Bay Area cord-cutters have a new option to watch their teams’ games beginning Tuesday.
Bay Area cord-cutters have a new option to watch their teams’ games beginning Tuesday.
Subscribe to continue reading this article.
Already subscribed? To login in, click here.
Bay Area cord-cutters have a new option to watch their teams’ games beginning Tuesday.
NBC Universal is adding its regional sports networks to Peacock for an add-on fee, meaning Bay Area subscribers will be able to watch Warriors, Giants and Sharks games on the streaming platform.
NBC Sports Bay Area and NBC Sports California will both be available, each at a $17.95 monthly price point. That cost is added on top of a Peacock Premium ($7.99/month) or Peacock Premium Plus ($13.99, no ads) subscription.
A spokesperson for NBC Universal confirmed that access to games will be the same as the company’s TV offerings, meaning that Sacramento Kings games will not be available to NBC Sports California subscribers in the Bay Area, though A’s and Sharks games will be.
The add-on will be a 24/7 channel within the Peacock platform, so the Bay FC, San Jose State and Santa Cruz Warriors games aired on NBC Sports Bay Area’s TV channel will be available on the stream, as will 49ers-related shows. Games aired on “plus” channels — like when the Warriors and Giants play at the same time — will be available on the service.
The price for a single channel — or both NBC Sports Bay Area and NBC Sports California — is significantly less than YouTube TV, Fubo or Hulu + Live TV, though those services offer many more channels. The NBC regional sports networks are still not on Sling, which dropped them in 2021.
Blackout dates for nationally televised games will still apply, just like they do for NBC Sports cable offerings. User location could also lead to games being blacked out, so fans who travel frequently may want to examine their options.
Another potential downside: NBC Universal’s release did not mention anything about replay functionality, so any frequent DVR users may want to think twice before making the leap.
The rollout includes all four of NBC Universal’s regional sports networks — Bay Area, California, Philadelphia and Boston — and comes two months after the company moved its Northern California offerings to a higher tier for TV subscribers, pitching it as cost savings for those who don’t want to incur sports carriage fees.