As the Duke Basketball team embarks on its Canadian Tour, the games will be broadcasted on ESPN’s new platform, ESPN+ and fans need to know about the new network.
America will get its first look at the 2018-2019 Duke Blue Devils this Wednesday as the team travels to Toronto and then Montreal for a three game set dubbed, “The Canada Tour.” Fans will get to see, for the first time, the number one recruiting class, according to ESPN, in the country sporting three projected NBA lottery picks.
All three of Duke’s games will be broadcasting on the new ESPN+ app, which costs $4.99 per month which comes with a free seven day trial and it’s safe to assume many Duke fans won’t want to pay to watch their Blue Devils.
ESPN+ is just another subscription I’ll be on the hook for, for the rest of my life.
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I have cable and I love it. I get to watch almost every single Duke Basketball game every year with the added benefit of being to watch another game during commercials with one click. But ESPN has me dead to rights.
The temptation of watching Duke play the best Canadian colleges is just too much. Worse yet, I know what is going to happen. I’ll pay for the app, watch the three games and then forget about it (I think I’m still paying for Pandora). The contract might as well say, “Thank you for paying us $5 a month for the rest of your life. We sincerely hope you enjoy this Padres-Mariners game.”
Ironically, cord-cutting is becoming more expensive than regular cable. Netflix, Amazon, Hulu, HBO, ESPN, and hundreds more break you down $5 to $12 at a time. These streaming services have us figured out. For a generation that is supposed to have a short attention span, we sure can power through 100+ hours of Breaking Bad.
Duke fans be warned, watching sports on streaming services is not the most ideal situation. It is impossible to watch more than one game at a time which is the beauty of sports.
Picture this: It’s a Saturday during basketball season and Duke is playing Louisville, but during commercials you want to watch a little of the Virginia vs. North Carolina game. With cable, all you have to do is click one button and instantaneously you’re there without any delay. The cable switches so quickly that your ears don’t even register the absence of sound. These streaming services don’t work that way.
The commercial comes on and you have to exit out of the Duke game, go back to the home page, scroll down to the other game, wait for it to load and by the time you finally get to it, the Duke game is back on. Do you know how awkward it is having 20 people in your house staring at a loading screen during the Super Bowl?
Don’t be that person.