The good and bad of the new way to watch the Mavericks
I held on to DirectTV way too long. Like until just a couple of months ago. As soon as the Rangers, Stars and Mavericks were off of Bally, so was I. It felt good. After the Stars launched Victory Plus, which works really well (and is free!), I was excited to see how I’d be watching the Mavericks this year.
The announcement came that an agreement had been reached to broadcast over the air. My local CBS Affiliate in Tyler, KYTX, would have the games as well. However, it turned out KYTX has multiple sub-channels. 19-1, 19-2, 19-3, etc. The Mavericks games are broadcast on 19-3, which is normally ME-TV. It turns out the resolution required for watching a modern NBA game is slightly higher than what you need to broadcast re-runs of Perry Mason 24 hours a day, so the weak signal means the game looks absolutely terrible.
This meant I subscribed to MavsTV. The picture quality is great, the branding is enjoyable. It’s fun seeing the in-arena entertainment during breaks, which makes it feel way more like you’re actually at the game than when you have to watch the same commercials over and over. Now that Sarah Merrifield left the Rooms-to-Go Lounge, I don’t miss Bally at all. I also got a $75 gift card to the Mavs shop that I used to buy an awesome track jacket that I’m probably not cool enough to pull off wearing.
The bad thing is that I often watch games on my iPad. For some insane and infuriating reason, the games cannot be displayed in full screen. Other games on League Pass work fine, but not MavsTV games. Chatting with NBA support didn’t help. I’ve tried everything else too. Updates, uninstalling and re-installing the app, throwing the iPad across the room. Nothing fixes it, so I’m resigned to watching the games on a small fraction of the screen. But at least I get to watch.
The biggest downside is that now I have to see Mavs Man more than I ever wanted. In the past I could mostly forget about him, but now several times a game I have to see him shooting t-shirts into the audience. I hate him so much.
The other problem is that the product I’m getting to watch hasn’t been great, but that’s a discussion for another article.