Live Streaming, The Game Changer For Fans Of Live Sport

The traditional way for fans to engage with the sports club they love was always to go to a game. Walking to a match on Saturday has often been an enjoyable part of my weekend since I was a kid and I still love to go when I'm able.

But the reality for most people is to watch a game on TV. Sports like football are quite expensive to attend these days so even big fans are likely to watch more games on TV than in-person at a stadium.

Traditionally the major network broadcasters were the key, we relied on them to broadcast games and they were always free-to-air. This started changing in the 90s as cable, or satellite services like Sky, started buying rights to entire leagues and then only showing those games on their channel.

Here in the UK, if you want to watch Premier League games then you must subscribe to Sky - some games are shown on BT Sport and Amazon Prime, but the majority are on Sky. They almost have a monopoly on the league. They pay a lot of cash for this privilege though - over a billion pounds per year.

Clearly this works for the broadcaster, the Premier League, and the clubs. They all get a large amount of cash from the broadcaster who then has to sell enough subscriptions to cover that licensing fee.

Sky has evolved their coverage and now there is a lot of additional content on their website. Every single match will have highlights available, even if the match didn’t go out live on the main channel.

But the streaming companies are taking sports coverage further. They don’t need to worry about the availability of broadcast channels - they can just put every match out live, even if they are all at the same time.

Take a look at coverage of Major League Soccer in the US. The MLS can be watched on Apple TV or YouTube. This is considered to be premium content, so there is a subscription fee, but it’s nowhere near the price charged by cable or satellite channels - plus there are none of those extra fees that cover installation costs or costs for a set-top box.

This is simpler, and every single game is available live, so it doesn’t matter who you support, your team games will always be there.

There always used to be an argument that free to air (like BBC and ITV) was better for the public because pushing a game to YouTube assumes that people have internet access and the right devices to watch. However, in 2023 this is becoming a much weaker argument. Almost all TVs sold over the past decade have been smart, with internet access, and so watching on a TV, phone, or tablet is all possible - even without installing new software.

In fact, looking at modern media consumption it is much more likely that younger viewers will know how to watch a game on YouTube than finding it on the BBC. The Times recently reported that only 1 in 20 adults under 30 watched anything live each day on the BBC. Media consumption has moved to on-demand services and this is naturally where sports will go.

I think this creates an opportunity for sports clubs to deliver more content to the fans and this could also be tied in with different subscription bands for the online service carrying the content. Imagine if YouTube offered four simple tiers for football content:

???????Free: match highlights and interviews, no live content.

???????My team only: all games live, but only for my team.

???????My team’s league: All games in the league my team plays in.

???????All leagues: Everything offered on the platform - a global pass.

This is just a simplified presentation, but it looks attractive. Perhaps it might also be augmented by being able to choose leagues - maybe you want the Premier League and Bundesliga, but don’t want to watch French or Spanish games.

On top of this the clubs could add training videos, interviews, and behind the scenes footage, this could really boost the value of the subscription to ‘my team only.’

DAZN is a great example of a company already thinking along these lines. The company was built specifically for sports streaming globally and now holds many high-profile rights, such as J-League in Japan and top tier football in Spain, Germany, Italy, Belgium and Portugal. They are actively acquiring sports companies that have built a strong social audience, such as Team Whistle.

NFL Game Pass on DAZN also demonstrates how seriously the streaming platforms take sports content when compared to traditional broadcasters. This pass offers NFL fans the ability to view all games, including pre-season, the Super Bowl, plus additional documentaries and behind the scenes material.

Some sports clubs are already exploring how the value of their content can be monetised directly by asking fans to subscribe, rather than taking a fee from broadcasters - who would then traditionally make it available free. Fans at Peterborough United are upset that radio commentary is no longer going to be freely available on their local radio station.

This is upsetting for those fans, but it is entirely understandable for the club to ask for fans to pay for a service. The issue here is that it is one club rather than all clubs in the league offering a suite of services - like my description of how YouTube could work.

Once again we come back to the fact that we are dealing with fans not customers. Fans want to follow their team. They want to consume this content and they will take as much as the clubs and online channels can produce.

When I was growing up we were lucky to get one or two games a week live - and I mean if you were lucky. The most important coverage was the ‘Match of the Day’ highlights programme on the BBC. MOTD is still going and it works because the presenters add analysis and comment, but no fans would ever accept in 2023 that their only option is a highlights show with a few seconds of goal footage.

Fan expectation is increasing. They want more content and they want more detailed and personalised content. The streaming channels are building expertise in this - it must be worrying to be in cable or satellite TV at present because if more live sport migrates to online platforms then their business model will be very challenging.

Please leave a comment here or send me a direct message via LinkedIn. You can also follow the Teleperformance LinkedIn page here or view the information on our website here.