To watch the majority of Yankees games, Lisa needs the YES Network, which is showing 138 of the 162 games this year. We get access to YES through a $160-a-month DirecTV satellite plan. It’s also available via several cable-TV services, including Charter/Spectrum, Comcast/Xfinity, and Verizon Fios.
I’ve been wanting to ditch that service for a lower-cost streaming alternative, but it’s not easy. Last year, the only cable-style TV streaming service that included YES was DirecTV Stream, the internet version of a service we already have. But a package that included YES, other cable channels, and premium services such as Max that we currently get would have cost us $150 a month, offering very little savings.
We stuck with the DirecTV satellite service.
Our options did expand a bit, however. First, Fubo, a sports-centric cable-style streaming service, added the YES Network to its roster of regional sports networks. That seemed like good news, but it wasn’t a game changer. The least expensive Pro plan costs $85 a month, which isn’t too bad. But then Fubo tacks on a $15-a-month regional sports fee, making the real price $100. And if we went for Fubo and got rid of satellite, we’d lose access to two streaming services that are part of our package: Max and Paramount+/Showtime. Getting those à la carte would cost $28 a month. That would bring our monthly total to more than $125 a month, and we’d still be missing networks, including Starz and Cinemax premium channels, that we get with DirecTV.
We really thought the saving grace would be the launch of a stand-alone YES direct-to-consumer service last spring. Unfortunately, the price for the network—now rolled into a new app called Gotham Sports—is steep: $25 a month or $230 if you pay annually. That’s in line with what other new stand-alone, direct-to-consumer sports networks are charging. For example, NESN 360, which shows Boston Red Sox (please don’t tell Lisa I mentioned that team) and Bruins games, charges $30 a month or $230 a year if paid annually.
Why so much? In cable plans, sports programming has always been subsidized by subscribers who never actually watch games. Direct-to-consumer services don’t have that luxury. For now, at least, we’re keeping satellite TV.
But it’s not just about price. The biggest problem for my wife is that not all Yankees games are shown on the YES Network because they’re now spread out across multiple networks and services. All this has made me the target of her frustration because she assumes that I should be able to make it easier for her to watch the games. “You write about TV and streaming services for a living,” she says. “Can’t you figure this out?”
And Lisa hates that the YES/Gotham Sports stand-alone service doesn’t allow us to record games, which is how we typically watch baseball. We did discover that games broadcast on YES can be viewed on-demand within 48 hours on the Gotham Sports app (under the “NY Yankees” section), but that means watching them on the network’s schedule, not ours.
