ESPN & The Big East

[Plebe]

It was a fight over the Tier 3 rights. The new AAC TV deal included the Tier 3 rights for women's basketball, and UConn did not like that because it would mean that SNY would be cut out and all of our games forced onto streaming.

So the potential demise of SNY's role was the deal-breaker, and yet here we are. The irony.

 

[Cuango]

Maybe Charlie will project UConn as a 1 seed now

Yeah, I’m looking forward to see how he justifies South Carolina over us for year opening #1! “Paige is gone, Sarah will have a sophomore slump, I just don’t like them. Oops! That last one wasn’t supposed to go public! I’ve been hacked!”

 

[meyers7]

Fantastic news. Anything other than SNY will be a huge upgrade. ESPN+ has always been very easy to stream. And they keep the games around to watch later.

 

[CL82]

So the potential demise of SNY's role was the deal-breaker, and yet here we are. The irony.

Exactly.

 

[ctkaiser]

I can’t see my self putting out more money above and beyond the monthly cable bill I already pay. House taxes are up up 10% over last year. I already survive without Yankees games on Prime, Apple TV and Roku so I think I'll survive without Uconn games on this collection of channels. I also pay for men's and women's basketball season tickets.

 

[hoopsfan22]

Fantastic news. Anything other than SNY will be a huge upgrade. ESPN+ has always been very easy to stream. And they keep the games around to watch later.

Did you just not like Gary Apple, Kara Wolters, Meg Culmo and Allan Bestwick?

 

[CL82]

Did you just not like Gary Apple, Kara Wolters, Meg Culmo and Allan Bestwick?

Alan Bestwick...

He's not the most basketball knowledgeable guy in the world. Seemed pleasant enough though. Everyone else was absolutely terrific.

 

[ed4ourgirls]

Alan Bestwick...
He's not the most basketball knowledgeable guy in the world. Seemed pleasant enough though. Everyone else was absolutely terrific.

One thing you can say about Alan Bestwick is that he always called the game - even when UConn
was winning by 30.

He told us who was subbing in or out, who got the basket, the rebound, the foul. Not many
play by play people do that consistently. Call the game and let the color commentator do the
basketball knowledgable stuff.

 

[cabbie191]

I live in the absolute boondocks of Eastern Connecticut and we use tablets for our streaming. Hulu couldn’t reconcile that the physical address of the tablet was different than the connection point for our ISP. Many times that connection point is in Massachusetts or RI.

We live in northern WIsconsin and have used Hulu Live for several years. Except for the massive cost hikes over the years, we’re quite happy with the service.

18 months ago we moved our internet service from Frontier to Starlink. Besides moving from a download speed of 3 (yes, you read that correctly - 3, AND THAT WAS on a good day!) to a speed of 140+, for only an extra cost of $3.00/month, the ISP change resulted in Hulu reading our home market as Chicago instead of Minneapolis.

Doesn’t make a whole lot of difference in our day to day life but does speak to some of the behind the scenes intricacies of the internet.

 

[CL82]

One thing you can say about Alan Bestwick is that he always called the game - even when UConn
was winning by 30.

He told us who was subbing in or out, who got the basket, the rebound, the foul. Not many
play by play people do that consistently. Call the game and let the color commentator do the
basketball knowledgable stuff.

He did his best, and as I noted, he's likable, but the number of times he would he would get the call wrong was actually kind of funny. Meg would quietly correct him most, but not all of the time.

 

[ctkaiser]

He did his best, and as I noted, he's likable, but the number of times he would he would get the call wrong was actually kind of funny. Meg would quietly correct him most, but not all of the time.

I always got a laugh out of his occasional description of a pass to the post as an inbounds pass. I find all the SNY broadcasters and studio hosts to have been very good. I find with ESPN they're good but constantly promoting the other upcoming ESPN shows. We'll never get the quality of the pre and post games we got with Kara and Gary.

 

[Alydar]

If I recall correctly, AD Dave expressly mentioned as a factor. Remember that the SNY deal was generating $1 million in revenue. That is twice what CBS Sports pays us for the football team. I don't think it was the factor, but it was a factor.

FloSports has been the big east partner for broadcasting Olympic sports for sometime. This is a step up for that.

It's a big step down for women's basketball. SNY was a linear partner who did a phenomenal job on broadcasting women's basketball games with dedicated pregame, halftime, and post game shows In addition to several other dedicated husky shows such as Geno's Legacy, which brought back women's basketball greats to Sit down with Auriemma and talk about their experience at Connecticut, in addition to preseason and postseason shows.

It would have cost me another $130.00/mo to get SNY because I would have had to leave my streaming service and go back to my cable co.

SNY made a business decision and so did I.

 

[ubasketball]

Did you just not like Gary Apple, Kara Wolters, Meg Culmo and Allan Bestwick?

Fantastic news. Anything other than SNY will be a huge upgrade. ESPN+ has always been very easy to stream. And they keep the games around to watch later.

All I can say is that when the games were not on SNY, the most important button on my remote was "mute," which I expect to wear out this year. Meg and Allan covered the entire game, and knew and recognized ALL the players, not just waxing on ad nauseam about Paige and Sarah. Yes, we knew they were good! And remember, we will dominate most games this year. Anyone looking forward to the third and fourth quarters when we are ahead by a mile and the announcers are covering everything BUT the game?

 

[Cornell Lt]

ESPN+ is a great service for sports related streaming. I use the service because I can get PGA Tour golf and all IVY League sports . The product ESPN delivers is well worth the money and replays are always available. Adding UConn women's basketball is the cherry on top as far as I'm concerned

 

[cancontent]

ESPN+ is garbage

Compared to FloHoops??? That can't be possible.

 

[cancontent]

ESPN+ is a great service for sports related streaming. I use the service because I can get PGA Tour golf and all IVY League sports . The product ESPN delivers is well worth the money and replays are always available. Adding UConn women's basketball is the cherry on top as far as I'm concerned

Access to the documentaries like 30 for 30 is an amazing feature. I prefer the ESPN+ version compared to the Canada's version TSN+, which includes access to the series though.

 

[sno-cat]

 

[Urshurak]

We are YouTube TV users. I bought Hulu live last year just so that I could get a couple of games that I really wanted to see. The steaming and technical issues were so bad that I immediately canceled Hulu. Never again.

Same. We put our YouTube TV subscription on pause to try out the Hulu live. Used it a month or so and my wife hated it. I found it clunky and all kinds of “weirdness.” We dumped it after around 6 weeks and went back to YouTube TV.

 

[meyers7]

Did you just not like Gary Apple, Kara Wolters, Meg Culmo and Allan Bestwick?

They were fine.....when I got to see them. Which wasn't all that often. SNY didn't make their stuff very available.

 

[BRS24]

I think I'm going to wait until the schedule is posted with the networks listed. We now have to stream a number of services thru apps that Spectrum (FL) provides (a pain, actually).

 

[hoopsfan22]

Didn't Val Ackerman already say that all UConn games will be on regular TV channels and not streaming? I know that was like six months ago when the new TV deal was first announced, but I'm still hoping that it will play out that way.

 

[Huskie837]

I was hoping with the new tv deal I wouldn't have to be jumping thru hoops anymore to see every game. With the "old" package I had to subscribe to CBS sports net to catch their two annual games and then unsubscribe; same with Flo Hoops one year as well (I refused to do it last season). If I miss a game or two two with this new deal, oh well. Reading between the lines it sounds like they will stick an "exclusive" game or two on ESPN+ as a revenue grab. Count me out.....

 

[Centerstream]

I think I'm going to wait until the schedule is posted with the networks listed. We now have to stream a number of services thru apps that Spectrum (FL) provides (a pain, actually).

Sounds like a really, really good idea. Especially when it is only July.
But on the other hand, I am already subscribed to Hulu Live, Disney+, ESPN+, Peacock, HBO MAX, and Paramount+ so I think I'm covered.

 

[Cuango]

I had Hulu Live last year (and what a glorious year it was) and was well satisfied with the UConn coverage. Hopefully, it will be as good or better in 25/26.

 

[WiseWillie]

Like BRS24, after reading all of this I think I'll do a wait and see before changing something that turns out not exactly great. I have a package with Comcast (I know, I know) that is costing me way too much and while I have considered options I have procrastinated. This might push me to do it finally but again think I'll wait before jumping. I'll keep reading here, however, because there are many on the Boneyard that have some good suggestions.

 

[Steelerone]

It's like they are attempting to figure out ways to make you say, "Aw, the heck with it. Let's just watch Gunsmoke."

 

[Bone Dog]

Living out west and with no cable service at all, I have to stream everything. That means either YouTubeTV or Hulu Live. The last few seasons, I watched the conference games on SNY through the FoxSports app, and the only way to sign on to it was to provide a cable credential from a service that included FS1. That’s where YouTubeTV (or Hulu Live) came in. I wouldn’t have bothered with either of them except for that.

This coming season, with no SNY I’ll need a completely different solution to get the conference games. It looks like it will be HuluLive in some form, but I don’t know exactly how it will work yet. All this to say I’m going to follow @BRS24’s advice and wait for the schedule to come out. Does anyone know when that will be?

 

[Alydar]

Bob Joyce's radio call is by far the best UConn game commentary, unless you want to know all about the hobbies of the players or where their parents went to college. When TV started filling every timeout with ads the only time left for "game color" was while the game is going on and now there is no game coverage, just color, unless a great play is made. I prefer announcers who tell me when there is a substitution or why a whistle was blown but they don't exist anymore on live TV. Bob Joyce is a UConn fan but he tells you when they play crappy as well as good. I missed SNY's pre & post game shows but then I found that the radio side has a better pre-game and that they almost always get a CD interview during their postgame show, along with a player.

It's not hard to synch it up to the muted video.

 

[YKCornelius]

Bob Joyce's radio call is by far the best UConn game commentary, unless you want to know all about the hobbies of the players or where their parents went to college. When TV started filling every timeout with ads the only time left for "game color" was while the game is going on and now there is no game coverage, just color, unless a great play is made. I prefer announcers who tell me when there is a substitution or why a whistle was blown but they don't exist anymore on live TV. Bob Joyce is a UConn fan but he tells you when they play crappy as well as good. I missed SNY's pre & post game shows but then I found that the radio side has a better pre-game and that they almost always get a CD interview during their postgame show, along with a player.

It's not hard to synch it up to the muted video.

Alydar, I agree that Bob Joyce (and Debbie Fiske) are superb to listen to.

My only gripe is that for some games their commentary is in sync with the video, but most of the times it is not. When the commentary is in advance of the video by 1-4 seconds, no worries for me: I simply mute the video and enjoy that my eyes can watch what is just about to happen. Love it!

However, when the video is ahead of the radio commentary (which, for me, was the case for almost all of the nationally televised games, sometimes for as much as ten seconds), I will lower the volume on Bob and Debbie until which time I need an explanation for something the announcers miss (which happens a lot) or if I think the refs goofed up on a call (also happens a lot).

Regardless, I will listen to them for the 30 minute pregame and until end of the postgame. Religiously!

 

[Bald Husky]

Living out west and with no cable service at all, I have to stream everything. That means either YouTubeTV or Hulu Live. The last few seasons, I watched the conference games on SNY through the FoxSports app, and the only way to sign on to it was to provide a cable credential from a service that included FS1. That’s where YouTubeTV (or Hulu Live) came in. I wouldn’t have bothered with either of them except for that.

This coming season, with no SNY I’ll need a completely different solution to get the conference games. It looks like it will be HuluLive in some form, but I don’t know exactly how it will work yet. All this to say I’m going to follow @BRS24’s advice and wait for the schedule to come out. Does anyone know when that will be?

If you get HuluLiveTV, ESPN+ as well as Disney+ is free. It's true that we don't know where the games will appear, but since it is ESPN a few, if more of our games may be on ESPN+. We will see.