If you don’t have Peacock, NBC has an alternative to watch the Penn State White Out, but it’s even more expensive

Each year, one of the most exciting traditions in college football is the Penn State White Out game, and in their infinite greed, NBC has used that opportunity to attempt to increase its subscriber base to its streaming service, Peacock. A week after FOX plucked Penn State’s biggest game of the season, a 20-13 loss to Ohio State, out of primetime and placed it at Noon for its Big Noon Kickoff, NBC is putting up multiple paywalls to watch the White Out game at Beaver Stadium against Washington in Week 11. 

Before the season, Penn State didn’t select Week 10 with the Buckeyes in town for the White Out because of fears that FOX would do exactly what it did, but the program’s administration could not have seen the move that NBC pulled coming. Instead of showcasing the game on NBC’s Big Ten Saturday Night in primetime, it will be buried as a streaming-only game on Peacock. However, NBC executives are providing an even more expensive alternative, the movie theaters. 

On Saturday, November 9, select IMAX theaters will be showing the broadcast of the Week 11 game between Penn State and Washington. Tickets appear to be $15.99 for adults at most theaters with others ranging as high as $28.68 in New York City. A Peacock subscription is $7.99 per month.

NBC is selling it as a chance to “experience one of college football’s most electrifying games.” But I guess they’ve decided to hoard that electricity because profit trumps tradition in college sports these days. If NBC truly cared about sharing that atmosphere, they’d, oh I don’t know, PUT IT ON TV! Instead, they’ve provided paywalls to climb over and hoops to jump through just to watch the No. 6 team in the nation take on a Big Ten newcomer that finished last year playing Michigan for the national championship.   

Maybe this was NBC’s plan all along, present itself as a primetime haven, away from the horrors of Big Noon Kickoff, all the while concocting a scheme to hide Penn State’s White Out and siphon off as many dollars from it as they can. Plenty of Penn State fans don’t have Peacock and certainly don’t want to spend their Saturday packed into a movie theater to watch a football game. 

I am once again asking TV networks to: PUT SPORTS ON TV!