As streaming video expands, a reckoning has come for sports fans.
For decades, their viewing habits on cable have been subsidized by those who don’t watch sports. Fans have accounted for roughly 10% of cable subscribers, but 100% of cable subscribers have paid providers to carry the games.
Now, the cable bundle is coming apart as providers hemorrhage subscribers and leagues migrate to streaming services. And we’re not just talking about games being available through other providers. We’re talking about games being available exclusively through other providers. That’s forcing fans to pay twice to watch games for which, back in the day, they used to pay nothing outside of buying the TV.
If I sound like an old man yelling at a cloud, fine. But I’m only 49, and the cloud isn’t cirrus or cumulus. It’s the one that’s accessed over the internet.
“I understand feeling screwed from all this,” said Jason Gurwin, founder of the website The Streamable, an authority on the streaming world. “No one wants to feel like they’re paying more for the same. But it is this spiral where as sports rights go up, in order to keep those rights going up, [leagues] have to add more players into who are buying these rights. Ultimately, that cost gets passed down to the fan.”
Blackhawks fans pay to watch most games on NBC Sports Chicago through various providers, but the NHL’s deal with ESPN puts some games on the network’s streaming service, ESPN+. Cubs and White Sox fans pay to watch most games on Marquee Sports Network and NBCSCH, respectively, but MLB’s deal moved some games to streamers Apple TV+ and Peacock.
The latest example is the Big Ten, whose deal with NBCUniversal allowed the company to put football and basketball games on Peacock. That means fans who don’t want to miss a game aren’t just paying to watch them on NBC. They’re paying another fee for the Peacock exclusives.
The NBA will join the fray when its media-rights deals with Disney (ESPN/ABC) and Warner Bros. Discovery (TNT) expire after the 2024-25 season. Of the four major leagues, the NBA is the only one without an exclusive streaming component. That could change with its new in-season tournament.
“There’s a reason why they created this right before the rights deal came up,” Gurwin said. “Wouldn’t that be a great part of the NBA schedule to sell off to a streamer? It’s new content, they’re trying to build it up, and they can try to leverage a new partner in order to put that test out whether streaming premium sports content actually works.”
It makes sense from a business perspective. With most sports rights locked up for years, leagues will create more content and packages to be sold to other partners. But such diversifying already has frustrated fans who can’t keep up with the changes or find where the event they want to watch is airing.
“The No. 1 reaction is less so cost and more so confusion,” Gurwin said. “Before, you went to your cable box and you knew that you would be able to watch the game. That’s not the case anymore. MLB is a great example. Someone from New York, to watch the Yankees, you need YES, Apple, Peacock, Fox and Prime.”
Cable isn’t going away anytime soon (certainly not at my house), but it’s shrinking. Last year, the percentage of U.S. households with a traditional pay-TV service fell below 50% for the first time, according to Insider Intelligence. People are fed up with paying for what they don’t watch, and streaming services are happy to accommodate them.
That’s bad news for sports fans, whose viewing habits have been upended by an evolving media landscape. Might there be a breaking point for fans trying to navigate all of these streaming services?
“I think people are going to question what services they need,” Gurwin said. “Do they need to watch every single game of their team’s games? What the streaming services are doing to mitigate that is, look at all this other stuff that other people in your family might like. By recreating that bundle, they’re not making it feel like you’re exclusively signing up for these games.”
Remote patrol
NFL games airing Sunday afternoon in the Chicago market: Vikings at Bears, noon, Fox 32 (Brandon Gaudin, Robert Smith); Patriots at Raiders, 3:05 p.m., CBS 2 (Jim Nantz, Tony Romo); Lions at Buccaneers, 3:25 p.m., Fox 32 (Adam Amin, Daryl Johnston).
• Former Cubs public-address announcer Andrew Belleson launched the podcast “Outside the Box,” which debuted last week with guest Herm Edwards.
• The Blackhawks-Penguins game Tuesday night on ESPN averaged 1.43 million viewers, making it the network’s most-viewed regular-season NHL game on record.
• ESPN’s new lead NBA crew of Mike Breen, Doris Burke and Doc Rivers will debut on the Warriors-Lakers preseason game at 9 p.m. Friday on ESPN2.
