Originally Posted by
Deadspin
NBC announced today that it has effectively cleaved its TV coverage from its streaming service, and will charge $49.99 for the latter. In the glorious and naive days of the past (meaning before today), a cable subscriber whose package included NBC Sports Network could watch nearly every single match on live TV (either on one of the network’s many traditional channels like NBC and NBCSN and USA and the like, or on one of the match-only Extra Time channels that would awaken from its dormant state when the traditional channels were filled up but there were still matches to be shown) and could watch literally every match live or on-demand online by signing into NBC’s streaming service using their cable login info. If you got NBCSN as part of your cable package, then you were golden. If you didn’t have cable, you were more or less out of luck.
Today’s news is bad for everyone. For TV subscribers in this dark future NBC has hurtled us into, the only matches you’ll be able to watch online as a benefit of your cable subscription going forward are those NBC sees fit to put on one of its traditional channels. The auxiliary Extra Time channels will be killed, and the option to stream matches that aren’t broadcast on cable TV has been taken away, too. All those tons and tons of matches you had been able to stream as part of NBC’s previous package will still be available, of course, but now will cost $50.