Product: ESPN3
Price: $0.00 (with compatible cable provider)
Rating: Strong Recommend
We've introduced you to products like the Roku, devices of instant gratification and even offering the option to ditch your cable bill. One of the most common complaints from those who drop cable is that they don't have access to sporting events. The best cable package and access to pay per view at one time didn't even ensure we'd be able to see every game. ESPN3 (formerly ESPN360) has helped fill the void. Games not picked up by the networks are often shown on this broadband network for sports, bringing us closer to a world where cable could be wholly abandoned.
Streaming an afternoon game; the service shows potential, though the stream broke up a few times during our viewing.
ESPN3 is a broadband network for live sports. It covers sports like football, basketball, soccer, golf, and tennis. We admit that we went to a small private school whose sports teams often doesn't make it onto the major networks or ESPN, but ESPN3 has allowed us to view many basketball games that we would have resorted to AM radio to attempt to enjoy. And if we are busy at the time of the game, games can be viewed 24 hrs up to a week after broadcast. Another feature of ESPN3 is that it can be viewed on Xbox Live by those with gold memberships.
ESPN3 does have some flaws. It is only available to subscribers of participating ISPs and on college campuses and military bases; some games are "blacked out" in certain regions. This mean that a local channel or pay per view have purchased the game showing, thus no broadcast via ESPN3 permitted. We also noted some bandwidth-related resolution fluctuations that may affect image quality while viewing, but this all depends on your connection speed.
ESPN cannot be viewed through wireless internet cards so viewing on the iPad on the go isn't available. However if you're holed up in a hotel out of town, some users can sign into the service through their ISPs. We currently live in an area where the only service provider doesn't subscribe, but we manage to still use the service by using the VPN client our school provides.
Our Ratings:
Strong Recommend*
Recommend
Weak Recommend
Don't Recommend
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Comments (6)
ESPN 3 is to sports what Netflix is to movies
We use this all the time. You just go to the ESPN site and choose your provider and sign in. It can definitely be done on a wireless card. My home PC is wireless and I can also see it on my phone. iPad can't do it only because there is no Flash.
The blackout dates of local teams kills the utility for any dedicated sports watcher unfortunately. Until online providers can offer full access with HD broadcast, the cable companies will still have a leg up. If only sports leagues could pen deals with providers for per team broadcast subscriptions, accessible online via any device...seems logical step with the number of mobile viewers.
let me know when I can get "ESPN The Ocho"
ESPN3 has been my salvation in not having anything beyond bare bones basic cable anymore. Sometimes an event will have its own website that provides live coverage; I watched all of the major tennis tournaments online, free of charge, last year. The US Open site was fantastic; HD coverage, choice of watching 5 different matches, great commentary, and no commercials. I wish all sports had such great online coverage.
ESPN3 on the Xbox has a huge problem with the advertisements. At first it was like espn3.com where commercial breaks are replaced with a message that the program would be back in a moment. But during the college bowl season, they started putting in their own commercials.
The problem was that they kept playing the same commercials over and over again. For many bowls there were only two commercials, one by AT&T and the second by All State, repeated endlessly. It was grating on the nerves to hear the same commercial over and over each break, sometimes played three times in a row. Anyone who has had a child get obsessed with a song knows that even the most innocent sounding audio quickly will drive you mad when played over and over again.
The really odd thing happened during the BCS Championship game between Oregon and Auburn. ESPN3 kept playing the same internal commercial featuring everyone mindlessly cheering "Roll Tide!" over and over again. Since it was an ESPN commercial, it wasn't even that anyone paid to have it inserted. Anyone whos anything about college football knows that Auburn fans don't want to hear "Roll Tide!" several thousand times while watching their game. Out of all of the ESPN commercials, why pick that one?
Whoever is in charge of inserting commercials into Xbox Live's ESPN3 feed needs to go. If they can't leave that space empty and can't play the normal network commercials, they need to get some good variety in the advertisements or risk alienating viewers before the service even gets a chance to get off the ground.