Well, you simply don’t hear news like this everyday. In a world where price hikes to your favorite streaming services seem to happen every other month, sports fans may get a slight reprieve.
Main Street Sports Group CEO David Preschlack suggested in an interview with CNBC’s Alex Sherman that the company will consider dropping prices for its FanDuel Sports Network streaming services.
Currently priced at $19.99 per month, FanDuel Sports Network’s direct-to-consumer streaming services allow fans to watch broadcasts of their favorite local teams without the need for a traditional pay TV subscription. But Preschlack says that the company is not locked in to that price point forever.
“We have the ability to go lower, and we’re going to test different price points, absolutely,” he told CNBC. “Geography matters too, Alex. Like, if you live in the city that’s different than if you live in the outer edges of the service area of the network. We have the ability, based on the capability we’ve built, that we own, to test all those price points, and we will.”
That’s certainly good news for sports fans interested in subscribing to FanDuel Sports Network’s direct-to-consumer service. But it begs the question, why haven’t they offered the lower prices from the jump?
No doubt, a company like Main Street Sports Group (formerly Diamond Sports Group), which just emerged from a lengthy bankruptcy process, has to be conservative in how it manages its finances. The business of streaming local sports is still so new, it’s difficult to make confident projections on how many people might signup for a given service. That may encourage a more cautious approach, like starting at a higher price.
But to Preschlack’s credit, FanDuel Sports Network has run promotions to get people in the door. Specifically, Preschlack cites how FanDuel users can get a free three-month subscription just by placing a bet.
Still, the current price point seems quite high when compared to other streaming services that offer vast libraries of content in addition to live sports at a substantially lower cost.
Luckily for sports fans, it seems the company is acknowledging that and eying a change in the not-so-distant future.
About Drew Lerner
Drew Lerner is a staff writer for Awful Announcing and an aspiring cable subscriber. He previously covered sports media for Sports Media Watch. Future beat writer for the Oasis reunion tour.