Planning on spending Friday night relaxing with the UConn men’s basketball team as they take on UMass Lowell? Well, get that credit card handy.
If you haven’t already heard, in order to watch this game — as well as another 15 UConn men’s and women’s games throughout the season — fans will need a subscription to NBC streaming service Peacock, at a price of $10.99 per month.
The arrival of the paywall was brought on by a multimillion-dollar deal between NBC and the Big East Conference announced in June 2024. Next affected is the women’s game with Ohio State on Nov. 16. Men’s games on Dec. 5 (East Texas A&M), Dec. 16 (Butler) and Dec. 31 (Xavier) are on Peacock, as are women’s games on Dec. 17 (Marquette) and Dec. 31, preceding the men’s game (Providence).
Then there’s the men’s game that will be one of the most highly anticipated of all — St. John’s at UConn on Feb. 25 — which is also behind the paywall. The season’s second meeting between the Huskies and Red Storm undoubtedly will have Big East tournament as well as NCAA seeding implications.
In addition to the 16 UConn regular-season games, NBC is placing the entire Big East women’s tournament and five men’s tournament games on Peacock. That mean’s the UConn women, already on Peacock more than any other women’s program, will most likely have three postseason games affected.
Then there’s this: If you’re one of the millions of YouTube TV customers, then you are aware that negotiations between the streaming service and Disney broke off at the end of October and all Disney content — which includes ABC and ESPN channels — has been dropped.
Because of the NBC deal, which also includes FOX and TNT, there are not as many games on ESPN this season, but unless an agreement is reached the only way to watch December’s high-profile UConn men’s games vs. Florida and Kansas will be with a Disney+ subscription. Oh … that’s another $19.99 per month.