BUZZR on Sling

[aaron sica]

In case you haven't heard, Sling is offering a scaled-down version of their service for free for 90 days because of what's going on, no credit card, login required, etc.

One of the free channels they have is BUZZR - and although the guide lists the normal schedule, that's not what shows. For example - 8pm was MG '75, 8:30 was TANLMAD, and 9pm was Password ('60s).

I thought it might have been on a time delay until TANLMAD aired immediately after MG '75. Oddly enough, no on-screen bug either.

[tvmitch]

I happened upon this a couple nights ago. Probably Wednesday. The days all run together.

Anyway, when I looked at it then, it was Perry CS at around 9:15 PM. I did notice then that there wasn't a bug.

I'd subscribe to Sling instantly if they made this a channel that could be DVRed. I used the KlowdTV service for awhile but it was not ideal. Might want to sign up for that again though, once Concentration rolls around.

[tvmitch]

I found myself a free trial to see what's going on here with Sling. Sharing some observations. My free trial is for Orange + Blue plus the $25 extras package.

What's shown in the EPG for Buzzr is the program data for the main national feed. At this hour (9:30am Eastern) it's airing a P+ episode with Fabray/Schuck, probably the one that aired last night at either 8 or 11.

The feed continues to lack a bug in the lower right.

The EPG allows you to set up DVR recordings on the network, but obviously, the data for the feed is not accurate.

Hopefully a glitch that they can adjust. We have YouTube TV but I could find a use case to subscribe to whatever Sling package has the Viacom channels, if I can reliably record Buzzr as well.

EDIT: The P+ episode ended at 9:50am, and it's now on Eubanks CS, with Cathy at the Money Cards. Doesn't look like this feed follows any logic from the master feed.

EDIT2: if anyone is interested, it appears the last several hours of this feed has been the same MG/HS episode and the same Eubanks CS episode in a loop.

[chargeradiocom]

I would think this is either some kind of technical or contractual quirk that they’re working to resolve. It wouldn’t make sense to run the correct program guide listing but random programming over the long haul.

I think BUZZR being on Sling (once they resolve these quirks) could be a pretty big deal for our little network. For most of us, who sought out BUZZR long ago, it’s little more than a footnote. But being on Sling—the first large-scale & arguably most recognizable cable replacement streaming service—exposes it to people who wouldn’t give much mind to Pluto or STIRR. (And I have to think that if they’re on Sling now, they’re at least talking to some other subscription streamers—YouTube TV, Philo, & the like.)

[tvmitch]

I would think this is either some kind of technical or contractual quirk that they’re working to resolve. It wouldn’t make sense to run the correct program guide listing but random programming over the long haul.

I think BUZZR being on Sling (once they resolve these quirks) could be a pretty deal for our little network. For most of us, who sought out BUZZR long ago, it’s little more than a footnote. But being on Sling—the first large-scale & arguably most recognizable cable replacement streaming service—exposes it to people who wouldn’t give much mind to Pluto or STIRR. (And I have to think that if they’re on Sling now, they’re at least talking to some other subscription streamers—YouTube TV, Philo, & the like.)

I agree about the good deal. Sling is the nation's largest streaming provider of its kind. I vastly prefer YouTube TV for a number of reasons, but Sling has a lot of clout.

[aaron sica]

I think I found a possible pattern yesterday - they seem to be 5 days behind the regular "feed". Yesterday during the late morning/early afternoon they were running the "Lucky Wins" marathon from 3/17. I caught "Split Second" followed by "Blockbusters".

[polo23]

Actually, it was just a loop of the same game show selections throughout the day. It's fixed now.

[chargeradiocom]

I’ve been checking in on the Sling freebie feed for the last couple days, and it seems that the issues are resolved for the most part. (I’ve only checked during the day from my work PC, so I don’t know if other dayparts might be different.) I did notice a different Super Password episode yesterday from what the main feed was playing, though it was running in SP’s normal timeslot. All the other episodes I’ve seen the last couple days appear to be in sync, though.

Also, that music bed they’re using during commercial breaks is a banger. 

[tvmitch]

This is terrific, thanks for the update. I signed up the free 2 weeks of Sling Blue and am able to mark Narz Concentration for recording. We'll see if it works tonight. I see the BUZZR bug in the corner, where it belongs, so hopefully that is a good sign.

Quick edit to say that it's 4pm East Coast time on 4/1, and PYL is starting as scheduled.

[snowpeck]

I looked in late last night and Blockbusters was on, so it's not quite meshing up with the on air schedule still.

[chargeradiocom]

This is terrific, thanks for the update. I signed up the free 2 weeks of Sling Blue and am able to mark Narz Concentration for recording. We'll see if it works tonight. I see the BUZZR bug in the corner, where it belongs, so hopefully that is a good sign.

Quick edit to say that it's 4pm East Coast time on 4/1, and PYL is starting as scheduled.

No problem.

Just a heads up, the last couple evenings, Concentration has started a bit early on the Pluto and Klowd feeds. It looks like the Sling feed is pretty closely in line with those feeds today. Of course, early starts are nothing all that unusual with BUZZR. But if you're DVRing, you might want to set it to grab the last bit of $otC (and maybe the first part of P+ for good measure), so that you don't miss anything.

[tvmitch]

Last night, I set a recording for Concentration with Sling, and it recorded from 6:58-7:32pm Eastern (wow, those were some long credits on $ale). This is a tremendous development, works as it should. I will keep an eye on it but it is enough for us to switch from YouTube TV to Sling's Blue plan with some extras. Won't miss ESPN for a few months until Sports is up and running again.

The only glitch I found is that I wasn't able to set a Series Recording for any show on Buzzr. Series recordings work on most of the other channels. Hopefully it is something they add in the future.

[chargeradiocom]

(Not sure this is the best place for this, but not sure it warrants its own thread either...)

BUZZR has also been added to Amazon’s IMDb TV service, available on Amazon Fire TV platforms. It’s reportedly among the first crop of free live channels to the service.

[snowpeck]

(Not sure this is the best place for this, but not sure it warrants its own thread either...)

BUZZR has also been added to Amazon’s IMDb TV service, available on Amazon Fire TV platforms. It’s reportedly among the first crop of free live channels to the service.

Soon it will be easier to list the streaming services Buzzr isn't on, and honestly that's not a bad thing.

[chargeradiocom]

Soon it will be easier to list the streaming services Buzzr isn't on, and honestly that's not a bad thing.

Oh yeah, the more platforms, the better.

I’m surprised BUZZR still hasn’t launched their own app. I mean, I suppose I can see an argument for just having someone else do the work. But you’d think they’d want to offer the option of launching it with a click or two from the Roku/Fire/etc. main menu, for the folks who don’t want to have to dig through a guide on a third-party app to find it, or who are less tech-savvy & feel intimidated about the prospect of doing so. Most independent live networks that stream on Pluto/Sling/STIRR/etc. also offer their own apps, in part for those reasons.