Live sports poised to be big player in TV streaming war

NEW YORK - Streaming services have long focused on series and movies, but as online TV competition heats up, live sports - historically a bit player on these platforms - could change the game.

Amazon is the sole established player to have invested in sports so far, and it has done so only tentatively, buying some rights to the NFL, soccer's English Premier League and ATP tennis.

Netflix and Hulu have yet to take the plunge, but sports will be a significant feature of new platforms that are aiming to shake up the burgeoning on-demand industry.

"Sports generate the best audiences," said Patrick Rishe, professor of sports economics at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, describing it as one of the "last bastions" of live content.

Live matches are set to be key to platforms about to be launched by WarnerMedia and Disney.

WarnerMedia announced in July that its HBO Max service will air NBA basketball and Major League Baseball when it goes online, expected sometime early next year.

Randall Stephenson, CEO of parent company AT&T, one of the largest wireless operators and a major pay TV provider, said live sports will be "an important element" of the platform.

"There is no question that the frequency with which sports and entertainment content will be streamed will grow," said Rishe, adding that live sports "should certainly help" HBO Max.

Walt Disney Co. already shook up the established order in 2018 with ESPN+ - an on-demand version of its vast network of sports channels, which is the largest in the world.

It is about to do so again when it launches a new platform on Nov 12, called Disney+.

'Unique events'

For $12.99 a month, the same price as a standard Netflix package in the United States, consumers will be able to bundle it together with ESPN+ and Hulu.

"Live sports is the most valuable content in the media universe because people care passionately about it and because they are unique events that cannot be replicated," former ESPN president John Skipper said last year.

In 2018, 43 of the top 50 US television audiences were for sporting events.

Generalist platforms like Amazon have few broadcast rights at the moment, while young startups specializing in sports, such as DAZN, are focusing on more niche sports.

Disney seems best placed due to its unique and unrivalled rights portfolio. As well as ESPN, it is also the parent company of television giant ABC.

"Every deal that we're negotiating right now we are looking at how do we acquire rights, not just for the linear package but for ESPN+," ESPN president Jimmy Pitaro told Bloomberg in May.

WarnerMedia is also a sporting heavyweight and has already secured the digital rights to several events, including college basketball, which is massively popular in the United States.

Even if Disney and WarnerMedia offer sports with their online video services, they are unlikely to make all of their content available on a streaming platform, industry analysts say.

That's because traditional television, despite a decline in viewers, is by far still their main source of income owing to cable subscriptions and advertising.

There is also a technical reason for the cautious approach.

Technical glitches have impacted the screening of some sports. An ESPN live stream of a 2014 soccer World Cup match between the USA and Germany crashed due to high demand.

More and more organizations have their own streaming offers, available almost anywhere in the world, including NBA League Pass which allows users to watch all games, live and on-demand.

With several broadcasters bidding for rights and with fans having to buy a variety of packages in order to watch their favorite sports, Oklahoma State professor McGuire is certain of one thing.

"It will continue getting more and more expensive in the coming years," he said.

Agence France - Presse