As if supporting Canadian sports teams wasn’t hard enough on its own (please don’t talk to us about the Leafs), broadcasters could soon make it even tougher (and expensive) to tune in to games.
Driving the news: ESPN is in talks to sell equity stakes in the network to major sports leagues, including the NFL, NBA and MLB, as part of the company’s effort to transition into the streaming era, per Axios.
Catch up: Two other major players in the sports broadcasting world made headlines this month with different high-profile streaming plays.
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Just last week, Amazon inked a deal with local sports broadcast group Diamond Sports that will give Amazon’s Prime Video the streaming rights for more than 40 major sports teams across MLB, NHL, and NBA.
- Meanwhile, NBC’s controversial decision earlier this month to show an NFL playoff game exclusively on its Peakcock streaming service paid off in a big way, bringing in 23 million viewers to become the most-viewed streamed event ever in the U.S.
Why it matters: NBC proved that sports could help streamers get more subscribers in record numbers, which could push other media companies to leverage their live sports broadcasts to push paid subscriptions more aggressively.
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On this side of the border, companies like Bell and Rogers, who have the broadcast rights to most pro sports games, already have paid streaming services like TSN+ and Sportsnet Now that carry the same live games as the cable channels.
Bottom line: With broadcast rights fragmented across different teams, leagues, and even individual games, expect to soon have to pay up for multiple subscriptions to be able to watch all your favourite teams’ games.—LA