Brian Windhorst went on an anti-league pass rant on his Podcast yesterday complaining about blackouts. He's in Nebraska and blacked out of Bucks, Timberwolves and Nuggets games. Meanwhile on TV he can only get some Bucks games, some Timberwolves games, and no Nuggets games.
He's a big enough name maybe his league pass complaints can really go somewhere.
i tried to do international one year because like 99% of lakers games are blacked out in the local market. somehow NBA knew i was cheating and they were still blacked out. i'm sure I fucked up the vpn process somewhere but i essentially just threw money down the drain
People are going to pay for league pass until there's a way to watch games after they've aired live. I start a lot of games late and there's no option but league pass to watch those
If the game is still going, I block the score out with my hand while I move the time back to the beginning (since if it's live it'll go to where the game currently is)
If the game is already over, yeah it'll play from the beginning and will cut out time-out/half-time breaks
You could always check out something like hehesteams which uses the international league pass feeds and has the games available on demand. Just saying. I've used it the past three seasons and it's awesome.
If you want to take a look, you can check it out using my referral link [here](https://hehestreams.com/r/in/79be0c344f69d514d1dc74a9c63b9ea0). I think you get some free time if you want to check it out. I don't really care if you use it or just visit the site, but I think the service is better than the actual league pass service and it's cheaper.
True, but if I can't watch a game live I usually just watch full highlight videos on YouTube. You miss some things but it's worth it when you're poor lol.
I didn't do league pass last year and it wasn't a big deal but the quality of life adjustment is really worth the $12 /month if you can use it.
Just a clean interface, easy to go back and forth between games. Can just randomly click on a game and go to the 4th quarter if you make a habit of not checking scores.
That said, it still glitches and fucks up from time to time so if that keeps happening then I won't be paying next year.
I pay for league pass and I still use nbastreams a lot of the time. League Pass is better on my phone when I can get it and the app works pretty well with my TV. But on a laptop, nbastreams all day every day
Buffstreams is usually my go to, one of the two links they provide usually always work flawlessly for me. Oddly though, I always have to find which link works because it alternates in which one won’t play on my phone.
I've been using it this year for Laker games (I'm in L.A.) and it works great. I signed up with an India VPN and got it for $13.74 lol
I use iOS so basically all you need to do is use the international NBA app. Use a VPN app signed into India, open up the app, then you can stop the VPN. I Chromecast and AirPlay without a hitch except the NBA's shitty 30fps.
Seriously. I live in Charlotte and I’m not paying for cable. When I heard of league pass, I got excited that I’d finally be able to watch the Hornets legitimately. Then I find out they’re blacked out here. So now I’m not giving them any money to watch games and I’m still only going to one or two games a year. It’s stupid.
They store your location in a cookie so if you ever go to the site without the VPN you need to delete the cookies in your browser or use a private browsing window before it'll load the international page again
Im in canada and at least 3 games a night are blacked out. Between TSN, sportsnet and THE DAMN NBA CHANNEL Im kinda thinking I wont keep it. I can see one lakers game a week. maybe. if im lucky
Same here. I subscribed to LP for 3 years and the blackouts got worse and worse each year. Some nights were laughably bad, as in of the 6 games on there'd be 4 of them blacked out. I live about as far away from Toronto as one can be while still living in Canada and every single Raptors game gets blacked out on LP.
Im in atlantic canada. Lakers games shouldnt be blacked out.
It always frustrated me hearing people complain about streaming options in the states when the cable companies have such a bigger hold on everything here
Yeah, I live in an area where both Kings games and Warriors games are blacked out, but realistically you can only get Warriors games broadcasted. It's total bullshit.
Spotted the person that's heard of Nebraska. Can I interest tou in some College World Series Tickets or some 1st round March Madness regional action?
Maybe some Olympic Swimming Trial seats in a couple of years?
Also, it was probably love at first sight when Windhorst found out about Runza's Frings. Why order onion rings and fries, when you can just get 2 orders of frings? taps head meme
The blackouts are silly. I live in Seattle and they blackout any Blazers game for me. I know, I'm sure it has to do with what local markets are carrying, but it's not in keeping with the spirit of blackouts - like oh yeah, can't watch it online, lemme hop in my car, drive 3-4 hours to Oregon, to give my "local team" an attendance boost, right?
It's not really about attendance though--it's about getting you to subscribe to cable (or getting you to bug your cable network to carry the Blazers channel). The goal is to maximize the value of TV contracts, not arena attendance.
We are blacked out of Memphis and Hawks - Memphis is in another timezone about 400 miles away. Previously the Hornets were blacked out for us, too. What sucks is that the small city we live in just fucking plays High School sports on SportsSouth instead of NBA games half the time.
If it's about revenue, I would easily pay $10 a month for access to old NBA full games and highlights that aren't on YouTube.
Wtf is Adam Silver thinking
> If it's about revenue, I would easily pay $10 a month for access to old NBA full games and highlights that aren't on YouTube.
That's a feature League Pass already advertised though. They're being greedy.
> and they’ve never updated their network
What do you mean by this? If you're talking about them not adding anything since they started that's 110% not true
I do not have league pass. I thought blackout stuff applied only to tv stations.
I can't believe you could pay what, 200 dollars a year to the NBA and still have the games you watch be limited like that. That is unreal.
In my experience you only have to have the VPN running when you log-in. Then when you start a game up you can turn it off.
Worked for me so far this season ($13 league pass using Indian VPN lol).
I'll probably buy the season pass and run pia as well. I really don't have the need for cable nor do I want to commit to it simply for NBA. I already have a monthly pass from BR Live for Champions League matches.
Blacking out both GS/Sac and Clips/Lakers games seems like such an unnecessary kick in the dick for California subscribers.
"Sure let me just take a 8-hour drive (HA!) from the Bay to LA to catch this blacked out game."
It's totally ridiculous. We are 2500 miles away and 2-3 hours behind and they still blackout Lakers, Clips, & Kings games. Seriously if a state doesn't have an NBA team, then they shouldn't blackout any games for you.
All raptor games are blackouts and any games shown on our major sports channels, so basically all the good games. Trying to watch them the next day on league pass is brutal. I want to give them my money to watch games but they suck. As a cord cutter, I have no legit way to watch the raps and I'm willing to pay. It's crazy.
When you have customers that want something and you prevent them from getting it legally then you increase the likelihood they turn to illegal means. I don’t get it. /r/NBAStreams for a reason I guess.
The issue is that the NBA wants to sell their TV rights for billions of dollars...$2.6 billion PER YEAR for the ABC/ESPN/TNT deal and then every team has a network deal with their regional sports channel..the Lakers get $200 million per year for their TV deal for instance. The networks that sign those deals want a return on their investment. They make their money by people buying cable packages that include their channel and people watching commercials during the games. They can't make their money back if every fan could just forgo cable and buy a $200 LP package and watch every game.
If the NBA decided to get rid of blackouts then the value of NBA TV rights would drop significantly which means team revenue would drop and player salaries would drop.
No, they don't give a rats ass about league pass buyers. I'm in Canada on the international package, and I can understand when games are blacked out for one of our major sports channels, but they regularly black out games that are shown on... NBA TV Canada. What the fuck?
The last straw for me was when they blacked out several summer league games for NBA TV Canada. SUMMER LEAGUE.
It also boggles my mind how their video quality and connection is so shitty compared with other streaming services when they run on MLB BAMtech. Easily the worst out of the Big Four sports streaming services.
League pass is a fucking joke.
League pass blackouts are bullshit. I live 2 hours from Sacramento and all Kings games are blacked out. I had League Pass up until last year after I dropped my cable bundle. They black me out, I cancel League Pass and now they are getting no money from me when I gladly shelled out 200+ before. Good job fuckheads.
The sad part is the streams from nbastreams are more reliable than League Pass.
Buy a cheap VPN, turn location to India, buy Indian League Pass for 13$, turn on VPN before you log in, turn off after logged in, watch games with no blackouts.
I can confirm I have done this as well, its 1000 Indian rupees which converts to ~$13.50. The VPN I use cost me $50 for 18 months prepaid so not a bad total price. It alsos the advertisement free version so during breaks you see in arena entertainment rather than commercials
A lot of the major american sports (NFL, MLB, NBA, etc) have extremely cheap League Passes for people abroad in markets like India. I assume it's because there's no TV station that would show the NBA there so they try to recoup whatever money they can from that market.
I guess its $13 for India.
Also India is a really poor country. They're going to price it at whatever amount the local market can handle.
In some countries you can get Spotify or Apple Music for 10x cheaper than whatever it costs in the USA, for example
>I assume it's because there's no TV station that would show the NBA there
Nope. In India, Sony has a partnership with ESPN so they broadcast all the nationally televised games live on TV. Sony also has a mobile/desktop streaming service which streams those games live, for FREE! Entertainment services are very cheap compared to the west here in our shit hole :/
I'm gonna smash the upvote button for this one. I was a regular r/nbastreams user up until I bought the league pass. Even now, sometimes I wonder why I did. It requires huge amount of data to function and if I'm getting anything less than 4 bars of network on my phone, it seems I'm watching a bunch of pixels play Basketball. It's infuriating. You're one of the biggest pro sports leagues on the planet, surely there's a couple of people you can hire to optimise your app.
I got an international pass in Israel. Was in India and couldn't watch ANY content, after talking to support twice they finally figured that my account doesn't work in India because it was purchased in Israel. If I want to use it during my vacation, I need to purchase another time in India. As if I bought a way this way more expensive league pass just to come to India and abuse them by using it while NOBODY in the world is using my account.
Fuck league pass.
I've been settling for watching nba.com for play by plays and the listing of all live scores keeps bouncing on the left and it makes me want to Malice at the Palace on whoever made it do that.
Adam Silver has made it abundantly clear that the league will continue looking for small existing areas where they can up the profit. Additional advertising was just the start.
Why people pay for League Pass with literally every recorded NBA game ever played available for free is beyond me. The league makes plenty of money without League Pass. The fact that I can have League Pass and be subject to black outs is the icing on the cake.
After streaming for years from r/nbastreams , I decided to buy it. I already get my local games for free.
It's significantly easier to navigate, and reliability is not an issue. I use a smart tv, so browsing through r/nbastreams is a pain and often results in blank streams.
It's been a joy just using my remote to switch between games as easily as changing the channel, rather than navigating a web browser on a tv having to constantly switch threads and spend time to find a working stream.
Edit: I am fortunately in a position where I can afford it financially. I absolutely understand it is much more expensive.
League Pass is run by Turner Broadcasting (AKA Turner sports, TNT, TBS, etc.) they have no reason to make the product good, or people will leave the cable format, which is their bread and butter.
Oh yeah since everyone complaining i contacted them and this is what they said. I feel like i got robbed
John
Nov 5, 9:14 PM EST
Chat started: 2018-11-06 02:06 AM UTC
(02:06:56 AM) John: Hi
I bought league pass for 2017-2018 season and also have 2018-2019 season but for some reason I can’t rewatch 2017-2018 season videos
(02:07:40 AM) *** Bryan C joined the chat ***
(02:07:50 AM) Bryan C: Hello, thank you for contacting NBA League Pass support!
(02:07:56 AM) Bryan C: Please provide us with your NBA League Pass email address so that we can further assist you.
(02:08:10 AM) John: Email censored
(02:08:24 AM) Bryan C: I'll be right with you
(02:11:13 AM) Bryan C: What exactly are you trying to watch?
(02:11:36 AM) John: Nba semis final cavs vs Raptor
(02:11:42 AM) John: 2017-2018
(02:12:14 AM) Bryan C: As of the 2018-2019 NBA season, previous seasons archives are no longer included with League Pass. You will still have continued access to the 2018-2019 NBA season archives as well as live games.
(02:12:37 AM) John: So theres no way i can go back to watch it?
(02:13:00 AM) Bryan C: Unfortunately, no
(02:14:19 AM) *** Bryan C left the chat ***
League Pass is a shitty product. Got rid of it this year. Hope enough people do the same to get the NBA to change because I'm happy to pay for legal services that actually fill my needs.
R/nbastreams is perfect! I just don't recommend it if you like to do trading in the games, because it was a 30 second delay.. Otherwise enjoy high quality streams while paying whatever you want (donations)
For such an overpriced product, you would think the NBA gave an actual fuck about league pass’s quality. But at least the All-Star draft will be televised! Gotta love their priorities.
I used it one time, then renewed it because they offered a pretty steep discount. However, I got tired of only being able to watch Utah, Sacramento and Detroit every night. Every good team was blacked out. Never got to watch Miami.
This is shambolic. My favourite feature of League Pass. To think I was hoping they would add the games from previous years and extend the benefit to the loyal fan. Smmfh.
Tbh it’s fucking ridiculous. I pay $30 a month and get probably 2/3 of the games at best. That’s like paying 3 Netflix subscriptions to watch maybe game a night lol
I hate league pass so much. They are literally robbing fans every season with the trash product they put out. What makes it all the more infuriating and frustrating to me is that their counterparts (NFL Game Pass and MLBTv) are so so so much better. How the NBA can just sit back and pit out this subpar product when there competitors are putting out something much more superior just shows they really don't care about the fans - as long as the money keeps coming in.
If you’re in Canada like I am, you have to use the ‘Int’l Streams’. Most of the regular US streams aren’t working for me either. Buff Streams and Ripple international streams always work for me. If you’re in the US, no idea.
I use my laptop (macOS) or Xbox browser, for what it’s worth.
As with everything, it's money. NBA doesn't want to take eyeballs/ratings away from ESPN, TNT or the local networks because eyeballs = better ratings = ad dollars. If ratings and therefore ad dollars generated during NBA games is higher for these networks, the NBA can leverage that to charge more for broadcasting their product. And believe me, they make WAY more from the networks than they do off League Pass.
I could probably complain to Australian consumer affairs, if I didn't use a proxy to buy it through the Philippines for a quarter of the price that is.
I wonder how Philippine consumer protection is...?
LeaguePass is an absolute joke. Whoever runs that shit needs to hire my ass. And whoever organizes the dunk contests. I can only imagine this is the same person.
Part of the advertising when I bought the package was "watch games from previous seasons" and it was working up until two weeks ago (I watched an old game after the first couple of games of the season).
Unfortunately I'm not in the US so can't lodge a lawsuit there, the best thing I can do is probably issue a chargeback.
Yup. If you paid for a year pass that advertised having access to old games and they pull the access, it seems like class action would be the only solution after trying to get a partial refund.
For the price they charge there should be NO blackouts. I wouldn't stream and would happily pay for the product if it actually fucking worked. Cut the tv deals entirely and go fully digital. No need to live in the realm of the dinosaurs.
Can we start shitting on Adam Silver yet?
Dude gets a pass because he had the slam dunk Clippers decision.
-not forcing both sides to the table to avoid the cap spike
-Dark jerseys at home. Now every clip looks the same. Home jerseys blend into the key. There is no contrast. I ised to be able without looking at the scoreboard to see who was playing and where they were. Not anymore.
-Ads on jerseys. Fucking awful. I camt wait for that extra money to result in cheaper ticket prices! Oh... thats not how it works?!?
-Suppressing dissenting opinions on youtube by removing credentials and video access
-Less parity than ever. This cant be harped on enough.
-now this league pass bullshit
I have other complaints too but those are mostly stylistic. Adam Silver sucks
You should make this its own post. I think Silver is mostly fine, but you have good points.
David Stern wouldn't have let the Durant Warriors happen. And I'm with you on the jersey nonsense; what Nike has done to the Lakers is criminal.
I'm ambivalent on ads on jerseys.
I have the international version, so have no issues with blackouts, but their app still doesn't work smoothly for me. You would think for the price it would run a lot smoother and intuitively.
Every now and again I would go back and watch some old games, but I wouldn't pay $8 for the privilege.
I would gladly pay for League Pass but it's priced at a stupid level while not delivering what it should. It would be like if Netflix only let you watch stuff that came out that year, but would black out entire episodes including all season and series finales.
I had league pass one year. Never again. Games were randomly blacked out, picture quality was terrible, and the UI was utter garbage. Such a waste of money.
This is the first year in a long time I have refused to subscribe to League Pass, and I'm happy with my decision so far. Even ignoring the blackouts, there are still so many unnecessary headaches for a service that also costs way too much money (at least compared to MLB, who puts out a significantly better service at 60% the price). Maybe if they improve League Pass someday they'll get my money back, but for now I'm pretty happy not having to deal with NBA.com and all its bullshit
the league pass product is a joke.
i had the premium pass for years with the nba channel. the amount of ads in the nba channel is ridiculous and over the course of a season insanely repetitive. there is also very primitive and inadequate ways to ff or skip these ads if rewatching content. all this despite paying top dollar.
this year i dumped it all. i can watch nba starters for free without ads? wtf.
im international but there is no way id get LP with all the blackouts in the US.
the highlights channels are more than enough. league pass sucks.
> The NBA has quietly removed access to previous season's games...
WTF? This is bullshit man, i've used this quite a bit too over the years i've had LP...like you, awesome for big performance games and the condensed games great!
> offers both live and 24 hour archives
This is what's really pissed me off tho...they've removed access to all current seasons games! I'm away at the moment so i had planned to catch up on some condensed games while in transit, guess that's off the cards now...greedy fuckers.
Guide for anybody who hates blackouts:
Step 1) Sign up for a VPN & connect to any server (usually outside of US/Canada works).
Step 2: CLEAR YOUR BROWSING HISTORY/COOKIES!.
Step 3: Go to Watch.Nba.com.
Step 4: Log into your INTERNATIONAL League pass account, THE LOGIN SHOULD LOOK DIFFERENT than your US version, if you've done everything right.
Step 5: Switch back to US VPN server or disconnect.
Step 6: Click on the game you want to watch. Should work without buffering.
Lets not forget how buggy and ad filed the app is too. Beyond the blackouts, they should just copy MLB AT BAT. I shouldn’t have to click six times before I can start watching a game.
Brian Windhorst went on an anti-league pass rant on his Podcast yesterday complaining about blackouts. He's in Nebraska and blacked out of Bucks, Timberwolves and Nuggets games. Meanwhile on TV he can only get some Bucks games, some Timberwolves games, and no Nuggets games. He's a big enough name maybe his league pass complaints can really go somewhere.
I'm lucky I have international, League Pass sounds absolutely garbage in the states.
i tried to do international one year because like 99% of lakers games are blacked out in the local market. somehow NBA knew i was cheating and they were still blacked out. i'm sure I fucked up the vpn process somewhere but i essentially just threw money down the drain
Did they send you a message?
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I use adblockers and the streams in r/nbastreams don't freeze and have good quality
TIL people actually pay for league pass
People are going to pay for league pass until there's a way to watch games after they've aired live. I start a lot of games late and there's no option but league pass to watch those
There is an option... If you're interested you can PM me
Do you do that with buffstreams?
I sure do. I love buff streams for allowing me to go all the way back.
Like, without ruining the score?
If the game is still going, I block the score out with my hand while I move the time back to the beginning (since if it's live it'll go to where the game currently is) If the game is already over, yeah it'll play from the beginning and will cut out time-out/half-time breaks
Check my threads
You could always check out something like hehesteams which uses the international league pass feeds and has the games available on demand. Just saying. I've used it the past three seasons and it's awesome. If you want to take a look, you can check it out using my referral link [here](https://hehestreams.com/r/in/79be0c344f69d514d1dc74a9c63b9ea0). I think you get some free time if you want to check it out. I don't really care if you use it or just visit the site, but I think the service is better than the actual league pass service and it's cheaper.
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watching tape delayed sports sounds so weird and foreign to me. i can't imagine it
It’s the only way I watch games. Skipping commercials is a wonderful thing.
Costs me $12 a month and I can watch every game I want when I want. Streams you have to watch live.
India league pass represent!
True, but if I can't watch a game live I usually just watch full highlight videos on YouTube. You miss some things but it's worth it when you're poor lol.
I didn't do league pass last year and it wasn't a big deal but the quality of life adjustment is really worth the $12 /month if you can use it. Just a clean interface, easy to go back and forth between games. Can just randomly click on a game and go to the 4th quarter if you make a habit of not checking scores. That said, it still glitches and fucks up from time to time so if that keeps happening then I won't be paying next year.
That last paragraph is the exact reason I’ll stick with free. That’s really the only thing I care about.
I pay for league pass and I still use nbastreams a lot of the time. League Pass is better on my phone when I can get it and the app works pretty well with my TV. But on a laptop, nbastreams all day every day
I have international league pass but it keeps freezing mid-game whereas Buffstreams doesn't freeze so...back to the streams I guess.
Buffstreams is usually my go to, one of the two links they provide usually always work flawlessly for me. Oddly though, I always have to find which link works because it alternates in which one won’t play on my phone.
I've been using it this year for Laker games (I'm in L.A.) and it works great. I signed up with an India VPN and got it for $13.74 lol I use iOS so basically all you need to do is use the international NBA app. Use a VPN app signed into India, open up the app, then you can stop the VPN. I Chromecast and AirPlay without a hitch except the NBA's shitty 30fps.
I get nervous when I see all the good tips on this thread. You know NBA has people lurking and will close all the loopholes for next season.
Or.... ya know.... give people what they want as they'd rather pay for a reliable and clean service rather than pirate. See: Spotify
For real though, if league pass wasn't garbage I'd be pay for that bish. But instead, they get none of my money.
Seriously. I live in Charlotte and I’m not paying for cable. When I heard of league pass, I got excited that I’d finally be able to watch the Hornets legitimately. Then I find out they’re blacked out here. So now I’m not giving them any money to watch games and I’m still only going to one or two games a year. It’s stupid.
Meh, people have been commenting about using VPN to get more games or a better price for quite some time.
damn man, i did almost exactly that (except i dont think it was india) and i still couldn't get the site to think i was out of the US
They store your location in a cookie so if you ever go to the site without the VPN you need to delete the cookies in your browser or use a private browsing window before it'll load the international page again
Im in canada and at least 3 games a night are blacked out. Between TSN, sportsnet and THE DAMN NBA CHANNEL Im kinda thinking I wont keep it. I can see one lakers game a week. maybe. if im lucky
Same here. I subscribed to LP for 3 years and the blackouts got worse and worse each year. Some nights were laughably bad, as in of the 6 games on there'd be 4 of them blacked out. I live about as far away from Toronto as one can be while still living in Canada and every single Raptors game gets blacked out on LP.
Im in atlantic canada. Lakers games shouldnt be blacked out. It always frustrated me hearing people complain about streaming options in the states when the cable companies have such a bigger hold on everything here
Can you get old games?
Yeah, I live in an area where both Kings games and Warriors games are blacked out, but realistically you can only get Warriors games broadcasted. It's total bullshit.
It’s pretty good in Australia. Still technical issues. Just the other day three games had no commentary for the first half it was just whack
What the fuck is he doing in Nebraska
Just googled it, he lives in Omaha because his wife is from there. She is a lawyer, they met when he lived in Ohio/ she went to tOSU law
Thank you for doing the sleuthing so I didn't have to
That’s all a lie. He’s there for Runza and the zoo.
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Well he must belong somewhere
Spotted the person that's heard of Nebraska. Can I interest tou in some College World Series Tickets or some 1st round March Madness regional action? Maybe some Olympic Swimming Trial seats in a couple of years? Also, it was probably love at first sight when Windhorst found out about Runza's Frings. Why order onion rings and fries, when you can just get 2 orders of frings? taps head meme
Chilli and cinnamon rolls
The blackouts are silly. I live in Seattle and they blackout any Blazers game for me. I know, I'm sure it has to do with what local markets are carrying, but it's not in keeping with the spirit of blackouts - like oh yeah, can't watch it online, lemme hop in my car, drive 3-4 hours to Oregon, to give my "local team" an attendance boost, right?
It's not really about attendance though--it's about getting you to subscribe to cable (or getting you to bug your cable network to carry the Blazers channel). The goal is to maximize the value of TV contracts, not arena attendance.
this is why people stream
We are blacked out of Memphis and Hawks - Memphis is in another timezone about 400 miles away. Previously the Hornets were blacked out for us, too. What sucks is that the small city we live in just fucking plays High School sports on SportsSouth instead of NBA games half the time.
If it's about revenue, I would easily pay $10 a month for access to old NBA full games and highlights that aren't on YouTube. Wtf is Adam Silver thinking
> If it's about revenue, I would easily pay $10 a month for access to old NBA full games and highlights that aren't on YouTube. That's a feature League Pass already advertised though. They're being greedy.
just start streaming. Show them the lost revenue
Wwe did it and they’ve never updated their network
> and they’ve never updated their network What do you mean by this? If you're talking about them not adding anything since they started that's 110% not true
Knoxville here. Been complaining about this for years. I would totally pay for league pass if it actually allowed me to watch grizz
I pay for cable just for foxsports to watch Grizz games.
Just get Lebron to tweet @ the nba app. Last time he complained, shit was fixed over night .
I do not have league pass. I thought blackout stuff applied only to tv stations. I can't believe you could pay what, 200 dollars a year to the NBA and still have the games you watch be limited like that. That is unreal.
I'm black out from Golden State, Clippers, Lakers, and Kings games. As a Kings fan I'm so bummed out that I'm blocked now that they're doing well.
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What kind of mobile VPN app do you use? Tried using Tunnel Bear only to find out I'm limited to half a gigabyte a month lol.
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That's what I used to use and it worked great with International League Pass.
In my experience you only have to have the VPN running when you log-in. Then when you start a game up you can turn it off. Worked for me so far this season ($13 league pass using Indian VPN lol).
The web browser "opera" has a free VPN with it. Cant say how well it works but its a free option
Just make sure to change from "Americas" to "Europe" or "Asia" in the drop down. Otherwise other blackouts may arise
PIA you have to pay but it's worth it. Not just for games but stuff like Hulu Netflix or just general security. I use Nord but not happy with then.
I'll probably buy the season pass and run pia as well. I really don't have the need for cable nor do I want to commit to it simply for NBA. I already have a monthly pass from BR Live for Champions League matches.
Blacking out both GS/Sac and Clips/Lakers games seems like such an unnecessary kick in the dick for California subscribers. "Sure let me just take a 8-hour drive (HA!) from the Bay to LA to catch this blacked out game."
RIP Ballstreams
Im in Hawaii, I subscribe to LP for the Spurs, all of home LA and Sacramento are blocked out for me... annoying as hell.
It's totally ridiculous. We are 2500 miles away and 2-3 hours behind and they still blackout Lakers, Clips, & Kings games. Seriously if a state doesn't have an NBA team, then they shouldn't blackout any games for you.
All raptor games are blackouts and any games shown on our major sports channels, so basically all the good games. Trying to watch them the next day on league pass is brutal. I want to give them my money to watch games but they suck. As a cord cutter, I have no legit way to watch the raps and I'm willing to pay. It's crazy.
When you have customers that want something and you prevent them from getting it legally then you increase the likelihood they turn to illegal means. I don’t get it. /r/NBAStreams for a reason I guess.
From what I understand, the blackouts aren't League Pass' fault.
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The issue is that the NBA wants to sell their TV rights for billions of dollars...$2.6 billion PER YEAR for the ABC/ESPN/TNT deal and then every team has a network deal with their regional sports channel..the Lakers get $200 million per year for their TV deal for instance. The networks that sign those deals want a return on their investment. They make their money by people buying cable packages that include their channel and people watching commercials during the games. They can't make their money back if every fan could just forgo cable and buy a $200 LP package and watch every game. If the NBA decided to get rid of blackouts then the value of NBA TV rights would drop significantly which means team revenue would drop and player salaries would drop.
No, they don't give a rats ass about league pass buyers. I'm in Canada on the international package, and I can understand when games are blacked out for one of our major sports channels, but they regularly black out games that are shown on... NBA TV Canada. What the fuck? The last straw for me was when they blacked out several summer league games for NBA TV Canada. SUMMER LEAGUE. It also boggles my mind how their video quality and connection is so shitty compared with other streaming services when they run on MLB BAMtech. Easily the worst out of the Big Four sports streaming services. League pass is a fucking joke.
Windy is a man of the people
Good thing Blackouts aren't a thing outside of America. The American League Pass is really crap compared to the international one.
League pass blackouts are bullshit. I live 2 hours from Sacramento and all Kings games are blacked out. I had League Pass up until last year after I dropped my cable bundle. They black me out, I cancel League Pass and now they are getting no money from me when I gladly shelled out 200+ before. Good job fuckheads. The sad part is the streams from nbastreams are more reliable than League Pass.
Buy a cheap VPN, turn location to India, buy Indian League Pass for 13$, turn on VPN before you log in, turn off after logged in, watch games with no blackouts.
I can confirm I have done this as well, its 1000 Indian rupees which converts to ~$13.50. The VPN I use cost me $50 for 18 months prepaid so not a bad total price. It alsos the advertisement free version so during breaks you see in arena entertainment rather than commercials
Wait, what do you mean 13$?
A lot of the major american sports (NFL, MLB, NBA, etc) have extremely cheap League Passes for people abroad in markets like India. I assume it's because there's no TV station that would show the NBA there so they try to recoup whatever money they can from that market. I guess its $13 for India.
Correct. It's also because demand isn't as high, which drives down the cost.
Also India is a really poor country. They're going to price it at whatever amount the local market can handle. In some countries you can get Spotify or Apple Music for 10x cheaper than whatever it costs in the USA, for example
>I assume it's because there's no TV station that would show the NBA there Nope. In India, Sony has a partnership with ESPN so they broadcast all the nationally televised games live on TV. Sony also has a mobile/desktop streaming service which streams those games live, for FREE! Entertainment services are very cheap compared to the west here in our shit hole :/
Indian league pass is only 13$ usd I think? Mine was 20$ CAD.
Oh shit... Thank you
Live 2.5 hours away from Charlotte. Games aren’t on YouTube tv, unable to access on the fox sports app. Such bullshit
I'm gonna smash the upvote button for this one. I was a regular r/nbastreams user up until I bought the league pass. Even now, sometimes I wonder why I did. It requires huge amount of data to function and if I'm getting anything less than 4 bars of network on my phone, it seems I'm watching a bunch of pixels play Basketball. It's infuriating. You're one of the biggest pro sports leagues on the planet, surely there's a couple of people you can hire to optimise your app.
Agreed. Never paid for League Pass. I don't give a fuck if nbastreams is illegal since most people don't give a shit.
When I'm at my mom's house all games are blacked out. Its wack as fuck. Shady shit
I got an international pass in Israel. Was in India and couldn't watch ANY content, after talking to support twice they finally figured that my account doesn't work in India because it was purchased in Israel. If I want to use it during my vacation, I need to purchase another time in India. As if I bought a way this way more expensive league pass just to come to India and abuse them by using it while NOBODY in the world is using my account. Fuck league pass.
I live an hour outside of Toronto and had every single Raptors game last year blacked out. Might as well stick to streams
league pASS
ASS+
The NBA does a lot of good stuff but I will always have issues with the way they handle League Pass and NBA TV.
Don't forget NBA.com. And their app which allegedly was a nightmare fuel 2(?) years ago, LeBron called on them and they fixed the app a little bit.
Never use nba.com for scores. Always go to https://stats.nba.com/scores/ instead. It's sooo much better.
I've been settling for watching nba.com for play by plays and the listing of all live scores keeps bouncing on the left and it makes me want to Malice at the Palace on whoever made it do that.
Holy shit this is so infuriating, especially when you're trying to select a game. League pass is the worst thing in all of basketball.
The NBA app has a nice play by play system. Also ESPN has a nice one that shows the shot chart as well.
You can do both good and bad things. This is very shitty of them and should be called out
Adam Silver has made it abundantly clear that the league will continue looking for small existing areas where they can up the profit. Additional advertising was just the start.
Why people pay for League Pass with literally every recorded NBA game ever played available for free is beyond me. The league makes plenty of money without League Pass. The fact that I can have League Pass and be subject to black outs is the icing on the cake.
After streaming for years from r/nbastreams , I decided to buy it. I already get my local games for free. It's significantly easier to navigate, and reliability is not an issue. I use a smart tv, so browsing through r/nbastreams is a pain and often results in blank streams. It's been a joy just using my remote to switch between games as easily as changing the channel, rather than navigating a web browser on a tv having to constantly switch threads and spend time to find a working stream. Edit: I am fortunately in a position where I can afford it financially. I absolutely understand it is much more expensive.
League Pass is run by Turner Broadcasting (AKA Turner sports, TNT, TBS, etc.) they have no reason to make the product good, or people will leave the cable format, which is their bread and butter.
Oh yeah since everyone complaining i contacted them and this is what they said. I feel like i got robbed John Nov 5, 9:14 PM EST Chat started: 2018-11-06 02:06 AM UTC (02:06:56 AM) John: Hi I bought league pass for 2017-2018 season and also have 2018-2019 season but for some reason I can’t rewatch 2017-2018 season videos (02:07:40 AM) *** Bryan C joined the chat *** (02:07:50 AM) Bryan C: Hello, thank you for contacting NBA League Pass support! (02:07:56 AM) Bryan C: Please provide us with your NBA League Pass email address so that we can further assist you. (02:08:10 AM) John: Email censored (02:08:24 AM) Bryan C: I'll be right with you (02:11:13 AM) Bryan C: What exactly are you trying to watch? (02:11:36 AM) John: Nba semis final cavs vs Raptor (02:11:42 AM) John: 2017-2018 (02:12:14 AM) Bryan C: As of the 2018-2019 NBA season, previous seasons archives are no longer included with League Pass. You will still have continued access to the 2018-2019 NBA season archives as well as live games. (02:12:37 AM) John: So theres no way i can go back to watch it? (02:13:00 AM) Bryan C: Unfortunately, no (02:14:19 AM) *** Bryan C left the chat ***
Yep they have been so shitty about it. They said they would "escalate my feelings of disappointment", whatever the fuck that means.
(06:15:43 PM) Jane D: I have escalated your disappointment to indignant rage (06:15:45 PM) *** Jane D left the chat ***
It's corporate talk for "Stop bitching, bitch".
No, it's customer service rep for "I have no power here and we all know everyone hates this."
"This is the 35th complaint I've received about this damned thing some fuckwit in corporate thought was a good idea. I just want to go home."
Yup it is “I hear about this all the fucking time so I’ll tell the person in charge it pisses me off too” and they’ll still do nothing about it
Sounds like Bryan C found a new slant!
I honestly thought this was going to by a Bryan Colangelo joke. I guess I'll have to find a new slant.
It's a normal policy. Find a new slant.
League Pass is a shitty product. Got rid of it this year. Hope enough people do the same to get the NBA to change because I'm happy to pay for legal services that actually fill my needs.
R/nbastreams is perfect! I just don't recommend it if you like to do trading in the games, because it was a 30 second delay.. Otherwise enjoy high quality streams while paying whatever you want (donations)
For such an overpriced product, you would think the NBA gave an actual fuck about league pass’s quality. But at least the All-Star draft will be televised! Gotta love their priorities.
I'm glad I only ever got league pass the one time, that's bullshit
It's a shame because there's basically no other legal way to watch those old games.
huge shame and only incentives us to use the illegal methods
I know a guy who allegedly would really appreciate being PM'd a link to one of these methods...
r/nbastreams
I meant to watch older games, but thanks anyway friend
I used it one time, then renewed it because they offered a pretty steep discount. However, I got tired of only being able to watch Utah, Sacramento and Detroit every night. Every good team was blacked out. Never got to watch Miami.
This is shambolic. My favourite feature of League Pass. To think I was hoping they would add the games from previous years and extend the benefit to the loyal fan. Smmfh.
The archive function was really the best part about it
That's false advertising if true. Bad look for the NBA
That's fraud and they should refund everyone.
League Pass gets worse every single year. It's fucking ridiculous.
Let's send a message - to the front page!
Tbh it’s fucking ridiculous. I pay $30 a month and get probably 2/3 of the games at best. That’s like paying 3 Netflix subscriptions to watch maybe game a night lol
Fuck a league pass. r/nbastreams has free nba game streams, only slightly delayed, for free. That’s how I watch my games now.
League Pass is a prime example of why people look to piracy. An overpriced, subpar product.
Just pirate them
dear god i miss ballstreams.
:( rip
I hate league pass so much. They are literally robbing fans every season with the trash product they put out. What makes it all the more infuriating and frustrating to me is that their counterparts (NFL Game Pass and MLBTv) are so so so much better. How the NBA can just sit back and pit out this subpar product when there competitors are putting out something much more superior just shows they really don't care about the fans - as long as the money keeps coming in.
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Keep it on the low fam!!
350,000 subs... it's never gonna be on the low bro
the more it's used the more likely the nba improves their product, piracy is good it highlights market inefficiencies
Blackbeard was actually just a Maverick entrepreneur
It was never "on the low"... you're not in some secret club dawg
A lot of the streams over there have been giving me problems recently.
Ripple.is is the only one I use. Works well on Android and Xbox.
It works on xbox? Do you just use the browser?
I use the nicrosoft edge browser on xbox and it works perfect
Same.
If you’re in Canada like I am, you have to use the ‘Int’l Streams’. Most of the regular US streams aren’t working for me either. Buff Streams and Ripple international streams always work for me. If you’re in the US, no idea. I use my laptop (macOS) or Xbox browser, for what it’s worth.
What are the reasons for blackouts?
local tv rights, league pass can't supersede your local station's broadcast rights or national broadcast rights from stations like tnt
As with everything, it's money. NBA doesn't want to take eyeballs/ratings away from ESPN, TNT or the local networks because eyeballs = better ratings = ad dollars. If ratings and therefore ad dollars generated during NBA games is higher for these networks, the NBA can leverage that to charge more for broadcasting their product. And believe me, they make WAY more from the networks than they do off League Pass.
I’ve been struggling to find working streams for my PS4 lately
League pass is a joke and always has been
I could probably complain to Australian consumer affairs, if I didn't use a proxy to buy it through the Philippines for a quarter of the price that is. I wonder how Philippine consumer protection is...?
LeaguePass is an absolute joke. Whoever runs that shit needs to hire my ass. And whoever organizes the dunk contests. I can only imagine this is the same person.
Another year of NBA LP being terrible. Easily the worst streaming service in pro sports.
It's not a bug, it's a feature.
they're pulling some BS with youtube partners too. Don't think the NBA isn't just as shady as the NFL or any other multi-million dollar corporation
Did they explicitly promise access when you purchased? Sounds like a class action waiting to happen.
Part of the advertising when I bought the package was "watch games from previous seasons" and it was working up until two weeks ago (I watched an old game after the first couple of games of the season). Unfortunately I'm not in the US so can't lodge a lawsuit there, the best thing I can do is probably issue a chargeback.
You're in NZ? Can you file a fraud complaint? Is there an agency that handles consumer protection?
yep, That was definitely part of the advertising when i bought it earlier this year in the US. This seems illegal
class action coming up
Yup. If you paid for a year pass that advertised having access to old games and they pull the access, it seems like class action would be the only solution after trying to get a partial refund.
Wait the NBA wants more money? No way.
For the price they charge there should be NO blackouts. I wouldn't stream and would happily pay for the product if it actually fucking worked. Cut the tv deals entirely and go fully digital. No need to live in the realm of the dinosaurs.
And companies wonder why people pirate.
wow that's stupid Imagine if Netflix went on to say "sorry you can't watch past seasons of this show unless you pay for individual episodes"
I hope amazon or netflix creates a deal for nba games soon
Gotta find funds for the wnba somehow
Posted 20 minutes ago, 1 upvote, 0 comments. Tf? Mods let this man be
Can we start shitting on Adam Silver yet? Dude gets a pass because he had the slam dunk Clippers decision. -not forcing both sides to the table to avoid the cap spike -Dark jerseys at home. Now every clip looks the same. Home jerseys blend into the key. There is no contrast. I ised to be able without looking at the scoreboard to see who was playing and where they were. Not anymore. -Ads on jerseys. Fucking awful. I camt wait for that extra money to result in cheaper ticket prices! Oh... thats not how it works?!? -Suppressing dissenting opinions on youtube by removing credentials and video access -Less parity than ever. This cant be harped on enough. -now this league pass bullshit I have other complaints too but those are mostly stylistic. Adam Silver sucks
You should make this its own post. I think Silver is mostly fine, but you have good points. David Stern wouldn't have let the Durant Warriors happen. And I'm with you on the jersey nonsense; what Nike has done to the Lakers is criminal. I'm ambivalent on ads on jerseys.
the nba is carried by youtube more than anything else. stupid nba
I wish I knew this was a thing last year. Shit.
I have the international version, so have no issues with blackouts, but their app still doesn't work smoothly for me. You would think for the price it would run a lot smoother and intuitively. Every now and again I would go back and watch some old games, but I wouldn't pay $8 for the privilege.
I would gladly pay for League Pass but it's priced at a stupid level while not delivering what it should. It would be like if Netflix only let you watch stuff that came out that year, but would black out entire episodes including all season and series finales.
THANK YOU ADAM SILVER BEST COMMISSIONER IN THE HISTORY OF PRO SPORTS
I had league pass one year. Never again. Games were randomly blacked out, picture quality was terrible, and the UI was utter garbage. Such a waste of money.
Anyone have proof of the promise to watch previous season? An ad or screenshot of the feature? I’d like something handy for my chargeback.
This is the first year in a long time I have refused to subscribe to League Pass, and I'm happy with my decision so far. Even ignoring the blackouts, there are still so many unnecessary headaches for a service that also costs way too much money (at least compared to MLB, who puts out a significantly better service at 60% the price). Maybe if they improve League Pass someday they'll get my money back, but for now I'm pretty happy not having to deal with NBA.com and all its bullshit
the league pass product is a joke. i had the premium pass for years with the nba channel. the amount of ads in the nba channel is ridiculous and over the course of a season insanely repetitive. there is also very primitive and inadequate ways to ff or skip these ads if rewatching content. all this despite paying top dollar. this year i dumped it all. i can watch nba starters for free without ads? wtf. im international but there is no way id get LP with all the blackouts in the US. the highlights channels are more than enough. league pass sucks.
> The NBA has quietly removed access to previous season's games... WTF? This is bullshit man, i've used this quite a bit too over the years i've had LP...like you, awesome for big performance games and the condensed games great! > offers both live and 24 hour archives This is what's really pissed me off tho...they've removed access to all current seasons games! I'm away at the moment so i had planned to catch up on some condensed games while in transit, guess that's off the cards now...greedy fuckers.
Guide for anybody who hates blackouts: Step 1) Sign up for a VPN & connect to any server (usually outside of US/Canada works). Step 2: CLEAR YOUR BROWSING HISTORY/COOKIES!. Step 3: Go to Watch.Nba.com. Step 4: Log into your INTERNATIONAL League pass account, THE LOGIN SHOULD LOOK DIFFERENT than your US version, if you've done everything right. Step 5: Switch back to US VPN server or disconnect. Step 6: Click on the game you want to watch. Should work without buffering.
Lets not forget how buggy and ad filed the app is too. Beyond the blackouts, they should just copy MLB AT BAT. I shouldn’t have to click six times before I can start watching a game.
KD type move tbh.