Cord cutter Blues question

[Twister18]

Hello all Blues fans!
Looking to dump the pricey Directv but still need my Blues fi. Any recommendations will be appreciated. Is the Bally App worth it ?

Click to read more...

 

[Xerloris]

I thought Bally's was ok last year, 20$ a month is reasonable and the quality imo was good.

 

[jjniner]

Our Bally’s app is free thru local cable

 

[ort]

Yeah, if you have cable it is free. If you are cutting the cord, it's $20 a month.

Bear in mind that this will get you about 80% of the games. Anything on national tv won't be included here... and while there is a very good chance it won't matter this year... as soon as the playoffs start you are out of luck again.

It seems to me that the only way to get NHL playoffs is to subscribe to something like a Sling TV or Youtube TV or another similar "live tv" streaming cable replacement and those are like $60 a month or more.

There is currently no easy solution because the NHL and the TV networks have made it as annoying, confusing and consumer hostile as possible. The games are spread across like 4 different networks and services, and they do not make it easy to figure what you need and when and how. Probably because they hate their fans and they hate money.

 

[Blueston]

Yeah, if you have cable it is free. If you are cutting the cord, it's $20 a month.

Bear in mind that this will get you about 80% of the games. Anything on national tv won't be included here... and while there is a very good chance it won't matter this year... as soon as the playoffs start you are out of luck again.

It seems to me that the only way to get NHL playoffs is to subscribe to something like a Sling TV or Youtube TV or another similar "live tv" streaming cable replacement and those are like $60 a month or more.

There is currently no easy solution because the NHL and the TV networks have made it as annoying, confusing and consumer hostile as possible. The games are spread across like 4 different networks and services, and they do not make it easy to figure what you need and when and how. Probably because they hate their fans and they hate money.

how is this different from mlb, nba, or nfl? all the leagues have multiple broadcast partners and have games on a combination over the air, multiple cable networks, and streaming exclusive games (nba might not have streaming exclusive but they have the others). i'm not saying it is fan friendly, but it's not unique to nhl.

 

[Cotton McKnight]

how is this different from mlb, nba, or nfl? all the leagues have multiple broadcast partners and have games on a combination over the air, multiple cable networks, and streaming exclusive games (nba might not have streaming exclusive but they have the others). i'm not saying it is fan friendly, but it's not unique to nhl.

It's not different, it's antiquated, Premier (soccer) are all on one package with far more eyes of the world upon them. Heck in the United Kingdom one price lets you see all of the F1 race weekend for every race. We could pay one price and see all the games.

We're being served up 20th-century options while living in the 21st century. That's the problem here.

 

[ort]

how is this different from mlb, nba, or nfl? all the leagues have multiple broadcast partners and have games on a combination over the air, multiple cable networks, and streaming exclusive games (nba might not have streaming exclusive but they have the others). i'm not saying it is fan friendly, but it's not unique to nhl.

The main way it's different is that I don't follow any of those sports, and do not care what they do... but yes, they all suck at this. The broadcast tv landscape is in the middle of a big transition and is kind of flailing to try and hold onto these legacy deals that made them so much money in the past, even though they do not fit in with current streaming / cord-cutting reality of the current TV market.

 

[ort]

5 minutes in and the Ballys experience SUCKS.

Launch the app to start watching the game, click on the game… it doesn’t start from the beginning… it starts live, which is not what I want… so I start rewinding, and it’s slow as hell, so slow, takes about 90 seconds to go backwards at 4x, video starts, it’s commercials, I’m telling my kid we can’t really skip em, it then I’m like, maybe we can, so I hit the skip button and it skips forward 30 minutes again and I have to start the entire rewind process over again. FU Bally, this sucks.

Im sure I will adapt, but if the experience of watching a game taped off cable on my TiVo is a 10, so far, I would rate Ballys service about a 3.

 

[ort]

God this sucks…

 

[ort]

3 different times I was trying to skip past a commercial break or intermission and it would just randomly skip way ahead to the live feed. (Spoiling the game and pissing me off) What a dumpster fire. It also froze a few times and one time it glitched out and replayed the same 30 second bit twice.

 

[Stupendous Yappi]

3 different times I was trying to skip past a commercial break or intermission and it would just randomly skip way ahead to the live feed. (Spoiling the game and pissing me off) What a dumpster fire. It also froze a few times and one time it glitched out and replayed the same 30 second bit twice.

Does is give you the option to ‘DVR’ and watch later?

With both Hulu and ESPN + I’ve found that navigating and skipping commercials works a lot better when the original broadcast is totally over. Otherwise, these kinds of glitches sound familiar, especially Hulu.

 

[Majorityof1]

Does is give you the option to ‘DVR’ and watch later?

With both Hulu and ESPN + I’ve found that navigating and skipping commercials works a lot better when the original broadcast is totally over. Otherwise, these kinds of glitches sound familiar, especially Hulu.

From my experience with Bally last year and ESPN so far this year (and other teams games last year), Bally is far, far worse. It does let you wait until the game is over and run a replay, but sometimes the replay is edited for time cutting it down to 2 hours. They cut gameplay, not talking heads as well. I have watched a replay on Bally that didn't have all the goals. ESPN is a far superior service for streaming.

One thing on Bally, is that different apps are better than others. The app on my Toshiba Fire TV was impossible to fast forward, but my Xbox app was easier to fast forward but more likely to glitch. If you have access to different platforms, and hence different apps, try that for a better experience.

 

[ort]

I can’t stress enough how much Bally’s streaming ****ing SUCKS. If you want to do ANYTHING beyond hit play when the game starts and watch it in real time than forget about it. I ****ing HATE IT.

I HATE EVERYONE WHO MADE IT. **** Bally sports. **** the people who made this **** ***** piece of **** garbage bull**** suck ass crap.

Have any of these people ever watched sports or television before? Do they understand how any of this works? Are they ****img dumb? Is Bally Sports the worst collection of people to ever exist? Are they all brain dead? Do they hate their customers? Do they hate hockey? Do they hate money? Do they hate everyone and everything?

 

[joe galiba]

I can’t stress enough how much Bally’s streaming ****ing SUCKS. If you want to do ANYTHING beyond hit play when the game starts and watch it in real time than forget about it. I ****ing HATE IT.

I HATE EVERYONE WHO MADE IT. **** Bally sports. **** the people who made this **** ***** piece of **** garbage bull**** suck ass crap.

Have any of these people ever watched sports or television before? Do they understand how any of this works? Are they ****img dumb? Is Bally Sports the worst collection of people to ever exist? Are they all brain dead? Do they hate their customers? Do they hate hockey? Do they hate money? Do they hate everyone and everything?

I think George Strait nailed your emotions perfectly with his song "I Hate Everything"

 

[Majorityof1]

I can’t stress enough how much Bally’s streaming ****ing SUCKS. If you want to do ANYTHING beyond hit play when the game starts and watch it in real time than forget about it. I ****ing HATE IT.

I HATE EVERYONE WHO MADE IT. **** Bally sports. **** the people who made this **** ***** piece of **** garbage bull**** suck ass crap.

Have any of these people ever watched sports or television before? Do they understand how any of this works? Are they ****img dumb? Is Bally Sports the worst collection of people to ever exist? Are they all brain dead? Do they hate their customers? Do they hate hockey? Do they hate money? Do they hate everyone and everything?

I'll say it again, if you have different platforms, try it on there. When I had to use Bally, I tried they app through my Fire TV, my LG and my Xbox. It ran differently on each, with the Xbox being the best. IF you have a Roku or gaming system, try the app through there. If you plan to watch the a lot of games, it may be worth investing in a way to cast the app from your PC to TV. I empathize though. I hated the Bally app and am thankful I can use ESPN+ now that I moved out of the blackout area.

 

[Stupendous Yappi]

I can’t stress enough how much Bally’s streaming ****ing SUCKS. If you want to do ANYTHING beyond hit play when the game starts and watch it in real time than forget about it. I ****ing HATE IT.

I HATE EVERYONE WHO MADE IT. **** Bally sports. **** the people who made this **** ***** piece of **** garbage bull**** suck ass crap.

Have any of these people ever watched sports or television before? Do they understand how any of this works? Are they ****img dumb? Is Bally Sports the worst collection of people to ever exist? Are they all brain dead? Do they hate their customers? Do they hate hockey? Do they hate money? Do they hate everyone and everything?

 

[Brian39]

I can’t stress enough how much Bally’s streaming ****ing SUCKS. If you want to do ANYTHING beyond hit play when the game starts and watch it in real time than forget about it. I ****ing HATE IT.

I HATE EVERYONE WHO MADE IT. **** Bally sports. **** the people who made this **** ***** piece of **** garbage bull**** suck ass crap.

Have any of these people ever watched sports or television before? Do they understand how any of this works? Are they ****img dumb? Is Bally Sports the worst collection of people to ever exist? Are they all brain dead? Do they hate their customers? Do they hate hockey? Do they hate money? Do they hate everyone and everything?

I feel the need to pile on to what @Majorityof1 is saying about the different streaming devices. I haven't loved the Bally Sports app on any device, but it has ranged from "this is fine" to "absolutely unusable" on others. It is resoundingly "fine" on my Roku. Absolutely no more, but no less either. Trying to watch a Blues game on the old FireTV stick I used to have was one of the most frustrating experiences of my life.

I do not experience the issues you outlined on my Roku:

When I click on a game that is in progress, I get the option to either join live or start from the beginning. Fast forwarding isn't amazing, but it gets the job done. Hitting the fast forward button once goes to 4x speed. A second click goes to 8x, a third click goes to 16x, etc. I believe it tops out at 128x, but I don't remember.

I'm a big Roku fan. I have one on each of my TVs and the $30 'Roku Express' model that I have on my old 1080p Plasma handles the Bally's app just fine. I have a Roku 4k Ultra on my main TV because it has an ethernet port and that TV is good enough to really enjoy 4k content. I spent $90 on it about 5 years ago and it is still going strong. I really can't recommend Roku enough as a versatile streamer.

Edit: My only complaint with Roku is that they don't get the best ESPN app available. The AppleTV and X-Box versions of the ESPN app have a multicast feature that allows you to stream 2-4 ESPN broadcasts at once. Quadboxing 4 games at once is genuinely fantastic and isn't available on Roku.

 

[ort]

I have a Roku and an Apple TV. I have mostly been using the Apple TV... but I did briefly try the Roku app and it wasn't much better. I'll try again with Roku.

 

[ort]

This (100% real) new slogan of Bally Sports Streaming is so hilariously perfect…

“STREAM ALL THE LOCAL [BLUES] GAMES. PRETTY MUCH.”

That “Pretty Much” is doing so much work here...

 

[execwrite1]

I'm out of market and didn't want to pay $175 for a full season for Center Ice through my cable company this year.

Using ESPN+ on a monthly subscription through Roku and so far it's great. Paying $10.99 a month so if I pass on a couple of months during the season I can jump back in later.

 

[CitizenSnips]

You could probably use ESPN+ and something like express vpn to move out of market and utilize it that way