The Brief

LOS ANGELES - For sports fans, keeping up with games has become a complicated — and expensive — task.

A new poll from the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research shows that many viewers are juggling a mix of cable packages, sports-only streaming subscriptions, and even borrowed passwords. The patchwork system leaves fans frustrated with costs and searching for more seamless ways to watch.

The backstory:

The survey highlights how fragmented the sports viewing experience has become for fans across the country.

According to the poll, about 4 in 10 people who follow sports "extremely" or "very" closely rely on both cable or satellite TV and a sports-only streaming service. That compares with about 2 in 10 people who follow sports only "somewhat" closely.

For

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