Stop Trying To Make The Incomplete ‘Sports Streamer’ Happen
Just days ago in this very space, TVREV’s own Alan Wolk covered why ill-fated sports streamer Venu failed, and spelled out what any successor to the idea needed to make sure every major sports rights holder was included.
Yet, the digital ink was barely dry on his article before DirecTV announced its own ‘slimmer’ sports streaming bundle this week.
Perhaps predictably, this offering ALSO does not include everything a diehard sports viewer might want. And as these repeated, incomplete ideas keep coming to market, it seems increasingly obvious that the current landscape will continue to kneecap every one of these attempts.
Why?
DirecTV may check more of the boxes than Venu did, with WBD, Fox, NBCU and Disney networks in the fold. But still does not include Paramount-owned TV networks (CBS, CBS Sports), any regional sports networks, or any streaming platforms.
For the NFL fan alone, that arrangement is not going to work, since CBS stands up half of the Sunday afternoon block each season — nevermind the additional college football, college basketball and golf considerations.
Lacking streaming, you’re also missing every Thursday Night NFL game on Amazon Prime Video, plus significant swaths of the Premier League season (Peacock), all of MLS (Apple) and national NBA contests (Peacock, Amazon). Hooked into national linear TV broadcasts-only also opens up local blackout issues — which this DirecTV sports bundle wouldn’t solve either, since it doesn’t offer the requisite regional sports networks to tune into.
The pursuit these streamers are continually engaging in is a noble one, don’t get me wrong. Consumers are increasingly frustrated by the fact that sports are harder to follow than ever, as streaming deals cut TV to pieces. An all-in sports service IS a market necessity at this point, directly addressing a need that subscribers would gladly pay for.
Unfortunately, it’s a fantasy without a complete reset of the TV landscape, though.
Consider what any sports streaming service would need to truly hit “everything” (or close to it):
All linear networks from WBD, Disney, Paramount, NBCU, Fox
League-owned networks from MLB, NBA, NFL, NHL
All network-owned streamers (Paramount+, Peacock, Hulu, Max. ESPN+)
All native streamers (Amazon, Apple, Netflix, YouTube TV)
All regional sports networks (too many too list)
And even if one COULD assemble all of these competing and disparate interests under one umbrella, you’re still just a single rogue entity away from lacking “everything” again.
Plus, if you’re any of these entities, what’s the real draw to being part of this collective? The initial finances of Venu never really made any sense given the per-service subscription costs. And (as I’ve discussed before) being part of a blended omnibus service actually removes the unique values of these rights holders and flattens the market in a way that makes paying top-dollar for sports less enticing for media companies.
The idea of a sports-only streamer (similar to the one that guides a sports-less streaming idea) also views households and individual viewers as monoliths that lack nuance and varied interests. A household that wants to watch live sports is likely to also want to watch news, a Bravo reality show and a prestige FX show.
Having options isn’t some new and novel idea, either. It’s the initial building blocks for traditional TV and then cable… before media companies sort of broke the whole thing around 2019-20. Now you can’t put that genie back in the bottle. But if given the choice, I’d bet many of the key decision-makers that led us down this road would like to — if only to avoid all of the sunken resources spent trying to make these “perfect” or niche subscription services that look an awful lot like cable.
