| Just a few short years ago, watching March Madness without cable was a second-rate affair. There wasn’t a single, easy way to get every game, and cord-cutters often had to deal with substandard frame rates and unreliable streams.
These days, we have plenty of options for viewing the NCAA Tournament. Still, you’ll need to choose wisely if you want to get a similar (or better) experience than what you had with cable. While these sorts of “how to watch [major sporting event here] without cable” abound on the internet, this week’s column dives deeper than most on features like multi-channel viewing, frame rates, and more. |
| Comcast’s new streaming box: To avoid losing TV customers to cord-cutting entirely, Comcast is launching a 4K HDR streaming box as part of a new service called Xfinity Flex. The box offers the same apps that run on Comcast’s X1 cable boxes, including Netflix, Amazon Prime, YouTube, Pluto TV, Tubi, and Cheddar, and it supports Comcast’s home automation and security services. It also includes a voice remote.
Should you decide to add cable channels later–which is clearly the goal here–the box will let you upgrade to a TV bundle without extra hardware. TV service would stream directly to the box through a Comcast-approved modem, and will include cloud DVR. Comcast says it’ll support two Flex boxes per home, and customers could use a Roku player or Samsung TV for additional televisions if they ended up getting TV service.
While a Comcast streaming box isn’t necessarily a bad idea, the cable giant has of course found ways to make Flex unappealing. Each box will cost $5 per month to rent, which means you’d come out ahead with a Roku Streaming Stick or Amazon Fire TV Stick in less than a year. And because Comcast doesn’t support rival live TV services like Sling TV and YouTube TV on its X1 platform, you might end up paying more than you have to for TV service as well. Once again, Comcast is so close, yet so far, from offering something that cord-cutters might want.
Amazon adds MLB TV: If you want to watch out-of-market Major League Baseball games this season, you can now add an MLB TV subscription to Amazon Prime for $25 per month or $119 for the year. That’s the same price that MLB TV charges on its own, but going through Amazon means you can use the same app and billing system that you use to watch Prime Video. Amazon will also offer an “X-Ray” feature on Fire TV devices, which lets you click up on the remote to see stats and other details.
Still, you’re probably better off subscribing directly through MLB TV (assuming you can’t get the service for free through T-Mobile). For one thing, Amazon isn’t offering single-team subscriptions, which are cheaper at $92 for the season. Going through MLB TV also gives you the freedom to cancel Amazon Prime if you need to, and it lets you watch games on Google’s Chromecast and Android TV devices, which Amazon doesn’t support due to the two companies’ longstanding feud.
In any case, MLB TV only offers games that are airing outside your area and aren’t nationally-televised. For local teams, you’ll need a live TV streaming service with regional sports. |
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