Stephen A. Smith can see the future of sports media and it reminds him of almost a generation ago, when the internet’s arrival changed everything.
The ESPN personality appeared as a featured speaker Sunday at the Global Summit XVI, “The Future of Sports” session in Erie, Pennsylvania.
Someone asked Smith what he sees “coming down the line” in sports media in the next three to five years.
“I think everybody knows that the industry has moved more to streaming,” Smith said (via The Chris Gunther Show). “People have leaned heavily toward streaming. They don’t want to buy TVs. They want to watch what they want to watch, when they want to watch, how they want to watch. This means their smartphones, their tablets, their laptops, etc.
“They say that right now, just the other day I was informed, that approximately 8% to 9% of the cable audience is dropping off on average each year. All the same folks are still watching sports, it’s just how they’re watching it.”
Cable’s demise is accelerating. Pay-TV providers have been reporting record subscriber losses in 2024. The industry lost 1.62 million subscribers in Quarter 2 of 2024. That’s a 12.6% decline over the similar period in 2023, the 10th consecutive quarter of double-digit percentage losses, according to MoffettNathanson’s Q2 Cord-Cutting Monitor report.
Smith likened the transition away from cable as similar to the turn of the century, when newspapers seemed to become obsolete almost overnight.
“Really, it’s about paying attention to the world and how it’s shifting and making sure you don’t get lost in the shuffle,” Smith said. “Just the same way it was at the turn of the century, where people had faded from the newspaper industry and they went the route of dot com, they went the route of talk radio, obviously television … and then the advent of podcasting came into the fold, and that sort of eased our radio to some degree. People found that podcasting was more beneficial.”
Smith is definitely speaking from experience on the boom in podcasting. He invested $1.5 million of his own money for a new studio last year for The Stephen A. Smith Show. And for those doubting the surprising clout of podcasts these days, just check out Travis and Jason Kelce’s new $100 million distribution deal with Amazon for their New Heights podcast.
Smith hinted the next big move will be an acceleration of the trend seeing pro and college sports signing more streaming-only deals.
“I think that everybody has to pay attention to what’s happening in the industry, how streaming is really, really taking over,” Smith said. “You see Apple, you see Amazon, you see the league rights deals with the National Football League and the National Basketball Association where … they also made sure to do a deal with Amazon, the NFL is doing a deal with Netflix Christmas Day games.”
“The message has been said, there’s a transition that’s taking place, and you better adapt, or you will be left behind.”
[Chris Gunther Show]
About Arthur Weinstein
Arthur spends his free time traveling around the U.S. to sporting events, state and national parks, and in search of great restaurants off the beaten path.