KANSAS CITY, Mo. _ Kansas men's basketball coach Bill Self said he wanted to catch some of the Kansas State-Monmouth game last week for a bit of scouting. The Jayhawks' next game was against the Hawks. But watching it live wasn't possible in the Self household.
"I hate to say this: I couldn't get it," Self said. "I don't have Big 12 NOW. I've got to figure out a way to get it."
That part is easy. Plunk down $4.99 a month and the streaming service that carries many Big 12 and other sporting events through ESPN Plus is yours.
The service will be required to watch six more Kansas men's basketball games, 10 Kansas State games and many other Big 12 contests throughout the season. The Jayhawks' first two Big 12 games, Jan. 4 against West Virginia and Jan. 8 at Iowa State, are on Big 12 NOW.
These are games that in previous years were available on a cable menu. A different subscription service is now required, and those in the Big 12 footprint are still getting used to the idea.
Even Self.
"Everybody that is frustrated, yes, I am too because I wanted to watch it," Self said.
But streaming _ viewing programming through a smart TV, tablet or cell phone _ is the new frontier in sports viewing. Not even new, really _ it's here, and it's here to stay.
"Streaming is the wave of the future," said John McGuire, a sports media and multimedia journalism professor at Oklahoma State.
How long until it becomes even more prevalent? McGuire believes not immediately: issues like wide availability and cost must be resolved first.
ESPN took the plunge in April, 2018, creating ESPN Plus as an on-demand arm of its network, and the Big 12 is its first Power Five conference property.
This is where the Big 12 wants to be, conference commissioner Bob Bowlsby said during Big 12 basketball media days in October.
"Linear (traditional TV) consumption is going down and digital consumption is rising," Bowlsby said. "So we think we're on the right side of technology. We have a great partner with ESPN and (parent company) Disney. So I feel very good about the move we've made."
User trendlines support this move. According to Nielsen, 65% of U.S. households have an enabled internet connection device or smart TV. That's up from 51% in 2017.
Also, Google Sports Viewing Survey polled 1,520 sports fans between 18 and 54 and 30% said that they live-streamed sports events to their smart phones or tablets. Some 80% said they juggled multiple screens while consuming sports. The question for those who have consumed Big 12 sports, specifically Kansas and Kansas State basketball, is this:
Do you want to fork over an additional five bucks a month on top of your cable bill for a chunk of these teams' games?
Before this year, nearly every game was available on a basic cable package. But a streaming subscription was needed to view the Kansas-East Tennessee State or Kansas State-Arkansas-Pine Bluff games last Tuesday night.
The service got off to a rough start in football. The Kansas State-Oklahoma State game on Sept. 28 was a late addition to the Big 12 NOW schedule. The game endured a weather delay, but there were technical difficulties, too, including a blurry picture and poor camera angles.
Another irritant in streaming live sports: Streaming services purport to show games "live," but all of them have varying degrees of "lag," or delay, which means that if you're watching the stream and also following social media on a second screen (phone, tablet, laptop), you'll notice that fans or media who are at the event live or watching somehow via a traditional broadcast are seeing and reporting the game in true real-time _ as much as a full minute or more ahead of what you're seeing via the stream.
K-State athletic director Gene Taylor told The Star: "Those things wouldn't have happened if the game was on ESPN or ESPN2."
A Star poll that asked for fans' preference in sports-watching platforms ran about 2-1 in favor of cable/network over streaming.
ESPN Plus reached two million subscribers within a year of its launch, and the Big 12 NOW agreement includes KU, K-State, Baylor and Oklahoma State this year, with Iowa State, TCU, Texas Tech and West Virginia joining in 2020-21. Texas and Oklahoma have longer contracts with third-tier networks. The network will be home for many non-revenue or Olympic events.
Besides the Big 12, ESPN Plus carries Major League Baseball, NHL and MLS games in addition to some original programming, such as "Miles to Go," featuring KU football coach Les Miles.
A challenge to the streaming future: How many accounts do you want? Or how many can one afford?
"Down the road, if the Royals are streamed, and the NFL, and there's a paywall for the Big 12, is someone going to pay for all of those?" McGuire said. "I will tell you one thing I've learned from my students, a lot of them are beginning to get upset about the fact they find themselves having to pay for a lot of different services _ Netflix, Disney Plus, four or five of these add up."
Fans of Kansas schools with high-profile games in the next few days won't need to stream the games. Kansas is playing in the Maui Invitational, an event televised by ESPN, and Kansas State will participate in the Fort Myers Tip Off on Fox Sports 1.
But the streaming will return, and it's clear it will remain big part of the league's future.
"Change is hard," Bowlsby said. "It's a migration. People my age (67), some of us are technology challenged. (But) do I think this is the right side of technology? Yes, I don't have any hesitation in saying that."
