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Sports and live events, such as awards shows, have long been seen as a bulwark against cord-cutting. Rich Greenfield, a media analyst at LightShed Partners, said in an interview that he was encouraged by the new service, which he will likely satisfy some sports viewers who are fed up with paying for traditional television channels they don’t want. But he said the absence of companies like Paramount meant die-hard fans would still not have access to a full range of live sports.
“It’s a step in the right direction,” Greenfield said. “The question is: is it enough?”
In a way, this set of channels is an evolution, not a revolution. The companies already sell their channels to traditional cable distributors such as Comcast and Charter, and to digital distributors such as Sling and YouTube TV. The new service is essentially another distributor to sell channels to, although the companies own it collectively and the bundling of channels offered to subscribers is novel.
Sports fans will find games and matches from almost every major league on the app. In addition to National Football League and National Basketball Association games, the service will offer action from Major League Baseball, the National Hockey League, the PGA Tour, Grand Slam tennis, professional soccer, major conferences colleges and the Ultimate Fighting Championship.
Network contracts with leagues are typically specific about where games can be shown, and most leagues have been hesitant to allow too many games to leave broadcast and cable channels and fully transition to streaming. By structuring the new app in such a way that everything that appears on the channels (both sports and non-sports content) is available to subscribers, the companies did not need to obtain permission from the leagues for the games.
While this service goes a long way toward allowing sports fans to watch a significant number of games in a single app, it doesn’t bundle all sports together. NBC, CBS and Amazon, in particular, have major rights (such as many NFL games, major golf tournaments and the Olympic Games) that will not be part of the service. Also not included are regional sports networks, where most fans still watch their local baseball, basketball and hockey teams.