Proposing Big Sky Conference on ESPN+

[Griz Time]

With the struggles a lot of Griz Nation has had finding good broadcasts of games this season i'm curious what everyones take is on the Big Sky Conference switching to ESPN+. Half of Griz games will be broadcast on ROOT this year, a service that is only available to those with cable subscriptions. This leaves out a large portion of Montana and other parts of the United States.

The concern has been about cost but it's currently pretty cheap per month and with the upcoming bundle Disney+ is offering with Hulu and ESPN+ for $12.99/month I have imagine many sports fans would be excited about their teams being streamed by this service.

Personally, I believe it would be a great idea. It would give the Griz nationwide exposure, it would guarantee everyone could watch the games for an affordable price and the games wouldn't be blacked out.

That's my two cents. I'm curious what the rest of you think. There may be things I'm not considering that I would be interested to know. Go Griz!

That's in addition to whatever their package price is. Currently, PLUS is only 5 bucks with a PS Vue account. I am not a fan.
They took ESPN 3, which used to be free and now bundled it into a price.
Look around on roku and you will find many fcs conferences offer their stream for free, such as the CAA, etc.
You need to also equate the basic internet speed package into the price.

Sling, is by far the least expensive stream choice. Your read seems to suggest only a 12 dollar price.

 

[pussycatkillerz]

AT&T tv now has streamed all the Griz games on ROOT so far this year via the Audience channel.

$50/month and you get all the channels hulu live offers. Pretty cool

 

[Griz Time]

AT&T tv now has streamed all the Griz games on ROOT so far this year via the Audience channel.

$50/month and you get all the channels hulu live offers. Pretty cool

Going to 65 in December, just fyi

 

[kemajic]

With the struggles a lot of Griz Nation has had finding good broadcasts of games this season i'm curious what everyones take is on the Big Sky Conference switching to ESPN+. Half of Griz games will be broadcast on ROOT this year, a service that is only available to those with cable subscriptions. This leaves out a large portion of Montana and other parts of the United States.

The concern has been about cost but it's currently pretty cheap per month and with the upcoming bundle Disney+ is offering with Hulu and ESPN+ for $12.99/month I have imagine many sports fans would be excited about their teams being streamed by this service.

Personally, I believe it would be a great idea. It would give the Griz nationwide exposure, it would guarantee everyone could watch the games for an affordable price and the games wouldn't be blacked out.

That's my two cents. I'm curious what the rest of you think. There may be things I'm not considering that I would be interested to know. Go Griz!

I have Dish Network and it carries Root Sports.

So does DirecTV. The statement that Root is "only available to those with cable subscriptions" is BS.

 

[EverettGriz]

It’s an absolute no brainer decision that the bsc should move to espn+.








Which means we can look forward to games on “24Kdialup.com” from here on out.

Pray that no one calls your landline during a game.

 

[zootownrox]

I moved out of market for Root sports so I was really worried I wouldn't be able to watch those games. It turns out that the Root sports broadcasts are available outside of cable subscriptions if you have the Watch AT&T app, which is $15 a month and available on fire tv not roku. So I bought a fire stick and signed up for it - total cost will be $60 for two months of the app and the fire stick. Not a bad deal to watch the Griz and not have to pay for a cable package.

 

[Yukon]

I moved out of market for Root sports so I was really worried I wouldn't be able to watch those games. It turns out that the Root sports broadcasts are available outside of cable subscriptions if you have the Watch AT&T app, which is $15 a month and available on fire tv not roku. So I bought a fire stick and signed up for it - total cost will be $60 for two months of the app and the fire stick. Not a bad deal to watch the Griz and not have to pay for a cable package.

Thank you so much! I did not know Watch ATT app was a thing. I had signed up for ATT TV Now to get the Audience channel last week and free trial runs out tonight at 7 pm and would have charged me the $50 (soon to be $65) tonight. I just canceled it and signed up for Watch ATT for another free trial that ends Nov. 8th. You just saved me $35 for the rest of the season! I already have the fire stick. Does not have a cloud DVR, but that's ok. However, it does allow you to pause live TV in case I need to run and get a beer. Thanks again!!

EDIT: looks like you can only pause live TV on the computer, not the app on the fire stick. Still well worth it.

 

[EverettGriz]

I'd much rather have ROOT Sports than ESPN+, and I say this as someone who cut the cord years ago. IMO, ROOT Sports produces high-quality professional game broadcasts that rival what ESPN puts out. ESPN+ only streams the local school's video feed, and let's be honest... most schools in the Big Sky have real crappy broadcast feeds. If our games are on ROOT Sports, I'll go to a sports bar where I know the game will be.

But shitty productions are a conference issue, not an ESPN+ issue. If the #bsc would demand that the teams in their conference produce a quality broadcast, there wouldn’t be an issue no matter what streaming service is used. Look at the excellent productions out of the MVC.

But of course, that ain’t about to happen here, because, well, #bsc.

 

[zootownrox]

I moved out of market for Root sports so I was really worried I wouldn't be able to watch those games. It turns out that the Root sports broadcasts are available outside of cable subscriptions if you have the Watch AT&T app, which is $15 a month and available on fire tv not roku. So I bought a fire stick and signed up for it - total cost will be $60 for two months of the app and the fire stick. Not a bad deal to watch the Griz and not have to pay for a cable package.

Thank you so much! I did not know Watch ATT app was a thing. I had signed up for ATT TV Now to get the Audience channel last week and free trial runs out tonight at 7 pm and would have charged me the $50 (soon to be $65) tonight. I just canceled it and signed up for Watch ATT for another free trial that ends Nov. 8th. You just saved me $35 for the rest of the season! I already have the fire stick. Does not have a cloud DVR, but that's ok. However, it does allow you to pause live TV in case I need to run and get a beer. Thanks again!!

EDIT: looks like you can only pause live TV on the computer, not the app on the fire stick. Still well worth it.

:thumb:

 

[AZGrizFan]

I'd much rather have ROOT Sports than ESPN+, and I say this as someone who cut the cord years ago. IMO, ROOT Sports produces high-quality professional game broadcasts that rival what ESPN puts out. ESPN+ only streams the local school's video feed, and let's be honest... most schools in the Big Sky have real crappy broadcast feeds. If our games are on ROOT Sports, I'll go to a sports bar where I know the game will be.

But shitty productions are a conference issue, not an ESPN+ issue. If the #bsc would demand that the teams in their conference produce a quality broadcast, there wouldn’t be an issue no matter what streaming service is used. Look at the excellent productions out of the MVC.

But of course, that ain’t about to happen here, because, well, #bsc.

You must not have watched the SIU game last year. :lol: :lol: :lol:

 

[mcg]

Pluto works fine for me as a stream, it's the content that the issue. Sometimes the production is ok, sometimes not. It would work great if they would simply stream the SWX production. I suspect there is some sort of rights issue that prevents this. BTW, if the home teams radio/tv production school is producing the stream, I'm ok with whatever they produce as long as they take it seriously.

 

[dupuyer griz]

Considering my internet barely checks my email, it would be awesome if this didn’t ever happen.

 

[alabamagrizzly]

AT&T tv now has streamed all the Griz games on ROOT so far this year via the Audience channel.

$50/month and you get all the channels hulu live offers. Pretty cool

Going to 65 in December, just fyi

$15 for watchAT&T and u still get audience.

 

[MikeyGriz]

Screw anything ESPN!

 

['68griz]

Considering my internet barely checks my email, it would be awesome if this didn’t ever happen.

:thumb:

 

[ClydeParkGriz]

I'd much rather have ROOT Sports than ESPN+, and I say this as someone who cut the cord years ago. IMO, ROOT Sports produces high-quality professional game broadcasts that rival what ESPN puts out. ESPN+ only streams the local school's video feed, and let's be honest... most schools in the Big Sky have real crappy broadcast feeds. If our games are on ROOT Sports, I'll go to a sports bar where I know the game will be.

Are you kidding? The Root production quality wouldn't get a C from a UM journalism professor. It's a low budget affair that has both the Big Sky Conference and participating Universities very unhappy. It also doesn't pay much. Folks are right when they say it would pay more than a straight local deal and then on ESPN, but the nominal difference in money matters little given the exposure, Recruits families naturally ask: Can we see our kids' game. on ESPN+ the answer to any family anywhere is yes. Just saying "find Root" limits that recruiting advantage to a very small footprint.

It CAN be more difficult for we Griz fans, and maybe the product isn't as good (though I disagree, see above). But ANYONE who has ever come to this board would do whatever it took to see a game on TV. This is about exposure, program building, and the original chain author is right. Its time to go to ESPN+.

 

[bandit218]

I like ESPN+. It’s ridiculous that it’s easier for me to watch and NDSU game in Missoula than a Griz game. Plus you can see replays of the game shortly after they end. Some productions are crap but they’re better than nothing.

 

[Da Boyz Mom]

I'd much rather have ROOT Sports than ESPN+, and I say this as someone who cut the cord years ago. IMO, ROOT Sports produces high-quality professional game broadcasts that rival what ESPN puts out. ESPN+ only streams the local school's video feed, and let's be honest... most schools in the Big Sky have real crappy broadcast feeds. If our games are on ROOT Sports, I'll go to a sports bar where I know the game will be.

Are you kidding? The Root production quality wouldn't get a C from a UM journalism professor. It's a low budget affair that has both the Big Sky Conference and participating Universities very unhappy. It also doesn't pay much. Folks are right when they say it would pay more than a straight local deal and then on ESPN, but the nominal difference in money matters little given the exposure, Recruits families naturally ask: Can we see our kids' game. on ESPN+ the answer to any family anywhere is yes. Just saying "find Root" limits that recruiting advantage to a very small footprint.

It CAN be more difficult for we Griz fans, and maybe the product isn't as good (though I disagree, see above). But ANYONE who has ever come to this board would do whatever it took to see a game on TV. This is about exposure, program building, and the original chain author is right. Its time to go to ESPN+.

I can't believe anyone would gripe about ROOT's production quality since I don't know of any local Montana stations that do any better job. Besides that, the Montana schools get FAR more games televised (on actual tv) than other Big Sky schools.

I get that Pluto is not great as a platform and ESPN+ would be a better option, especially for replays, but the production is still going to be either the local TV station or students. If you want to talk terrible production value, let's go all the way back to watchbigsky circa 2005 or so. I remember watching at least one game from Holt Arena that must have been filmed by some random kid with a nervous tic that someone grabbed from the crowd and gave a camera. We saw more of the rafters and random butts than the actual game. There were no onscreen graphics, and we only had sound about half the time (that's if/when they could get the radio broadcast to somewhat sync with the game). To show the score, that same random kid would rapidly swing the camera over to the scoreboard and then just as rapidly swing it back to the field (or rafters or random butts). If you made it through the game without getting seasick it was a miracle. THAT was crap production.

I for one am very happy that I can now get ROOT games through dish. It may not be perfect but we've come a long way baby.

 

[Ursa Major]

I'd much rather have ROOT Sports than ESPN+, and I say this as someone who cut the cord years ago. IMO, ROOT Sports produces high-quality professional game broadcasts that rival what ESPN puts out. ESPN+ only streams the local school's video feed, and let's be honest... most schools in the Big Sky have real crappy broadcast feeds. If our games are on ROOT Sports, I'll go to a sports bar where I know the game will be.

This! Remember bubble girl from the Cal Poly game? Almost an entire half of football.

 

[EverettGriz]

Root is fantastic. If they carried every bsc game it’d be awesome.


We’d also be in Never Never Land and
Tinklbell would be flitting up to you asking
you what kind of service she could provide.

Root loses money on their one bsc game a week. They’re not going to carry more.

Espn+ (and conference leadership who give two shits about fans and would require a legitimate broadcast) is our only hope.


Unfortunately, we have bsc leadership. Sooo, shitty productions, spinning wheels and 4 minute lags on Pluto it is!!