THE FRONT ROW with MARK NELKE: All of this streaming is leading me to screaming

PlutoTV, we will miss you.

Sort of.

Sure, it was clunky to plow through, past the cute cat channels and other nonsense, to get to the live sports programming on the Big Sky Conference channels.

And yes, it was frustrating to deal with streaming issues, waiting for the the stream to catch up with the live action.

And you were at the mercy of the announcers — some really good, some homerish, some pretty entertaining, some all of the above.

But it was free. So you put up with it.

And it was available. Before Pluto came along and hooked up with the Big Sky in 2017, you had no chance of watching many of these games unless you went to them.

SO IT was interesting to see the Big Sky Conference announce a new media rights deal with ESPN.

Home games for conference members in football, basketball and many other sports will now be streamed on ESPN+, rather than on PlutoTV.

One advantage — ESPN+ is generally a better streaming service than Pluto.

One disadvantage — ESPN+ costs roughly $6 per month, or $60 per year.

Pluto cost $0.

In addition to a little more money out of this deal, Big Sky officials tout the fact more games will be on the ESPN "family of networks."

Starting this fall, ESPNU will televise two football games and one regular season men's basketball game each year, and the Big Sky men's and women's basketball conference title games with be on one of the ESPN channels.

The men's title game was already being shown on an ESPN channel. The women's title game was on PlutoTV.

I don't think most fans care if the games are on Pluto or ESPN or Uncle Archie's Pirated Channel, as long as they can find them somewhere on TV or on the internet.

And the stream works.

Root Sports has been broadcasting a Big Sky football Game of the Week each Saturday since 2014, and that deal will continue one more year. A new deal could be struck with Root in addition to the ESPN+ deal — or maybe not, we'll see.

If not, we'll go from one Big Sky football game each week — conveniently usually involving Idaho, Eastern Washington and/or Montana — to two football games all season.

Now, that might not be a big deal if you're somewhere where Root or a streaming device is readily available.

But if not ...

"Sit tight, Fred, while I download this app on your TV. Don't worry, you won't be getting those other shows your wife doesn't want you to watch."

SO NOW it comes down to cost.

If you've ever driven by a latte stand and seen the line — even well after dinner — you know many folks have a few extra bucks to spend each month. Now, they can funnel that money toward, say, an Idaho-Northern Arizona football game, or a Montana-Eastern Washington basketball game, or even an Idaho-Idaho State volleyball match.

What bugs me is, aside from getting dinged a little more to watch something I was getting for free, is that with television/streaming, you can't just pay for the channels you want, and not pay for the channels you don't want.

Pac-12 games used to be on Root Sports, which was great for us in the West, until the league decided Root didn't reach enough folks, and created its own network.

But you can't get the Pac-12 Networks on DirecTV — but you have to have DirecTV to get the NFL Sunday Ticket, in case your favorite team is an "out of market" team. And there's no competition for the Ticket, so subscribers basically have to bend over and say "Thank you sir, may I have another."

You can get the Pac-12 Networks on a streaming service — along with several other channels you're already paying to watch on DirecTV. So you end up paying extra, essentially for channels you don't want, to get the channels you do want.

Seems like in this age of advanced technology, you should be able to watch whatever you want — and only what you want — as long as you're willing to pay for it.

If you want to watch the local news where you used to live, click a button and "Ka-ching!" — a few bucks are added to your "cart." If you want just the Dodgers games but not all the MLB games, click a button and add to your cart.

Maybe someone could create an eCard of sorts, one you could plug in and receive every channel known to man — as long as you're willing to pay for it.

So in the end, yeah, I'm sure I'll cough up the money for ESPN+ in the not-to-distant future — perhaps to be listed as "research" on the monthly expense report — and get my Big Sky Conference fix that way.

Even it if means missing out on KittenTV.

Mark Nelke is sports editor of The Press. He can be reached at 664-8176, Ext. 2019, or via email at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @CdAPressSports.