The Bally Sports Experience (or lack thereof)

At this point, the news of Fox Sports rebranding as Bally Sports and subsequently dropping all streaming services is pretty old news, so I don't think I need to hash out all the details here.  I myself have YouTube TV, so I have been following a lot of games on the radio and the MLB App this year.  But honestly, that is how I have followed most Brewers games since I've become a dad, so it hasn't been a major tragedy for me yet.  I might get more bang for the buck from the $20 MLB Radio subscription than any non-media member in America.  For a standard 7:10 start time, I'll have the game on the radio as we're getting my daughter ready for bed, and then continue following on the app as the wife and I watch TV, and as soon as I notice her drift off to sleep on the couch, I switch back to the radio.  So in reality, not having the games on TV really just deprives me out of a couple innings a night.  The bigger void for me still remains the lack of physically attending games, and I'm hoping to get to some once the baby is a few months old and virus immunity rates are higher later in the summer.

The dropping of the RSN's from streaming services has brought to the forefront an overarching pricing and structural issue with these providers, and it will be interesting to see how Bally's either re-introduces itself to that platform in 2022, or just in general what the TV and live sports experience looks like in the future.  It was only a matter of time before the streaming service model started to become unsustainable, and this is only the first drop in the bucket.  The draw for Bally's to get into this space was to create an all-inclusive experience that includes in-game betting and being able to stream sports anywhere through their own proprietary app, and it sounds like that is the direction they are still moving.  Anyone who subscribes to a streaming service has already noticed the glut of networks introducing their own apps and services - NBC Peacock, Paramount, HBO, etc. - and Bally's will just be one more player in this.  The pandemic has certainly accelerated a lot of technological and customer experiences changes in this past year, including this move to "a la carte" viewing.

STANDINGS AND UPCOMING SERIES AS OF 4/26/21:

Brewers 13-8; 3 v. Marlins, 4 v. Dodgers, 4 @ Phillies, 3 @ Marlins

Twins 7-13; 3 @ Indians, 3 v. Royals, 4 v. Rangers, 3 @ Tigers

2021 GAMES ATTENDED:

Erik - 0

Peter - 0