[valentine]

I’ve never purchased for NBA League pass as I always stremed them from less-than reputable sources. But I’ve decided to take an anti-piracy stance, so wanted to talk about NBA League Pass. And in particular, the 3 available packages.

Package 1 – NBA League Pass Premium – $42 a month

The advantages appear to be "Game Vault, and Home/Away Announcers". Does this justify the extra cost. Is EVERY game ever televised in the game vault?

Package 2 – NBA League Pass $36 a month

Basically you can watch every game. 

Package 3 – NBA TV $11 a month

Only get 10 games per week. That’s plenty by most people’s standards. And is significantly cheaper. What is the quality of the games like. If it’s Sixers vs Nets…I don’t want it. 

So my questions are:

Do you pay these fee’s for just the regular season. Do you get Playoffs included or is that extra? Or do you pay for 12 months of the year?

What are your overall impressions with the service?

 

 

 

 

[Rip255]

 Note that these are Australian Dollars, which is 73c per US dollar. Obviously figures will be different based on your local currency, and simply act as a guide to compare. 

[Rip255]

 Note that these are Australian Dollars, which is 73c per US dollar. Obviously figures will be different based on your local currency, and simply act as a guide to compare. 

[CynthiaParticipant]

Don’t buy League Pass. I’ve been a League Pass member for 4 years now and after last year I never will again. If you research it you will find A LOT of complaints, and their customer service is non-existent.

90% of the games I tried to watch last year came up with the error message "This game is not available due to technical difficulties". I was able to watch games the first week of the season and then after that not 1 single game the rest of the season. I had put in a ticket around October-November of last season, it was March until they responded to me, and even then gave me a very generic robot response that did absolutely nothing to help me. Then after attempting contact for a few more months I finally got ahold of someone who wasn’t from Iraq and I was able to explain my problem and all of their solutions did nothing to fix my problem. Fortunately I was able to get my money back.

Even before that issue of last year there is still a lot of restrictions. Any team that has bought the rights to televise their own games will not be played on League Pass, for example the Thunder have their own channel that broadcasts their games. Thunder games are not shown on League Pass, which since that’s my team that kind of kills it for me. There are a few other teams that own rights and do not show as watchable on League Pass.

Then there’s the station rights, games that are played on TNT or ESPN usually do not show on League Pass, they show up on League Pass but all you can do is listen to the game as if you’re listening to a radio instead of actually being able to watch the game.

All in all, every year the quality and amount of games being shown got worse and worse to the point I had to get a refund for last season, I will never buy League Pass again.

Since you live in Austrailia I can only imagine it could potentially be even worse for you, there will probably be a lot of games that are blocked out for you to watch and you will simply be paying a lot of money just to listen to live games or be forced to only watch an archived game 1-2 days after the live game is over.

It also only works in the regular season, you do not get to watch any playoff games live, you can watch them as an archived game a few days later, but who wants to do that?

[CynthiaParticipant]

Don’t buy League Pass. I’ve been a League Pass member for 4 years now and after last year I never will again. If you research it you will find A LOT of complaints, and their customer service is non-existent.

90% of the games I tried to watch last year came up with the error message "This game is not available due to technical difficulties". I was able to watch games the first week of the season and then after that not 1 single game the rest of the season. I had put in a ticket around October-November of last season, it was March until they responded to me, and even then gave me a very generic robot response that did absolutely nothing to help me. Then after attempting contact for a few more months I finally got ahold of someone who wasn’t from Iraq and I was able to explain my problem and all of their solutions did nothing to fix my problem. Fortunately I was able to get my money back.

Even before that issue of last year there is still a lot of restrictions. Any team that has bought the rights to televise their own games will not be played on League Pass, for example the Thunder have their own channel that broadcasts their games. Thunder games are not shown on League Pass, which since that’s my team that kind of kills it for me. There are a few other teams that own rights and do not show as watchable on League Pass.

Then there’s the station rights, games that are played on TNT or ESPN usually do not show on League Pass, they show up on League Pass but all you can do is listen to the game as if you’re listening to a radio instead of actually being able to watch the game.

All in all, every year the quality and amount of games being shown got worse and worse to the point I had to get a refund for last season, I will never buy League Pass again.

Since you live in Austrailia I can only imagine it could potentially be even worse for you, there will probably be a lot of games that are blocked out for you to watch and you will simply be paying a lot of money just to listen to live games or be forced to only watch an archived game 1-2 days after the live game is over.

It also only works in the regular season, you do not get to watch any playoff games live, you can watch them as an archived game a few days later, but who wants to do that?

[CynthiaParticipant]

By the way I had Premium. The game vault is the archives I was talking about. Yes you can go back and watch every game that was played, which is nice if you missed one, but I’d rather actually see them live. I hate going to work the next day and hearing about the game when I was unable to watch it live. As far as the home/away announcers it’s just whichever teams announcers you’d rather listen to. The only difference is both will have a bias towards their own team.

[CynthiaParticipant]

By the way I had Premium. The game vault is the archives I was talking about. Yes you can go back and watch every game that was played, which is nice if you missed one, but I’d rather actually see them live. I hate going to work the next day and hearing about the game when I was unable to watch it live. As far as the home/away announcers it’s just whichever teams announcers you’d rather listen to. The only difference is both will have a bias towards their own team.

[Magic JordanParticipant]

 I have been a league pass premium subscriber for a few years and have also heard the complaints and read the reviews.  I guess it really depends on where you are located and the quality of your internet connection.  I have little to no problems watching both online and cable.  The only thing that pisses me off is that for some stupid reason NBATV is not included with league pass.  So the weekly games, for say my team… the Lakers are usually always voted as the Tuesday night fan game.  Thus meaning if I want to watch the game in my office where I do all my TV watching on the interwebs, then I am SOL and have to turn to illegal streaming sites.  Pretty stupid and obvious blunder that could be fixed by the NBA but that is really my only complaint.  And that is most likely something you will never have to worry about with the Celtics because well… they aren’t the Lakers and nobody votes to see the Celtics.

[Magic JordanParticipant]

 I have been a league pass premium subscriber for a few years and have also heard the complaints and read the reviews.  I guess it really depends on where you are located and the quality of your internet connection.  I have little to no problems watching both online and cable.  The only thing that pisses me off is that for some stupid reason NBATV is not included with league pass.  So the weekly games, for say my team… the Lakers are usually always voted as the Tuesday night fan game.  Thus meaning if I want to watch the game in my office where I do all my TV watching on the interwebs, then I am SOL and have to turn to illegal streaming sites.  Pretty stupid and obvious blunder that could be fixed by the NBA but that is really my only complaint.  And that is most likely something you will never have to worry about with the Celtics because well… they aren’t the Lakers and nobody votes to see the Celtics.

[Rip255]

 Hmm good info. Except for the Celtics bit. I keep saying I’m not him lol. The Celtics/Harrison guy needs to come forward and back me up here. 

I watch mostly Jazz games and the chances of them getting voted for fan night are less than slim.

So are you locked in for the whole year or can you quit after 2 months if its as bad as Cynthia states.

[Rip255]

 Hmm good info. Except for the Celtics bit. I keep saying I’m not him lol. The Celtics/Harrison guy needs to come forward and back me up here. 

I watch mostly Jazz games and the chances of them getting voted for fan night are less than slim.

So are you locked in for the whole year or can you quit after 2 months if its as bad as Cynthia states.

[Magic JordanParticipant]

 I think it would be up to your internet provider.  You would need to ask them.  I am able to with mine, it just gets prorated for the return.

[Magic JordanParticipant]

 I think it would be up to your internet provider.  You would need to ask them.  I am able to with mine, it just gets prorated for the return.

[omphalosParticipant]

League pass is great in Australia.

There are no restrictions in the content because we don’t have local broadcast deals.

The games this season were edited to remove time outs pretty quickly, usually by the time I got home from work.

Also it’s 100% worth premium so you don’t have to deal with certain really annoying announcers.

So yeah, its way better in Australia than the US (there’s a reason we’re the highest subscribing country outside North America).

 

 

[omphalosParticipant]

League pass is great in Australia.

There are no restrictions in the content because we don’t have local broadcast deals.

The games this season were edited to remove time outs pretty quickly, usually by the time I got home from work.

Also it’s 100% worth premium so you don’t have to deal with certain really annoying announcers.

So yeah, its way better in Australia than the US (there’s a reason we’re the highest subscribing country outside North America).

 

 

[CynthiaParticipant]

Good to know, doesn’t surprise me at all that only US blocks their own games…

[CynthiaParticipant]

Good to know, doesn’t surprise me at all that only US blocks their own games…

[jtoocheapParticipant]

 I recommend Ballstreams over league pass.  It is much cheaper and there are no geographic restrictions.  If you google it you will find a ton of information on it.  You subscribe for a length of time.  A six month subscription will last the entire season and is $59.00.  I think they are taking off $10.00 if you sign up for a year before the end of september.

[jtoocheapParticipant]

 I recommend Ballstreams over league pass.  It is much cheaper and there are no geographic restrictions.  If you google it you will find a ton of information on it.  You subscribe for a length of time.  A six month subscription will last the entire season and is $59.00.  I think they are taking off $10.00 if you sign up for a year before the end of september.

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