Finally a standalone sports package, but is it enough?

For many sports fans that stream, a standalone sports package -- one that doesn't require other non-sports packages -- would be wonderful thing. Today, if you want to stream ESPN, you have to have a subscription to a service such as Sling TV, YouTube TV, Vidgo, Fubo, or DirecTV Stream. The cheapest of those includes a lot of non-sports. In fact, all of those simply streaming cable-like packages. The difference is that you use the Internet to get them, and subscriptions are one month at a time, not years at a time.

You can get packages without sports, the most popular of those are Philo and Frndly.TV, but you can't get one that's only sports. Fubo started as a mostly-soccer channel. Fubo, futbol. See? But it became simply another streaming-cable package. Well, mostly. It's still pretty sports heavy, and not just soccer.

Over the last few year, many of these live-streaming/streaming-cable packages dropped the regional sports networks. Fox Sports Net channels disappeared from the live streaming services after Fox sold them. They finally became Bally Sports networks. And guess who is launching a steaming sports package? Bally.

In a meeting recently, Chris Ripley, the CEO of Sinclair, which owns Bally Sports, said they would offer live streaming packages this year.

Our current expectations are for the launch of streaming services with content currently available on our RSNs for 5 Bally Sports RSNs with MLB teams in the first half of 2022. We expect to launch our remaining Bally Sports RSNs in the second half of the year, as well as features only subscription.

This isn't what I particularly want, as my primary interest is college football, which currently means ESPN. But, it's a start. And it does give lots of sports fans an option they didn't have before.

Sinclair, to my understanding, hasn't been thrilled with how their purchase of the Fox regional sports networks has worked out. I don't know how this will work out. But if it is a success, and it entices other companies to offer standalone sports packages that include major sports, this would be what sports fans want.

If that does come, I certainly don't want these smaller audience packages to go away. I don't want the lesser watched sports offerings to go away. The content you find on the regional sports networks do not have widespread audiences. Regional is a part of the name for a reason. And the lesser watched sports, such as what you find on ESPN+ has an audience. I don't want that to go away. I want ESPN to expand its coverage, not necessarily into ESPN+ -- how it happens isn't as important as that it happens.

This year's launch by Bally is a good thing. I hope it succeeds. That would be good news for many sports fans. I would really like to have options for standalone sports packages in my Streaming Life.

A new chair!

I got a new office chair!

Yeah, I get it. Big deal. It's a chair.

Well, yeah, it really is a big deal. In more ways than one.

Not every chair holds someone that's over 200 lbs. Of course, I'm 6'2" so I need a chair that's not only more sturdy for heavier, but for taller as well. Sitting in most desk chairs makes me feel like I'm in a kindergarten chair. Really, my knees should not be higher than my waist.

I had a used chair that a good friend passed to me several years ago. But all the years of usage in my home office -- I worked from home part time for years, then full time for a while -- it gave out. It was old when I got it; he had replaced his and passed his still-good one to me. Only after a few years, it had reached end of life.

So, a few years ago, I bought a cheap office chair. Mostly because I'm cheap. Well, it didn't last all that long. It was one of those "under 200 lbs" chairs. I should have read the print better before I ordered it.

This time, I paid attention. And I did something I thought I'd never do. I got a deck chair. Just kidding. I got a gaming chair.

Now, I'm not a gamer. Sure, I'll play Sudoku on my phone first thing in the morning to get my brain running, but not much more than that. A gaming chair? Pshaw!

Well, I did some looking around, and then it occurred to me that these gamers spend a lot of time in their chairs. They get lots of wear. If the reviews from actual purchasers are pretty good, I figure the chair will be too. So I ordered one.

Now, it is pretty plain looking. It looks more like an office chair than a gaming chair. Almost completely black. Just my style.

It arrived this week. I found it under the carport when I got home. There it was, bearing the words "two man lift" right on the box.

Challenge accepted.

I got it in the house with minor difficulty. It was a decent size box and a little bulky. But, after supper, I put it together and sat in it. I was in love.

But seriously, I like the chair. I don't watch TV from my office, but it is where my computers are located. It's where I'm typing this. And while it's not directly a part of my Streaming Life, it is a good addition to my regular life.

ION Mystery is the new name of Court TV Mystery, but that's not the real mystery

I saw a news release from ION announcing the name change of the Court TV Mystery channel. They're all owned by the same company, so it's a name change. Or a rebranding. Or something.

If you don't know the background of ION, it started as Pax TV, entered and left deals with NBC, changed the name a couple of times, settling on ION, although the capitalization changed a few times. The news release from earlier this week uses all capital letters, so for now, so will I.

"Mystery has added popular procedural dramas to its schedule and with the network's programming now more connected with the hall of fame line-up of hit dramas on ION, aligning the two networks creates increased consumer recognition, expands brand affinity and cross-promotional strength, and facilitates the ability to naturally share content and more," said Lisa Knutson, president of Scripps Networks

They even had a video.

[Link]

Here's the mystery, to my thinking. Does this mean the Court TV brand is now considered less valuable by ION? Is this a way to latch on to ION's popularity? Or is this ION's way of becoming edgier?

I'm not sure what's going on. Maybe they think there are too many brands. After all, they own Court TV, Newsy, Bounce, Defy TV, Grit, Laff, and TrueReal. I can pick up most of these on local channels. Some are available on free streaming services. The content does offer some variety of stuff to watch for free, either over the air or via free services.

I'm glad there is a family-oriented option for these kinds of networks. It's good when everyone has choices of what to watch. It makes everyone's Streaming Life much more enjoyable.

Raspberry Pi streamer Update 4

I've been wanting to build a Raspberry Pi streaming device. Why? Because it can be done, of course. And I actually did build one. I had some issues, but I wondered if it might be that I used a smaller Raspberry Pi than intended. You see, the requirements are a 4 GB device, and I only had a 2 GB device. Still, it worked. Well, mostly worked.

I ordered a 4 GB device and it arrived, but it had issues, and I've sent it back for replacement. Now, it'll probably be a while before it comes in, but I actually ordered a kit (the one with the board that is being replaced) and a standalone board. The standalone board works. Well, it does and it doesn't.

When I put a regular Raspberry Pi OS in the device, it boots and runs just fine. But, if I put the card with the Android TV setup, the card that runs in the 2 GB device, it won't boot.

Some research shows that the build for the Android 11 TV OS is not compatible with newer boards.

You can use LineageOS 19 builds that ships with 5.10 kernel and newer firmware. LineageOS 18 builds will always stick with 5.4 kernel and firmware to match the kernel version (which is apparently too old for your hardware revision).

So, the simple solution is to get the Android 12 version, since that is compatible with the hardware, right? No, not right. You see, while the Android 12 software should run, it doesn't include access to the Google Play store, meaning no apps. That's a problem. But maybe not for long. The GApps page says a version for Android 12 is "coming soon."

This puts my Raspberry Pi 4 streamer project on hold. Sure, the 2 GB board works, but there are issues with some important apps not working as they should. It could be the underpowered board, so I can't yet say it's a waste of time. I'll find out soon enough, when the GApps update arrives. Until then, my Streaming Life does not include a Raspberry Pi streamer.

Distro TV

There are the big boys of free ad-supported live streaming, such as Pluto TV, Xumo, Tubi, The Roku Channel, Stirr, Sling TV Free, Plex, Peacock, and the like.

You've probably heard of most of those, and have probably watched at least some of them. They're really all worth a look. Some of them have really easy to use interfaces, and some are not quite as user friendly. All of those are pretty good insofar as free live streaming is concerned.

Some of them have more that live streaming. They all offer on-demand content to varying degrees. Some actually have other original intent, but added live streaming after launch. Plex, for instance, didn't start as a live streaming service. Peacock is actually a pay service, but has a free tier. Same goes for Sling TV. The Roku Channel was free on-demand content and added live TV much later.

These aren't the only live streaming services, though. I recently ran across one called Distro TV. They've been around since 2019, but only recently came across my radar. One major difference between Distro TV and the others listed, is that Distro TV is independent of the major networks and studios. Pluto TV is owned by Paramount. Xumo and Peacock are owned by Comcast. Fox owns Tubi. Stirr is owned by Sinclair. Sling TV is owned by Dish Network. And so on. Distro TV calls itself "the largest, independent, free, ad-supported streaming television service." And they very well may be.

I'm not their primary target audience, though. It appears as though they are targeting people younger than me. Much younger. That happens more and more as time goes on. If you haven't that out yet, you will.

The content is still similar to that of the other services. However, Distro TV seems to have a higher percentage of non-English language channels available. While the other services mentioned do, of course, have non-English language channels, Distro TV seems to have a higher percentage in that category.

The number of live streaming channels is under 200, but not much under 200. I counted 187, plus nine music channels. That is nearly three times the number available from Sling TV Free, but Sling TV's free offerings are more of a "best of" listing. That's not to say that Distro TV doesn't have some gems that aren't available there. They do have some content you won't find on Pluto TV or Sling TV Free.

The problem I have with Distro TV, and yes, I do have a problem with it, is that the app doesn't work well. On Roku, the live guide freezes. I've not found an issue with the other menus, but the grid guide doesn't work well. The only way to fix the freeze is to exit the app and re-enter.

On Fire TV, the grid will not freeze, but the scrolling up will stop at times. It's as if the top limit moves down every so often. The only way to get back to it is to exit the app and re-enter.

The performance on Chromecast is worst of all. It's not available. The Website shows Android TV as a supported platform, but Google's own Android/Google TV device isn't supported.

There's a lot of potential in Distro TV, but they aren't there yet. They need to fix the apps above all else. I suspect they are focusing on getting additional content, which would be good, but I hope they set aside some work for the app. It needs it.

For now, this won't be a part of my Streaming Life. But, if the app gets fixed, I'll give it another look

Olympics viewership down 42%, except for streaming

The Beijing Olympics ended with horrible ratings. But not for streaming viewership. While overall rating for the Olympics were a huge disappointment for NBCU, the streaming audience grew. And that's a good thing for streamers like you and me.

According to the Hollywood Reporter, the Winter Games were down 42% from the previous Winter Games, and down from last year's Summer Games.

The topline figure is that the Olympics averaged 11.4 million viewers across all of NBCU’s platforms in primetime. That’s down 42 percent from the 19.8 million average for the 2018 winter games in Pyeongchang, South Korea — in keeping with the trend both from the first few days of the games (and, in fact, closing the gap with four years ago a little bit) and the general decline of broadcast network ratings in the past four years.

NBCU’s coverage from Beijing is also down about 26 percent from the 2021 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, which averaged 15.5 million primetime viewers in the company’s “Total Audience Delivery” metric (a combination of Nielsen ratings for TV and Adobe Analytics figures for digital platforms). That too is on par with the declines from last summer from the opening week of the winter games.

Not all of the news was horrible, however. In fact, the streaming news was pretty good. Streaming viewership was up.

... the streaming audience for Beijing was either the largest or second largest for any Olympics to date, depending on the measurement. Streaming on Peacock, NBCOlympics.com, the NBC Sports app had an average primetime viewership of 516,000 viewers, up 8 percent from the summer and an all-time high for any Olympics in the streaming era. Streaming made up about 4.5 percent of the total primetime audience for the games.

U.S. viewers watched 4.3 billion minutes of Olympic coverage over 18 days on the NBCU outlets and social media platforms, the most for any winter games and behind only the 5.6 billion minutes for Tokyo last year. Steaming minutes improved by 78 percent over the 2018 Winter Olympics, and NBCU said Peacock had its “best 18-day stretch of usage” in the 19 months since its national launch. Peacock streamed every event live from Beijing.

With an overall decline in viewership, the fact that streaming was up offers good news for those of us that use that method of watching TV. The streaming audience is growing, even when viewership for the event being watched is dropping.

Maybe this will help push the networks into thinking about streaming and look to offer more for streamers. NBCU did a good job of offering coverage to streamers, with every event available on Peacock TV.

While ABC, CBS, and Fox may be smiling at the low ratings for NBC during the Olympics, they need to learn from this as well. They need to understand that streaming viewership is increasing, and they need to offer more for streamers. If they do, my Streaming Life will be better. And so will yours.

Raspberry Pi streamer Update 3

My Raspberry Pi streamer project has gone okay so far. There are a couple of issues, which I covered in two earlier posts: Update 1, Update 2.

Now I've run into a new issue, but this is a very different issue. Very different. But I also had a good experience to go along with it.

First the good. I didn't really like the remote I originally bought for it, and found a different one that I thought would be better. It is better. I like the new remote. I found it on sale from Walmart.com, and haven't been able to find it elsewhere. The mouse part doesn't work well, but that was true of the first remote. However, the buttons are great. The remote looks and feels a lot like an Apple TV remote, but larger. I like it.

Now the bad. If you recall, I installed the Android TV setup on a 2 GB Raspberry Pi. It recommends a 4 GB device. I didn't have a 4 GB device, so I decided to try it on a 2 GB device just to see what would happen. It ran, but I still wanted it on a 4 GB device. So I bought a 4 GB Raspberry Pi.

It took a few days, since I bought it directly from CanaKit rather than through Amazon, like my first device. Part of the reason was because it wasn't available from Amazon, which would likely have shipped sooner. Anyway, it arrived and didn't work.

Now, it wasn't that the Android TV setup didn't work. It was that the Raspberry Pi board didn't work. I never go to the point of installing Android TV on it. It failed before we got that far. How far did we get? First power up for initial setup. No display. I did proper troubleshooting and ruled out the cause as the monitor, the HDMI cable, the power supply, even mouse and keyboard were changed out. It's the Raspberry Pi itself.

I've communicated for replacement (I want one; I don't really want my money back, just a working device). We'll see how that goes.

The 2 GB Raspberry Pi still works, but I wanted the 4 GB to operate to get a better idea about things. I must say that I am disappointed. I plan to run Plex on a 4 GB Raspberry Pi, but I need a running 4 GB Raspberry Pi first.

My Steaming Life is quite frustrated at the moment. I'm awaiting on that company in Canada to help make it better.