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So, to rephrase, watching the sports you’d like to legally is rather easy, the options being very obvious and straightforward.

You just believe the costs, either in money or in privacy concerns, are not worth it. Which is reasonable.

But to describe it as impossible does not seem accurate.

Huh? The VPN isn't for privacy.

No, but obviously it’s not the intended path, which would be a cable package.

The poster can just subscribed to the 50 Euro cable package. That is the legal way to get it. The poster just won't pay the list price. It isn't impossible to watch by any stretch of the imagination. There just isn't a willingness to pay.

Just to note that in many cases the cable package is not equivalent to getting F1 TV or MLB TV to take two examples I have experience with. Both those lets you watch the events after the fact which many cable packages do not.

Not just that... the "good" F1TV package gives you many many many streams.

At least 30 or so...in-car from every single car, the main broadcast feed, and a number of others, including alternate (and generally far better... commentary)

Which package is this?

I think it's called Pro or something? It's the one that in the US, at least, costs $100/yr or so.

There's also a basic package that's just the main broadcast feed, that's ~$40 or so

https://www.formula1.com/en/subscribe-to-f1-tv.html

Yup, friend moved back to Puerto Rico after finishing his PhD and can no longer legally watch most cycling. I know there's a whole history of PR/US whatever-you-want-to-call-it, but it's honestly absurd to me that he can't pay for the same steaming package as me.

It's interesting to see how some sport leagues (from my limited understanding of MLB TV) have realized that they are all in this together. Others, like F1 also have that centralized content control, but still manage to drop the ball in parts. And then you have sports like cycling, with historical stakeholders desperately clinging to their slice of pie as everyone slowly sinks (monetarily).

There are matches here in the UK that aren't televised nationally on Saturdays due to rights, but are shown live in other countries. It's a bit of a silly situation when you can't watch a match legally that's 5 miles away but if you're 5000 then that's cool. I understand why, but this only drives people to piracy.

>By now, it is impossible to watch MotoGP, or Formula 1 on a SmartTV using any kind of app in either my host, or home language - my choices are streaming with DRM via custom apps on some platforms (Apple iPad, desktop browser with DRM plugins), or to subscribe for €50/month to a nonsense cable package I won't use.

In many cases, its impossible to watch certain teams, events, and entire sports even if you get cable and purchase every streaming app available in your area. You are left with no option but to pirate a stream or simply be denied the chance to watch at all.

What country? Formula 1 now has its own streaming service [1]. I used to stream it via less legal means previously, because the only legal way to watch it was to pay high monthly costs for some sports TV package, which would have commentators in my native language (which I don't want). I'm not interested in any sport other than Formula 1, so I'm very glad they made their own streaming service.

[1] https://f1tv.formula1.com/

And then they made in unavailable again in Germany because Sky got exclusive licensing rights.

Luckily I had a year long subscription that has remained active.

Sky has neither individual cockpit streams nor English (and French, Dutch and Spanish) language commentary.

> watching sports has become so incredibly difficult using legal means as to be virtually impossible.

> subscribe for €50/month to a nonsense cable package

I mean, these two sentences directly contradict each other.

If I want one specific thing and it is only available with 100s of shit I will never use, is it really available?

Sure, you’re paying 50 for the one thing you want and the rest is effectively free shit you don’t have to watch.