Frugal Rules Live Stream 8-30-24: Disney DirecTV scuffle, streaming deals and more!

hello everyone yes hello everyone happy Friday and Labor Day weekend hard to believe that uh Labor Day is here that's right and college football is on back in full force I don't know if anybody watched we are watching the Colorado North North Dakota State team last night that was that was one a good one if you're a college football fan went right down to the very last play and didn't need to hey Steve it didn't need to uh pour uh time man clock management by Dion uh bad officiating on both sides um but still a fun game to watch yeah if you're a a fan of the Big 12 or your team's in the Big 12 you're used to bad officiating of course it wasn't Big 12 off I know it wasn't but just made me think of of it but everyone probably says that about their own conferences official I know they do their best so yeah um so hopefully everyone has a fun Labor Day weekend uh planned um we're going down to our first K State home game tomorrow uh but before we get started uh just want to mention some streaming deals that are out there uh mentioned this last week but Paramount plus still has their promo where you can get the service for half off for the for a year so $30 for the base plan $60 for uh with the showtime plan that is good until they're saying until September 23rd so you still have about three weeks to get that uh Direct TV stream still has their $30 off uh a month uh for the first I think it's three months uh and fubo has a similar offer $30 off which could come uh key for drug TV stream subscribers if the black out that we're going to talk about or the carriage disp Carriage dispute thank you um happens and then YouTube TV is $8 off a month for the first four months they also have the deal if you want to package Sunday Ticket with it slang has our deal that's they're saying like 90 some odd dollars off for four months you get orange and blue plus the NFL or plus the sports add-on and speaking of NFL before we get started the first game is this upcoming Thursday night so week from last night it's not going to be on Prime video uh the first week uh week one game is going to be on NBC and peacock uh so keep that in mind I'll probably put something in the community Thursday morning to remind everyone but it's going to be on NBC and peacock and that's isn't that Chief's Ravens I believe I think so yeah so looking forward to that so if you're in in uh need of a new service or one for uh football season check out one of those deals yeah all right so with that and sorry and before we get started we apologize there's a lot of sports today uh we try to Pepper in some other things but there's a lot of sports uh just what's in the news right now right okay so um first thing is an update on venue um so if you all remember this was the the joint venture between Disney Fox and wbd um to bring bring together quite a number of sports live sports channels uh without a contract was supposed to come out at about $43 a month they were really ambitiously hoping to launch like now um so we could enjoy that option for the football season but fubo sued um Congress didn't like it and a judge um has told them they cannot launch um and we mentioned last week yep and just catching people up that may not have been here um and there is a trial set for pre-trial excuse me set for September 12th so the reason why are we bringing this up again well because it has some ramifications for the streaming industry that we think are really interesting so at the heart of it is is it um anti-competitive for the joint venture to do what they're doing um fubo of course thinks so but you know as we covered they are not impartial in this um but what we thought was interesting was um F's argument that if if it works then the JV would have a monopoly on sports streaming and if no one can compete in a few years down the road does that lead to really higher prices for us um so I think that's kind of one of the really interesting questions there um some of the latest news on this um is that um Disney has come back or not just Disney um the JV has come back and said that they are asking for an expedited appeal from the judge so they want to submit their main brief by September 20th with fubo response due November 4th and aiming for a hearing in December and a ruling shortly thereafter I think their hope is that they will be able to launch in time for the playoffs for the NFL and college football playoffs that's very optimistic as this is taking place in the second circuit and as um some have reported that um moves pretty slow can take months sometimes years um so uh Jimmy pataro um ESPN's CH Chief um is saying that venue is pro consumer pro sports fan and pro competitive and he's arguing that venue is attracting people that don't currently subscribe and maybe never have subscribed to a Trad Cable Bundle yeah um and then so just you know kind of wrap it up it has us questioning we've seen some of these questions in the media too like depending on how this case goes what does that mean for the future of bundles um you know does does it mean the absolute death of the cable traditional Cable Bundle does it lead us to an allart offering we'd like that I think a lot of people would like that just pay for what you want not everything else being thrown in with the SPN um does it lead to the end of bundles like um par um the the Disney bundle that includes Hulu Disney SPN plus does that kind of thing go away um I don't know if you have other bundles in mind but well like the max bundle that they did with yeah yeah so just definitely something to watch um and just you know to know and John will touch on this here shortly about the dispute between Disney and Direct TV but um you know Disney and Charter were at the same impass recently and that led to um Charter subscribers being able to get Disney plus and ESPN Plus for free so will you know what's the future of that does that go away do we see more of that just and and what brings up an excellent point uh that fubo is trying to stay relevant obviously so they want to you know keep their company uh in uh afloat but he doesn't know not knowing anyone that has fubo and I personally have spoken with only a handful of people that regularly have or subscribe to fubo uh you know we've obviously tried it a number of times um think it's a great platform for what it is um but it's just so stinking expensive just so expensive and and again if you're in the vast majority of markets that have an RSN you're you know you're looking at 90 plus dollars uh before taxes and that's cable like prices and uh yeah and so uh yeah it's yeah it'll be interesting to see and and as I think I said last week uh I can see both sides um I'm hard hard pressed to see how fubo makes it out of this uh but I do not buy at all whatsoever uh Jimmy pataro saying that this is pro consumer because Disney's involved and so in in my humble opinion whenever Disney's involved they're not pro consumer um and uh and unfortunately no uh deals on the SPN plus uh from what I've seen unfortunately pricing going up on that here in in October um so Nicole uh uh luded to this uh the Direct TV stream Disney potential uh contract issues uh Carriage disputes uh we mentioned this last week uh the day the job dead date is Sunday the 1 and so there was a five-year contract that they had um and there's been everyone has reported that there has been no uh movement no positive movement on it uh so which really isn't a shocker and as of today uh talks were sorry this was yesterday talks were ongoing at Dr TV's headquarters in California and latest word is that uh from Disney is that quote we've got a fairly sizable gap on a number of fronts unquote and part of what's going into this uh sort of throwing a wrench into it is the legal battles over venue because Direct TV and Direct TV stream so just use Direct TV Direct TV is the what I'll refer to it as they weren't a part of the lawsuit it was fubo but they effectively publicly signed on as being on board uh so that is throwing a further wrinkle into it that could potentially shift more power more bargaining power towards Direct TV and getting more control over pricing and content distribution they want and I think this is interesting that they're doing this is they want less mandatory bundling from Disney um and the ability to offer close to an allart selection to its customers so they want to be able to offer ESPN without getting the whatever 8 10 12 other channels that Disney says okay you want ESPN you have to take this other junk um which I can understand why Direct TV would not want that so failure to reach an agreement by this Sunday um sorry just no I thought is also interesting they supposedly Direct TV supposedly wants to be able to offer channel packages yeah was going to get to that oh I'm sorry yeah no it's okay uh just around genres and and so yeah so they want to offer channel packages based on like was saying specic specific genres uh publicly that's been come out what has come out is kids programming movies news locals Spanish content and sports Disney is saying that those quotes lack detail unquote and they're off they're open Disney is supposedly to offering some sports Centric packages as well as other types of smaller packages and a lower minimum sub subscriber guarantee and as has offered something similar to what it did with Charter uh in recent months though Disney has been very quick to point out that so far less than 10% of Charter customers have activated Disney plus and less than 4% have used ESPN plus and so the Direct TV as a parent company has 11 million subscribers and uh you know with this you know with this weekend being so big for football um and this upcoming week being so big for football that could leave a lot of people in the dark um and heck even if you're not a sports fan the other channels that that Disney carries and some have even speculated that this could potentially lead to the final unwinding of the traditional Cable Bundle and giving us as consumers the ability to watch the channels we want I don't really buy that at all um there's too much money in it and the companies involved are too big um I I don't really buy that so I would love to hear if if any of you watching would be impacted by this um especially if you're a direct TV Stream customer uh you know fubo similar has that $30 off uh YouTube TV which is what we would direct people to if you need a premium service um yep I just feel like uh as these things always do the people that end up exactly um being hurt or whatever short into of the stick whatever you want to say R Us the consumers and you know you rarely get any kind of a refund even though you now have you know lost your ability to watch these channels unless you want to go sign up for another service and who you know who really wants to go through all that yeah exactly in Direct TV stream in particular has they've offered refunds in the past but you have to contact they're notorious for making it that you have to contact them whereas like YouTube TV in the past in these situations has just extended the credit yeah um which is the better way to handle it honestly that's the way to handle it from a customer service perspective um so yeah it'll be interesting to see how that plays out and hopefully they they come to an agreement I'm not overly optimistic that they will um um so next uh another Sports topic is ESPN made waves this week uh and saying that they might try to get into local sports rights um and I'll cover more on that here in a bit but ESPN's Jimmy pataro is focused on acquiring local sports rights for ESPN he believes and I would tend to agree that local sports have a strong and L fan base that can drive viewership and subscriptions for ESPN plus and its future direct to direct to Consumer Standalone streaming option and so that would come out in a couple different ways one of the ways that has uh been put out there uh by ESPN is that they would um want to become a hub for sports viewership and it would direct fans to where games are even are on even if it's not on one of their networks and so obviously let's say you go and you see that it's on YouTube you know on peacock for example um you would obviously have to then go pay for peacock uh subscribe to it they're just wanting to become that Hub yeah and I think sorry just real quick if they can do that that would be great um especially if it's something where you know you're in a like guide type thing like you're using to you click on it and it launches it um that's a lot of backend integration that would need to happen with PE companies that don't play nice together and don't want to share data so I'm not sure how reasonable it is that they could achieve this but I think if they could it would be something that we as you know streamers would really like yeah and um they pataro said that they want to be quote we want to be part of the solution unquote quot when referencing the ongoing issues with Diamond Sports and um he says that ESPN can geot Target subscribers and serve them with games local to their markets and local sports is in terms of viewing a sort is a mess sort of and um said he said that they would also be open to considering deals with individual teams as well as leagues uh use the uh MLB as an example and so were this directing this Sports Hub uh they would he said that they would launch a where to watch guide in the ESPN app that will tell you where every sporting event is airing that day uh include broadcast cable RSN and streaming services so you can click on the game and it'll direct you to where you need to go watch it um and Al and if they're directing you outside it wouldn't surprise me if they uh would uh get some sort of Kickback I would imagine that might come into play I Believe NFL plus does that um it's been a while since I gosh it's been over a year since we've used NFL plus I I think that's correct um but um he overall butaro is optimistic about ESPN's future um particularly in its ability to adapt to the evolving Sports media environment he envisions a continued focus on local sports um working with other streaming services and expansion into Regional markets um and time will tell if if that will actually happen um I can't who publ it was it New York Times I believe or Wall Street Journal a few months ago uh published uh really well done piece on ESPN and how it has changed over over the years and generations don't want in studio Stu they just want they don't want that they just want to be able to tune in basically right when the game starts and leave and so it'll it'll be interesting and ESPN's numbers are down so it'll be interesting yeah and and if NFL plus does do that that makes sense because um you know they aren't uh they they they are what everyone's watching they aren't someone like ESP that would have you know they have a they don't have a stake in the game otherwise they want you to be able to find all their games whereas ESPN and just look at fubo and it just kind of makes you wonder like would every option be venue if they launched it anyway yeah but they would only have barely more than half of sport so right 55% and thank you for the good luck to to us um except for every game or except for our game in morgant town um youall need to hang hanging on uh Penn State tomorrow we're going to be cheering for yall we are okay well um for those of you that aren't super big sports fans here is a little different story um if you are a fan of the Yellowstone series then you you were happy when you saw this or happy to see it now um it looks like Yellowstone is actually going to um continue beyond its initially planned final season so Kelly Riley and Cole Hower um seen there they're in um Kevin Cosner is out he wants to focus on um Horizon and American Saga which he's working on um there aren't any deals in place yet but the plan is for Yellowstone to continue beyond season 5B um which airs November 10th on Paramount and we looked it up just before just to um clarify wondering if anyone knows when season five first aired so think two years ago oh I was gonna make you get put it in the chat but yeah J gave it away but yeah it's been two years so that's crazy like we were just discussing last night um that seems to be becoming more common than it used to be where you have these long breaks in between seasons of shows that um you know you would think people forget about the show in that time so you know it doesn't seem like a good strategy to me but it's the new trend yeah new trend um let's see there's also a little bit more Yellowstone News so that the teaser trailer for the second half of season 5 which remember comes back on November 10th on Paramount um that dropped today so you can watch that um a new Yellowstone spin-off called the Madison has been announced um that's going to Star Michelle feifer and Matthew Fox um and it follows a New York City family in the Madison river valley of Central Montana and so that's another one if you like the whole you know stuff Taylor Sheridan does if you liked 1883 and 1923 maybe you would like the Madison um oh that's a good question I not sure I don't know but we enjoy that one so I hope it's soon um okay let's move on to another non-sports story um this is on Paramount the drama continues but actually kind of dial back a little bit this week so as you you all know we talked about this last week Edgar bramman who is I don't know that I realize this right away he's the executive chairman for fubo TV um he has withdrawn his bid for Paramount Global and that does clear the path for Sky Dan media to take it over he did Express optimism about the company despite pulling out his bid um and if you remember Sky Dan had made an8 billion offer um that would merge sky dance into Paramount um so what came out of all this effort by Edgar um well it it will include um sorry it addressed Bron bronfman's concern that Sky Dan's plan would dilute the shares of non Redstone shareholders so it really just kind of Wall Street stuff here um I think for us as streamers it's just good to know that Sky Dan is going forward because they are also an entertainment company I think that's better um for the content that we would want to stream on one hand on the other hand though I had read um that bronfman his real goal was to was to bundle Paramount plus with other services and and to offer more deals um so not sure where Sky Dan is going to take it bundling especially if it's a lower price would have been a you know a win yeah that's fair for us as consumers but it'll be hopefully this you know we've been discussing this for months so hopefully it'll be done and something good will be done anyway our last uh news is you may have seen this but uh few months ago Amazon had said that they were going to make an investment in ballet Sports 115 million and they just they announced this week that they had decided to withdraw that investment um and it's been communicated uh that it's a shift in Amazon Sports strategy to acquire local sports content um so their Diamond Sports Group the parent company of Valle is still struggling uh to get out of bankruptcy and um more teams have like more in particular basketball and baseball teams have tried to work out deals to go on their own or do something free to their local uh customers um and rsns are just continuing to struggle and um it'll be interesting to see um what happens with ESPN if if Disney is willing and able to come in and uh throw a a rope to uh some of these struggling rsns um and it's pretty clear that Diamond Sports is going to need a partner a new partner or Partners to be able to remain viable and and move forward and um yeah I'm not sure when the I can't remember when the I want to say it's sometime in the next month or two when their next court hearing is um and uh yeah it's um yeah unfortunately I think it's going to leave us again as consumers left holding the bag um left without an option unless you live in a market covered by one of these rsns where they have the team has been able to work out some kind of deal uh to air over the year or offer some type of service to their customers that's an interesting question since Amazon dropped them would TNT move in it I mean it's possible um wbd aren't they suing the NBA they are but I um I I don't think that's going to go anywhere um but that that speculation I don't have any insight into that but from what from what I've read it's believed largely that it's not going to really go anywhere so wbd could could come in um but yeah they have their own budgetary issues too so um they've still not of yet have announced when they're going to start charging for their Bleacher Report Sports haton so yeah yeah it'll be it'll be interesting like it just makes me think about the future um because this model really is dying for the regional Sports networks um and you know you I know this isn't exactly the same thing but YouTube TV having Sunday Ticket um can they get to the point where you can sub you can um subscribe for just one team if they can get to that point and then get other leagues um on their service perhaps that replaces the regional Sports Network model where you know you as a consumer can just pay to watch your team's game games be interesting to see and I I had actually read last week um in one article that apparently ESPN Disney had approached the NFL last year um offering to or trying to work out a deal where they would air allow customers to buy individual teams games and actually step back I this was before the YouTube TV deal had been finalized uh for Sunday Ticket and supposedly reportedly the NFL said no we're not interested and um there I'm sure there'd be lots of qualifications on blackouts for games airing on your local network you know that a lot of like picity little details to work through that mean a lot of money to the advertisers put and and that's even an issue with Sunday Ticket in the the customizable multi multi view now that they're saying some local games might be able to be included but not all and so it's again going to that blackout restriction that uh impacts with advertisers and the teams yeah so um another question when do we think the new ESPN streaming service will be available on 25 last I saw reported was some point in the summer uh late summer early fall and to be there for uh football season um I would anticipate that that would be somewhere around there and if venue does not move forward or is unable to move forward I would foresee Disney trying to push up uh launching of their Standalone service yeah just some other questions in the comments there um I think some of the streaming deals we're seeing seeing the NFL make um with you know like Amazon for Thursday Night Football and Netflix they're paying a uh Netflix is paying a premium for those games so I think the NFL is making out pretty good yeah it's was it 100 million or something crazy a lot of money yeah for for two games yeah and um interestingly uh Netflix had to find someone to produce those games for them and it was announced a week or two ago that uh CBS is going to partner with them to produce those Christmas Day games yeah and I for one I'm would be interested to see what the advertising is like in them um Netflix is going to want to make some money back and I'm sure they're hoping they're going to get some long-term subscribers out of it but um you know will we see just as many ads will we see fewer ads they know we'll see the same number of live just though it's Netflix so we'll see be interesting to see how they handle it and and they can I think they can afford to do it because they're the one the service that everyone's trying to get to they're the 800 PB gorilla yeah it's true so all right everyone well I think that does it for today um have a great Labor Day weekend um hopefully everybody here has Monday off and we will plan to be back here next Friday with you all with more news from the streaming space yep thanks for joining us yes have a great holiday weekend everyone go cats