Cord Cutters Rejoice: A New Streaming Service This Fall Looks to Bundle Sports Coverage

I cut the cord from cable in January 2020 because of the rising cost of cable companies' packages and the vast number of channels I had never watched.

Sure, I could have lowered the package, which would then not include some of the channels that I did like to watch, or played the game of canceling and going to another provider in the hopes that I would be lured back with a package and a discounted rate, but I simply just tired of the game of it all.

I lowered my bill from $220 monthly to $50 for just the internet portion. For the cost of a digital antenna, at the one-time cost of $25, I now receive 65 channels over the air. I subscribe to SiriusXM to listen to news coverage for $12 a month. If there are video clips I need to see, those will pop up not soon after the news is broken on YouTube and can be found on Twitter.

So, the system I developed after cutting the cord has worked very well for me, but I have missed watching baseball, particularly the Detroit Tigers.

Of course, I can listen to the games via the radio or on the Major League Baseball app. Still, I enjoyed plopping down during a game and catching a couple of innings of America's pastime during the summer.

Now, there may be a solution for people who want to cut the cord and not miss the sports coverage.

New York Yankees fan Deb Wan pays over $160 a month to watch her favorite team. Phoenix Suns fan Jordon Low has a much better deal: $0.
Wan relies on a cable-TV subscription and several streaming services to catch all Yankees games. All Low needs to watch the near-totality of the Suns’ regular season is a free antenna he got from the team.
The wide gap between both fans’ experiences is indicative of the fragmented nature of sports watching in America, where cord-cutting and the proliferation of new platforms have made things easier for some, and more complicated—and costly—for others.
Last month, a consortium of media giants unveiled plans for a new streaming service that is expected to make sports watching simpler. The streamer, which is scheduled to go live this fall, will bundle ESPN+ with 14 sports-heavy channels owned by its parents—Fox, Disney’s ESPN and Warner Bros. Discovery.

This could be welcome news for the teams and fans affected by the Bally Sports bankruptcy like most of my hometown teams here in Detroit are.

While I can hear some people offering criticism, saying who cares whether or not you can watch sports and whether this new streaming service could work, the sheer number of Americans who, in some way, shape, or form, watch sporting events is too overwhelming to ignore.

The companies have yet to develop a name or disclose a price for the service, but news of its creation sent shock waves through the sports and media worlds. Sports has never been more crucial to the survival of traditional television: Of the 100 most-watched broadcasts in 2023, sports accounted for a whopping 96, according to Nielsen.
The popularity of sports has led some observers to proclaim that the planned sports-streaming service would deal the final blow to traditional television, while others have brushed off the effort as a half-baked attempt to fix Americans’ long-broken sports-viewing experience.

Ninety-six out of 100 is pretty damn impressive.

Everyone has their method of relaxation, and while I don't know how most of my colleagues here at RedState prefer to relax after diving and delving into politics every day, which in today's environment is akin to bathing in radioactive goo, my method is to watch baseball and on occasion have a good bourbon or whiskey.

Baseball is only available in Detroit six months out of the year. Thankfully, the bourbon and whiskey are available all 365 days.

I want to offer advice to those who have been considering cutting the cord, whether for five minutes or five years.

A gentleman here locally had done it a couple of years before me and was surprised at how easily the transition went. I was skeptical because I relied on cable news for the job. I could listen to baseball games and wouldn't miss watching a couple of Innings at a time.

Yet I was told I could develop a system that is not centered around having the TV on in the background with cable news 24/7; that is precisely what happened. After finally cutting the cord, I had to sit down and fill in some pieces, and I'm still saving over $125 a month. I'm saving even more because I'm sure the cost of cable has gone up with the package I once had since I cut the cord four years ago.

The advice I received would also work for you; try it for two or three months. If you go through withdrawal, you can always call your cable provider back and get a discount for being a returning customer or a new customer altogether.

Capitalism and the free market are always the best options. With this new service being rolled out in the fall, consumers will have another choice to choose what they want to pay for and hopefully not be charged for a number of things that they neither want nor watch.

I'm excited to add another option to my TV viewing choices.