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Bye Bye Pluto: Hello ESPN+

grizzlyjournal

Well-known member
Which is good. The Big Sky agreement with ESPN+ comes at a cost, however -- $5.99 per month. That'll be something I can afford. Congrats to the Big Sky Conference for making the switch.

https://twitter.com/BigSkyConf/status/1402658398278238216

https://twitter.com/MontanaGrizBB/status/1402667676854480898
 
Boo Pluto was just fine. The should partner with NAU to help raise the standards of BigSky media production and train more students to run streaming broadcasts
 
CleanHOUSE said:
Boo Pluto was just fine. The should partner with NAU to help raise the standards of BigSky media production and train more students to run streaming broadcasts

But that would be smart, no that wouldn't ! it would rob the pig sty of making a few shekels on the backs of people.
 
The Big Sky's announcement convinced me to start subscribing, effective today. While Pluto TV served its purpose it had its share of drawbacks as well.

It's not just a big plus for us Griz and Big Sky Conference fans, it's also a big plus for those of us that enjoy NHL hockey, as ESPN+ will be the exclusive home of out-of-market NHL games starting next season.
 
Overall I think this is a great deal for the Big Sky, but I’m a little bit disappointed that they were only able to negotiate one big Sky regular season game on ESPNU. I feel like they could’ve got at least 5 or something. I understand why they were only able to negotiate 2 football games with wall to wall football every Saturday, but damn I’d like to have a few more bball games.
 
CleanHOUSE said:
Boo Pluto was just fine. The should partner with NAU to help raise the standards of BigSky media production and train more students to run streaming broadcasts

Touche!
 
MissoulaCanucksFan said:
The Big Sky's announcement convinced me to start subscribing, effective today. While Pluto TV served its purpose it had its share of drawbacks as well.

It's not just a big plus for us Griz and Big Sky Conference fans, it's also a big plus for those of us that enjoy NHL hockey, as ESPN+ will be the exclusive home of out-of-market NHL games starting next season.

Agree, looks like monthly subscript or around $60/yr subscript, averages $5/mo, (cancel anytime) that's not bad ! I'm fairly certain the quality will be much improved, (Pluto was atrocious at times--camera focus, commentary, etc). I hope this means ESPN+ will broadcast ALL Griz sports games? Pluto as a free service did serve many folks in MT, those without the means, that was great!
 
fanofzoo said:
Dillon said:

YES

I mean ESPN+ isn't the worst thing, but it does make me nervous, at least all the Griz games were in one place on Pluto. I grew up in love with UM Football, and when I moved out of MT I did my best to follow it and was able to for a bit, then they went to paid streaming service that was shit CBS Stadium or something. The thing that made give up was one year game were on 6 SIX different platforms/channels Pluto, Stadium, ROOT, then like ABC and CBS and Fox channels in Montana. It just blew my mind that they didn't have a marketing/media relations team that could get the biggest show in the state on TV in a easy to find way across the state each week.
Anyway the larger point is UM is just garbage with their media relations. I think they get to obsessed with having a "footprint" and people will just see the Griz and decide to be fans. If you want to make money MARKET THE TEAM. And the easiest way to Market the Team is give people a consistent and accessible and good quality platform and high quality to BE FANS and develop a consistent connection to the team. ESPN+ is going to be a bigger "footprint" bigger "theoretical audience" but it doesn't do anything make it easier for the people who want to be fans to engage with the team (the paywall will probably eliminate quite few actually) AND some people may not realize ESPN doesn't do any production they just host your stream, so its going to be the same low budget production you see on Pluto just behind a paywall. This is why I mentioned NAU in my OP, if you watch their broadcasts they have free online channel that broadcast their sports and I'm pretty sure its largely student run and the quality is far higher than the production of Griz games. If you have a university with a high quality media production program in the conference use the resource!

Exciting news would be if you told me Griz were going to be on TV statewide and we are going to run local commercials advertising the game, partner this by making deals with local bars or establishments in little towns to be Griz bars and put the games on an promote them. Get student ambassadors driving around campus a few hours before the game reminding people to come down for a few hours and pack the arena. Or at the very least get every game on the radio statewide, my Dad can't even pick up the game in hotsprings on terrestrial radio (he doesn't have internet but would like to be a fan).

I guess my gripe is we don't even put in the effort to do statewide media well or take care of Montana's who want to follow the team closely (the ideas I mentioned above require some grass root effort but aren't going to break the bank at all). The Commissioner is going to say “We are absolutely thrilled to join the ESPN family and deliver an elevated viewing experience...[EPSN is the] strongest media brand in sports." You're not elevating anything at Montana you have team that has been winning for 20yrs but can't sell out 15 1hr20min indoor games per year??? Oh yes partnering with the ESPN brand and getting that bigger foot print was the missing piece. Bitch probably 70% of the state hasn't watched more than 1 Griz game in the last 3 years, and they are captive audience its not like Duke is located in MT and is attracting all the eyeballs. Idk I guess for as long as I've been in Montana I've never experienced any sort of media or social engagement that told me to follow Griz basketball or get out to a game unless I was literally on campus, so it shows there is no real effort to build the fan base that takes a program to the next level. Griz basketball should be the talk of Montana and its mostly a whisper, and ESPN+ is not going to change that.
 
This is interesting to me. There have been quite a few people on here for a few years that would say that UNDSU has an advantage or at least were better off because they had ESPN+ coverage for the conference. I think this is a step in the right direction and hope for only improved streaming and watching capabilities. Has anyone seen the numbers yet, or have they not been released? I'd be interested to see how much more they will be getting as a whole. I didn't see anything on it when I searched yesterday.
 
AZDoc said:
This is interesting to me. There have been quite a few people on here for a few years that would say that UNDSU has an advantage or at least were better off because they had ESPN+ coverage for the conference. I think this is a step in the right direction and hope for only improved streaming and watching capabilities. Has anyone seen the numbers yet, or have they not been released? I'd be interested to see how much more they will be getting as a whole. I didn't see anything on it when I searched yesterday.

I think compared to what the Griz have for football it has to be waay better. Right now if you are out of the local market Griz games are kinda all over the place and mostly pretty hard to get ahold of if they aren't on Pluto. Last I checked ROOT doesn't even have any online streaming options.
 
CleanHOUSE said:
AZDoc said:
This is interesting to me. There have been quite a few people on here for a few years that would say that UNDSU has an advantage or at least were better off because they had ESPN+ coverage for the conference. I think this is a step in the right direction and hope for only improved streaming and watching capabilities. Has anyone seen the numbers yet, or have they not been released? I'd be interested to see how much more they will be getting as a whole. I didn't see anything on it when I searched yesterday.

I think compared to what the Griz have for football it has to be waay better. Right now if you are out of the local market Griz games are kinda all over the place and mostly pretty hard to get ahold of if they aren't on Pluto. Last I checked ROOT doesn't even have any online streaming options.

The bolded part is what blows my mind. Why the F@ck can't root get that figured out?
 
PeauxRouge said:
CleanHOUSE said:
I think compared to what the Griz have for football it has to be waay better. Right now if you are out of the local market Griz games are kinda all over the place and mostly pretty hard to get ahold of if they aren't on Pluto. Last I checked ROOT doesn't even have any online streaming options.

The bolded part is what blows my mind. Why the F@ck can't root get that figured out?

I think because they didn't HAVE to. Now, they do...and will I imagine.
 
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