# Streaming service that does not botch sports coverage?



## McMark (8 mo ago)

Hello. I have been getting my sports via Sling (ESPN, TNT). Sling it terrible. They override commercial breaks and start the commercials early before the action even stops. And if a game goes long, they simply end coverage and continue with whatver show was scheduled next. I have missed the end of several exciting March Madness games and missed the end of an overtime NHL playoff. Not to mention countless third outs in innings when Sling breaks to commercials too soon.

I have had enough of this garbage and want to switch off of Sling. However, I have heard that Hulu Live isn't much better. I am tempted to go to Xfinity, but am open to suggestion.

All I really want streaming/live TV is for sports: ESPN (1 to 3 and plus), TNT, TBS, Fox Sports, CBS, and NBC Sports.

Thanks


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## mccarthymac (Oct 19, 2016)

McMark said:


> Hello. I have been getting my sports via Sling (ESPN, TNT). Sling it terrible. They override commercial breaks and start the commercials early before the action even stops. And if a game goes long, they simply end coverage and continue with whatver show was scheduled next. I have missed the end of several exciting March Madness games and missed the end of an overtime NHL playoff. Not to mention countless third outs in innings when Sling breaks to commercials too soon.
> 
> I have had enough of this garbage and want to switch off of Sling. However, I have heard that Hulu Live isn't much better. I am tempted to go to Xfinity, but am open to suggestion.
> 
> ...


Youtube TV


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## B. Shoe (Apr 3, 2008)

Nearly any service is going to provide a trial period for you to get familiar to the platform and see if you are interested in subscribing. I'm a YouTube TV subscriber/proponent, but each service has its pros cons. Same for Hulu, Directv Stream and more.

Give 'em a run through the paces and see what works best for you and your needs.


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## harsh (Jun 15, 2003)

McMark said:


> And if a game goes long, they simply end coverage and continue with whatver show was scheduled next.


That doesn't sound like a SlingTV problem. I'm pretty sure there aren't multiple feeds of TNT (or the ESPN live channels) where the distributor could choose to switch to _The Sound of Music_.


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## wmb (Dec 18, 2008)

I have YouTube TV. I don’t recall them leaving a game early. As for commercials, I haven’t seen any issues with starting or ending them rarely. They do have fills for commercial slots they haven’t sold… a screen with some music. It’s kind of odd, but easy to live with.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## McMark (8 mo ago)

harsh said:


> That doesn't sound like a SlingTV problem. I'm pretty sure there aren't multiple feeds of TNT (or the ESPN live channels) where the distributor could choose to switch to _The Sound of Music_.


It's a Sling problem inasmuch a they choose to follow the planned schedule rather than follow the game. I learned after contacting TNT customer support that there are two classes of broadcasters. The first is how we typically used to think of it. But Sling is in a different newer type of class, and TNT basically said that "we don't know what they do, they broadcast our stuff, but we have no idea what they do with it."


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## harsh (Jun 15, 2003)

Sling is receiving a linear feed from the channel. They don't get to mix and match or edit the content -- they can only insert content over it within the timeline of the feed (i.e. they can't insert the beginning of _The Sound of Music_ if TNT is still feeding the game). If TNT chops the game off, that's uniquely on TNT. Sling's fault may be inserting commercials where they shouldn't be but that is likely also a TNT problem as TNT is responsible for "marking" the commercial insert points.

I would imagine that you would see the same problems on any other distributor as they're all working with the same TNT feed. The same is true of any other live TV channel/network.


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## McMark (8 mo ago)

harsh said:


> Sling is receiving a linear feed from the channel. They don't get to mix and match or edit the content -- they can only insert content over it within the timeline of the feed (i.e. they can't insert the beginning of _The Sound of Music_ if TNT is still feeding the game). If TNT chops the game off, that's uniquely on TNT. Sling's fault may be inserting commercials where they shouldn't be but that is likely also a TNT problem as TNT is responsible for "marking" the commercial insert points.
> 
> I would imagine that you would see the same problems on any other distributor as they're all working with the same TNT feed. The same is true of any other live TV channel/network.


That's interesting. But does contradict what the TNT rep told me.

In any case, after some hectoring by me and others during the March NCAA tournament, Sling actually moved their feed when the original slot "timed out." I have no idea how it worked on the back end, but the show literally "ended" with about a minute left in the game, and so I backed out, found a new thumbnail for the game, and re-selected the new show, and then got to watch the last fifteen seconds.


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## renegade (Jul 28, 2011)

Streaming will be the solution to all of life's problems ...


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## harsh (Jun 15, 2003)

renegade said:


> Streaming will be the solution to all of life's problems ...


Authentication (going direct to the programmer using your provider credentials) would at least remove the middle men.


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## harsh (Jun 15, 2003)

McMark said:


> That's interesting. But does contradict what the TNT rep told me.


"TNT rep" isn't particularly definitive.


> In any case, after some hectoring by me and others during the March NCAA tournament, Sling actually moved their feed when the original slot "timed out." I have no idea how it worked on the back end, but the show literally "ended" with about a minute left in the game, and so I backed out, found a new thumbnail for the game, and re-selected the new show, and then got to watch the last fifteen seconds.


Are you talking about watching live or cloud DVR recordings? There is a huge difference.


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## McMark (8 mo ago)

harsh said:


> "TNT rep" isn't particularly definitive.
> Are you talking about watching live or cloud DVR recordings? There is a huge difference.


Live. I mean, with a delay that is a number of seconds. I assume that's how they are able to fiddle with the commercial insertion.


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## McMark (8 mo ago)

harsh said:


> Authentication (going direct to the programmer using your provider credentials) would at least remove the middle men.


Thanks. That works with ESPN. Unfortunately, TNT's service only accepts the users from providers like Xfinity, and Sling is not even an option for the login there. As I said above, there appears to be two classes of users from TNT's perspective.


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## harsh (Jun 15, 2003)

McMark said:


> Unfortunately, TNT's service only accepts the users from providers like Xfinity, and Sling is not even an option for the login there.


TNT supports authentication with over 500 distributors but SlingTV, Philo and Fubo aren't among them.


> As I said above, there appears to be two classes of users from TNT's perspective.


It probably comes down to Sling not wanting to pay for authentication given that they're half the price of the services that do support authentication.

In the grand scheme, authentication isn't going to change what TNT plays and how they play it.


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## wmb (Dec 18, 2008)

harsh said:


> TNT supports authentication with over 500 distributors but SlingTV, Philo and Fubo aren't among them.


I’m not sure why sling would need authentication. If it’s like YouTube TV, you can watch any of their shows VOD in the YouTube TV app.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## harsh (Jun 15, 2003)

wmb said:


> I’m not sure why sling would need authentication.


The TS is under the impression that SlingTV is borking the coverage. Authentication would afford the TS the opportunity to go around SlingTV and see who is really at fault for the atrocities.


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## wilbur_the_goose (Aug 16, 2006)

Your solution is simple - YouTube TV. I still have D*, but I'm watching most stuff on YTTV now because their picture quality > DirecTV (especially important for sports for me.)


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## harsh (Jun 15, 2003)

wilbur_the_goose said:


> Your solution is simple - YouTube TV.


Does YouTube TV continue on with games that the <insert sports channel here> has gone away from?


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## mjwagner (Oct 8, 2005)

harsh said:


> Does YouTube TV continue on with games that the <insert sports channel here> has gone away from?


If you mean do they continue on with a game if it runs over the official time in the guide, yes both watching live and they also auto pad recordings. Early on the auto padding was iffy but it hasn’t missed any in a long time for me. Now if the channel itself switches away to other programming then no, how could they.


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## harsh (Jun 15, 2003)

mjwagner said:


> If you mean do they continue on with a game if it runs over the official time in the guide, yes both watching live and they also auto pad recordings.


I believe the issue that the TS is trying to solve is that Sling TV appears to be ending the game and moving on to the next program even though coverage by the sports channel hasn't ended. I don't think it is related to recordings (but I could be wrong).


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## B. Shoe (Apr 3, 2008)

McMark said:


> Hello. I have been getting my sports via Sling (ESPN, TNT). Sling it terrible. They override commercial breaks and start the commercials early before the action even stops. And if a game goes long, they simply end coverage and continue with whatver show was scheduled next. I have missed the end of several exciting March Madness games and missed the end of an overtime NHL playoff. Not to mention countless third outs in innings when Sling breaks to commercials too soon.
> 
> I have had enough of this garbage and want to switch off of Sling. However, I have heard that Hulu Live isn't much better. I am tempted to go to Xfinity, but am open to suggestion.
> 
> ...


As a current YouTube TV subscriber and someone who primarily watches sports on all of the channels listed above:

No, I do not recall any of the channels entering a commercial break early and interrupting ends of baseball innings or basketball games.
No, I do not recall an instance where YTTV would actively try to override a live sports broadcast with another scheduled program on any of these channels.
As others here have mentioned, YTTV auto-pads recordings of live sports broadcasts that run past their scheduled time. This used to be a point of contention, but has been resolved and works with consistency and reliability now.


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## mjwagner (Oct 8, 2005)

harsh said:


> I believe the issue that the TS is trying to solve is that Sling TV appears to be ending the game and moving on to the next program even though coverage by the sports channel hasn't ended. I don't think it is related to recordings (but I could be wrong).


I think you are right. I don’t think recording was mentioned but I do see many folks worry about padding with cloud DVRs because typically they don’t provide that manual capability. It seems to be more common that the providers are now auto padding live events that run over so it’s really no longer an issue. I know from personal experience that YTTV does and it seems to be effective.
But more to the point, I have not seen YTTV switch away from a live event that runs over the allotted time . But again if the channel itself switches to other programming I don’t see how YTTV or any provider could compensate.


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## harsh (Jun 15, 2003)

mjwagner said:


> But again if the channel itself switches to other programming I don’t see how YTTV or any provider could compensate.


I agree, but the TS believes it to be one of the big bones of contention.

The other issue was the incorrect placement of carrier-inserted advertising. That's harder to theorize about and would logically require a side-by-side comparison of Sling and a candiate service as most (if not all) carriers participate in ad insertion at some level.


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