OT: Why NBA League Pass is so shady?

[E-Balla]

Its 1080p, 60 fps on LP.

For me the whole last year it was 30fps. How do you get 60fps?

IDK it automatically set. Maybe its the device you were on? My phone only gets 30 fps.

[khufure]

Its 1080p, 60 fps on LP.

For me the whole last year it was 30fps. How do you get 60fps?

IDK it automatically set. Maybe its the device you were on? My phone only gets 30 fps.

I was mostly using safari browser on macbook pro. I also tried firefox and chrome, and PC. Never saw 60fps . Was using argentinian international league pass, maybe that was it. Did you use domestic LP?

[HurricaneKid]

Or just feed in the local broadcast with commercials. I don't get why they can't figure this out. Like how is "nothing" their solution? Shouldn't that be the absolute last resort?

It's not that they haven't figured out, it's the financial arrangements that have been made.

I'm not going to defend the way it is done, I DO want to explain it. Because almost all of the complaints about league pass are because no one understands how it works.

ESPN/Turner are literally paying BILLIONS to televise NBA games. For paying this rate they get to chose games, they get to broadcast nationally, etc. They aren't paying BILLIONS so you can change the channel and watch the same game without their commercials. No games that are on these channels will be available on NBATv. And most people get that.

What they don't seem to appreciate is that the REGIONAL SPORTS Networks are next to eat. The Lakers signed a 20 year/3BILLION deal with TWC Sportsnet so these guys are paying a ton of money as well. Every team has a RSN and those channels carry a lot of clout with regional Cable coverage (mostly meaning they can charge a lot). So the NBA league pass offers a 1 team package for $119. You CANNOT buy your local TV area's team. That's already been sold off. And if you live in, let's just say, the Twin Cities and are a Knicks fan, you will NOT get the Knicks game when they are playing the TWolves because those games rights are already owned by the RSN.

The rest of the games simply don't have a significant market so they go in the NBA League Pass pool. These games are the only ones you are buying for your $200/yr. They use the RSN broadcasts and offer you a chance to get your fill.

But make no mistake about it. Your $200 does NOT put you first in line. It puts you after ESPN. It puts you after TNT and TBS. It even puts you behind Fox Sports Net Minnesota if that's where you live.

Is it fair to ask the guy 4th in line to pay $200? That's the real question. I had League Pass for years but I was mostly watching the big games (read NATIONALLY televised) and my local team which I was already getting. So while I can't change the channel if one of those games gets out of hand or hits a commercial break, I do have my $200 still.

I understand all that - it's always about ownership and money, but that's not a valid excuse. That's just a bunch of hurdles that they created with their separation of broadcast rights across mediums. Nothing about that changes anything. No viewers care about or sympathize with the tangled web of exclusive rights that they weaved. Figure.It.Out.

It's like if I opened a restaurant and there's this burger of the month membership club, and you come in with your membership and you try to order a bacon cheeseburger, and I say "no" and give this long sob story about exclusive distributor rights and blah blah blah, that's why you can't have the bacon cheeseburger if you live in the 55108 zip code. You'd lift me off the ground by my tie and say "wtf is wrong with you, give me the damn burger you weirdo"...or at least that's what you should do. It's just like that. Exactly the same. Right? Right.

There aren't any LP Sub figures available, but based on the total viewership of COMBINED LP games, if I had to guess I would guess there are ~300k LP subs out there. Its a really round guess, based on wildly unscientific estimate. Most of those are almost certainly bars/dorms/etc that serve multiple households. That equates to at best ~$50M (depending on full vs 1 vs 5 team packages).

You literally DO NOT MATTER. In terms of league revenues from media, that means League pass is ~50M out of 2.6B per year. You are demanding, as part of the 1.9% of revenue stream, that they give you access that ESPN/Turner paid the other 98+% for. Good luck with that.

The problem is entirely that you feel are entitled to it based on paying for league pass. When the truth is, LP barely makes the radar in gross revenues. They need to be more transparent when people sign up so they aren't shocked at how many games they aren't privy to.

They aren't telling you they can't make a bacon cheeseburger. They are saying since they sold the bacon cheeseburger for more than you could possibly imagine, how would you like the veggie burger with organic kraut, for a mere $200?

[RingsDontLie]

I like league pass internet version. FPS and quality is really determined by your bandwidth. For me its pretty smooth actually. I've never put a fps counter to it, but it feels as fluid as DirectTV Satellite HD when playing on the roku. Also you can get a discount by just choosing to watch one team. I don't like watching a bunch of teams, so I just choose the Lakers to watch, and will catch some other teams on nationally televised games when possible. I don't know why someone would want to watch a bunch of teams, who has that kind of time on their hands to watch every nba game every day, lol.

[King of Canada]

I like league pass internet version. FPS and quality is really determined by your bandwidth. For me its pretty smooth actually. I've never put a fps counter to it, but it feels as fluid as DirectTV Satellite HD when playing on the roku. Also you can get a discount by just choosing to watch one team. I don't like watching a bunch of teams, so I just choose the Lakers to watch, and will catch some other teams on nationally televised games when possible. I don't know why someone would want to watch a bunch of teams, who has that kind of time on their hands to watch every nba game every day, lol.

Same as me. I went with the Knicks only package last year. I paid monthly until Feb when they offered a Valentines offer of $20 for the rest of the season.

[Nuggets_Talk]

How do you guys order the single team package? Can you do it online?

[Paija]

I had League pass for last season and will buy for this too. I do not know what blackout means - I was able to watch any game I wanted, unless I was in country house and wanted to watch at the same time as my husband in our appartment. I did not buy premium, but this year will consider it. The standard package costs 12.99 eur and premium 17.99 eur (monthly). There is also NBA TV option for up to 10 games per week for 5.99 eur. It should actually be enough, but I am not sure about playoff time.
The quality of broadcast was mostly acceptable, especialy at appartment where we have optical cable, but not so good if we attached laptop to TV where laptop gets only wifi signal. In country house we have mobile broadband and it was mostly OK, especially if you take into account that we watched during night time.
Sometimes I could not manage to stay awake and watched the game next day, then you were able to use fast forward to skip all the timeouts.

[Zvaart]

For me the whole last year it was 30fps. How do you get 60fps?

IDK it automatically set. Maybe its the device you were on? My phone only gets 30 fps.

I was mostly using safari browser on macbook pro. I also tried firefox and chrome, and PC. Never saw 60fps . Was using argentinian international league pass, maybe that was it. Did you use domestic LP?

Had some framerate issues from pc to tv using hdmi. Than i bought a chromecast and all was well ever since, streaming it from my phone or tablet.

[WhateverBro]

I had League pass for last season and will buy for this too. I do not know what blackout means - I was able to watch any game I wanted, unless I was in country house and wanted to watch at the same time as my husband in our appartment. I did not buy premium, but this year will consider it. The standard package costs 12.99 eur and premium 17.99 eur (monthly). There is also NBA TV option for up to 10 games per week for 5.99 eur. It should actually be enough, but I am not sure about playoff time.
The quality of broadcast was mostly acceptable, especialy at appartment where we have optical cable, but not so good if we attached laptop to TV where laptop gets only wifi signal. In country house we have mobile broadband and it was mostly OK, especially if you take into account that we watched during night time.
Sometimes I could not manage to stay awake and watched the game next day, then you were able to use fast forward to skip all the timeouts.

The no blackout means just that - that you are able to watch every single game on international league pass. Back when I first got ILP in 2006, there were blackouts (meaning you couldn't watch the game) because it was televised on ESPN or whatever in the states. That's not the case anymore for us international users, we can watch every single game now and it has been like that for since atleast the 2010-2011 seaon, maybe earlier can't remember when they got rid of the blackouts for ILP users.

[knicksfan974]

Can I sign up for a single team League Pass in Europe? How much does it cost?

[JonFromVA]

US NBA LP Broadband is pretty solid, but they seem to always have some startup issues every year - and it doesn't help that they give it away for free for the first week which saturates their servers.

[NickAnderson]

I just don't understand why all the games can't be on HD

Sent from my HTC6535LVW using RealGM mobile app

[naabzor]

I had League pass for last season and will buy for this too. I do not know what blackout means - I was able to watch any game I wanted, unless I was in country house and wanted to watch at the same time as my husband in our appartment. I did not buy premium, but this year will consider it. The standard package costs 12.99 eur and premium 17.99 eur (monthly). There is also NBA TV option for up to 10 games per week for 5.99 eur. It should actually be enough, but I am not sure about playoff time.
The quality of broadcast was mostly acceptable, especialy at appartment where we have optical cable, but not so good if we attached laptop to TV where laptop gets only wifi signal. In country house we have mobile broadband and it was mostly OK, especially if you take into account that we watched during night time.
Sometimes I could not manage to stay awake and watched the game next day, then you were able to use fast forward to skip all the timeouts.

12.99 and 17.99? What? Where are you from? In Italy it's 20.99 and 26.99!! That's a lot more money!

[Flannerz]

I wish they'd do a ps4 app for it.

[doctaJ_92]

When does the pricing for LP come out?

[King of Canada]

I wish they'd do a ps4 app for it.

There is a PS3 app. That's how I watch, but I might scrap the PS3 soon for a streaming box. Is there no app just because you use international?

[Flannerz]

I wish they'd do a ps4 app for it.

There is a PS3 app. That's how I watch, but I might scrap the PS3 soon for a streaming box. Is there no app just because you use international?

I dunno, I just haven't been able to find one.

[deargodno]

I wish they'd do a ps4 app for it.

There is a PS3 app. That's how I watch, but I might scrap the PS3 soon for a streaming box. Is there no app just because you use international?

I dunno, I just haven't been able to find one.

There is a PS app, but it's not on the Uk PSN store. I created a US PSN account to try and use it but the app itself was IP blocked.. Brutal I know.

I just wish there was a setting to ensure games always start from the start. I hate getting home late to watch a game in progress and not wanting to know the score, I turn off the sounds, shrink the window to a stupid size and then scroll back to the start of the game. I feel like this isn't a unique user need and wouldn't be that hard to make all games start from the start and then users can press the LIVE button if wanted.

[King of Canada]

There is a PS3 app. That's how I watch, but I might scrap the PS3 soon for a streaming box. Is there no app just because you use international?

I dunno, I just haven't been able to find one.

There is a PS app, but it's not on the Uk PSN store. I created a US PSN account to try and use it but the app itself was IP blocked.. Brutal I know.

I just wish there was a setting to ensure games always start from the start. I hate getting home late to watch a game in progress and not wanting to know the score, I turn off the sounds, shrink the window to a stupid size and then scroll back to the start of the game. I feel like this isn't a unique user need and wouldn't be that hard to make all games start from the start and then users can press the LIVE button if wanted.

I agree entirely. Just having regular pause functions would be amazing.

[Bolivar]

When does the pricing for LP come out?

That's a good question. I got an e-mail that says:

To enjoy these special subscriber benefits, there is nothing you need to do – just log in to NBA LEAGUE PASS anytime and enjoy. You will be charged for your 2016-17 subscription on 26th September, 2016.

Oh, how cool, thanks NBA. It would be cool to know how much they intend to charge my credit card, but that information is nowhere They only show pricing for monthly packages.