The cable bundle is truly imploding and it’s leaving sports fans in a position where media companies are now trying to maximize revenue off their willingness to follow their favorite teams wherever they may go. While the streaming era definitely has some positives in terms of the sheer amount of content that is out there, the fragmentation of sports rights has also made a sports fan more challenging and hard to figure out than ever before.
If this idea resonates with you and you’ve wrestled with paying yet another streaming subscription to watch a game or had to spend an hour doing a Google or social media search to find where and when your favorite team is playing, you are certainly not alone.
Altman Solon has published a Global Sports Survey the last several years and released information about how consumption of sports fans are changing in the streaming era. To no surprise, the proliferation of streaming platforms and paywalled games have made it much more challenging for fans to track their favorite teams. A stunning 60% of fans responded that they have trouble finding games that are “essential” for them to watch.
The sports media landscape has never been more fragmented, creating obstacles for the average fan to discover and access sports content. Meanwhile, a younger cohort of sports fans with shorter attention spans is favoring post-game highlight reels and second-screen experiences over live games broadcast on “traditional” linear TV. As fans move towards short-form and digital content, broadcasters and rights owners are experimenting with ways to monetize highlights and adapt this format to a multitude of platforms for a broader reach. It’s not just the content that’s changing, but the nature of fandom itself. Indeed, 56% of sports executives foresee a more athlete-based fandom that centers sports celebrities over teams taking hold among younger generations.
As sports fans in generations Z and Alpha come of age, they are expected to maintain their online-heavy media diet. By 2040, total TV hours watched per week are expected to drop by 15-20%. What’s more, today’s sports fans multitask: 57% of fans report browsing the internet while tuning into sporting events. In response, over 70% of sports executives see expanding content offerings beyond live events, augmenting live media experiences, and personalizing content and recommendations as essential ways to increase engagement with fans.
Finally, the rise of streaming platforms has further decentralized the sports media landscape, making content harder to find as well as difficult and expensive to access: 60% of fans report having issues accessing and discovering games for one or more of their most essential leagues. Executives believe that content syndication through rights sharing and where-to-watch guides; promotion strategies like live push notifications; and flexible pricing are integral to making live sports easier to watch. At the moment, reconsolidation in the sports media landscape is likely to follow one of two scenarios: a closed market with a small number of dominant platforms aggregating sports audiences; or an open market where live sports content is cheaper and easily accessible through multiple media outlets.
Fans have spoken out in droves about how difficult it is to follow their favorite teams and sports with the fragmentation of sports rights. There’s perhaps no better example from a team perspective than the New York Yankees, whose fans have been up in arms about games appearing on multiple networks and streaming platforms including YES, ESPN, Fox, Apple, and Amazon. Then there’s media companies that use top teams and huge fanbases to leverage subscription numbers for their streaming platforms – see Ohio State football on Peacock. The NFL may be the kings of maximizing revenue across a number of platforms and networks with games no longer on traditional, linear television. See Thursday Night Football on Amazon Prime, exclusive games on ESPN+, and a playoff game now on Peacock because it was the highest bidder.
The expansion shows no sign of slowing down in the near-term, with fans forcing to fork out more dollars than ever for more subscriptions than ever. And it seems like it needs a nuclear physics degree to figure it all out. Hopefully sports fans get some relief in the long-term so it becomes more accessible to follow their favorite teams once again.
