I am a big basketball fan, so the beginning of the NBA season is always like a little personal holiday for me. This year I decided to check out the season tip-off via the new live sports feature that MAX is offering without an upgrade for the rest of 2023. It wasn’t exactly like watching on the normal TNT network feed but could be a preview of the future.
On-demand feel
If you wish to watch a sporting event on MAX, whether it is a MLB game, NHL matchup, or an NBA tilt you will not be able to tune in early and watch programming ahead of time. The contests are relegated to the pregame programming/Studio show Inside The NBA and the game itself. It is delivered like a TV show or movie. One chooses to watch a specific contest and when it goes live it becomes available. When it concludes you will get a screen that says “your event has ended”.
Commercials are more limited
Viewers will notice that the variety of commercials differs from normal broadcasts. That is not necessarily a problem, but it is worth noting. As this kind of thing becomes more common or popular you can figure that the commercials will diversify. The same pattern was on display when ESPN began showing live games over the Internet and has since become almost indistinguishable from a normal broadcast.]
The action comes through normally
In our experience the video and audio played smoothly with no stuttering or other problems. It was easy to forget that it was not a regular TV station/cable feed. performance could probably be affected by the speed of a connection. But for our part it was seemless.
It will come at a premium
How much will is cost to watch live sports in an app that is not built as a multi channel provider? Well right now it is expected to cost an extra $10 for MAX customers. Other services like Peacock and Paramount+ build the cost of the live sports options into the cost of its basic subscription price of something around $6.99. Costs typically rise, so it would probably be asking too much to hope it remains inexpensive. But as with all things it will top out where the majority of paying customers do. Viewers have more power than they give themselves credit for.
