Archive for Streaming

The 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup groups will be drawn tomorrow at noon eastern on the Fox Sports 1 channel plus a live stream via Fox Sports Go. Joining the host nation of Canada is 23 other nations that qualified to make a run at the title of World Cup champion.

How to view the games themselves on television was decided years ago. FIFA gave all broadcasting rights in the United States from 2015 through 2022 for English TV and radio to Fox and their affiliates. Spanish TV rights went to Telemundo Media, owned by NBCUniversal. The Fox Soccer 2Go stream does not appear to have any streaming rights to the Women’s WC, however with a digital converter box, anyone with a TV — even without a cable subscription — should be able to see a limited number of fixtures. Lou D’Emilio of Fox Sports quoted World Cup Coordinator David Neal saying “Fox or Fox Sports 1 will carry all 52 WWC matches live in 2015.” Without a definite distinction of how the games will be split among the two channels, it remains unclear how many games a cord cutter will be able to see.

A possible option is the Fox Sports Go app is available for Windows, Android and iOS devices. Unfortunately Fox Sports Go currently depends on having a particular cable subscription. Despite producing a strong Fox Soccer 2Go app (where no TV packaged is necessary as it is a standalone price), the Fox Sports Go leaves much to be desired. One of the current issues is that despite having access to a Charter Communications login, complete with Fox Sports 1 and 2 in the channel lineup, Charter is not a selectable option. Given Charter services almost 28 million subscribers across 29 states and is the fourth largest cable provider in the nation based on revenue, one would assume compatibility with Fox Sports Go. Fox Sports Go is also not available to subscribers of either of the two major U.S. satellite providers — DirecTV and Dish. Apparently I am not missing much from not having access to the app, though. Among the three platforms, the highest rating is three stars on the Android version versus two on iOS and a 1.8 stars rating for Windows devices. Not to put faith in internet reviews, after asking around the only worse streaming platform than Fox Sports Go was the NBA’s League Pass, notorious for issues and bugs.

While the games are still over six months away, Canada will play its to-be-determined opponent on June 6, the accessibility of the matches is in doubt. This year’s men’s World Cup broadcasting rights was owned by ESPN and still have matches available to be re-watched via WatchESPN, though that does require a cable package. Whether or not Fox allows streams — both live or after the match — remains to be seen. Trusting major telecoms, let alone FIFA, to make the right decision for viewer accessibility is a nearly impossible dream.

(Header image via FIFA.com)

In yet another move to bring television to cord cutters, Pluto TV is available to freely stream over 100 channels and now works with Apple TV, Google Chromecast as well as the new Amazon Fire TV. By securing $13 million in funding from recent additions of venture capitalists such as U.S. Venture Partners and UTA — on top of prior investors in Chicago Ventures, Great Oaks Venture Capital and Luminari Capital — Pluto TV maintains their price point of zero dollars.

Pluto TV is an aggregate of online streams organized into various channels ranging from Sports Highlights, Surfing, Xtreme Sports, Pop Culture TV, a 24/7 Cat channel (because it is the internet afterall), Sketch Comedy and even different video game live streams. Most streams appear to be tied through YouTube as The Sports Highlight channel is directly tied to the ACC YouTube Digital Network channel and NHL YT channel et al and the Fight Channel is routed through UFC. Changing channels is as easy as clicking the mouse due to the different stream (or channel) options are shown in a channel guide format.

Given the YouTube integration, there will be click ads on the bottom of the channel (red outline for emphasis, it doesn’t show up on the actual stream) like many YT videos. It is a very small penalty given the no-cost option of either viewing the channels within your browser or downloaded onto your computer. Along with the ad shown above, one can also see the video-on-demand (VOD) system at work as well. On top of live streams, you can rewind and re-watch specific parts of each stream at will and always have the option to click the “Live” button to zip back to the current moment of the stream.

While there is no live-sports just yet, for someone who doesn’t subscribe to any cable television package or just can’t catch every highlight, Pluto TV is perfect. If you just want to watch an episode of Chopped in the background while you read or need to see the latest college football highlights, this is a free and viable way of receiving quality programming.

That sound you heard this morning was Sony Playstation 3 and 4 owners (and cord-cutters) high-fiving each other and cheering. The cause for celebration is Sony’s latest streaming services, Playstation Vue, just sent out the first batch of invites. With a streaming infrastructure already in place with their PS Now, Sony is looking to expand their online content with television. Live television that is, with full on-demand support via cloud storage.

Hands down the key difference between Vue and other services is the fact several major channels have already jumped on board, specifically CBS, Fox (including their local and national sports affiliates), NBC (with Telemundo and other sports stations) plus Viacom, Discovery Communications and Scripps. With so many major content providers ready to roll, this is an impressive undertaking for Sony.

Imagine a Friday evening of watching the Food Network  or Cooking Channel (owned by Scripps) and preparing a meal for the weekend. That meal happens to coincide with watching an English Premiere League game (thanks, NBC!), followed by some Notre Dame or maybe SEC football (kudos to CBS). Perhaps if pro football is more your style, with broadcast rights to both Fox and CBS, local NFL games would be an option on Sunday. Unfortunately we don’t know every detail just yet, so the potential for blackouts — which would be shocking, given the broadcast companies involvement — still loom.

Still, for a monthly subscription (a price is yet to be announced) and no contract a la Netflix, Playstation Vue has a massive potential. With over 34 million sales between the PS3 and PS4 in North America (those numbers include Mexico and Canada), the user base is clearly established. Sony mentioned that sometime in 2015 support for non-Sony products will also be rolled out, specifically iPad support.

Given the status as an invite only, tiered roll out, not everyone will have access to PS Vue right away. The first round of invites went to those living in New York City. Next up will be Chicago, followed by Philadelphia and then Los Angeles. With the full service is expected to go live in the first quarter of 2015, I suspect I won’t be the only one hunting for a good deal on a PS4 this holiday season.

If you’re jonesing for some baseball — and who isn’t? — then fear not sports citizen, as there will be live professional baseball being played tonight! Technically it will air at 4 am E.T., so it is tomorrow morning, but the point remains. Major League Baseball kicks off the Japan exhibition games with the opening match set for tonight.

The game will consist of MLB All-Stars going against a collection of players from the Hanshin Tigers and Yomiuri Giants. Following that game, a five-game series pitting the MLB All-Stars against the Japanese national team, Samurai Japan, will begin and the tour will close with a final exhibition game. Rather than squaring off against the Japanese All-Stars again, the MLB players will be thrown up against the national team due to the Nippon Professional Baseball commissioner wanting the national club to gain experience heading into the 2017 World Baseball Classic.

Current MLB.TV subscribers will have access to all of the games or one can pay the 24.99 for the off-season package which includes every regular season and playoff game as well. With the off-season package also including over 200 spring training games, if you haven’t subscribed yet, you ought to. If you’re unable to catch the middle-of-the-night games or don’t want to pay extra to view the online stream, MLB Network will re-air the games at 9 pm E.T. the same day.

An interesting note is while the game will be broadcasted on television in Japan, current MLB.TV subscribers in Japan will not deal with any blackout restrictions. There has never been a blackout policy for countries other than the United States and Canada, however given the probable high television ratings these games could bring, it is curious — yet encouraging — to see the league take a more passive stance on blackouts.

Boston Red Sox manager John Farrell and 29 All-Stars will look to repeat the perfect record MLB had in 2006, the only other time a five-game series was played between the two leagues as well as the most recent. Three of those five games were decided by two runs or less and hopefully the games this year will be just as exciting.

(Image credit to MLB.com)

$750,000 in prize money — more than Xander Bogearts made this year and more than twice as much as Anthony Rendon made —  is up for grabs this weekend at BlizzCon. The annual expo put on by video game developer Blizzard Entertainment, BlizzCon, marks the start of the weekend’s world championship matches and for the first time the games will be live-streamed to ESPN3 as well as Twitch.TV. BlizzCon starts today and has been long host to championship world finals for Blizzard from StarCraft II to World of Warcraft. This year the company has also included their new latest project, Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft, and posted a total prize pool of a $250,000 for each game.

The ESPN3 schedule was tweeted out yesterday afternoon and will include an impressive array of viewing options for all three games today, starting at 12:45 eastern.

According to ESPN3’s schedule, they will also show the  matches leading up to and including the grand finals for each game tomorrow.

If you happen to be interested in more than the in-game action, there is the option to purchase the virtual ticket for BlizzCon, granting access to Q&A panels, exclusive previews and the ability to re-watch sections at a later date for the people who are too busy to sit and watch a stream for 10 hours.

Given ESPN’s recent backing of esports with their partnership between MLG and the X Games it should be no surprise to see even more events being streamed via ESPN3. With the general acceptance of esports rapidly growing — including professional players getting not just student visas to stay in the United States, but full on athlete visas — and the increased ease of access to live games via streaming services, expect more esports events to be shown to a wider audience.

For those keeping score at home, go ahead and add Showtime to list of companies for cord cutters to support. On an earnings call on Wednesday, CBS — parent company of Showtime — CEO Leslie Moonves stated standalone Showtime will be available in 2015 “fairly definitively.” The news was first reported by Julia Boorstin, editor of CNBC’s Media Money, and this move by Showtime is coming off the heels of a similar move by competitor HBO.

Though it may not be a hard “yes!” CBS already has a large online infrastructure in place. With their CBS All-Access (available for 5.99 per month) and free CBSN site/app that launched today, the company is clearly headed in new direction.

Be it championship boxing, 60 Minutes Sports or any of their sports documentaries, there is no shortage of quality programming for fans on Showtime. As more and more people decide to move away from dozens — if not hundreds — of unused television channels, it’s encouraging to see the content producing companies shift as well.