Islands In The Stream

 Good evening, everyone. Except Diamond Sports and maybe the NHL. Instead of spending my Thursday night chilling and watching the hockey game like most of us that has cable in the Tampa area and want to watch the Lightning game on Bally Sports, I'm stuck here writing this blog entry because ESPN has the game...on their streaming service. Meaning I can only follow along to the game on social media as I don't have ESPN+. I used to have it because I used to have Disney+, but then I got rid of it after my sister Jean died and I didn't feel like renewing the subscription. 

Of course, I could joke around and say, since tonight was supposed to be a tribute to former Bolts legend Pat Maroon, who helped the Lightning to Stanley Cup wins in 2020 and 2021, that Bally Sports forgot to give CarShield a call. But I guess this was already in the works before the season even began that this was going to be an ESPN+ exclusive. 

I guess streaming is convenient for some things, live sports included, but I tend to think, for me at least, it should be used to binge-watch on demand some things that you may have missed in the past, without being at the mercy of cable networks and when they schedule whatever programs they air. Or if you want to relive a certain favorite episode of a particular program that can't be found on cable or otherwise. That's how I used to watch WWE Raw from the Attitude Era when it was (and still is for now) on Peacock.

Then last week, NBC had a cat-haired idea that pissed off a lot of football fans; the decided to plus the Kansas City-Miami playoff game on Peacock and not over the air TV. I guess some folks were happy about because they were spared with having to see Taylor Swift every six seconds, but the majority were not happy with the decision. Yes, NBC touted how much was a success it was, but they still lost about ten million fans from what I've read. The ads were likely for what else is available on Peacock I suppose, as opposed to lame car insurance ads (libbity bibbity anyone?) and pharmaceutical companies (check, check, and check!). Then again, they were probably on there too. 

People are saying that this could lead to events like the Super Bowl being exclusively streaming in the future. To that I say not so fast my friend. First off, networks are already paying out the wazoo just to air the rights for the NFL, so I don't think it would make much sense to air the marquee event of the NFL's season on a streaming service, which everyone doesn't have. Second, can you imagine the bandwidth requirements to handle that much traffic if it were on a streaming service? Sounds too complicated for e to figure out.

Anyway, we don't have to worry about streaming playoff games for the rest of this season, thankfully. But it doesn't help my case for tonight, so I might as well give Car Shield a call, lol.

BonyScribe