived games that could be watched at any time), and the package will allow viewing of every other MVC game, and thousands of other college basketball games, and myriads of other events. That would be only $20-25 for the entire basketball season. That is less that the cost of attending a single game.
I actually think it is a bargain.