Paramount Plus Super Bowl fail proves why sports is a big problem for cord-cutters

[admin]

Paramount Plus and other streaming services struggled during Super Bowl 2024. Here's why these issues prove cord-cutting is a problem for sports fans.

Paramount Plus Super Bowl fail proves why sports is a big problem for cord-cutters : Read more

 

[Random_Tech_Guy]

I agree that streaming sports is bad, but for different reasons. In general the video quality is poor, with low resolution, blurring and stuttering. I'd be interseted in more info & discussion of which services (if any) provide better video quality.

IMHO a modest amount of latency (perhaps less than 1min?) by itself is not particularly a problem.

 

[Phyllostachys]

Not a tech guy and don't play one on TV. Part of buffering issue might be Dynamic Adaptive Streaming over HTTP — known as DASH for short. You can disable DASH support, but then some high quality options will be ignored by the HTML5 players. This is due to high memory requirement of these streams. Basically loading the entire video on high quality (like 1080p) requires too much memory. I know that those new Tablos have a single h.264 video stream at one bitrate, but I've not really looked into one of those since I'm not a sports fan. Not sure if the antenna thing would be a good solution either since from what I understand the whole ATSC 3.0 thing is still up in the air and some stations are implementing DRM on the signals.

 

[Lehjr]

It wasn’t just streaming. Spectrum had issues with the Super Bowl even over traditional cable and it’s not their first time. It’s important to consider that traditional cable is going away leaving streaming or an antenna as the only 2 viable options.

 

[Aggrophobic]

Never had an issue watching sports through Youtube TV, Paramount +, Peacock or ESPN +.

I have never had a situation where part of the game was missed due to buffering issues - so that's new. Didn't happen to me though, I watched via CBS on Youtube TV.

Obviously if you start streaming any content - not just sports - on multiple devices, there is always going to be at least a second or two difference between each of them. There's absolutely nothing that can prevent that, no matter how fast your connection is or how low your lag is between the device, your router, possibly a cable modem and then your provider.

Personally I find the ability to watch when and were I want, with DVR controls, pausing when needed and the overall lower cost far outweighs tiny inconveniences like a few seconds delay. At least 1/2 the games I watch aren't live anyway - I'm not getting up at 5am on a Saturday to watch Liverpool. I'm going to watch that on demand in my own time. And I'm not going to try to watch European games mid-week during my lunch, I'll wait until I get home.

It is possible to not look at social media or sports websites for a few hours. You'd be surprised at how painless it is, plus bonus, you get to do something worthwhile with your time instead.

 

[Ancient_Mariner]

Because I have 4K capability on my Internet and TV, I chose to watch the Super Bowl on Paramount+. You Tube TV wanted an additional $4.95 per month to watch their streams at 4K. I suffered the identified glitches and lost pause and rewind capabilities on P+ so I returned to YTtv and forgo any 4K viewing experience for the Super Bowl.