NPR Article on Cord Cutting - Focus on the WWL
I've never heard ESPN called WWL anywhere.
Almost every single person I know who chooses this route has someone else's Comcast password for ESPN3.
That's not cutting the cord, that's just stealing cable. Which, fine (I'm in no way making this a moral argument about Comcast who can DIAF), but one has to recognize the stories of the cable model's imminent demise are greatly exaggerated.
I don't think cable demise is imminent, but it's happening eventually. I think the demise will go down at about the rate newspapers have disappeared - they've been dying for 20 years now, but most of them are still around, if very cut back. So cable isn't going away any time soon, but I bet 20 years from now the thought of expanding the conference solely for cable fees will look about as stupid as if the conference had expanded based solely on newspaper distribution 20 years ago.
The sports channel race was always a house of cards based on getting fees from people who don't watch that particular sport. It's a bubble driving demand for entertainment without paying for 20 sports channels you don't care about, and eventually someone is going to reliably fill it.
I'm not so sure it will be a horrible thing for the Big Ten Network if cable starts doing everything ala carte. Maybe it's different in the Big Ten footprint, but out here in Oklahoma, the only way for me to get BTN on Cox is to already have some kind of premium package (not just basic cable) and then pay $10 extra per month for a package that includes BTN and a bunch of other channels I don't watch (like ESPNN, ESPNU, and the PAC 12 network. I'm already willing to pay $10/month just for BTN, though I only have it during football season. I'm guessing ESPN gets the lion's share of what Cox parcels out. Granted there would be a lot fewer BTN subscribers, but if BTN were getting $5 / subscriber instead of 25 cents, they could still come out ahead.
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I tried cutting cable. No problem for non sports. But streaming is a very poor substitute. I think my streaming computer has some pretty bad malware which might explain the bad performance, but beyond that the hastle of the internet is a downer. And thats for mlbtv, which you can pay for independently. Other stuff like espn and BTN, you'll need someone else's password. And streaming off extra legal websites is not a long term plan.
You can save the cash from cutting cable and watch games at the bar, but if you go a few times a month you are out your savings.
I disagree with the posters afraid of change. Right now its bad. I think any change will be good. I think, ideally, everything would become a payperview event. Or, every sport would addopt the mlbtv model, or maybe offer both?
Does Sling TV support or interact some kind of DVR / timeshifting function? I like to watch games the same day, but generally a later in the day (after kids have gone to bed), so I can focus / enjoy more fully and skip the commercials.
Do yourself a favour and research Android boxes.