NBC Sports Next’s Post

Smart tempered thoughts below on how it is still VERY early for local broadcasters to declare victory over RSNs in the race for local sports rights; remember, teams will be dealing with massive TV revenue holes that OTA reach alone will not even come close to replicating in the near-term, if ever. The below commentary via John WallStreet & Patrick Crakes lays out one scenario (tiered RSN model); the NBA's upcoming national rights deals - which may now also include some form of local rights - may provide another. https://lnkd.in/gUDRRQYV

SPONSORED CONTENT: SARU's recent press release on the sports rights disputes involving eMedia, SuperSport, and the SABC misses the mark entirely, with eMedia stepping in to correct the record and shed light on the ongoing legal battles over broadcast agreements, leaving us all wondering who's playing fair in this game of rights and wrongs. #SportsRights #SARU #SuperSport #SABC #eMedia"

📈 Something for us in #Sportsbiz to continue to watch: According to Axios, Americans continue to disengage in political and general news, as evident in the web traffic data screenshot below. This aligns with the increase in average viewership across sports; for example, in 2023, the NFL saw a 7% increase in viewership at 17.9M on average, per ESPN. We expect to see this translate to more brands coming to the table in 2024 to acquire and expand sponsorship rights and assets from sports properties, athletes, and broadcasters. It will be interesting to see how this continues as we lead into the election, and how this impacts churn on streamers who are acquiring sports rights. Shout out to Sara Fischer for the stellar media coverage.

📺 Live Sports are by far the most popular thing on television in the US. And that’s no secret to Netflix. 🎾 This Sunday, tennis legend Rafael Nadal and rising phenom Carlos Alcaraz will compete in Las Vegas in the first-ever Netflix Slam While this follows recent efforts from the streaming giant to venture deeper into sports programming, I argue it’s best for the company to stick with sports-adjacent content. Check out my latest article to learn more! #linkedinsports #sports #sportsbiz #streamingwars

⚽ Could the #MLS end up regretting its exclusive deal with Apple sooner rather than later? 💰 CBS has announced two major soccer rights deals in just over a week, adding 650 extra games per year across their platforms from Lega Serie A and the EFL (English Football League). But what could this mean for the #MLS? This expansion of games, builds on their existing Champions League deal, which runs through 2030. In addition to CBS's aggressive expansion, #NBC continues to thrive with The Premier League partnership, while ESPN maintains strong partnerships with the #Bundesliga and LALIGA. Collectively, international soccer is achieving remarkable reach and visibility across the world's most lucrative media market. However, amidst this extensive coverage of international leagues, Major League Soccer (MLS) remains largely tucked away on Apple TV+. As interest in soccer grows leading up to the World Cup, there's a real possibility that MLS might experience slower growth compared to other major leagues with significant network deals. So what should they have done? Should MLS have taken the money or focussed on cut price, expansive reach? https://lnkd.in/efPwR4rE #sportsbiz #streaming #linkedinsport

Could we see a Sky Sports streaming-only app in 2024? I read this article and it got me thinking... 1. Discovery is teaming up with ESPN/Disney and Fox Sports to create a new stand-alone sports app 2. Peacock recently ran a one-off stream of an NFL wild card game which set a record for the most streamed live event in US history with 27.6m viewers. If you didn't know, Peacock is owned by Comcast...which also owns Sky. 3. Sky has made significant investment in additional sports rights (to name a few): - Record number of Premier League broadcast rights until 2028/29 - 5 year EFL deal resulting in more than 1,000 matches per season (another record number of games) - Broadcast rights for EVERY Betfred Superleague match live for 3 years (an historic new agreement) - 5 year partnerships with the ATP and WTA for Tennis rights showing more than 4,000 matches. - Plus new deals with PGA for Golf, F1 for Racing adding to existing deals for NFL and more... Sky Sports may or may not have a desire to launch a sports-only streaming app - but they certainly have all of the ingredients, recipe, and the motivation to do so...

According to SportBusiness analysts, the global value of sports media rights has increased to just under $56bn and will pass $60bn in 2024 thanks to the Olympic Games in Paris and Uefa Euro 2024 #SportsStreaming 🥊

A bold goal of doubling the media revenue for the Women's Super League (WSL) by making all games available for broadcast. Sky, the leagues current major rights investor, are some of the best negotiators in the business, and there's a lack of competition in the market for media rights generally, meaning a challenge to create the tension to push up the investment to the desired levels. Whilst it may be a challenge, it is a possibility, especially if other platforms who've ramped up investment internationally in women's football come to the table (I'm talking about DAZN obviously!). And even if they can't directly increase media revenues to those levels, the increased reach in their new approach should allow them to significantly increase sponsorship revenue across the league and for its clubs. #streaming #linkedinsports #sportsbiz

Disney have finally come to the sports rights party! Despite being huge investors in sports rights in the US and India through the ESPN and Disney+ Hotstar, Disney has avoided making any investments into live sports since they rolled back the ESPN brand outside of its current markets. Disney+ has been built on leaning into the legacy of it's major IP and entertainment properties but this move shows that they're willing to take a market by market approach to attracting rights that can move the needle. The acquisition of Europa and conference league rights in itself is a shrewd move given the fairly low pricepoint to acquire, and the heightened relevancy in lower tier football nations in comparative to the big 5 European Leagues. And this isn't a minor scale set of rights - they'll secure over 340 live games a season from both leagues. Consider the industry on notice: Disney is here (finally) globally and ready to take some bets to identify opportunities to grow its market share - market by market if it needs to. #streaming #linkedinsports #sportsbiz https://lnkd.in/e_UCD6PW

The great unbundling continues. Amazon Prime and the National Basketball Association (NBA) are close to a deal that will give the streamer exclusive rights to a significant package of regular season and playoff games beginning in the 2025-2026 season. Amazon is reportedly interested in securing global broadcast rights, as well, so unlike most sports broadcasting deals struck recently, this one could directly impact Canadians. Just last week, Amazon secured exclusive rights to all Monday-night National Hockey League (NHL) games in #Canada for the next two seasons, the league's first exclusive broadcast deal with a digital-only streaming service in Canada. Sports have been one bright spot for broadcasters, bucking the broader decline of live TV audiences.   In the last 7 years, Canadians' time watching sports is up +3% while overall TV viewership has seen a -28% decline. The deal would mark the biggest sports rights pact made by a streaming platform and would catapult Amazon into the same league as Fox Corporation, ESPN, NBCUniversal and other major #sports broadcasters. Source: The Peak / The Athletic Norm Lem DAZN TSN - The Sports Network - Canada Rogers Sports & Media Sportsnet Bell Media Bell National Basketball Association (NBA) National Football League (NFL) Adam Seaborn #streaming Christina Summers Netflix Paramount+ Justin Erdman Disney Streaming thinktv Canada Campaign Canada #mediaincanada Canadian Marketing Association IAB Canada IAB Canada - Conseil du Québec #sports #sportsbiz Canadian Hockey League NBA G League WNBA (Women's National Basketball Association) PWHL PWHL Toronto