Welcome To Virtual Reality

Practicing social distancing has become the new normal in an effort to decrease spread of the corona virus.  One of the interesting consequences of social distancing is the rise of meeting virtually.  We are seeing very few patients in the clinic.  Our appointments are almost exclusively done over telephone or video.  While some health systems have mature video visit infrastructure already setup, most don't leaving those systems scrambling to figure out how to deliver video visits to patients.  The urgency of the situation has greatly increased the speed at which these problems are being solved.  As we begin to offer people virtual visits and their acceptance increases, it will be interesting to see if this becomes a new normal in terms of delivering healthcare, and to what extent.

The other area where virtual meetings have increased is sports, specifically racing.  E-racing series were already a thing, and iRacing has been huge for years.  However, the forced shutdown of sports was a perfect catalyst to increase E-sports presence for the mainstream, and racing has jumped on board without hesitation.  NASCAR had an iRace last weekend at Homestead that attracted nearly a million viewers and Indycar is set to debut their virtual series today.  

Meeting virtually has been an option for years but the COVID-19 situation has forced virtual meetings to become more mainstream.  It will be interesting to see how much of this continues to occur once the pandemic calms down.  I can now reject your reality, and substitute my own.

Covid-19

Shockingly, Sinclair media and Youtube TV came to an agreement for the Fox regional sports networks.  I didn't think there was anyway that would happen considering previous deals with seemingly all other tv providers had not been renewed.  A few channels on the coasts were left out, but luckily I live in the middle of the country so we should continue to get the Pacers as well as Fox Sports Midwest.

This past week the Covid-19 virus released havoc on our society, altering work schedules and school schedules, as well as sports schedules.  With essentially all sports either delayed or cancelled, for the moment there is absolutely no benefit of having the regional sports networks.  I bring all of this up because with sports disappearing for the time being, it is amazing how open my evening and weekend schedules have become.  Sports play a central role in my personal schedule, and the absence of events leaves a huge void in my evenings.    I am going to try to take the opportunity to catch up on some TV I've been hoarding on the DVR or maybe pick up video games again.  While this is an opportunity to watch TV, like everyone else, I am looking forward to the virus slowing down and returning to normalcy.  I've never experienced anything quite like this before.

Sinclair Media and the Regional Sports Networks

Fox was forced to sell their regional sports networks (RSN) when it was acquired by Disney.  Sinclair media purchased the RSNs and has been playing hardball with the price since obtaining the channels.  The RSNs were pulled from Dish network and was one of the reasons why we switched from Dish to YouTube TV.  Last week we were notified that the Fox RSNs were being pulled from YouTube TV due to a contract dispute with Sinclair.  I knew this day would come at some point but was hoping it was further in the future than just 4 months after switching service providers.

The regional sports networks are important to us because they carry Pacers and Cardinals games, so having a TV service without them doesn't make a lot of sense for us.  Due to restrictive MLB blackout rules, we have to get MLB.TV regardless, but we would have no way to watch the Pacers if our carrier didn't have Fox Sports Indiana.  Not even subscribing to NBA League Pass works because they assume we can access Fox Sports Indiana and thus we are blacked out on that service.  

Luckily for us, I can access Fox Sports Go using my dad's DirecTV login.  I don't usually take other people's passwords but I don't feel bad about it in this case.  Since they initially announced the channels were being pulled from YouTube TV, they have since delayed removing the channels, leaving them on the guide while a deal is worked on.  But I am not enthusiastic that a deal will get signed.  The channels have been dropped from several carries since Sinclair came in charge.  They don't seem to be playing nice and carriers are not biting.  It will be interesting to see what happens when the DirecTV deal needs renewed since DirecTV seems to dominate the restaurant and bar scene and losing those locations would be huge to advertisers.  The availability to get the channels is dwindling, and there is a breaking point where advertisers and leagues will have to jump to another channel for their content.  I fear, however, that their endgame is to make the RSNs a premium channel so that they can charge to stream their own app.  More to come, I suppose.  In the meantime, I will enjoy the channel on YouTube TV or Fox Sports Go while I have access.