Oh and when (not if) your stream connection drops, you will have to watch their ads again.
That’s how SportsNet is in Canada for the NHL. It isn’t terrible, but it’s pretty bad and they’re obviously taking advantage of their monopoly (for broadcast rights) to foist a low quality, premium priced service onto the public.
ESPN+ in the US costs half of what we pay for SportsNet in Canada and it’s better quality. I can’t coax a 60fps stream out of SportsNet while a 720p60 ESPN+ with upscaling on an Nvidia Shield looks very good.
So, in Canada you don’t have any good options. You either pay for the legit service that’s terrible quality or you get something that’s grey market (ESPN+ via VPN) or flat out piracy.
Over the last 3 years I’ve spent more on piracy than what a SportsNet subscription would cost. My money is there for them to take if they can ever deliver a product that’s not absolute trash.