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Saturday is family movie night in our household.
Around 7:30, we all sit down and try to pick a movie that all three kids (ages 9, 6 and 3) can agree on watching. Sometimes it's easy. Sometimes it's an odyssey through our various streaming options and platforms.
What's new on Netflix? How about Disney+? Sometimes Hulu has something fun. Amazon Prime Video is always an option if we want to rent something. Wait, didn't we cancel our free trial of Paramount Plus? Nope, well I guess we can pick something there, too.
We have these various subscriptions for various reasons. Each one of them is trying to carve out their market share and keep us subscribing by delivering TV or movies that we don't want to miss.
None of them cost a prohibitive amount by themselves, but I'm refusing to do the math on how much all of them cost together. Ignorance is bliss, in this case, or at least the path to watching the new (awesome) Spider-Verse movie on Netflix again.
Sports are trending in this direction and could be moving there even faster soon, as I talked about with Star Tribune Twins writer Phil Miller on Thursday's Daily Delivery podcast.
So far I've largely resisted buying splintered packages, living with what I get through national channels and watching some local teams on the Bally Sports+ app subscription (when it works).
But a ruling in bankruptcy court Wednesday means the Timberwolves — and almost certainly the Wild, once a similar NHL ruling happens — will be local TV free agents after this season. The Twins are already in that position, with their Bally Sports North contract having expired at the end of this past season.
How we watch sports in 2024 and beyond figures to be significantly different than the dying regional sports network model. Each team and more broadly leagues will have to figure out their best path forward, and some (particularly MLB and the NBA) might be inclined to take over their own production and cable/satellite/streaming distribution in order to offer large packages of sport-specific games.
None of the Twins, Wolves or Wild have publicized their preferred path forward, but as a consumer I have to wonder if there is still value in bundling teams in one market, not one sport, together.
Even in a Bally Sports North-free world, I'd much rather pay a single streaming package fee for those three teams and the Lynx than have them all spread out in separate places and with separate costs. To put it another way: A local consumer is much more likely to care about the Twins and the Wolves than the Twins and the Padres or the Wolves and Hornets.
Maybe that matters less if you are a cable/satellite subscriber, but the dwindling numbers in that category are why we are here in the first place.
I'm not sure how the finances of a detached streaming bundle across leagues would work out, but then again that's the thing that nobody seems to have any idea about in any of this new TV world.
Short of making almost very game free over the air like the Phoenix Suns, finding a way to make it easiest and most consumer-friendly through bundling could be the answer.
Here are four more things to know today:
*The Wolves were getting a lot of national attention before their blowout loss at Phoenix on Wednesday. But that was destined to be a loss on a back-to-back after an emotional game at Golden State. I'm worried less about that and focused more on the finale of a 3-1 road trip (so far) on Saturday at New Orleans.
*The Gophers women's basketball team caught my attention with a breezy win over North Dakota State on Wednesday. The men can do the same Thursday against Missouri.
*Read more on how Joshua Dobbs got up to speed on the Vikings' offense so quickly and also check out our most recent Access Vikings podcast.
*Friday's Daily Delivery guest, all the way from Sweden, will be Star Tribune Wild writer Sarah McLellan.
