Is cable ruining sports streaming?
By: Alyssa Cooper
Tags: MLB, Sports, NFL, Streaming, NHL

With a variety of streaming platforms in existence, streaming sports should be simple. But it isn’t.

Sports streaming is still monopolized by cable companies. This forces even the proprietary platforms — MLB TV, NHL TV, and NFL Game Pass — to submit to blackout restrictions.

A blackout restriction is when a game within your area is unviewable because it is on a local network. For example, if you’re a fan of the Boston Red Sox and live in Boston, you can’t watch the Red Sox game on MLB TV. Instead, you need a cable subscription that includes NESN. NESN is a local network that has exclusive rights to stream Red Sox games. And if you try to stream the game from the MLB TV app, you’ll see a blackout notice.

Sports streaming exclusivity creates frustration. It also provides a lack of options.

The Seattle Kraken debuted this Fall. This was the Seattle team I would throw my support behind. I’m not a Seahawks fan and I’ll never root for the Mariners. The players we collected through the NHL expansion draft looked promising. And I was ready for hockey season to roll around to show my support for the Kraken. This excitement came to a halt. I learned that to watch the Kraken I would need to shell out $150 for a cable package. Cable was the only way to get access to the local network, Root Sports. My other option was to buy ESPN+. The problem with ESPN+ would be blackout restrictions. I would have to use a VPN and hope it wouldn’t throttle the connection and make for a game of fuzz and loading circles.

My options were slim and all I wanted to do was watch hockey. I wasn’t alone in my feelings. Fans complained on social media about the Kraken streaming options. The Reddit threads explaining the problem were in plenty. With the upfront costs of cable and the steep monthly fees, getting it for Root Sports wouldn’t be worth it. Besides, Root Sports wasn’t going to give me access to all the sports teams I follow. Whereas a Hulu and ESPN+ subscription could. Streaming provides numerous options for not only sports but TV, and movies, too. Why would I ever return to cable?

I hunted online for an explanation. I came across an article from lines.com explaining that “two-fifths of sports fans use illegal streaming websites to follow their favorite teams.” While “74% of sports fans reported plans to cut cable at some point in the next five months, nearly a third of whom were planning to do so in just three months or less.”

So I’m not the only one with the problem. And it’s frustrating.

There needs to be better options for sports fan to watch their favorite teams. I should be able to watch the Kraken without blackout restrictions. Or getting locked into a cable package and using illegal streams. Two other common pitfalls of streaming sports.

The demand for sports streaming exists. In fact, Amazon spent a whopping $1 billion to stream Thursday Night Football. Fans are willing to pay money for packages that allow them to watch their local team make it to the Stanley Cup. But without the cable, restrictions, and VPN lag.

So why are sports still locked behind cable companies?