YouTube college football and ESPN games

Discussion in 'In The Stands' started by Duck Dodgers, Oct 23, 2020.

  1. Duck Dodgers

    Duck Dodgers 1,000+ Posts

    I'm too cheap to have cable, and TV mostly sucks.

    But, during college football season, cable does get more games in that my rabbit ears. Now last week, I was able to stream lots of different games over YouTube, including what looked like a couple that were on ESPN.

    Is that pretty common to be able to watch ESPN games that way? The Texas game is on tomorrow on ESPN, and I"m wondering if I'll be able to watch via that way, or if I have to drag myself out to some sports bar to watch?

    I'd think ESPN would try to shut down these streams - if cheap skates like me can just watch for free, why would anyone get cable? I guess they get ad money too but you'd still think they would frantically try to shut the feeds down during games. And it's not like I had to hunt around for it - "college football live" brought up lots of games.
     
  2. Horns11

    Horns11 10,000+ Posts

    So, every time someone writes an article about "why are ratings of X or Y or Z down?" for sporting events, it's because of this very phenomenon.

    You're finding illegal streams. Everyone is. A recent study of EPL watchers in the UK showed that only about 40% of the population watches them from legitimate, paid subscriptions.

    And you're right to ask those questions. Why would anyone get cable when they can do what you're doing? ESPN has a pretty good team of tech specialists who shut down the streams mid-game, but not enough eyes on every particular stream. It's pretty easy to just search again and find a different one that hasn't been shut down yet. And with VPN's, they're never going to catch the perps, and they don't even try to, honestly.

    So when pundits say silly things like "oh look NBA viewership is down because of BLM protests and social justice when they should just shut up and play," it's really not. People are just watching it illegally. Particularly young people. By a 2-to-1 margin.
     
  3. Duck Dodgers

    Duck Dodgers 1,000+ Posts

    ESPN teams of tech specialists must be as terrible as their on air talking heads then. It took 2 seconds to find them, and I watched a full game on espn. They must have taken the day off on, err, their busiest day of programs.
     

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