wrestling with streaming

I thought my next blog would be about the new streaming deal between WWE and Hulu, but it appears after about a week of everything except Smackdown listed as expiring Saturday last week, then Tuesday and finally last Friday, it looks like it will be the status quo for next day repeats of RAW and NXT to remain on Hulu instead of Peacock which is where we all expected them to end up.

Another surprise on Saturday morning threw my streaming plans out the window. Sling lost the rights to carry Disney programming including all the ESPN channels. This left me in a bind because I am unable to receive our ABC station out of Asheville, NC. I rely on ESPN3 to watch sporting events on ABC. So after first switching my sling base plan to "Sling Blue", which was the only plan available, I cancelled Sling and restarted my YouTube TV account. I watched last night's game between NC State and Clemson on ABC mainly...a few times I watched on ESPN3 on the ESPN app. I also, however continued to see ads for Hulu plus Live TV which now comes with Disney+ and ESPN+. I hadn't considered that service before and since I have separate yearly subscriptions to Disney+ and ESPN+. After some online digging, I discovered that as long as your email accounts are the same on all the services, it will apply the plan to all your accounts and give you a credit on your bill...I think the date given was December 21st. At $74.99/month for live TV, hulu, Disney+ and ESPN+ it seems like a terrific deal. While I usually don't like monthly bills, I can prepare for one big bill more easily and also much like I did with Sling I can pay ahead of time with an online gift card.

My YouTube TV is already cancelled and will end on November 1st. So I have a new plan now. Hopefully consolidating my streaming services will help me lower costs.

The only thing Hulu with Live TV doesn't have is BBC America, but new Doctor Who episodes are so few and far between and there are plenty of ways to access them I think I can be do without it full time.

Babylon 5 over streamlining streaming services

So I have finally worked my way through "Babylon 5" after streaming "ST:Deep Space 9" and other than the obvious similarities and how Paramount passed on "B5" before "DS9" came about they really are two distinct shows. While religion plays a part in "B5" it's not a central issue as it is with "DS9". Also with "DS9" there is much more of an ability to pick out a favorite episode for an individual viewing,  my favorite for example is "Take me out to the Holosuite". "B5" is much more of a narrative I guess I'm trying to say, watching the whole series is more necessary. 

Before my getting through "Babylon 5" I had decided that when my HBO Max subscription ends on August 30th, I am not going to renew it. The only other show I watched on the service was new series Doctor Who,  most of which I own on DVD although some of those are corrupted. Shortly after I made that decision it was announced that next year HBO Max will merge with Discovery+.

Several of my streaming services are also on the chopping block.

On Britbox, I am currently making my way through another viewing of "Blakes 7". For those unfamiliar with "B7" it is basically a dystopian British reverse Star Trek...the logo is even the "Starfleet" logo turned sideways. While Doctor Who will always be my first love and my favorite show, in many ways I feel that "Blakes 7" is the superior show. I also of course watch classic Doctor Who on britbox but again I own all of the classic series on DVD and they are just collecting dust. I recently switched from watching the British comedy "'Allo, 'Allo" on britbox because while I had made my way to season 7 on Amazon Prime, that season is only available on Britbox so I had to switch. I have my current Britbox subscription until June 23, 2023, so I should be able to finish watching "Blakes 7" and "'Allo, 'Allo" by then. 

Hulu is currently my destination for "Monday Night Raw" and "NXT" as well as "NXT Lvl Up" which drops on Peacock Friday nights at 10:00 pm but i'm usually either watching "AEW Rampage" on TNT or i'm going to bed because of an early shift on Saturday. Word on the internet however is that WWE's contract with Hulu is ending soon and Peacock is likely going to be the new next day streaming home for most WWE programming. Smackdown is a question mark due to it's airing on FOX. It's very likely that when Hulu losses it's non ABC/Disney content it will merge with Disney+. So Hulu is likely not going to be around in it's current format when my subscription expires next March. 

ESPN+ is one that I like to have, but it's not really necessary. While I have enjoyed sporting events on the service,  there are so many other sporting events going on often at similar times. 

Peacock is a must for WWE and Days of our Lives due to it's leaving the airwaves and going to streaming exclusively. Paramount+ is needed for Star Trek and Disney+ for Star Wars. Amazon Prime is worth it for the shipping alone and they will have Thursday night NFL games might as well keep it. Sling is my live TV service but I rarely stray beyond ESPN, ESPN2, ESPN3 (which is mainly Sporting events broadcast on ABC which I cannot receive over-the-air). TBS and TNT for AEW Dynamite, Rampage and other special programs. BBC America of course for New series Doctor Who and I'm currently recording A&E biography series on WWE Legends but I haven't watched it yet. 

As always the caveat is I don't pay for streaming services monthly but yearly. It saves money and as long as you cancel you won't get surprises on your bank account. 

Wow its been January since I last posted

I can't believe January was the last blog I posted.

While there are a lot of things that have made me very angry lately, I've decided to go in a positive direction and post about sports. 

The NBA and NHL seasons have concluded with results I was pleased with. I had the Carolina Hurricanes to root for in the NHL playoffs for a while,  but I was kinda turned off by their trying to prevent New York Rangers fans from buying tickets. I thought it was very poor sportsmanship much like a few years ago when the Tampa Bay Lightning tried to prevent opposing fans from wearing their teams color or jerseys. I'm glad the Colorado Avalanche won though I have no real connection to the team or city. No former Gamecocks to root for in the NHL.

Similarly in the NBA, one player for the Washington Wizards played his freshman year at South Carolina then transferred to Virginia. I'm a big fan of Warriors couch Steve Kerr as I love his passion and activism. Steph Curry is also kinda cute in my opinion. So I was happy they won.

In baseball I was a college baseball fan long before I paid much attention to MLB. When former Gamecock Jackie Bradley Jr. was called up to the Boston Red Sox,  I declared myself a Red Sox fan in a Facebook post. The fact that the Greenville Drive in the minor league are a Red Sox affiliate also factored in to that decision. JBJ was traded to the Brewers last year but is now back in Boston but there's a dilemma. Two former Gamecocks are on the New York Yankees pitching staff and the Yankees are having a very good season. As a southerner, I didn't grow up with any inset hatred for the Yankees. One big mistake MLB made in restructuring MiLB was separating the Greenville Drive and Charleston Riverdogs (Greenville is now High-A and Charleston is Low-A). They also changed the Riverdogs affiliation to the Tampa Bay Rays, so the Palmetto State no longer has its own slice of the Red Sox- Yankees rivalry.

So perhaps if the Yankees continue their winning ways I'll pull for them in the MLB playoffs.  I also love Whit Merrifield of the Kansas City Royals but I don't think they are doing very well. I also keep an eye on other former Gamecocks.

Tonight I am also beginning making TBS' Tuesday night game regular viewing and probably Sunday night baseball on ESPN as well. At least until football season which also has many former Gamecocks to keep an eye on in the NFL.

National Championship thoughts

I have some thoughts on tonight's national championship I wanted to share.

I have been somewhat angered by posts on Twitter saying Gamecock fans shouldn't pull for Georgia either because of former Gamecock coach Will Muschamp or some rivalry that only really existed in the 70s and 80s. Things are so one-sided between South Carolina and Georgia apart from a fluke win by the Gamecocks a few years ago. 

I have a high school classmate who is a UGA grad. I wasn't in many classes with him in high school and we didn't really hang around in the same circles but as we're both openly gay now our friendship has blossomed in recent years although I haven't heard from him much lately.  I tease him because while I pull for them against Clemson, he won't return the favor and pull for us because his family are Clemson fans.

My main reason in pulling for Georgia, however, is my father's side of the family which  consists of huge Georgia Bulldog fans. As my father was in the Gamecock Club and we had season tickets in Columbia,  we would also attend when the Gamecocks played at Sanford stadium.  We would usually visit family during the trip (one year we didn't and someone saw my father at the game and told on us...at least that's the story I recall from my father). My family in Georgia also consists of tons of "double cousins".

Now don't get the wrong idea. My great uncle, who I called "Daddy Bill" and my great Aunt "Mama Sue" were only related by marriage. There was no Incest, it's Georgia we're talking about not Alabama. Daddy Bill was the brother of my grandmother on my father's side. I sadly never knew my paternal grandparents as they were killed in a car accident when my father was 16. Mama Sue was my great Aunt by marriage but also my 3rd cousin by blood. I don't think I ever loved any two people more than Daddy Bill and Mama Sue and I don't think any two people loved me any more than they did. Their visit every August when they brought my sister Katie and I our birthday presents are the highlights of my childhood. 

So all those people saying we should root for Georgia tonight just don't know what they're talking about.  Alabama has won way too many national championships it's time someone else did. As for which broadcast I'll watch while I enjoyed the Alabama and Georgia hometown radio broadcasts in the semifinals, I really like Chris Fowler and Kirk Herbstreit. In the past I enjoyed the "Sounds of the Game" broadcast with no announcers but ESPN no longer does that one...I guess I'm too much of an Iconoclast and not many other people watched that one. Traditional broadcast will be my choice tonight while probably breaking for the halftime performances on ESPN3. 

Fortunately I don't work until 11:00 AM tomorrow so I shouldn't be too bleary eyed on Tuesday. Only thing left to say is Go Dawgs! Sic 'Em! Woof!Woof!Woof!Woof! Woof! 

Happy 2022 sorry it's been a while

I haven't blogged in months, mainly due to getting a lot of hours at work and also not having anything to really blog about. As I usually do one around new years and my new years included two of my favorite things, plus I'm up early on January 2nd, here goes. 

I was scheduled 7:00-4:00 on New Years Eve, which worked out great as the college football playoffs got underway at 3:30. My original plan was to tune to "ABC News Live" to watch the ball drop. At around 9:45 however,  towards the end of the 4th quarter I realized I wasn't going to make it to midnight. I planned to celebrate at midnight Atlantic time and was hoping ABC News Live would have coverage from somewhere in the Atlantic time zone. I stopped watching the game around 10:54 and went to ABC News Live on Sling. Unfortunately when they came back from commercial before 11:00, they were in Times Square interviewing NYCFC of MLS. I scrambled to find something on YouTube and settled on the London fireworks for a bit. Took me a long time to open my bottle of Andre and I had a glass or two and went to bed.

New Years Day started with my usual pomegranate mimosas, a tradition I started a few years ago. I watched some football then walked up to my parents house for our traditional collard greens, black-eyed peas, ham and cornbread. We also had mashed sweet potatoes. I watched a little more football before walking home, watched even more football with pomegranate mimosas. Originally I had planned to go to bed after the Rose Bowl and get up early to watch the 3:35am replay of the Doctor Who's New Years special. Around 6:30 though I got very sleepy,  probably from eating 3 helpings at dinner so I went to bed. After sleeping very soundly for about 90 minutes I woke up in time for the end.of the Rose Bowl and I also watched the Sugar Bowl. I think went to bed again and woke up around 2:30 without any of my alarms set for 3:00 going off. After some web surfing I put my Sling app on BBC America and got ready for the special. 

Perhaps this is a 'woke' thing to notice but in the opening credits I noticed that both the producer and director of "Eve of the Daleks" were women. Unlike the "Flux" 6 part series a few weeks earlier,  which was confusing and just not very  satisfying,  I throughly enjoyed "Eve of the  Daleks". Don't want to spoil anything for those that haven't seen it yet, but I think most doctor who fans will be pleased.

So that was my New Years. Only thing to say now is

GO DAWGS! SICK 'EM! WOOF! WOOF! WOOF! WOOF! WOOF!

(I have a lot of family in Georgia and they are big bulldog fans.)