Streaming the USFL Playoffs

This weekend, the football playoffs begin.

Say what?

You heard me. It's time for the football playoffs again.

The USFL playoffs are this weekend, with a game today and another tomorrow.

This afternoon, the New Jersey Generals (9-1) play the Philadelphia Stars (6-4) in the Northern Division championship game. The game will be broadcast on Fox at 3:00 pm.

Tomorrow night, the Birmingham Stallions (9-1) play the New Orleans Breakers (6-4) in the Southern Division championship game. NBC will carry the game at 8:00 pm.

There are a few different ways to watch the games if you are a streamer.

Fox

If you have an antenna, you can watch Fox for free. If not, there are streaming services that carry local Fox broadcasts.

• Antenna (free)
• Sling TV (Blue) ($35/month) (18 markets only)
• YouTube TV ($65/month)
• Fubo TV ($70/month)
• Hulu+Live TV ($70/month; includes Disney Bundle, meaning ESPN+)
• DirecTV Stream ($70/month)

NBC

If you have an antenna, you can watch NBC for free. If not, there are streaming services that carry local NBC broadcasts.

• Antenna (free)
• Sling TV (Blue) ($35/month) (11 markets only)
• Vidgo ($60/month; $159/three months)
• YouTube TV ($65/month)
• Fubo TV ($70/month)
• Hulu+Live TV ($70/month; includes Disney Bundle, meaning ESPN+)
• DirecTV Stream ($70/month)

If the USFL is something you've been following, or wanting to follow, you can have the spring league playoffs in your Streaming Life.

Free premium channels for Sling TV on weekends

I've said before that I'm not generally a fan of the paid live TV streaming services, or Virtual Multichannel Video Programming Distributor (vMVPD). I prefer the Free Ad Supported Television (FAST) services, but I do have my go-to services for the times when a live TV streaming service (vMVPD).

One is Sling TV, which was the first of the vMVPD services. And, because of its relatively low price, at least compared to other major services, is my go-to in most cases when a vMVPD is called for. Like watching something on ESPN.

Sling TV also has a free tier that can be used standalone FAST service. It can also be used in conjunction with Air TV, so you don't need a paid tier for that. But, you do need a paid tier if you want to take advantage of the latest promotion that Sling TV is offering.

This weekend, and every weekend during the summer, Sling TV is offering free premium channels to paid subscribers. This weekend, it's Showtime. And each weekend, another premium service will be offered for free:

During Freeview Weekends, customers have access to standalone streaming services’ live schedule and on-demand content library. Most Freeview offerings will start Friday and run through Monday. Premium streaming services currently slated in the preview lineup include EPIX, Hallmark Movies Now, Curiosity Stream, Sundance Now, AMC+ and more.

One good thing about this is that if you like the premium service, but don't want to keep Sling TV ongoing, you can do just that.

Following a Freeview Weekend, SLING makes it easy for anyone to continue watching their favorite entertainment by subscribing to the streaming service as a standalone subscription. With nearly 50 standalone streaming services, including SHOWTIME®, EPIX and Starz, available without a base SLING subscription, SLING provides the best à la carte streaming experience on the market.

While I prefer the separate apps for premium subscriptions, I understand the benefit of including it with a package such as Sling TV. And, by the way, if it wasn't clear, you can use the paid premium service with Sling TV Free tier.

This may be a great way for you to check out these premium services and decide if you want to include them in your Streaming Life. As I said, it's not for me, but it just may be something that works for you.

Bally Sports+ to launch today, sort of

Some sports fans have been excited about the upcoming launch of Bally Sports+ streaming service. For some, that happens today.

Bally announced a while back that it would launch a direct to consumer sports network that would offer content from Bally Sports Networks. No dates had been given, with "summer" or "fall" thrown around as launch targets. Until this week.

Earlier in the week, Bally Sports announced that Bally Sports+ would launch in five markets on June 23. Well, according to my calendar, that's today. However, according to my map, I'm not in Detroit, Kansas City, Miami, Milwaukee, or Tampa, so I won't get it. At least, not today.

According to Sports Business Journal, it will be about three months before the full launch of the service.

Pay-TV subscribers already have access to streamed games through Sinclair's TV Everywhere apps that are treated as add-ons to pay-TV subscriptions.

Sinclair's executives expect their relationships with subscribers will change once they actually start paying for the streaming service.

"TV Everywhere wasn't a focus," Ripley said. "We didn't make a lot of money off that. Our whole mentality is going to change and say, when the user comes, what does he or she do first? Where do they go? Are they interacting with our gamification features?

"We're talking a three-month ramp from soft to full launch. But we thought it was a smart idea to get some reps under our belt before we go wider."

The service will cost $20/month or $190/year (over 20% discount). If you're in one of the five early launch cities, you will have the first look at the service. For the rest of us, we'll have to wait before we can test drive the service and determine if it's something we want in our Streaming Life.

Ad-supported streaming grows

A report from Comscore, a ratings service, says that more and more people in the U.S. are using ad-supported streaming services. To those I say, "Welcome."

I've long been an advocate of the free streaming services over the pay services for some time. And, of course, the free streaming services are by and large ad-supported services.

A little over a year ago, I viewed with some skepticism a report that free ad-supported services were on the rise, mainly because the study was commissioned by Tubi, a free ad-supported service. But, I said I wished it was true, and thought it could be true, but it seemed a little self-serving by Tubi.

Earlier this year, there were suggestions that free services could pass pay services for streamers. Not sure that will happen, but the trend is there. The report by Comscore says that the number of ad-supported services grew at a higher rate and pay subscription services.

...ad-supported streaming services (AVOD) are being adopted at a faster rate than subscription-based services (SVOD). AVOD services saw a 29% increase in 2022, compared to 2020. SVOD services saw a 21% increase in the same time period.

Is this bad news for pay services? Not at all, at least I don't think it is. Streaming overall is growing, and 21 percent increase is nothing to sneeze at. I think this means that more people are realizing just how much good free content is there. And free is cheaper than pay.

Pay services won't go away at all. There is content that is only available on pay services. I subscribe to several pay services, in fact. Only, I don't subscribe to them all at the same time. I'll subscribe to one this month, a different one next month, a still different one the next month, and so on. I'll binge and catch up during the month, then go to another the next month, and do this all year long. But I keep the ad-supported services year-round, of course.

There is a lot of good free content. If you are spending all your time on pay services, take a break and look around at the free content. Really look. You may find that you can save a lot of money, and use the pay services to fill in from time to time.

It's really a good way to spend your Streaming Life without spending a lot of money.

Developer Mode on Fire TV

According to AFTV News, there's an update being rolled out for Amazon Fire TV devices that seems to remove Developer Mode on the devices.

For most users, this isn't that big of a deal, but for some, this is a thing.

You see, some users like to extend the features of their Fire TV devices by loading content that isn't in the Amazon application store (sometimes called "side loading"). Many times, this is simply content that for one reason or another, hasn't been approved for the Amazon Store. Other times, it's an app that wasn't actually designed for Amazon's OS, but will work. And others are loading pirate TV content.

To be fair, some that are loading pirate TV apps don't realize the apps are pirate TV apps. That's mostly because they don't understand that such things can be illegal, and pirates take advantage of this.

There are other reason for Developer Mode besides side loading apps. But removing the feature would impact a large number of users, even if the percentage is small.

However, they didn't really remove Developer Mode. Rather, they hid it. And, AFTV News also reports that it's actually easy to locate and enable Developer Mode:

If you’re using a Fire TV, Fire TV Stick, or Fire TV Cube, go to: Settings > My Fire TV > About. If you’re using a Fire TV Smart TV, go to: Settings > Device & Software > About. Once there, repeatedly select the first menu item, until a countdown message appears near the bottom. After selecting the first item about 7 times, the message “No need, you are already a developer” will appear at the bottom to indicate you are done. Go back one menu to find the newly revealed “Developer Options” menu.

The article also gives step by step instructions, with pictures, and videos.

If you're an Amazon Fire TV users, and were worried about losing Developer Mode from your Streaming Life, you need fear no more.