It does not require YouTube TV. YouTube got the contract. YouTube. It'll be available to YouTube TV as an add-on by extension, but the primary winner is YouTube -- Google won the rights. You can subscribe to only the Sunday Ticket.
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YouTube Secures Deal for NFL Sunday Ticket After Apple Drops Out of Negotiations
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It does not require YouTube TV. YouTube got the contract. YouTube. It'll be available to YouTube TV as an add-on by extension, but the primary winner is YouTube -- Google won the rights. You can subscribe to only the Sunday Ticket.
Do you guys generally have a favorable opinion of YTTV?
I'm a DirecTV sub, and have been considering dumping them for a few years now. Losing Sunday Ticket is another nail in the coffin for me.
I'm a DirecTV sub, and have been considering dumping them for a few years now. Losing Sunday Ticket is another nail in the coffin for me.
Yeah they may be close revenue wise, but look at the length of the seasons in order to make that revenue:
NFL: 24 games including pre and post season
MLB: 200+ games including pre and post
NBA: 150+ games including pre and post
Perhaps Apple can go back to the NFL after their AR / VR tech is out to strike a deal for AR / VR tech. Then again, it probably wouldn't be worth the effort.
Been nothing short of great for me. Super easy to use, sans having the classic channel numbers. I get to arrange my Guide however I see fit so I have things I don't watch buried at the bottom of the list - and some even removed entirely from view. I've tried all of them and only Hulu Live matches the picture quality. The Cloud DVR is good, but a tad aggressive - recording everything on every channel even if you only want New. My only complaint is, as a New Yorker, I don't get MSG (or YES, but I don't care for the Yanks). Best I can really offer though is, sign up for the Free Trial - it's a short 10 days I believe, but you can give it a spin and decide yourself with nothing really to lose. And if you decide to go for it and sour on it, cancel - there's no commitments.
I very much like YTTV. My pros for the service are pretty much the same as @BuffaloTF. I also agree with him about the DVR. It would be nice to have more control over what gets recorded, how long it is kept, recording new vs old, etc. But that is a minor complaint for me. The custom guide is also a big plus for me. I don't like the way Hulu Live TV does it.
I guess my biggest complaint is new features are not added to the Apple TV app for YTTV as quickly as I would like. During the recent upgrade to 5.1 surround sound for the ATV, it took a month from announcement to app update being released. All the while support was telling me "it's there!" when it clearly wasn't.
Overall I for someone coming from DTV (which I also had for many years) I think you will find the experience not too different. You won't get as many channels, though. But who really uses those bazillion music channels on DTV anyway? :-/
Yes. I can't wait to strap on a headset for 3 hours so I can watch an NFL game.
What a bargain. Apple repeatedly declines to purchase or make deals that would grow the apple tv content, which lets face it, is meager compared to other streaming content providers.
I don't actually see a huge benefit for AR, which is normally about overlaying information on top of your real life view. AR while you're staring at the TV doesn't buy you much, because on the TV screen they've already overlayed all sorts of information about the game.
VR is normally about either being able to look around, or wander around, in a virtual space. I don't really see how wandering around works out for football, unless they recreate the whole field in a virtual space, and add in all the players, with their in-VR movements precisely tracking what they're doing on the real field, and then you can wander through the middle of the game while it's being played in realtime. It seems kind of cool from a "and you are there" perspective, but they move around the field a lot. You'd end up spending a lot of your time VR-chasing the players and still missing the really good bits (with the current camera system, they've got a whole bunch of cameras following all the most likely bits of action, with people in the control booth constantly choosing which views to show) - if you're (virtually) running around the field, you have to continually guess where the most interesting bits will be.
The looking around aspect of VR could be interesting... give some of the players helmets that have (very tiny) cameras mounted... say half a dozen slightly wide-angle cameras around the perimeter of the helmet, and a couple more on top, the output of these could be stitched together in real time to give you a 360° view from that player's perspective on the field. You could give the viewer the ability to hop around between the on-field viewpoints of any of the players so equipped. Of course, if you're looking around freely from a players position and they start running around and moving their head, it could be extremely disorienting (e.g. you're looking off to a receiver's left and suddenly they start running a play and they're looking all around as they dodge the opposition and then look back at the quarterback, but you're still looking to their left) - you might want something that quickly slews your VR view back to "straight ahead matching player's view" if they start moving suddenly.
This might also lead to unofficial or official rules added for how such players could move around or where they could go (imagine if you have video and audio access to the huddle - suddenly every teams secret planning is exposed because the opposing team has someone on the sidelines with a VR headset). If it had audio feed from the player's perspective, you might also have limitations on language that they would find hard to abide by ("no cursing, not even under your breath", and if you mutter about how stupid the QB is, it will absolutely get back to him, plus the problem of any offhand comments that are remotely useful to the other side). I'm guessing you'd find some players extremely resistant to having cameras and mics on their heads (or, at minimum would want to renegotiate their contracts).
It’s been pretty good. We mainly use it as a virtual DVR. There is a live TV grid and that is one of the weaker aspects. It can take a little longer to scroll down the grid. It can be hard to find a specific channel in the grid. On the other hand, you can reorder the grid and put your favorites on the top. I usually search for shows on my iPad and then tag them for recording for later view.
I like tagging shows for later viewing. Once tagged, it will add any new shows in that series Just like a TiVo. There does not seem to be any limits on number, which can be a problem if you tend to the harder side of the spectrum 😊. When watching recorded shows, you have jump forward/backward controls to skip commercials. Some shows come in a “on demand” which means that there are unskippable commercials, but so far they have less commercials than regular programs. Not sure why some are “on demand” and others are not.
Shows are generally 720p which works fine for our 1024p TVs and our iPads. Most common cable channels are included but there are some odd missed ones: CSPAN and Cartoon Network. It is nice to be able to use the app on Roku sticks, iPads, and iPhones. You can’t download shows to watch on a flight unless you upgrade to the 4K service and there are not very many channels that offer 4K so the value is not there in my opinion.
We had ”cable” tv through CenturyLink with optical fiber. They decided they weren’t going to be in the television business anymore so we had to find some other source of casual viewing. YouTubeTV seemed the best and closest to the cable tv experience. So far it has been mostly good. At some point we may revisit it to see if that content still has enough value to us but so far it does. BTW the price of CL fiber + YouTubeTV ended up pretty close to the price of the previous TV+fiber offering from CL. Not real savings there.
I would just like to tag along here on the resolutions. Resolutions are what the channel broadcasts. IE; Fox, ABC, ESPN are in 720p. All the channels that are 1080i are streamed in 1080i. Some channels make 1080p feeds available and those will be provided to you, even if their cable equivalents are the 1080i flavor.
Thanks, I just assumed they were all the same. These are mostly TV programs where fine visual detail is not the main point.
One thing is for certain. With Sunday Ticket going to you youtube and being owned by google who pretty much controls the internet, you can say goodbye to seeing your favorite out of market team on illegal streams. That will get pounded down big time.
Two billion for seventeen games, per year of the contract? Apple secures 10 years MLS global broadcast deal for $2.5 billion. Good lord I'll gladly spend the $99 one time fee for that over whatever YouTube is streaming as I don't already have YouTube TV which no doubt will be required to see the games. Verifying my theory:
Since I get Apple's entire current services package it is far more content with MLS than the paltry Sunday Ticket. I never watch the Sunday night game--too much time watching the earlier games.
Note: Just reviewed the NFL contract and they can make up to $2.5 billion per year. Joe Consumer here still gets stuck with only 17 games per year. I've got dozens of games, per week all season long for $99. Yeah. Go MLS.
Since I get Apple's entire current services package it is far more content with MLS than the paltry Sunday Ticket. I never watch the Sunday night game--too much time watching the earlier games.
Note: Just reviewed the NFL contract and they can make up to $2.5 billion per year. Joe Consumer here still gets stuck with only 17 games per year. I've got dozens of games, per week all season long for $99. Yeah. Go MLS.
17*16 games a year, since there's 32 teams. There's also a whole lot of money and hype for the NFL.
Yawn, I wouldn't pay anything for MLS, but then I don't like watching soccer. I wouldn't pay anything for hockey or baseball either.
$2B is stupid money to spend on one sport.
Glad Apple didn’t budge.
I’m sure Google will likely realize it was a waste of money spend and either drop or renegotiate. Likely the contract allows Google to pull out early to avoid paying to full $2B if they are smart.
Glad Apple didn’t budge.
I’m sure Google will likely realize it was a waste of money spend and either drop or renegotiate. Likely the contract allows Google to pull out early to avoid paying to full $2B if they are smart.
NFL collectively is smarter than Google when it comes to this type of stuff. Remember, the NFL is controlled by all the owners with the commissioner being a puppet. The NFL is also the highest grossing sport in the US so there’s no way the NFL would let Google drop or get out of anything without exorbitant penalties as it could be detrimental to the brand.
Google is not in charge here and they will have to play by NFL’s rules.
I've used a ton of YTTV, DTVStream and Fubo -- all via family access -- over the past few years
YTTV would be my choice if I had to just pick one
My family that uses DTV Stream loves the first party "Osprey Box" that you can get for that service though. It's a customized android box (they got their's preowned off ebay for $50 each, with remote) that makes DTVS act essentially just like normal cable/sat -- even including things like channel numbers! (my Aunt loves going direct to channels via number).
I don’t like it. It’s expensive for what it is - 720p on many channels, 1080p on some thankfully, 4K is a $10/month add on for about 5 channels. Video quality is average at best.
There is always a delay when watching sports so if you are in a group chat you need to mute it, because you are either ahead or behind lol, lag when changing channels because it needs to load. But it is the norm these days…
YTTV shoots out the feeds they are provided .. this one isn’t their fault
On 140/20 DSL with Apple TV 4Ks, I have essentially instant channel changes and playing - zero lag
Any lag is a result of a specific setup and connection
I’m all for being critical where warranted, but we shouldn’t blame YTTV for issues that aren’t their fault
The fact that ESPN is 720p is a disgrace in 2022. YouTube can surely work on changing this if they cared to do so, so I fault them for this. I didn’t realize 720p feeds still existed until I had YouTubeTV.
I have a 2gb connection hard wired and still have issues with loading on our Xbox Series X and the 2022 Apple TV 4K.
The crack streaming actors are pretty resilient.
As quickly as one site is shut down a new one pops up with .net or .biz and on it goes. Inconvenient? A little but beats the heck out if paying $300 or $400 for programing that’s worth $100 at the most.
Time will tell how this shakes out.
As quickly as one site is shut down a new one pops up with .net or .biz and on it goes. Inconvenient? A little but beats the heck out if paying $300 or $400 for programing that’s worth $100 at the most.
Time will tell how this shakes out.