The only way to watch every single Colorado Rockies game is to pay for them, but it doesn’t have to come at season-ticket prices
Q: Saw your article from April re: Rockies games. My 88yearold mother lives in Boulder, is a Rockies fanatic but is living on a very limited budget. She would love to cut Comcast ($180 a month!) but watches the Rockies daily. I got her a Fire stick with Sling and an antenna, but if she can’t have her beloved Rockies that just won’t work. Help! — Beth Bay
Tech+ Cordcutters are seeing more options to view live sports online. In the past few months, new sports friendly streaming services have included ESPN+, Bleacher Report’s B/R Live and CBS Sports HQ.
But when it comes to professional baseball or football games, the leagues are in control and offer extremely limited viewing options for TV or streaming customers.
Even if you were to buy certain cable TV plans that include Rockies games for your home TV, that doesn’t ensure that you’ll also be able to stream all the games on your mobile device. AT&T SportsNet offers an app to stream games to Apple and Android devices but that excludes games blacked out by the league. And oddly, even if you pay for Comcast or Dish for the SportsNet channel, you are unable to stream the games due to licensing agreements — or disagreements in this case.
Even so, your mother may have cheaper options if she starts deleting some addons in her Comcast package. In researching the cheapest TV plan that in cludes SportsNet, the starting price of a package that includes Rockies games via SportsNet can be had for under $100.
According to AT&T SportsNet, the channel is available to Denver customers who pay for CenturyLink Prism TV, DirecTV, Dish Network and Comcast/Xfinity. But the costs are much higher than a streaming video service. According to prices on the companies website, the monthly bill for Denverarea customers with no promotional discounts — and sans added fees and taxes — comes out to the following:
• CenturyLink: Minimum plan is Prism Essential with 165 channels, at $95.99/month
• Comcast: Minimum plan is “Starter” with 140 channels and prices is around $52.59 to $75.49 a month, plus broadcast and regional sports fees.
• DirecTV: Minimum plan is Choice, with prices starting at $105/month plus a fee for Regional sports
• Dish Network: Minimum plan is America’s Top 120+ for $79.99
Please note that cable and satellite TV services do not make it easy to find out how the cost to subscribe to a channel based on a minimum plan and nonpromotional price. The above prices, however, are posted on the company sites, usually in the fine print. As my contact at DirecTV Suzanne Trantow tells me, “We recommend they contact DirecTV for rates as the each package is structured differently.”
Another option? Season tickets. The season price for 54 games beginning June 8 is a minimum $580 for lower rooftop reserved seats. Of course, that doesn’t include every game — or hotdogs and parking fees.
If you missed the earlier Tech Q&A on “What are the options for streaming Colorado Rockies games in 2018?” here is the link: dpo.st/streamingrockies. The gist? Unless you’re a DirecTV customer, it’s difficult to stream Rockies games using the AT&T SportsNet app. However, Rockies games are scattered throughout a variety of streaming services, including MLB.TV, Twitter, Sling, FUBU TV and others.
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