BITES // 06.06.24 // SPORTS DYNASTIES CONTINUE TO DOMINATE
Every month we collect six of the best pieces of content published on the web and share them with you because we believe that the most extraordinary thinking is inspired by looking to unexpected places. BITES is a reading list for those who want to bring a little of the outside in.
OVERVIEW -
Sport fans are a diverse group, but one thing is clear: the closer they are to the action, the better. Streaming platforms are not just changing how we access sports, they’re changing the very nature of the viewing experience. Sport has traditionally been seen as one of the main drivers of subscriptions and therefore sports broadcasters have received relatively high carriage fees but that is changing. The most obvious reasons for new changes to the sport and streaming industry launches are a decline in conventional pay-TV households and the escalating cost of premium sports rights, both of which are being exacerbated by the growing influence of tech giants in the industry and their desire to use sport to bring consumers into their ecosystem.
- APPLETV+ DOES SPORTS WITH FIFA
FIFA is close to an agreement with AppleTV+ that would give the streaming platform worldwide television rights for a major new tournament, World Cup-style competition, for the top teams, playing for the first time in the United States next summer. It is still not clear if the deal with Apple will include any free-to-air rights, meaning the entire event could be available only to subscribers of AppleTV+. If the deal with FIFA and AppleTV+ gets the greenlight, it would be the first time that FIFA, which will stage the first expanded 48-team men’s World Cup in the United States in 2026, has agreed to a single worldwide contract. It would also help grow the streaming platforms foray into soccer. In 2022 they signed a 10-year, $2.5 billion agreement for the global streaming rights to Major League Soccer. A global deal with a major company like Apple may give the tournament, which will be played every four years, the veneer of high quality that Infantino has been trying to secure. FIFA has set aside June 15 to July 13 for the tournament to be played. This comes after the long European season, and has traditionally been a time when no major events take place in order to allow players to rest in the off-season a year before the World Cup.
2. RYAN REYNOLDS & ROB MCELHENNEY CONTINUE TO INVEST
Reynolds and McElhenney have purchased a stake in Club Necaxa, the century-old Mexican soccer club that also counts Eva Longoria among its owners. Club Necaxa is based in Aguascalientes, in northern-central Mexico. The size of the R.R. McReynolds’ stake is unclear. It’s a minority interest but said by a source close to the deal to be of “significant” size. The pair will work with Longoria and fellow investors Al Tylis and Sam Porter to enhance Club Necaxa’s standing and grow its profile in international sports circles at a time of heightened TV and streaming demand for soccer content. Longoria, Tylis and Porter purchased their interest in the club in 2021. It’s understood that Longoria, the Mexican American multihyphenate, helped bring Reynolds and McElhenney into the investor group. The Reynolds-McElhenney connection raises the prospect of Club Necaxa being a focal point of a TV docu-series along the lines of “Welcome to Wrexham,” which put the storied Welsh club on the pop culture map. The Reynolds-McElhenney investment in Club Necaxa is a sign of how crucial media deals and pop culture promotion strategies are to bringing new life to sports franchises. Connections to high-wattage celebrities are increasingly important for sports franchises old and new.
3. PRIME VIDEO NEARS A DEAL WITH THE NBA & WNBA
In what will be a landmark move in sports media history, the NBA and Amazon Prime Video have the framework of a deal that will make the streaming service one of the main homes for the league’s games. The NBA’s current contracts with ESPN and Warner Bros Discovery’s (WBD) TNT Sports expire at the end of the 2024/25 season, and are worth a combined US$24 billion. If confirmed, this deal would see the NBA join a strong roster of properties shown by Prime Video, with the streamer also showing National Football League (NFL) games in the US. Prime Video’s package will entail significant regular-season and postseason matchups, with conference finals to possibly be also included. Both agreements, while yet to be finalized, are expected to last for at least a decade and will commence with the 2025/26 campaign. In addition, it is also said that rights to the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) are expected to be incorporated into both deals. A natural landing spot for Amazon’s regular-season games could be Thursday night, where it already has the NFL from September to early January. And, Prime Video is going big on women’s sports. The Amazon-owned streamer has struck a new deal with AT&T that will see the telecommunications giant serve as the lead sponsor for 21 WNBA games slated to stream on the service. AT&T will also serve as presenting sponsor of pre-show, post-show and halftime coverage for Caitlin Clark’s professional home game debut on May 16, as well as the halftime show that will air during the service’s National Women’s Soccer League matches. For all WNBA games on Prime Video, AT&T will be represented with a presenting intro and logo inclusion.
4. TUBI PARTNERS WITH DAZN TO LAUNCH A NEW SPORTS CHANNEL
Tubi, Fox’s free, ad-supported streamer, has partnered with British streaming service DAZN to add new channels featuring live and recorded women’s soccer, as well as boxing and MMA. DAZN is a sports streaming service available in Europe, Japan, Taiwan, Canada, the U.S. and the U.K. The company has the rights to Bundesliga, English Premier League, LALIGA, Ligue 1 Serie A and the UEFA Champions League, in addition to rights to women’s soccer, boxing and MMA, and the NFL, excluding the U.S. The licensing agreement will see the U.S. launch of the channel DAZN Ringside, which features boxing and MMA from Matchroom Boxing, Golden Boy, Wasserman and MF & DAZN: X Series. That includes weigh-ins, archive fights, documentaries and the DAZN Boxing show. Full run-backs of World Title fights will be available on the channel after an embargo period. This will add to the sports offerings available on Tubi, which already include an NFL channel, a Fox Sports channel, MLB, PGA and NHL channels, as well as a Women’s Sports network channel. In total, Tubi has more than 200,000 movies and TV episodes, exclusive originals and more than 250 live channels.
5. NBC WANTS THE OLYMPICS TO BE A SHOWSTOPPER
NBCUniversal is giving its long-running Olympics coverage a major modern overhaul for the Paris Olympics. It is the first time that the event will be shown in its entirety on both broadcast and streaming. NBCU is getting experimental for its 7,000 hours of Olympics coverage that will run from July 26th through August 11th. They’ve tapped celebrities like Jimmy Fallon, Carrie Underwood, Snoop Dogg, Peyton Manning, and Call Her Daddy podcaster, Alex Cooper, to provide coverage and commentary during the games and opening and closing ceremonies. On Peacock, NBCU will show events both in real time and with primetime highlights that will include interactive stats, athlete profiles, and other digital features. They’re even going to show the live stats of heart-rate monitors given to parents of competing athletes during their events. The company has $1.2 billion in ad-revenue commitments but also because the Paris games are a dry run for the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, the first stateside games since 2002.
6. NFL IS COMING TO NETFLIX FOR CHRISTMAS
Netflix’s potential NFL Christmas games could be a literal game-changer for streaming, sports, and revenue. The streaming platform announced that it’ll be home to NFL Christmas Day games for the next three seasons. This year’s holiday matchups will include Kansas City Chiefs at Pittsburgh Steelers and Baltimore Ravens at Houston Texans will stream exclusively on Netflix. Netflix paid about $150 million for the privilege. The streamer’s deal with the NFL guarantees it at least one Christmas game in both 2025 and 2026 as well. An average of about 28.7 million viewers tuned into last year’s Christmas NFL games on linear TV. The NFL wants streaming viewers and looking to bring in younger, cable-less viewers and expand its global reach, the NFL has made broadcasting deals for the upcoming season with Netflix, Peacock, Amazon Prime Video, and ESPN+. Including a cable bundle and YouTube TV’s NFL Sunday Ticket, it’ll cost you $850+ to access every game this season. The NFL deal shows that Netflix is now deeply serious about sports after denying its interest for years.
TAKEAWAY-
In this age, in order for sports fans to get their fill of their favorite team, they may have to be subscribed to multiple streaming services. But with new mergers coming to streaming services fans will be able to watch a breadth of live sports. These grand union merger deals are a response to several industry megatrends that have transformed how consumers access and pay for content, undermining previously successful business models, and the challenges in meeting their evolving expectations. Digitally-native streaming services such as Netflix and Amazon Prime Video have aggressively invested in content and customer acquisition, leading traditional media companies to do the same.
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