Why is watching the Super Bowl online such a pain?

[Issac Zachary]

Maybe it's just my internet. But I don't think my internet is that bad. It works for a lot of other services, like normal YouTube and Floatplane videos just fine.

 

But we moved the television to the other side of the room and I hadn't gotten a longer cable to connect it again to the OTA antenna up on the roof. So I decided to get a subscription (at least the free trial) so we could watch the Super Bowl. 

 

I first tried YouTube Premium. But for some reason I couldn't get it to work. I also couldn't access tv.youtube.com. Maybe it's a parental control setting I have on or something, but all I know is it just spins in circles. This is my first time trying YouTube Premium or YouTube TV.

 

So with that not working, I went to Paramount+. I got a free week trial going, but the Super Bowl keeps cutting out and I get an "Ooops! Something went wrong. Try again or try restarting your router" error message. So I've tried restarting the webpage as well as the router and it keeps happening.

 

Maybe others are having the same problem, maybe not. But I'll be happy when I get the antenna connected again. Not that we watch a lot of TV, but when you want to try some TV, it's sure nice when it actually works.

[Needfuldoer]

Rights to the Super Bowl are snarled in decades of legacy TV contracts and billions of advertising dollars. There are all sorts of weird rules around who's even allowed to say "Super Bowl" on air, never mind decide how it's distributed. 

 

Since it's CBS's turn to air it, they put it on Paramount+. Sounds like their infrastructure couldn't take the strain of so many people watching the same live event.

 

Honestly, the easiest thing to do would be to get your antenna hooked back up, even if it means putting the TV back or running a coax cable across the floor for now.

[ToboRobot]

lawyers.

[Issac Zachary]

16 minutes ago, Needfuldoer said:

Rights to the Super Bowl are snarled in decades of legacy TV contracts and billions of advertising dollars. There are all sorts of weird rules around who's even allowed to say "Super Bowl" on air, never mind decide how it's distributed. 

 

Since it's CBS's turn to air it, they put it on Paramount+. Sounds like their infrastructure couldn't take the strain of so many people watching the same live event.

 

Honestly, the easiest thing to do would be to get your antenna hooked back up, even if it means putting the TV back or running a coax cable across the floor for now.

I remember it being the Peacock channel last year (NBC?).

 

Ya, too bad the game is going right now. I was going to hook it up earlier this weekend but had something unexpected come up.

[matt0725]

I use fubotv rather than cable and it the game never loaded at all for me (i checked in multiple times across the game). i used the free trial to paramount+ and it worked for me, but i saw tons of tweets for both services saying they had issues. Youtubetv has a paramount+ tie in so that could have been part of the issues you were having, but its hard to say for sure. 

 

As for non technical issues, big companies don't care about consumers is really the only answer lol

[Needfuldoer]

8 hours ago, Issac Zachary said:

I remember it being the Peacock channel last year (NBC?).

Yeah, the networks take turns airing the Super Bowl on a rotating schedule. I think that's a tradition born from the first Super Bowl, which was simulcast on the two networks that had the AFC and NFC rights.

 

It will be on Fox next year, then NBC in 2026.

[Issac Zachary]

On 2/12/2024 at 4:02 AM, Needfuldoer said:

Yeah, the networks take turns airing the Super Bowl on a rotating schedule. I think that's a tradition born from the first Super Bowl, which was simulcast on the two networks that had the AFC and NFC rights.

 

It will be on Fox next year, then NBC in 2026.

That's good to know, because I should be able to get Fox on the ol' antenna.

[Mark Kaine]

That's  what you get for a bunch of hippsters thinking they need to be "wirecutters" 20 years ago... turns out, wires were actually better.  Oops! 

[Issac Zachary]

2 hours ago, Mark Kaine said:

That's  what you get for a bunch of hippsters thinking they need to be "wirecutters" 20 years ago... turns out, wires were actually better.  Oops! 

I don't understand. My internet is wired, and the Super Bowl stream kept crashing and going to an error page. And when it did play it would often drop to a very low res. My TV/monitor is 1080p, so by low res I mean it looked like it was 240p or lower. How is that better?

[TheLANguy]

14 hours ago, Mark Kaine said:

That's  what you get for a bunch of hippsters thinking they need to be "wirecutters" 20 years ago... turns out, wires were actually better.  Oops! 

Why did people go from Antenna to Wires and then to Internet?

More content that people want. If it's easy and has a good value proposition (at least when they start), people will adapt.

[Mark Kaine]

1 hour ago, TheLANguy said:

Why did people go from Antenna to Wires and then to Internet?

More content that people want. If it's easy and has a good value proposition (at least when they start), people will adapt.

ya, it didn't work, the content used to be better too, lets just go back to antenas... well technically i don't need to, i got a satellite dish, and the best part? its free, no monthly fees etc. 

[Issac Zachary]

3 hours ago, TheLANguy said:

Why did people go from Antenna to Wires and then to Internet?

More content that people want. If it's easy and has a good value proposition (at least when they start), people will adapt.

Also the price. I've never had cable TV, even when I was a kid. My parents weren't well off, and neither am I.

1 hour ago, Mark Kaine said:

ya, it didn't work, the content used to be better too, lets just go back to antenas... well technically i don't need to, i got a satellite dish, and the best part? its free, no monthly fees etc. 

Care to explain what you mean by free satellite?

 

My internet is free (maybe that explains part of why I had a hard time watching the Super Bowl). But that's because of a government program. I also started with ELP (everyday low price) internet years and years ago for $15 (USD) a month. It started going up and is now $30 a month, but then I got a government deal that they pay up to $30 of my internet, so it's free. I did get a leter that my internet provider will raise the price to $50 next year. I'm not sure how long the government program lasts, but if it fails and it's $50 a month for internet, I may have to cut the cord and live without internet, or at least the 500MB that I get with my "$10" a month phone plan.

[Mark Kaine]

15 minutes ago, Issac Zachary said:

Also the price. I've never had cable TV, even when I was a kid. My parents weren't well off, and neither am I.

but i don't think that worked out either,  pretty sure most people now pay more for the plethora of subscription services they're subbed to (plus the ones they forgot being subbed to)

 

15 minutes ago, Issac Zachary said:

Care to explain what you mean by free satellite?

its free simply. has ever been. all you need is a satellite dish.

 

200+ programs, including like the 30+ most popular ones. (and mostly in "hd" too)

 

ps: idk if they show the "superbowl" (shouldn't it be super ball btw? afterall its a rudimentary form of soccer, but im not american so i dunno lol) but my mom is watching sports all the damn time, everyday,  tennis soccer handball skiing ping pong, Olympics, world championships etc etc... all for literally *free* and legally so yeah, paying for tv is a thing you got educated to do, but probably not a necessity at all. 

 

(personally i don't watch tv for over 20 years... i have no reason to, there are better forms of entertainment nowadays,  tv is a very outdated concept in my eyes) 

 

[Issac Zachary]

2 hours ago, Mark Kaine said:

but i don't think that worked out either,  pretty sure most people now pay more for the plethora of subscription services they're subbed to (plus the ones they forgot being subbed to)

When I was a kid the internet didn't even exist. And when it finally did, it wasn't fast enough to stream anything (let alone the computers themselves weren't fast enough to compete with the quality of 525 line NTSC TV).

 

I subscribed to Paramount+ for one month and cut it. I don't have any other subscription service (neither Netflix, nor Floatplane nor Youtube Premium nor Disney+ nor anything else).

 

2 hours ago, Mark Kaine said:

its free simply. has ever been. all you need is a satellite dish.

 

200+ programs, including like the 30+ most popular ones. (and mostly in "hd" too)

 

ps: idk if they show the "superbowl" (shouldn't it be super ball btw? afterall its a rudimentary form of soccer, but im not american so i dunno lol) but my mom is watching sports all the damn time, everyday,  tennis soccer handball skiing ping pong, Olympics, world championships etc etc... all for literally *free* and legally so yeah, paying for tv is a thing you got educated to do, but probably not a necessity at all. 

 

(personally i don't watch tv for over 20 years... i have no reason to, there are better forms of entertainment nowadays,  tv is a very outdated concept in my eyes) 

It's odd as I've never heard of this. And that's even in spite of the fact that I'm an amateur radio operator and know how to build antennas, including parabolic antennas and circularly polarized antennas for satelite communications, and can even capture SSTV pics from the international space station. I'm even allowed to be the control operator of a satelite if I can convince NASA to help be get a homebrew satellite into orbit).

 

And your explination isn't the greatest either (are theses ATSC or NTSC or PAL signals?) Is the satellite geostationary and over what part of the world? (Because it might not be over my part.)

 

So I get a satellite dish (for which frequencies??). Where in the sky am I supposed to point the thing? Then I hook it up to my TV (Just straight in without a converter box of some sort??). Then I pick a channel (just any old ATSC or NTSC or PAL channel on VHF or UHF? Or maybe one of the cable TV frequencies that aren't supposed to be used for over the air transmissions?). I'm comfused right now. Everyone I know with satellite TV has to pay for the service. Otherwise the converter box won't decode the incoming signal. I also know zero people besides myself who understand the importance of pointing the antenna at the satellite.

[Mark Kaine]

29 minutes ago, Issac Zachary said:

When I was a kid the internet didn't even exist. And when it finally did, it wasn't fast enough to stream anything (let alone the computers themselves weren't fast enough to compete with the quality of 525 line NTSC TV).

 

I subscribed to Paramount+ for one month and cut it. I don't have any other subscription service (neither Netflix, nor Floatplane nor Youtube Premium nor Disney+ nor anything else).

 

It's odd as I've never heard of this. And that's even in spite of the fact that I'm an amateur radio operator and know how to build antennas, including parabolic antennas and circularly polarized antennas for satelite communications, and can even capture SSTV pics from the international space station. I'm even allowed to be the control operator of a satelite if I can convince NASA to help be get a homebrew satellite into orbit).

 

And your explination isn't the greatest either (are theses ATSC or NTSC or PAL signals?) Is the satellite geostationary and over what part of the world? (Because it might not be over my part.)

 

So I get a satellite dish (for which frequencies??). Where in the sky am I supposed to point the thing? Then I hook it up to my TV (Just straight in without a converter box of some sort??). Then I pick a channel (just any old ATSC or NTSC or PAL channel on VHF or UHF? Or maybe one of the cable TV frequencies that aren't supposed to be used for over the air transmissions?). I'm comfused right now. Everyone I know with satellite TV has to pay for the service. Otherwise the converter box won't decode the incoming signal. I also know zero people besides myself who understand the importance of pointing the antenna at the satellite.

all this vast knowledge and you never heard about astra? wowzers.

 

https://astra.de/

 

 

 

(this isnt unique to Germany either btw)

 

 

....

 

 

 

no fees, no contracts....

 

 

 

19.2 east

 

over 1000 channels! 

 

 

[Issac Zachary]

5 hours ago, Mark Kaine said:

all this vast knowledge and you never heard about astra? wowzers.

 

https://astra.de/

 

 

 

(this isnt unique to Germany either btw)

 

 

....

 

 

 

no fees, no contracts....

 

 

 

19.2 east

 

over 1000 channels! 

 

 

The more I learn the more I find out how much I don't know (and how much humanity also doesn't know).

 

Thank you so much! This is very helpful!

 

I see that there are several satellites with free TV channels.

 

As far as the Super Bowl, it looks like channel Fox is not broadcast from any satellite. However, some USA channels that sometimes air the Super Bowl are, such as NBC, CNN and CBS.

 

But no, I know of no one that uses free satellite TV services here in the USA. I'm sure if I ask around I will likely find no body that's ever even heard of free satellite TV here. In the USA there are also many landlords and HOA's that don't allow new antenna or satellite dish installations. I know I have to trick my own landlord with my antennas since she doesn't allow me to install any.

 

8 hours ago, Mark Kaine said:

(shouldn't it be super ball btw? afterall its a rudimentary form of soccer, but im not american so i dunno lol)

Yes, "Super Ball" would seem to make more sense. Even the term "American Football" doesn't make that much sense from an international language standpoint. But the name "Super Bowl" is so entrenched in American English that questioning the term would be like someone questioning if Berlin should really be called Berlin.

[TheLANguy]

9 hours ago, Issac Zachary said:

And your explination isn't the greatest either (are theses ATSC or NTSC or PAL signals?) Is the satellite geostationary and over what part of the world? (Because it might not be over my part.)

 

So I get a satellite dish (for which frequencies??). Where in the sky am I supposed to point the thing? Then I hook it up to my TV (Just straight in without a converter box of some sort??). Then I pick a channel (just any old ATSC or NTSC or PAL channel on VHF or UHF? Or maybe one of the cable TV frequencies that aren't supposed to be used for over the air transmissions?). I'm comfused right now. Everyone I know with satellite TV has to pay for the service. Otherwise the converter box won't decode the incoming signal. I also know zero people besides myself who understand the importance of pointing the antenna at the satellite.

In the US you could get free analog over the air TV via an antenna like rabbit ears until about 2009 (Yes, some stations went to 2021 with extensions). Channels 2-6 were in the 54 to 88 MHz range. Channels 7-13 occupied the 174 to 216 range, and channels 14-83 were UHF occupying the 470–890 megahertz range.

 

This has changed.

Over the air TV is now digital and most smart TV can understand the digital signal from an antenna. This is broadcasted in the 54 and 216 MHz range and on the UHF band between 470 and 608 MHz. The FCC sold the higher bands to wireless services.

Check out this video to find what free channels are in your area:

 

[Issac Zachary]

5 hours ago, TheLANguy said:

In the US you could get free analog over the air TV via an antenna like rabbit ears until about 2009 (Yes, some stations went to 2021 with extensions). Channels 2-6 were in the 54 to 88 MHz range. Channels 7-13 occupied the 174 to 216 range, and channels 14-83 were UHF occupying the 470–890 megahertz range.

 

This has changed.

Over the air TV is now digital and most smart TV can understand the digital signal from an antenna. This is broadcasted in the 54 and 216 MHz range and on the UHF band between 470 and 608 MHz. The FCC sold the higher bands to wireless services.

Check out this video to find what free channels are in your area:

 

Yes, I'm quite aware of the analog to digital ATSC changeover. My question was about free satellite TV that I had never hear of.

[TheLANguy]

3 hours ago, Issac Zachary said:

Yes, I'm quite aware of the analog to digital ATSC changeover. My question was about free satellite TV that I had never hear of.

Whoops!

Got a bit confused there with the German site and assumed it was about free OTA TV, since most people don't know it exists.

[Issac Zachary]

8 hours ago, TheLANguy said:

Whoops!

Got a bit confused there with the German site and assumed it was about free OTA TV, since most people don't know it exists.

I gotcha!

 

If few people know that there is free over-the-air TV in the USA, then even fewer know that there is free satellite TV.