So, task fell to me. First thing I did was check his current cable package. Went through the channel guide, then called the company. Spent a good chunk of time on hold, then talking to someone who kept trying to upsell me on movie channels. Waste oemit f time, mostly. They had some national sports channels, sure, but the specific ones that carry a lot of the Big 12 games? Nope, not in his basic or even mid-tier package. They offered some massive sports add-on, cost an arm and a leg, and even then, no guarantee for every game because of regional blackouts and whatnot.
Figuring Out Streaming
Okay, cable upgrade was out. Too expensive, too uncertain. Next thought: streaming. This opened up a whole new can of worms. Seemed like every game was on a different service or needed a specific subscription.
- First, I looked at the main sports streaming apps. You know the big ones.
- Signed up for a couple of free trials to see what they actually offered.
- Had to figure out which ones carried the channels that K-State games are usually on. ESPN+, Big 12 Now, sometimes regular ESPN or Fox Sports.
- Then I had to check if his location would even allow him to watch the games on those services. More blackout headaches.
It was honestly pretty confusing. You'd think you pay for a service, you get the games. Not always the case. I spent an afternoon just making a list of different services, what they cost, and what channels they supposedly had. Felt like I needed a spreadsheet just to watch a football game.
The tricky part was explaining all this to my uncle. He's not exactly tech-savvy. The idea of needing different apps, logging in, maybe even needing to switch inputs on his TV... it was a lot. We tried one service, got it set up on his smart TV. First game came on, worked fine. Huge relief.
Next week? Game was on a different channel, one not included in that first service. Back to square one. Ended up having to combine a couple of subscriptions during the season, cancelling them afterwards. It felt messy, not elegant at all.
We eventually found a combination that mostly worked, usually involving one main sports streaming service plus sometimes needing the ESPN app directly. It's still not perfect, sometimes a game is just hard to find or requires yet another login. But he gets to see most of them. It just takes way more effort than it should. Makes you miss the old days sometimes, just flipping to channel 3 and the game was on. Now it feels like you need an IT degree just to follow your team.
