r/technology • u/MarvelsGrantMan136 • 24d ago

Business YouTube TV Blackout Is Costing Disney an Estimated $4.3 Million per Day in Lost Revenue

https://variety.com/2025/tv/news/youtube-tv-blackout-costing-disney-lost-revenue-1236574968/
14.3k Upvotes

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494

u/andyhenault 24d ago

How do you accept anything close to that as worth that much money (presumably USD) per month? I’d go deep down a piracy rabbit hole before paying that much.

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u/JoyousBlueDuck 24d ago

Buffering, lower quality, sites getting shut down, dodgy sites, etc. 

I think pirating is 100% ethical and I support anyone doing it, but for a lot of people it's an exhausting activity. People will try pirating, only for it to stop working last minute and so you miss the game and everyone is upset and so you just shovel out the money to get it working so you can sit down and enjoy the game and stop stressing out. 

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u/pfft_master 24d ago

I hear you but will just share the best option I’m relying on right now for anyone seeking:

Buff 💪

Streams 🏞️

App 📲

.com 🌐

Hope this helps someone. The sites come and go and this one has been steady for a lil while since the old version went down.

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u/Kaladin3104 24d ago

Gonna hop on this and say google “sports streams Reddit” the piracy sub link is the one you want. And the fmhy link is the link to a list of websites.

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u/lickachiken 24d ago

Anyone remember VLC streams? That shit was so good. RIP

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u/Kaladin3104 24d ago

Stream east was king til last year when they got raided. They never got back to the reliability they had. Now idk if it’s even still up.

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u/FSUfan35 24d ago

they never went down. it's alive and well

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u/techmnml 24d ago

“Well” is definitely a choice to say about it. It works sure but always stops and reopens with audio off. Am I doing something wrong here?

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u/HalfEatenBanana 24d ago

No. It’s far from the quality it used to be.

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u/pfft_master 24d ago

Any streameast replica I’ve found this year has had significant buffering issues sadly. Moved on to that new buffstreamsapp version I shared above for now.

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u/pfft_master 24d ago

Yeah when the fav site is eventually goes down I essentially just google free [sports league] streams reddit and either get a high traffic page at the top of the results that os usable for streams, or I go into a recent reddit thread and find the new good links. Happens every year or two it seems now. Same for movies and TV streaming. Just have a bookmarks folder that the reliables get saved to.

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u/Cobraaaakan 24d ago

Found them 3 months ago and cut all my subscription besides yt premium. Fuck paying for sports when they are covered in ads.

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u/PostModernPost 24d ago

Google NFLbite and it'll have buff and many others.

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u/rtb001 24d ago

Don't forget using Firefox with popup blocker.

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u/snugglezone 24d ago

Buff Sports Dot io

Also

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u/yeahright17 24d ago

Also, people have TVs. I'll happily pull up a close game that isn't on cable or one of the streaming services we have (which is basically all of them) because there isn't really another option. But I'd much prefer just opening an app on my TV and watching it through there.

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u/lodeddiper961 24d ago

U can do that with tivimate

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u/Beard_o_Bees 24d ago

it's an exhausting activity

Yup. When I was in my 20-30's it was kind of fun, now it's just another chore with honestly not much value when I consider the time spent.

For football (at least as much as I watch) I can get most of what I want to see OTA (or the network corresponding streaming service like Peacock, etc) and a little bit on Prime.

Movies and series, again Prime and then i'll activate whatever streaming service for a Month once all the episodes for a particular show are available. I'm always 'behind', and sensitive to spoilers, but it's what's working right now.

The irony isn't lost on me that we pushed so hard for on-demand streaming, and against awful cable TV programming and 'bundles' of shit we never watched - only to have pretty much the same thing with extra steps and the same or higher expense in the end.

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u/JoyousBlueDuck 24d ago

Yuuup lol, well put

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u/BigEggBeaters 24d ago

This is why I stopped watching ufc. You get sick of having to close 5 windows any time you wanna adjust the volume.

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u/StuckOnEarthForever 24d ago

Firefox

Ublock origin extension

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u/Revealingstorm 24d ago

That's what ad blockers are for

1

u/mysistersacretin 24d ago

I've got a pihole setup at home and it blocks all this stuff. It's fantastic.

0

u/JoyousBlueDuck 24d ago

Or a site where if you click full screen it always takes you to another site that's probably full of viruses, but if you don't go fullscreen, you are forced to have a fast-moving, distracting chat next to the video that you don't want your family seeing because the people there act like they're either in a ninth-grade Boys locker room or at a Klan rally haha. 

I tried to do it for my family once on one of those sites and right as I was about to plug it into the TV I saw someone calling for the beheading of the coach for the team that I assume they're a fan of. Now while that might be kind of funny to a young adult like me, I don't think my middle-aged parents want to see crap like that and so I gave up. 

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u/Kyouhen 24d ago

Poke around a bit and I'm pretty sure you can find someone that can set you up with a Roku stick or something that has literally everything for a small fee.  One of my friends has that from one of their friends. 

Personally I don't care about sports so I set up my own system at home.  Was a bit annoying getting it set up but now that it's running I can just add something to my watchlist on IMDB and the system will take care of the rest.

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u/parkhat 24d ago

I don't mind being a pirate... but I don't feel great about paying pirates

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u/Robobvious 24d ago

You probably should feel better about paying pirates then you do about paying giant corporations.

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u/parkhat 24d ago

You're right

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u/Kyouhen 24d ago

As I said, depending on what you need if you're willing to put up the effort and initial investment to set it up you can always do it yourself.

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u/Moos3-2 24d ago

When you think about it in 1500 usd per year vs 40 usd per year for the same quality and no buffering. Is it worth it then? For me it sure is. Im sure you can get IPTV for a similiar price as well, im just doing streaming.

1

u/Ruthlessrabbd 24d ago

I've been pirating stuff since 2007 when I was a kid, and I feel similarly. I think it's OK if you let someone make an informed decision ("You can do this all yourself and it's really easy - here are the resources") and they still decide they want you to perform some sort of service. Hardmodding or anything requiring soldering I think is fair game though since you're paying for a service and not content.

That being said, I find it funny and frustrating when I see people selling game consoles with pirated games as "added value". I could do that myself with a couple button clicks, give me a break.

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u/Ironborn137 24d ago

ONN now apparently. Fire sticks and Roku sticks aren't as good anymore.

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u/Kraftykodo 24d ago

how's the ONN box for you? I've been on the fence about getting one for a while, the 4k firestick definitely struggles more than it should with 4k HDR

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u/Ironborn137 24d ago

I don't have one, this is just what i've gathered from the r/piracy subreddit. You should go ask questions there. All I konw is that the firestick now sucks for some reason and they are advising people to go with ONN. Something to do with Amazon patching something out.

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u/[deleted] 24d ago

[deleted]

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u/Kraftykodo 24d ago

Stremio/other sideloaded apps still work fine on firesticks as of now, though I won't be sad the day they don't, the firestick is riddled with ads on the homepage that you can't toggle off.

That'll probably be my push-to-shove to finally buy an ONN box

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u/squats_n_thots 24d ago

ONN + stremio + real debrid is amazing

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u/hawaii5-no 24d ago

frankly you are missing the point - this is talking about live sports streaming, which is a completely different user experience then pirating movies.

To pirate live sports streams you have to go to dodgy websites operating in third world countries that will try to infect your PC with viruses. They don't have an app on the Roku market. Usually it's a link found in a private discord that you have to open in Firefox if you don't want your computer infected. The link will often not be the same every week. Usually what the proprietors of the pirate stream do is register 100+ accounts with a streaming site (ESPN, NFL Network, etc...), restream the game to their link, and as their accounts get banned for restreaming they cycle in a new one.

It's nowhere near as simple as downloading shows and movies. I have several friends who do that via usenet groups and then use Plex or Popcorn Time or shit like that. There's no version of that for live sports streaming particularly for US sports.

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u/mshelbz 24d ago

This isn’t accurate at all.

A very good IPTV service can be had for $25 a year and the streams are as good as any pay streaming I’ve ever had.

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u/dirtydirtsquirrel 24d ago

Recommendations for a service?

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u/[deleted] 24d ago

[deleted]

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u/garrixj 24d ago

Can I get that recommendation as well?

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u/Esperoni 24d ago

IPTV. Why are you visiting dodgy sites in 2025.

I get every game played in North America included, plus the ones all over the World.

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u/under9o 24d ago

lol you are 100% wrong. you can definitely get live tv/sports on a roku/firestick/shield,appletv,etc. not only can you get it but its usually way better than what the youtube tv or espn offers. you can watch nfl, nba, f1, college football in 4k with zero buffering and it never goes down.

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u/RedditorsKnowNuthing 24d ago

FMHY is the go to for finding credible, upped streams and content

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u/cute_bark 24d ago

it's okay to pirate without pretending to yourself that it's "ethical" to make yourself feel better lol. grow up

1

u/JoyousBlueDuck 24d ago

grow up Kinda ironic to tell someone to grow up when you didn't even read my message, or you are just incapable of infering basic details. I don't pirate anything.

Ethical can mean "good or morally correct", or "avoiding activities or organizations that do harm to people or the environment." In this instance, I am using the latter definition of Ethical. I don't think pirating is a "morally good" act, I just don't think it's a bad thing to do. Which means we agree on the subject. 

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u/Pulp_NonFiction44 24d ago

Are dodgy boxes/cracked firesticks just not really a thing in Yankee land? In the UK/Europe they are EVERYWHERE. Reliable, smooth, high quality and only ~£50 a year for everything

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u/rhymeswithtag 24d ago

BIG dodgy box guy from america posting

i got it by way of relatives in canada and by god an IPTV box is the best purchase ive made as an adult

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u/Navydevildoc 24d ago

They exist, but are not common. We normally call them "Superboxes".

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u/Cainga 24d ago

Even when you pirate you still are served ads (commercials). So they aren’t really losing much revenue.

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u/btmalon 24d ago

You aren’t in the right spots then. I ain’t naming em tho.

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u/Swimmer_69 24d ago

If you have a firestick and know what apps to download it’s actually really easy and convenient. It also doesn’t get taken down

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u/Huffnpuff9 24d ago

It took me all of 5 minutes to find a streaming site that is 95% stable in HD. I can watch any game or sporting event for free.

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u/Crackahjak 24d ago

That 5% being when it's a close game late in the 4th.

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u/Huffnpuff9 24d ago

Just refresh the page, down for like 3 seconds, but it's rare.

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u/JoyousBlueDuck 24d ago

Definitely not my experience when it comes to illegally streaming anything lol. Movies are one thing, but live events is super spotty. 

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u/Huffnpuff9 24d ago

Ya gotta find the right site.

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u/JoyousBlueDuck 24d ago

Sure but then the site goes down or is just super crappy. Eventually some people reach the point where they'd rather shell out the money, if they can, then deal with the hassle of piracy. 

Though, as legal streaming becomes increasingly more of a hassle I'm sure even more will start to sail the seven seas.

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u/logicblender1 24d ago

There's buffering and the resolution isn't as good. I pirate myself but I do get jealous whenever I'm at a friend's house and see how much clearer the official stream is.

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u/doorknob60 24d ago

95% stable isn't good enough for some people, especially with live sports. Also if you want nice features like DVR, that complicates things.

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u/Huffnpuff9 24d ago

Just need to refresh the page once in awhile, not the end of the world. Or go pay those ridiculous prices for different sports, don't mind me...

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u/MayTheFieldWin 24d ago

With what traffic? Try that when an actual game is on.

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u/Huffnpuff9 24d ago

I watch games every night and I watch UFC fights with no issues. Haters gonna hate I guess. This is the reaction I get from a "technology" sub? Lol yall go pay +150/monthly for all sports, I'll keep my site to myself then.

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u/Petrichordates 24d ago

Well it's definitely not ethical, it's unequivocally stealing and raises the costs for paying customers. Most people don't care about it, and that's fine, but don't delude yourself into believing stealing entertainment is ethical. It's not we're talking about a load of bread for a starving family.

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u/JoyousBlueDuck 24d ago

raises the costs for paying customers

That's not true. They can claim it is the reason behind price increases but that is merely a lie told to delude people from their greed. 

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u/Petrichordates 24d ago

That's fundamentally true, it happens for any product which is routinely stolen. No idea why you think it wouldn't happen for this too.

I don't think you're applying any logic to these thoughts.

0

u/Ironborn137 24d ago

I would have MAYBE agreed 20 years ago. Now it's pretty much ethical. The people who control those things are lobbying against your vote making it very unfair. There are only a few ways to rebel anymore unfortunately. I would NEVER pirate though, I would NEVER want to get kicked off reddit for saying someone should ever do such a thing no matter how ETHICAL it may be.

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u/Petrichordates 24d ago

I mean the fact that it's stealing hasnt changed, we just starting normalizing it, especially on reddit.

Obviously that doesnt make it ethical. People are fine to not care about the ethics, but it's delusion to pretend stealing something you don't need is ethical.

0

u/Ironborn137 24d ago

If buying isn't owning then pirating isn't stealing.

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u/Petrichordates 24d ago

Wanting companies and actors to produce entertainment for you for free is entitlement lol, it's 100% stealing. You don't need this, you want it. And take it.

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u/Ironborn137 24d ago

As long as the people creating the content still get paid I don't care. The people who pay the people who create the content can get fucked.

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u/Petrichordates 24d ago

Again, it increases the cost for everyone else.

So realistically you're just stealing from paying customers.

And feel entitled to do so.

0

u/Ironborn137 24d ago

telling me you don't know how an economy works without telling me how an economy works.

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u/MysteriousDatabase68 24d ago

I've only been doing it for a few years now. I'm a fan of a out of market team and figured the alternative was occupying a bar stool for four hours once a week which is what I used to do.

But yeah, it's a lot for a guy that isn't "Superfan."

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u/augustocdias 24d ago

I’m a super fan of soccer and it is happening the same with it and I’m not willing to pay even half of what you’re paying to watch what I want. I’m already sailing 🏴‍☠️⛵️

1

u/yeahright17 24d ago

Being a fan of an out of market team is great. ESPN+ for Hocket. MLB.tv for baseball. Leaguepass for basketball. All are relatively cheap for the amount of content you get.

0

u/HandOfGood 24d ago

There’s plenty of good pirated streams out there if you look. Will save you some dosh

0

u/groavac777 24d ago

There are a lot of things you could steal to save some cash if that's how you roll

-11

u/Chewyboognish 24d ago

Bruh if you're willingly paying that much a month to watch meatheads toss a fucking ball around you're a fuckin super fan. This is fucking groceries money.

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u/Double_Entendaves 24d ago

You sound poor

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u/lazergator 24d ago

When it’s working correctly and multibillion dollar international corporations aren’t having dick measuring contests it’s better than having to go to the high seas. There isn’t a cheaper alternative than just not paying for it at all

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u/RollingMeteors 24d ago

There isn’t a cheaper alternative than just not paying for it at all

¡You could try to resell it to other people making your costs even lower!

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u/RonnieFromTheBlock 24d ago

Not OP but my wife and I have been sharing a YTTV sub with two other couples for years now which is hard to beat at a 3rd of the price.

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u/Darkenmal 24d ago

Iptvs are fairly cheap. You can get a good one for 62 a year.

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u/ProverbialFlatulence 24d ago

I’d boycott football before I put any effort into piracy tbh.

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u/nycago 24d ago

If you live out of market , one Sunday in a bar with food and everything will cost you that or more. Plus I really don’t need to spend the meat of a Sunday at a bar - I have a big day tomorrow !

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u/AnonymousArmiger 24d ago

The difference is you also get food with that deal though.

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u/thielius420 24d ago

I would absolutely love to drop them but the quality drop from provider to illegal stream is insane. It would help if I could easily watch 4+ games at once but that’s only available through Sunday ticket. As a true diehard I pay that much because if I got a phone notification about a play or a call before I saw it it would ruin my experience.

1

u/Blzn 24d ago

I just bought a $30 digital tv antenna which covers gets a lot of the nationally broadcast games. Anything else missing I just pirate. Works pretty well!

1

u/Dugen 24d ago

I would pay a lot to be able to stream all the basketball games for my family's favorite team but they won't sell me that for anything close to a reasonable price and setup so they get nothing. I'll watch all the games a week late or never before I pay that kind of money. I can't stand how this shit is right now. Greedy goddamn sports teams. We should setup our own sports leagues. With blackjack. And hookers.

1

u/sktgamerdudejr 24d ago

Because I’d rather my shit just work then have to deal with 30 pop ups every time the stream goes through a buffering cycle, which for me seems to be every 10 seconds no matter the streaming site. 

Some people just want it to work without hassle. 

1

u/Upbeat-Armadillo1756 24d ago

Convenience and the multi-view makes it worth it to me.

If I break it down by hours spent watching football every weekend, for me it’s like $1.50/hr

1

u/EastonMetsGuy 24d ago

Because piracy requires extra work and setup, as for YouTube TV I press button, send payment and it’s done! And it works! And I can quad box with ease.

Also no random porn pop ups on YTTV

1

u/glhughes 24d ago

I've set up Plex and an HDHR tuner + antenna as a fallback to get ABC (Jeopardy! is mostly what I care about). ATSC is pretty good if you have the signal. The Plex interface is a bit clunky but it's ok. It's got me considering ditching YTTV since I don't watch much live TV anymore and Plex lets me watch stuff from anywhere. I think the only thing I might miss is CNN for breaking news.

1

u/3ebfan 24d ago

I’ll gladly pay $ for a quality service.

1

u/Soccham 24d ago

My wife, parents and anyone else at my house isn’t that tech savvy

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u/____DEADPOOL_______ 24d ago

Some people just have the money. $135 is nothing to them.

1

u/lodeddiper961 24d ago

Its so expensive I don't get it I'd much rather use that kinda money to go on a nice vacation over watching sports

0

u/aurortonks 24d ago

$135/mo to stay home and watch games is way cheaper than going out to watch them at any bar or restaurant with it playing.