Im trying to cut the cord, but the obstacles are too great.

Look at Sling TV

 

Does ESPN+ cover the regular ESPN channels if you don't already have a provider? Maybe a combination of FUboTV + ESPN+ (4.99). I went with YoutubeTV because it was such a pain to get local channels from the antenna on any of my TVs. Plus it lets you share with up to 5 people (3 concurrent streams) workaround to get more streams would be to use the actual channel app using YTV credentials.

I wanted to look into FUBoTV for the ATT SW but will probably look into it for next NBA season. For now I may just do free trials to catch some games.

 

Apple is hosting an event on March 25th. Rumor is they will be getting into the streaming game so maybe they will shake things up.

 

Wait until the season is over if the Rockets are your one hold up. YouTube TV worked well for me; DTV Now was not reliable.

 

I tried Sling and had a working solution for Rockets games:

At gametime, I would connect my laptop to a VPN (I paid a one-time, $30 lifetime license for my VPN). Then I would run Sling on the laptop, connecting an HDMI cable from my laptop to my TV. This allowed me to watch the Rockets games with Sling using their NBA Team Pass option. The drawbacks to this are:
1. It's a hassle. Instead of just using my Smart TV's Sling app, I had to source my TV to my laptop and have my laptop connect to VPN and Sling.
2. Since the broadcast was coming from my laptop, I couldn't use a remote control for the game ( I don't own a remote control for my laptop)

My wife likes the "browse the channels" interface that cable provides, and didn't like the Sling interface. We ended up canceling Sling and we're back to paying way too much damn money for Uverse.

 

I did YouTube TV and hehe for $100 a year and just hook my laptop up to my TV for Rockets games. I'm spending about $100 a month for Internet, $K Netflix, Hulu and YTtv combined.

If it's sports I usually just find a reddit stream.

 

Cut the cord awhile back. Netflix, hulu, using apple TV and Reddit app on iphone to screen mirror all Rockets games. Works great most of the time...even when I'm out working.

 

That sucks they charge on caps still. How much data were they even allowing at the base price?

 

I can hook y’all up with some sling tv accounts..one time fee. shoot me a dm if y’all interested

 

Put me down as a cord-cutter who has giving up on trying to be a good citizen and not pirate the Rockets. Just waayy too many blackouts. If I could give NBALP my money for all games, I would. Best I can do is lie and say I'm an international subscriber to pay them the money....then VPN into the games. I once considered having a friend in Spain buy the Intl subscription then pay him back, and VPN in with his password. He'd never use it. That comes with all playoffs games, too.

btw: is Fubotv currently showing the Rockets, or has it not started yet? I still don't see ATT Sportnet on their channel list. Also, does it work for out of town subscribers?

 

I'll add to this and say that I am a cord-cutter (well, we never had a cord in the first place, so we never cut it) who tries to play by the rules. We have League Pass for all the games for all teams, and Sling for the 40 or so nationally-televised Rockets games on TNT, ESPN, NBATV, and ABC. That has worked well for us. Since getting Sling we've had better coverage in the playoffs as well. I don't think the amount of money is huge compared to other things we spend money on. for what it's worth.

 

yeah I get that. mine is a solution that works for someone who doesn't live in the Houston region

 

I'm pretty sure I still get blacked out on ABC, due to some Denver rules...which is a major problem in playoffs.

But that was a problem prior to cord-cutting when I tried to log-in to the ABC website (using XFinity account), because I prefer watching on my computer monitors anyhow...while chatting in Game Thread. I would get a "ABC Streaming not available in Denver area" message. Maybe I should try to see if that blackout still occurs with Sling/or others.

 

I have no idea but it's worth looking into. For ABC games I have to access them through ESPN3 on Sling.

 

I'm not even sure if the solution that I posted is even truly "bootlegging". I was paying for NBA Team Pass (it's like Leauge Pass, but you get all the games of just one team, not the entire league). I wasn't receiving any feed that I wasn't paying for.

It's kinda like.... "Oh! You're paying to see the games and you're NOT currently located in Houston? Ok, you can watch......BUT ....If you're paying to see the games and you ARE currently located in Houston? Sorry. No can do".

I didn't steal a feed. I just hid my location. None of their f***ing business where I'm located anyway. F*** you. I'm located in ... the Congo (for now).

Ridiculous.

 

Man, that sucks on the data cap, hopefully att with the 1000mbit service comes in so you can have some competitive pricing. I mean if you stream a decent amount it's pretty easy to hit that, so I def get why you're paying for the unlimited.

 

Yeah, it's definitely bs on the blackout stuff, especially when you're paying for it...