Streaming platforms shoot for sports
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Why sports are the next frontier in streaming dominance
By Travis Clark
The?streaming ?wars could turn into the sports streaming wars soon.?
Warner Bros. Discovery is reportedly planning to launch a?sports tier ?on its Max streaming service under the Bleacher Report brand, and Disney is looking for?strategic partners ?to offer the ESPN cable network as a subscription streaming option in the future. Tech giants Apple, Amazon, and Google’s YouTube, along with Disney, are interested in the rights to stream local NBA games, according to?Bloomberg .?
The growing interest in sports streaming among legacy media companies like Warner Bros. Discovery and Disney comes at an inflection point for the entertainment industry, as traditional linear TV revenue falls, particularly over declining ad dollars. Live sports broadcasts are still among the most-watched TV programs of any given year, but media companies increasingly view streaming as their future, and likely hope a shift to connected TV (CTV) ad spend can make up for the declines in linear TV.?
Jack Genovese, research manager at data firm Ampere Analysis, wrote in a report published in February that “in 2023, subscription OTT [over-the-top] services will account for more than a fifth of total spend on sports rights across the most important sports markets worldwide.”
Competition from tech companies, which have already made gains in streaming-sports rights, may have heightened the urgency. Amazon aired?Thursday Night Football?games last year, and Apple has landed deals with Major League Baseball and Major League Soccer. Earlier this year, YouTube secured the rights to the NFL Sunday Ticket package, which airs games outside of one’s local region.
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A?recent survey shows that younger audiences are utilizing?sports-focused streaming ?services more than their older counterparts.
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Europe’s top football leagues eye American fans as streaming giants bet on live sports
By Zac Wang?
Soccer’s increasing popularity in the U.S. has long been?overshadowed ?by American football, basketball, and baseball’s much bigger audiences.?
This summer however, the arrival of Lionel Messi on American shores, arguably the?best soccer player ?in the sport’s history, could herald an era to challenge that long-held dominance in viewing, with Apple?registering ?300,000 new TV+ subscribers since June.?
Could this signal a new chapter in the?streaming wars ? One where live sports replaces original content as the offering of choice to entice subscribers, and where soccer goes truly mainstream in the U.S., courtesy, in part, of some of the world’s top talent gracing American screens.?
This trend could offer global streamers and advertisers an?increasingly growing ?cohort of sports fans and consumers to target — a welcomed opportunity, as some of Europe’s top football leagues look internationally to find new fans and revenue channels.
“The U.S. is probably the fastest-growing market for football [‘soccer’?in the U.S.], where the Premier League, La Liga, and Serie A have all seen large increases in TV rights value,” Ben McMurray, senior analyst at Ampere Analysis, tells?The Current. “Fans of major competitions will typically see the platforms hosting their favorite leagues as ‘must-have’ subscriptions, and so subscriptions, and hence revenues, are highly dependent on acquiring these rights.”
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