Threads definitely isn't it. My IG feed is littered with "Threads you might like" and each one is something unnecessarily controversial that looks like it was written by AI to spur engagement.
I knew there was a reason why I liked you, more than just the cynical-as-hell-but-for-more-accurate-than-others approach to the Bulls. I was in China for most of the 2010s, and I was too lazy to use my VPN to get on Twitter, so I never really did. When I left 3 years ago, I got on for like a month, and wow, there was just nothing that I felt I had missed. Since Musk bought it, it’s just been even worse.
I mean, hell, most of the people in the comments sections “blogs” of the sports teams i follow don’t want to read what I type. Why would anyone else?
"Because, as we all know, the best discourse on this team is happening in the BlogABull.com comments and Live Chats."
Hear, hear!
In one of my more mature decisions in college I got off Twitter (and most social media for that matter) and have lived a much happier life for the past decade or so. I've found a few websites that post most of the relevant Tweets for this team, as well that the Bulls subreddit, although I'm fairly certain a lot of the brilliant minds on Bulls Twitter also love to post on r/ChicagoBulls.
I'm sure as the writer of this blog using Twitter has been much more important for getting eyes from Twitter over here, but I think you'll definitely enjoy not being on Twitter as much, even if you may miss out on some extra clicks on the blog because of it.
Email subs are basically RSS 2.0 (or maybe 3.0? RSS may have gotten to 2.xx).
Reddit is pretty good for getting clicks. The comments in sports subs make Twitter users look brilliant, though. Just make sure the subs you post to allow self-promotion.
The thing to remember is that there are some intelligent people there. Most of them just skip the comments section. So posting will still drive views and the ones looking for better discussion than is found on reddit are more likely to stick around.
So this post isn't entirely self-indulgent, I did mention the ongoing CHSN debacle so will use this post to further that (it was in comments of the last post, too)
"the network is resistant to go live on [their own app] until they work out a deal with Comcast Xfinity. And it might be a while. CHSN and Comcast have been haggling over whether to place the network on Comcast’s highest, most expensive tier. CHSN has been holding out for a spot on the same middle tier that the now-defunct NBC Sports Chicago was on."
That Athletic article references this one in the Tribune
"A source who could speak on behalf of the Bulls and White Sox said the Chicago teams would be willing to “take the hit” by a lower carriage fee than they received under NBC Sports Chicago, “but we don’t think it’s acceptable that they want us to take a hit and still want our fans to pay more. That just doesn’t seem right.”"
Who is he crappin'? They aren't interested in 'our fans' paying, they know there aren't enough. They want cable subscribers who aren't fans to also pay.
Meanwhile, today the channel announced the big news that...they're simulcasting The Score morning show. And their president - a guy who just worked for Reinsdcorp for decades, so probably a dummy - is on the radio this morning whining that Comcast isn't being fair.
Nobody is buying cable subscriptions to get Bulls games at this point. There was a time in my life where I did that but it's never coming back. Everything has gotten too stupid.
Basic dispute is that Bulls want the channel in the basic tier with CNN and ESPN, where all subscribers are charged $3 or whatever without the option of not paying for it, vs. Comcast's desire to put it in the higher tier with ESPN Volleyball and 24/7 Tractor Pull, where subscribers have to specifically request and pay an additional fee for it (or more likely buy it in a bundle with other sports channels called like "Sports For People To Watch While They Kill The Time Waiting To Die.") Neither are probably thinking they're going to draw back cord cutters, it's more about how to exploit existing cable customers.
I thought there was a middle tier, but no you're right. XFinity just has 'basic' 10 channel package and then next is literally called 'popular' which has more than just RSN (like Marquee, or NBCSportsChicago prior) but ESPN (and not ESPNU)
I recognize this is negotiating in public, but funny to hear CHSN talk like nothing has changed in the marketplace in the past 5 years, both with RSNs and these specific teams.
This has been the major issue with Comcast / Xfinity for so long. A package that is essentially enhanced OTA and then a package stuffed with the things you want but so so so many things you don't want to pay for. CHSN is something that most people do not want to pay for, at least not passively. Comcast knows this, everyone knows this. I'm blown away that Marquee got their deal done, maybe Jerry should have hired those guys!
CHSN really should have been destined for the sports package, right? Pay $5 more a month for REDZONE and other!
totally agree WRT Marquee. But upon learning that the new network is helmed by a Reinsdorf stooge, and the PE firm stake is also a longtime collaborator, it makes more sense. I'd be surprised if Darryl Boston wasn't in the room too.
From what I’ve seen around the internet, it seems like people are more upset that CHSN isn’t on YouTube TV than Comcast. Odd, I thought they were simulcasting the Score’s morning show since the beginning of the month. They really decided to launch an RSN at the worst possible time. Interest in the three teams that they show is at an all time low. The Bulls are bad and years away from being competitive. The Hawks do have some young talent, but they’re still a few years away from the playoffs. The White Sox are a dumpster fire. The rest of the programming is barely a step above local cable access shows.
have also found like you did that YouTube TV seems to have more market share, at least anecdotally in Twitter replies. And from what I can tell there's zero chance YouTubeTV takes on CHSN. I think what can happen is that they allow add-ons of other apps through the YouTubeTV interface? So if you subscribe to CHSN independently (which isn't an available option yet) you can watch it through YouTubeTV.
But, while dwindling, XFinity is still 50% of the Chicago market. It's a lot harder to get those customers to switch providers because you're talking about equipment (and contracts with multi-unit buildings). If instead someone wanted to change from YouTubeTV to DirecTV Stream just to get CHSN, that's just a change in app and bill.
So CHSN really does not have much leverage here because their product isn't going to make someone go through that hassle. I don't see how they don't back down and go on the higher tier, and take less revenue, simply to avoid the PR hit and your broadcasts maybe won't bring in revenue but will serve as advertising for other revenue sources ("come on down!")
100%. I don't think that CHSN has any leverage. Their product is inferior and they have consumers who they have ignored for ages
These consumers are upset! Jerry et al can continue to feed fans with the 'this is Comcast's fault' stuff but I see no world where this handful of passionate fans swap carriers / wage some sort of proxy war against Comast / Xfinity.
"...barely a step above local cable access shows..."
That's what's ironic in light of not appearing on YouTube TV. Shows like simucasting The Score are sub-ordinary-YouTube-channel quality. I haven't seen this one but I have seen them in other markets — they basically point a camera at the guys taking calls from Joe in Arlington Heights with memorabilia on the wall, right? Like if you did that to start a YouTube channel from scratch, you'd probably fail. They "work" on the radio because there's a captive audience with decades of parasocial feelings built in.
Never mind YouTube TV, this stuff is below a channel called "But The Bulls Bruh" that is "programmed" by an 18 year old kid screaming bloody murder while watching Bronny highlights, much less some of the more informative YT channels. Far less entertaining too.
I never used Twitter for sports content. Perhaps I missed the hey day, but the discussion was always the most shallow. Could you be talking about Coby's jumper and get drowned out by a guy yelling Lebron is better. Under Elon, it's basically a cesspool of right wingers, some of whom are sports fan. Ppl are entitled to their beliefs, I guess, but I don't need to read Angel Reese is a tramp or the NBA is too woke 25 times a day.
I hope billionaires breaking social media reignites the blogs. I had so much fun arguing Bulls here with ppl committed to watching and not trying to get followers for reasons I'm too old l, apparently, to comprehend. Followers. Don't even call them friends. And the ppl you follow would get angry when you disagree with them! Just a horrible discussion environment.
The death of local media has also critically hurt sports coverage and ultimately Fandom. I don't know if the NBA, MLB, NHL, etc get that they are hurting young Fandom with this over the top media conglomeration. They probably don't care. Alas, I don't really have the energy to complain. Sports media is worse than it has ever been. Besides a couple of podcasts, I'm basically out.
CHSN is a ludicrous and low-rent manifestation of the increasing disregard of sports as a collective social phenomenon.
The only way to engage with sports now is as a nerd with niche interests. If you cannot flip on the TV or go the bar and watch the local team, we lose the common topics of conversation that bridge our various sociological divides. Part of why I started paying attention to the Bulls again was because I missed chatting with the guy on the bus about the team or doing March Madness pools with my co-workers. And we are accelerating away from that quickly in part due to this balkanization of TV rights (but also because everyone is retreating to their niche corners of the internet more generally).
There are a lot of factors behind this. Elite withdrawal from social responsibility characteristic of a declining society (what does Reinsdorff care if Chicago does not have a team to get behind?). Technology making possible increasingly esoteric and individualized interests and therefore dispersed, fully online social groups (perhaps you are a Bulls fan who has never met another Bulls fan in real life). Etc, etc. And we are all a little bit more alone because of this.
I'm going to do something unorthodox and defend the Bulls here. I think you've identified the problem correctly. Most people, however, because they just don't like Reinsdorf, aren't looking at the problem or the solution.
Fighting to get/stay in the "general" tier of Comcast is fighting against that balkanization and to stay relevant to the general culture. If they go into the "sports tier", it's a foot in the grave and everyone knows it.
So, while I'm not at all a fan of Reinsdorf, he's in the right about this. If you want have a generalized sports team that draws in casual fans, you have to make it available to casual fans. Casual fans don't pay $10/month to watch games on YouTube TV. They flip the channels and hey look, the Bulls are on, maybe I'll watch. One in a hundred of them becomes a die hard fan who might pay that extra amount.
From Comcast's perspective, they're also a dying industry because they're too short-sighted to see that if they make everything premium, that's what pushes people to say it's worth the hassle of ditching cable altogether.
This is actually true, and like you said, most of us aren't talking about it because we don't like Jerry. With that being said, this still should have been figured out months ago with a clear plan going into the season. The fact that the first game is tomorrow night and CHSN is only on one major cable/satellite provider is absolutely insane.
Clearly Jerry, and whatever idiots he employs at CHSN, thought putting CHSN out for free would make everyone so happy they'd forget the channel wasn't on actual cable. And despite it being free over the air, that doesn't mean everyone is willing to go out and buy an antenna and learn/relearn how to use it. People pay for convenience, and Jerry has removed that convenience from potentially millions of people.
I think this is an NBA level miscalculation much more than particularly a Jerry miscalculation insofar as they have greatly misjudged the market.
20 or 30 years ago, the local NBA team (and the other local sports) were big fish in a small pond when negotiating against regional cable companies which were also a big fish in a small pond. You still saw these kinds of negotiations and arguments but both sides were more equally matched and there weren't as many alternatives. So something got worked out.
Now, the Bulls/Hawks/Sox are a completely local entity trying to negotiate with much larger, more powerful entities like Comcast and Google.
Probably the mistake here was the NBA not understanding this and working to set up a standardized means of hooking their local outlets interfaced with what are now effectively national providers.
Obviously the NBA is collectively just the sum of its parts, and I think a lot of this misjudgment comes from guys like Jerry not realizing what decade they were living in.
I’ll follow you on Bluesky. Please consider giving that platform a chance too. The sports scene recently started growing there after migrations from TwiX and Threads.
Twitter is a cesspool. The faster people exit, the faster we can collectively find the next, less awful forum for talking about live events.
The history of the internet so far tells me that the next forum will be more awful, not less.
Threads definitely isn't it. My IG feed is littered with "Threads you might like" and each one is something unnecessarily controversial that looks like it was written by AI to spur engagement.
I knew there was a reason why I liked you, more than just the cynical-as-hell-but-for-more-accurate-than-others approach to the Bulls. I was in China for most of the 2010s, and I was too lazy to use my VPN to get on Twitter, so I never really did. When I left 3 years ago, I got on for like a month, and wow, there was just nothing that I felt I had missed. Since Musk bought it, it’s just been even worse.
I mean, hell, most of the people in the comments sections “blogs” of the sports teams i follow don’t want to read what I type. Why would anyone else?
"Because, as we all know, the best discourse on this team is happening in the BlogABull.com comments and Live Chats."
Hear, hear!
In one of my more mature decisions in college I got off Twitter (and most social media for that matter) and have lived a much happier life for the past decade or so. I've found a few websites that post most of the relevant Tweets for this team, as well that the Bulls subreddit, although I'm fairly certain a lot of the brilliant minds on Bulls Twitter also love to post on r/ChicagoBulls.
I'm sure as the writer of this blog using Twitter has been much more important for getting eyes from Twitter over here, but I think you'll definitely enjoy not being on Twitter as much, even if you may miss out on some extra clicks on the blog because of it.
I hope you're happy. Somewhere there's a skull-measuring porn-bot that's going to be too depressed to come into work today.
Email subs are basically RSS 2.0 (or maybe 3.0? RSS may have gotten to 2.xx).
Reddit is pretty good for getting clicks. The comments in sports subs make Twitter users look brilliant, though. Just make sure the subs you post to allow self-promotion.
As a lurker and observer of massive traffic in years' past, I know Bulls Reddit does not like this blog
Proving what I said:
" The comments in sports subs make Twitter users look brilliant"
Oh, definitely, I also learned through lurking that they're mouthbreathers
The thing to remember is that there are some intelligent people there. Most of them just skip the comments section. So posting will still drive views and the ones looking for better discussion than is found on reddit are more likely to stick around.
So this post isn't entirely self-indulgent, I did mention the ongoing CHSN debacle so will use this post to further that (it was in comments of the last post, too)
https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5855700/2024/10/19/chsn-comcast-tv-blackhawks?source=user-shared-article
"the network is resistant to go live on [their own app] until they work out a deal with Comcast Xfinity. And it might be a while. CHSN and Comcast have been haggling over whether to place the network on Comcast’s highest, most expensive tier. CHSN has been holding out for a spot on the same middle tier that the now-defunct NBC Sports Chicago was on."
That Athletic article references this one in the Tribune
"A source who could speak on behalf of the Bulls and White Sox said the Chicago teams would be willing to “take the hit” by a lower carriage fee than they received under NBC Sports Chicago, “but we don’t think it’s acceptable that they want us to take a hit and still want our fans to pay more. That just doesn’t seem right.”"
Who is he crappin'? They aren't interested in 'our fans' paying, they know there aren't enough. They want cable subscribers who aren't fans to also pay.
Meanwhile, today the channel announced the big news that...they're simulcasting The Score morning show. And their president - a guy who just worked for Reinsdcorp for decades, so probably a dummy - is on the radio this morning whining that Comcast isn't being fair.
Nobody is buying cable subscriptions to get Bulls games at this point. There was a time in my life where I did that but it's never coming back. Everything has gotten too stupid.
Basic dispute is that Bulls want the channel in the basic tier with CNN and ESPN, where all subscribers are charged $3 or whatever without the option of not paying for it, vs. Comcast's desire to put it in the higher tier with ESPN Volleyball and 24/7 Tractor Pull, where subscribers have to specifically request and pay an additional fee for it (or more likely buy it in a bundle with other sports channels called like "Sports For People To Watch While They Kill The Time Waiting To Die.") Neither are probably thinking they're going to draw back cord cutters, it's more about how to exploit existing cable customers.
I thought there was a middle tier, but no you're right. XFinity just has 'basic' 10 channel package and then next is literally called 'popular' which has more than just RSN (like Marquee, or NBCSportsChicago prior) but ESPN (and not ESPNU)
I recognize this is negotiating in public, but funny to hear CHSN talk like nothing has changed in the marketplace in the past 5 years, both with RSNs and these specific teams.
This has been the major issue with Comcast / Xfinity for so long. A package that is essentially enhanced OTA and then a package stuffed with the things you want but so so so many things you don't want to pay for. CHSN is something that most people do not want to pay for, at least not passively. Comcast knows this, everyone knows this. I'm blown away that Marquee got their deal done, maybe Jerry should have hired those guys!
CHSN really should have been destined for the sports package, right? Pay $5 more a month for REDZONE and other!
totally agree WRT Marquee. But upon learning that the new network is helmed by a Reinsdorf stooge, and the PE firm stake is also a longtime collaborator, it makes more sense. I'd be surprised if Darryl Boston wasn't in the room too.
"Gentlemen, before the negotiations get underway, I'd like to introduce you to our Doritos™ Special Guest ClutchTime™ Negotiator: Mr. Harold Baines!"
From what I’ve seen around the internet, it seems like people are more upset that CHSN isn’t on YouTube TV than Comcast. Odd, I thought they were simulcasting the Score’s morning show since the beginning of the month. They really decided to launch an RSN at the worst possible time. Interest in the three teams that they show is at an all time low. The Bulls are bad and years away from being competitive. The Hawks do have some young talent, but they’re still a few years away from the playoffs. The White Sox are a dumpster fire. The rest of the programming is barely a step above local cable access shows.
have also found like you did that YouTube TV seems to have more market share, at least anecdotally in Twitter replies. And from what I can tell there's zero chance YouTubeTV takes on CHSN. I think what can happen is that they allow add-ons of other apps through the YouTubeTV interface? So if you subscribe to CHSN independently (which isn't an available option yet) you can watch it through YouTubeTV.
But, while dwindling, XFinity is still 50% of the Chicago market. It's a lot harder to get those customers to switch providers because you're talking about equipment (and contracts with multi-unit buildings). If instead someone wanted to change from YouTubeTV to DirecTV Stream just to get CHSN, that's just a change in app and bill.
So CHSN really does not have much leverage here because their product isn't going to make someone go through that hassle. I don't see how they don't back down and go on the higher tier, and take less revenue, simply to avoid the PR hit and your broadcasts maybe won't bring in revenue but will serve as advertising for other revenue sources ("come on down!")
100%. I don't think that CHSN has any leverage. Their product is inferior and they have consumers who they have ignored for ages
These consumers are upset! Jerry et al can continue to feed fans with the 'this is Comcast's fault' stuff but I see no world where this handful of passionate fans swap carriers / wage some sort of proxy war against Comast / Xfinity.
"...barely a step above local cable access shows..."
That's what's ironic in light of not appearing on YouTube TV. Shows like simucasting The Score are sub-ordinary-YouTube-channel quality. I haven't seen this one but I have seen them in other markets — they basically point a camera at the guys taking calls from Joe in Arlington Heights with memorabilia on the wall, right? Like if you did that to start a YouTube channel from scratch, you'd probably fail. They "work" on the radio because there's a captive audience with decades of parasocial feelings built in.
Never mind YouTube TV, this stuff is below a channel called "But The Bulls Bruh" that is "programmed" by an 18 year old kid screaming bloody murder while watching Bronny highlights, much less some of the more informative YT channels. Far less entertaining too.
I never used Twitter for sports content. Perhaps I missed the hey day, but the discussion was always the most shallow. Could you be talking about Coby's jumper and get drowned out by a guy yelling Lebron is better. Under Elon, it's basically a cesspool of right wingers, some of whom are sports fan. Ppl are entitled to their beliefs, I guess, but I don't need to read Angel Reese is a tramp or the NBA is too woke 25 times a day.
I hope billionaires breaking social media reignites the blogs. I had so much fun arguing Bulls here with ppl committed to watching and not trying to get followers for reasons I'm too old l, apparently, to comprehend. Followers. Don't even call them friends. And the ppl you follow would get angry when you disagree with them! Just a horrible discussion environment.
The death of local media has also critically hurt sports coverage and ultimately Fandom. I don't know if the NBA, MLB, NHL, etc get that they are hurting young Fandom with this over the top media conglomeration. They probably don't care. Alas, I don't really have the energy to complain. Sports media is worse than it has ever been. Besides a couple of podcasts, I'm basically out.
LIVE OPEN THREADS are back until Bulls games are irrelevant.
This is some kind of koan, isn't it?
What is the sound of Jim Boylen clapping?
CHSN is a ludicrous and low-rent manifestation of the increasing disregard of sports as a collective social phenomenon.
The only way to engage with sports now is as a nerd with niche interests. If you cannot flip on the TV or go the bar and watch the local team, we lose the common topics of conversation that bridge our various sociological divides. Part of why I started paying attention to the Bulls again was because I missed chatting with the guy on the bus about the team or doing March Madness pools with my co-workers. And we are accelerating away from that quickly in part due to this balkanization of TV rights (but also because everyone is retreating to their niche corners of the internet more generally).
There are a lot of factors behind this. Elite withdrawal from social responsibility characteristic of a declining society (what does Reinsdorff care if Chicago does not have a team to get behind?). Technology making possible increasingly esoteric and individualized interests and therefore dispersed, fully online social groups (perhaps you are a Bulls fan who has never met another Bulls fan in real life). Etc, etc. And we are all a little bit more alone because of this.
I'm going to do something unorthodox and defend the Bulls here. I think you've identified the problem correctly. Most people, however, because they just don't like Reinsdorf, aren't looking at the problem or the solution.
Fighting to get/stay in the "general" tier of Comcast is fighting against that balkanization and to stay relevant to the general culture. If they go into the "sports tier", it's a foot in the grave and everyone knows it.
So, while I'm not at all a fan of Reinsdorf, he's in the right about this. If you want have a generalized sports team that draws in casual fans, you have to make it available to casual fans. Casual fans don't pay $10/month to watch games on YouTube TV. They flip the channels and hey look, the Bulls are on, maybe I'll watch. One in a hundred of them becomes a die hard fan who might pay that extra amount.
From Comcast's perspective, they're also a dying industry because they're too short-sighted to see that if they make everything premium, that's what pushes people to say it's worth the hassle of ditching cable altogether.
This is actually true, and like you said, most of us aren't talking about it because we don't like Jerry. With that being said, this still should have been figured out months ago with a clear plan going into the season. The fact that the first game is tomorrow night and CHSN is only on one major cable/satellite provider is absolutely insane.
Clearly Jerry, and whatever idiots he employs at CHSN, thought putting CHSN out for free would make everyone so happy they'd forget the channel wasn't on actual cable. And despite it being free over the air, that doesn't mean everyone is willing to go out and buy an antenna and learn/relearn how to use it. People pay for convenience, and Jerry has removed that convenience from potentially millions of people.
I think this is an NBA level miscalculation much more than particularly a Jerry miscalculation insofar as they have greatly misjudged the market.
20 or 30 years ago, the local NBA team (and the other local sports) were big fish in a small pond when negotiating against regional cable companies which were also a big fish in a small pond. You still saw these kinds of negotiations and arguments but both sides were more equally matched and there weren't as many alternatives. So something got worked out.
Now, the Bulls/Hawks/Sox are a completely local entity trying to negotiate with much larger, more powerful entities like Comcast and Google.
Probably the mistake here was the NBA not understanding this and working to set up a standardized means of hooking their local outlets interfaced with what are now effectively national providers.
Obviously the NBA is collectively just the sum of its parts, and I think a lot of this misjudgment comes from guys like Jerry not realizing what decade they were living in.
Not sure if I misunderstood, but I don't see BullsBlogger on BlueSky?
Me neither. Just checked. Also searched for BlogaBull too just in case. 🧐 I’m BrooklynBuckets there. What’s your handle Zach?
I’ll follow you on Bluesky. Please consider giving that platform a chance too. The sports scene recently started growing there after migrations from TwiX and Threads.
BlueSky account is up. I plan on just using it to post links to the blog, but I typically can't help myself from getting into *spats*
https://bsky.app/profile/blogabull.bsky.social