Cordcutting Pac-12 fans rejoice!
(Written by kencraw)
One of the ONLY hard parts of dumping the Cable/Satellite package is the difficulty watching sports, particularly (for me) Cal football games. For a year or two now, the Sling service has been a good alternative, providing a number of popular cable channels including ESPN at a cheap price (as little as $20/month), but of little use to us Cal fans as it didn’t have the Pac-12 network.
Until now: Press release – Sling to add Pac-12 network
The minimum cost to get it is $25 a month (with the “Orange package” for $20 plus the “Sports Extra” add-on package for $5 more), with no long term contract, so you can join for just a few months each fall if that’s what you want. That will get you ESPN, ESPN2 and all 6 regional Pac-12 networks. If one then has an antenna to pickup local channels to get ABC and FOX, you’ll be covered for almost every Pac-12 game.
There are unfortunately 2 exceptions:
- The Pac-12 TV contract allows for Pac-12 home games on all of the above stations (ESPN, ESPN2, Pac-12Nets, ABC and FOX) but also allows for FOX to downgrade their games to FS1 (Fox Sports 1). To get that channel, you’ll need to switch to the “Blue” package from Sling. Unfortunately, that will cost you the ESPN channels. So to get ALL of the channels a Pac-12 home game could be on, you’ll need the “Orange” plus “Blue” plus “Sports Extra” add on, which will double your cost to $50 a month.
- The other problem is non-conference road games where it will be based on the TV contract of the home team. So in the case of THIS Saturday’s Cal game at San Diego State, that game will be on CBS Sports Network, which is not available on Sling.
#1 above begs an interesting question: Since it’s a rare case a Cal game will be on FS1, can one stick with the cheaper “Orange” + “Sports Extra” and upgrade just when the needed Cal game comes up? I contacted Sling to find out and the answer is yes, you can upgrade mid-billing-cycle and it will be pro-rated until the end of the billing cycle. What was unclear was whether you could downgrade back to the lower package when the billing cycle renews or whether you were stuck with it for a whole month after that. Still, to cut the price in half for even a portion of the season would be preferable.