The “sheer complexity” of having to “juggle so many streaming platforms has made watching sports a sport unto itself,” according to a front-page piece by Marcelis & Simonetti of the WALL STREET JOURNAL. Many fans "lament the loss of simple joys,” such as the "ability to flip between channels during lulls in the game, given the clunkiness of having to open and close separate apps.” Some are “bewildered to find out they can't watch a bunch of games because they live too close to one of the participating teams," even when the team in question "actually is more than 400 miles away.” But the streaming revolution “hasn’t been bad for everyone.” It has been a “boon to sports fans who live far away from their favorite teams” and who have streaming packages like MLB.tv and NBA League Pass. The intricacies of the sports-media business -- which “prevent users of such packages from watching games featuring a team in their media market, to protect the rights of local TV stations" -- mean “nothing can be too easy.” The continued fragmentation of the TV ecosystem was "at the heart of a high-profile fight” between Disney and Charter Communications. Yankees fan Jimmy Kraft estimates he spends "more than $40 a month during the baseball season" to watch the team, while he "also pays for" NFL+ to watch the Bills and the MSG+ app, which gives him access to the Rangers. Even though he “doesn’t subscribe to all these apps every month,” Kraft said that their “combined cost isn’t that far off what he’d pay for cable TV” (WALL STREET JOURNAL, 9/13).
