Streaming services will make it an annoying night for Philly sports fans
Fans will need at least three screens to follow all the action tonight, which includes Day 2 of the NFL draft and Game 3 of Sixers-Celtics.
The annoying world of streaming will come to a head for Philly sports fans tonight, with three events scattered across the digital world.
Day 2 of the NFL draft will be the most accessible, airing on ABC, ESPN, and the NFL Network beginning at 7 p.m. tonight. But Birds fans will need at least two separate screens to keep up with the rest of the action across town.
Game 3 of the 76ers’ first-round playoff series against the Boston Celtics also begins at 7 p.m. tonight, but the game isn’t airing on broadcast TV — it’s streaming exclusively on Amazon’s Prime Video and won’t air on NBC Sports Philadelphia.
This is the first year the NBA has put playoff games exclusively behind a streaming service, part of the league’s new 11-year, $76 billion TV rights deal with Amazon, ESPN, and NBC. As a result, NBC Sports Philadelphia lost the ability to broadcast the games locally in and around Philadelphia.
Despite that blackout, NBC Sports Philadelphia will offer pre- and postgame coverage, beginning at 6:30 p.m.
Then there are the woeful Phillies, who bring their nine-game losing streak over to Apple TV tonight to take on the Atlanta Braves at 7:15 p.m. as part of the streamer’s Friday Night Baseball package.
Calling the game on Apple TV are Alex Faust and Ryan Spilborghs, with Tricia Whitaker reporting from Truist Park.
It’s the fifth year of Apple’s foray into baseball, and while the camera work is crisp and clean, a fraction of fans subscribe to the service. That creates headaches every season, since Apple only streams a couple of Phillies game a year while simultaneously raising their price — from $6.99 just a few years ago to $12.99 this season.
At least Apple TV smartly offers an audio feed featuring Phillies radio announcers Scott Franzke, Larry Andersen, and Kevin Stocker.
Thankfully, tomorrow night’s Phillies game — which is expected to see the return of Zack Wheeler — will air normally on NBC Sports Philadelphia.
Also caught up in the mix is Jeopardy!, the second-most-watched TV show in Philadelphia, behind only ABC World News Tonight. With the NFL draft once again on ABC, both Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune are getting bumped off 6abc Friday night and airing overnight Saturday morning.
Jeopardy! is scheduled to air at 3:06 a.m. Saturday, immediately after a rerun of Live with Kelly and Mark. Wheel of Fortune is scheduled to follow.
The timing couldn’t be worse. New Jersey bureaucrat Jamie Ding is going for his 31st victory tonight, which would be one shy of James Holzhauer’s 32-game streak set back in 2022, fourth most in the show’s history. One of tonight’s challengers is Zach Pollock, a retired logistics expert from Media.
The good news is if your DVR is already set up to record either show, it should be there when you wake up Saturday morning. Though you may want to check your DVR just to make sure.
