In 2025, there are a multitude of ways to watch sports. Many of these ways were nonexistent just 10 years ago and for some people, the era of online streaming has been amazing. Others miss the classic cable television setup.
In the last 10 years, consumers have changed from cable television to streaming television online. During the early 2010s, most people would tune in to their favorite sports game using cable or a satellite dish. Virtually anyone who watched television used these services.
Blackouts were a major issue for people who wanted to watch sports outside of their market. According to a consumer guide produced by the Federal Communications Commission, “[a] ‘sports blackout’ occurs when a sports event that was scheduled to be televised is not aired in a particular media market.” For example, if a Boston Red Sox fan wanted to watch a regular season MLB game, but the fan was on vacation in Texas, in many cases, the game was unavailable for that fan.
The evolution of streaming services changed this. The NFL and DirecTV were among the examples of this change. In addition to the consumer’s monthly fee of DirecTV, NFL fans could pay extra and have access to all NFL games. This promotion was called “NFL Sunday Ticket.” No matter where the game was being played, fans could watch every single game, with no blackouts.
As it stands now, nearly every sports league has its version of “Sunday Ticket,” such as NBA League Pass and MLB.TV. Fans can pay for these subscriptions and receive access to every game of their favorite leagues. In addition to the league subscriptions, consumers have moved away from the traditional cable TV setup. The evolution of smart TVs, the Roku Stick and Amazon Fire Stick has allowed consumers to stream live television through the internet.
In an informal survey conducted on 25 KSC students, most reported using YouTube TV, Fubo and Hulu for live TV. The survey also found many students have subscriptions to services like ESPN+, Prime Video, Peacock and Paramount+. These subscriptions allow access to unique leagues and games from across the world such as the English Premier League and Champions League.
Sports leagues have started to expand their horizons and develop partnerships with streaming companies forcing consumers to sign up for more subscriptions to watch certain games. KSC first-year Jack DiGiovanni said he believes there are too many streaming services.
“Each [service] has different things to watch so you’re forced to buy all of them if you want to watch different things,” said DiGiovanni.
This is the case for many students as most of them have subscriptions to more than one service. “The number of streaming services isn’t as much of a problem as the leagues who spread out the rights across the services,” said first-year Lucas Mayer. Mayer added it is sometimes tough to know where a game might be streamed. He said he believes this is a trap to force you to pay for the NFL Sunday Ticket season pass.
The solution some fans opt for is to use illegal streaming websites. These websites pirate the videos from games and upload them onto their website in real time for fans to tune in live for free. Nearly every student involved in the informal survey mentioned using illegal streaming services. Some students do not bother to pay for a service and strictly use pirated streams. This is an especially common option for MMA fans. The pirated streams provide an opportunity for students to watch for free.
“If there was a highly anticipated card I would pay for it but as an MMA fan, I find myself using the [pirated] streams often to watch UFC,” said a KSC student who asked to stay unnamed. These streams are extremely unsafe to use as many of the sites are connected to viruses, concerning popups and other potentially harmful things in addition to getting caught up in legal trouble, according to a study published in the Association for Computing Machinery Digital Library.
Carson Flake can be contacted at
cflake@kscequinox.com
