Sports And The Streaming Wars

 


It's no secret that streaming has become the way people watch content nowadays. With the market being saturated by big players like Netflix, Prime Video, Hulu and Disney+, the choices are out there. But is streaming really the best option when it comes to viewing your favorite sports? If Sunday night's Coca-Cola 600 was any indication, survey says...no.

The wars began in March 2021 when it was reported Amazon got the exclusive rights to Thursday Night Football starting in 2022. However, this was only a minor casualty as the NFL had prepared for this with a clause. That clause being that if a local team was playing on a non-natonally televised game, the game had to be shown on a local affiliate to the team in said game. This is to accomodate establishments like bars and restaurants which might not be equipped to handle streaming-only broadcasts.

The next March, Apple signed a seven-year deal for Friday Night Baseball MLB televasts. Now this has been a source of contenton among baseball fans, again citing the NFL's local team clause. I talked with George Nikitiades, owner of Teddy's Luncheonette in Cranbury, New Jersey - an avid Yankees fan himself, Nikitiades has decried the streaming wars encroaching on the sports viewing experience.

"It's absolutely unfair." Nikitiades has said. "People want to watch their teams and it should be as easy and accessible as possible."

And he couldn't be more right on this matter. The NHL became the next major sports league to join the streaming fray with their new media rights deal with ESPN/ABC and Warner Bros. - each having some element of streaming involved, ABC/ESPN with Disney+ and ESPN+, Warner Bros. with HBO Max. But like the NFL, NHL was just a minor casualty as there were the vast catalog of cable and broadcast networks for both partners.

The following summer, NASCAR became a casualty and it was a major one as five races would end up being streaming exclusives on Prime Video. One of those races was a Crown Jewel race - the Coca-Cola 600.

This ended up splitering the fanbase. On a Facebook post by the Richard Petty/Jimmie Johnson led Legacy Motor Club team, comments ranged from praising Prime Video's coverage to outright decrying Amazon for shutting out the fans that either don't have Prime, can't afford the subscription or simply can't afford a Smart TV to watch on Prime Video.

The costs to watching full seasons of your favorite sports, let alone your favorite teams, are going up. Media rights deals are going through the roof. The current NFL media rights deal is worth upwards of $110 billion going through to 2033. The upcoming NBA deal with NBC, ABC/ESPN and Amazon is worht $76 billion and goes through to 2036.

If the goal is to get new fans in the door of your league, these new media deals can do it but you also have to strike the right balance of getting new fans while not shutting out your existing fanbase. The streaming wars will only make finding that balance that much more difficult as we enter the 2030s and beyond.

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