Sports executives are increasingly questioning whether YouTube wants to compete aggressively for premium rights, according to a new report, as the company appears more focused on creator-led sports content and occasional deals.
The story comes from sources speaking with John Ourand of Puck.
“I have a hard time understanding if YouTube is trying to be the community to other people’s live sports, which is a great business in itself,” one insider told Ourand. “Or do they actually want to be the rights-holder? The truth is, I don’t think YouTube has made up its mind on that, which is why you see these timed bids from them so far.”
According to Ourand, executives believe that hyperscaler tendencies and bureaucracy have limited YouTube’s ability to reach sports agreements. Reportedly, after expressing interest in a property, it would take YouTube two or three months of meetings before the streamer was willing to submit a bid.
It certainly seems that YouTube may be acting especially cautiously, feeling that sports are not something the streamer needs to succeed. According to Ourand, during negotiations for the five-game package the NFL sold to Netflix, YouTube executives walked away from the bidding after the NFL offered a split with Netflix and removed the season kickoff in Australia from the package.
As Amazon and Netflix increasingly pay up for marquee sports, YouTube is focusing on creators. YouTube has an agreement to stream World Cup matches and has focused those streams on the platform’s creators. That likely saves YouTube millions in rights fees compared to paying FIFA directly for normal live sports rights.
But creator streams are unlikely to gather the same amount of attention or viewership as a traditional live broadcast. YouTube has an agreement for NFL Sunday Ticket, which is behind its own paywall, and has freely aired a package of MLB games and an NFL game in recent years. The MLB package and the one-game NFL agreement have since ended.
This is a gamble for YouTube. Amazon and Netflix both have major live sports strategies. It is worth pointing out, though, that the YouTube model is very different from Amazon and Netflix. YouTube has many more users, but is also far less reliant on paywalls for its revenue.
If this gamble fails, YouTube could be leaving millions of dollars in revenue on the table. But if it works, the free service could save itself millions in rights fees.
About Manny Soloway
Manny Soloway is a Iowa based writer focusing on TV ratings. He is also the founder of the TV Media Blog substack.