OT: The potential future of sports rights

[polycom]

Amazon's threat of buying sports rights should freak out traditional media companies

Well... this could be very meaningful in a few years if Disney lets this happen.

 

[spudzj6]

The article says Amazon needs to try to acquire sports rights to stay ahead of other platforms, such as facebook. IIRC didn't twitter live stream football games a couple years ago? Guess that didn't stick? Also, MLB was live streamed on facebook this year. Some other one off sports and many other things are already popping up all over facebook live and youtube tv. Seems like Amazon is trying to bid big in order to stay ahead, but they are already behind.

 

[upstater]

The article says Amazon needs to try to acquire sports rights to stay ahead of other platforms, such as facebook. IIRC didn't twitter live stream football games a couple years ago? Guess that didn't stick? Also, MLB was live streamed on facebook this year. Some other one off sports and many other things are already popping up all over facebook live and youtube tv. Seems like Amazon is trying to bid big in order to stay ahead, but they are already behind.

I've watched games on Twitter

 

[WallStreetHusky]

Amazon should scare the daylights out of Disney and any other traditional media company. Everything Amazon gets themselves into produces seismic change for the old guard, and not for the better. There is no one like them, not Facebook, not Google. They are the ones calling the shots and others try to keep up. This is exactly how the P5 monopoly starts to crack. Why shouldnt the AAC be the first league to sign their broadcast rights over to an Amazon? This is the time to strike.

 

[polycom]

The article says Amazon needs to try to acquire sports rights to stay ahead of other platforms, such as facebook. IIRC didn't twitter live stream football games a couple years ago? Guess that didn't stick? Also, MLB was live streamed on facebook this year. Some other one off sports and many other things are already popping up all over facebook live and youtube tv. Seems like Amazon is trying to bid big in order to stay ahead, but they are already behind.

When you have more money than God and know basically everything about every person who has ever purchased something on the internet you are never behind, just patient.

 

[Fishy]

It’s interesting, but I’m not sure why this would herald the fall of the Power 5.

Even if Amazon did get into sports streaming, it’s really just one more broadcaster who would be willing to pay the P5 more money than they pay us.

And there is absolutely no reason for the American to be the sacrificial lamb here. Unless Amazon wants to pay a fortune for the rights, it makes no sense to go to a platform that doesn’t currently exist in any meaningful sense.

People didn’t follow the BIg East to Fox. It’s silly to think they would follow the American to Amazon and some combo of regional channels.

 

[upstater]

Not that I ever cared before, but how many US subscribers are there to Amazon Prime?

 

[HuskyHawk]

Aside from the other valid comments here, I think we need to remember what this entails. Many satellite trucks to broadcast live programming, hiring announcers, staffing camera people, probably some kind of studio programming. I am not saying Amazon can’t get there, I’m saying the rights fees get you nothing without a lot of additional investment. And how will they pay for that without commercials?

 

[upstater]

Aside from the other valid comments here, I think we need to remember what this entails. Many satellite trucks to broadcast live programming, hiring announcers, staffing camera people, probably some kind of studio programming. I am not saying Amazon can’t get there, I’m saying the rights fees get you nothing without a lot of additional investment. And how will they pay for that without commercials?

Amazon is showing some sports already with commercials. I don't think they are producing those sports though so your point still stands. But they can and will do commercials.

 

[Chuck]

It’s interesting, but I’m not sure why this would herald the fall of the Power 5.

Even if Amazon did get into sports streaming, it’s really just one more broadcaster who would be willing to pay the P5 more money than they pay us.

And there is absolutely no reason for the American to be the sacrificial lamb here. Unless Amazon wants to pay a fortune for the rights, it makes no sense to go to a platform that doesn’t currently exist in any meaningful sense.

People didn’t follow the BIg East to Fox. It’s silly to think they would follow the American to Amazon and some combo of regional channels.

This. Bezos is smarter than most traditional media. Content is King, but if you are trying to make people go out of their way to access something it has to be good, buzz-worthy content. Prime (and Netflix) have made tremendous inroads, but it's with on-demand content. Live content would require a big splash.

The only chance that this is a good thing for the American is if it pulls P5 conferences away from traditional media and they react how they have in the past by throwing money at someone that will take it. Sports fans still surf through the ESPN channels.

 

[WallStreetHusky]

It’s interesting, but I’m not sure why this would herald the fall of the Power 5.

Even if Amazon did get into sports streaming, it’s really just one more broadcaster who would be willing to pay the P5 more money than they pay us.

And there is absolutely no reason for the American to be the sacrificial lamb here. Unless Amazon wants to pay a fortune for the rights, it makes no sense to go to a platform that doesn’t currently exist in any meaningful sense.

People didn’t follow the BIg East to Fox. It’s silly to think they would follow the American to Amazon and some combo of regional channels.

If I am signing a decade long deal for broadcast rights, I think it silly to think that you would view the next ten years with Amazon like you would Fox or Disney. Apples and oranges. Traditional media companies are dying, that's why all their assets are in play. Amazon, and those like them, are the future. Do you want to grow with your partner over the life of the contract or wither and die with them? Amazon is a threat to the P5 simply because they disrupt the status quo. They offer a platform unlike anyone else, and if the P5 conferences are locked into long term contracts with traditional media companies with declining viewers, you might have an advantage in being first to market with an Amazon.

 

[polycom]

Not that I ever cared before, but how many US subscribers are there to Amazon Prime?

They have 100M worldwide.

 

[upstater]

One thing I've noticed from Amazon is that they advertise live sports on their backsplash. So every single person who either tunes into Prime or else who owns a Firestick will see the top game being advertised when they tune in. At least, this is what has happened with soccer for me and also NFL on Thursday nights. Amazon has made the NFL Network redundant for people that only watch games and not nattering heads.

 

[HuskyHawk]

One thing I've noticed from Amazon is that they advertise live sports on their backsplash. So every single person who either tunes into Prime or else who owns a Firestick will see the top game being advertised when they tune in. At least, this is what has happened with soccer for me and also NFL on Thursday nights. Amazon has made the NFL Network redundant for people that only watch games and not nattering heads.

I think part of what you can get, or should strive to get, if you partnered with Amazon, is that every damned game you play is carried. No more looking for SNY, CBSSN or ESPN3 or whatever. Now that would have value, knowing I can watch every basketball and football game on my phone, tablet, or connected TV.

The downside is that the number of casual non fan viewers would be way down over ESPN, ESPN2 or CBS. You'd need some way to simulcast the bigger games on those networks.

 

[Guapo]

I think some people are being a little short sided here.

Streaming content is the future, for better or worse.

I don’t think Amazon’s forray into sports broadcasting in the long run will be housed on Amazon Prime. They’ll probably try and start a stand alone “Amazon Sports” channel/app/whatever in order to serve to the sports market. In this way, it would be much more similar to ESPN sucess in building on the Big East than the failure of Fox Sports to build on the NBE. That was a lateral jump whereas this will be a technical jump more in line with the advent of cable.

 

[Guapo]

I think part of what you can get, or should strive to get, if you partnered with Amazon, is that every damned game you play is carried. No more looking for SNY, CBSSN or ESPN3 or whatever. Now that would have value, knowing I can watch every basketball and football game on my phone, tablet, or connected TV.

The downside is that the number of casual non fan viewers would be way down over ESPN, ESPN2 or CBS. You'd need some way to simulcast the bigger games on those networks.

Yup! Exactly right.

I think there’s a possibility that streaming can make sports more profitable while also making them less popular.

It will excellerate the splintering of culture into a million little niches

 

[polycom]

I think some people are being a little short sided here.

Streaming content is the future, for better or worse.

I don’t think Amazon’s forray into sports broadcasting in the long run will be housed on Amazon Prime. They’ll probably try and start a stand alone “Amazon Sports” channel/app/whatever in order to serve to the sports market. In this way, it would be much more similar to ESPN sucess in building on the Big East than the failure of Fox Sports to build on the NBE. That was a lateral jump whereas this will be a technical jump more in line with the advent of cable.

They have this with Amazon Prime video now, they can broadcast in the app that already exists. Maybe for branding they'd change it but I don't see why they would have it.

 

[Guapo]

They have this with Amazon Prime video now, they can broadcast in the app that already exists. Maybe for branding they'd change it but I don't see why they would have it.

Because I think they want to become both ESPN AND Cox, if that makes sense.

They want to be “cable” but they also want to own all the channels.

 

[EdgewoodNHV]

People didn’t follow the BIg East to Fox. It’s silly to think they would follow the American to Amazon and some combo of regional channels.

Unless it's built-in to Amazon Prime, which is a huge built-in audience that may not overlap with a Fox-like product. Who knows. Nobody used Netflix until they did.

 

[Fishy]

If I am signing a decade long deal for broadcast rights, I think it silly to think that you would view the next ten years with Amazon like you would Fox or Disney. Apples and oranges. Traditional media companies are dying, that's why all their assets are in play. Amazon, and those like them, are the future. Do you want to grow with your partner over the life of the contract or wither and die with them? Amazon is a threat to the P5 simply because they disrupt the status quo. They offer a platform unlike anyone else, and if the P5 conferences are locked into long term contracts with traditional media companies with declining viewers, you might have an advantage in being first to market with an Amazon.

If I’m signing a decade-long media rights deal, I would view Amazon with a hell of a lot more skepticism than I would look at Disney. This is a toe-in-the-water move for Amazon. If the water’s too cold, Amazon will pull the plug and then you’d be screwed.

First off, Amazon is way, way, way behind Disney/ESPN in any meaningful metric. You know who is the current leader in broadcasting sports? ESPN. Do you know who the leader is in streaming sports? ESPN.

ESPN+ is real. If the traditional method of delivering sports content is in trouble, ESPN+ is ESPN’s plan to deal with it and it’s already live and it’s already quite good. Before Amazon puts a digital shovel in the digital ground, ESPN has built a digital skyscraper.

ESPN is selling sports to people who come to them for sports - it’s a hell of a better starting place than trying to sell sports to people who come to you for the free two-day shipping.

But it should be noted that Amazon is actually bidding on traditional networks here. My guess is just like we saw them do with their HQ2 nonsense, Amazon is really just in this to gather information for some other day.

 

[polycom]

Because I think they want to become both ESPN AND Cox, if that makes sense.

They want to be “cable” but they also want to own all the channels.

I don't know if they'd want to be cable, as cable isn't "cool" with 30 and under crowd. If anything they'd want to make something that looks like cable but isn't cable. DirectTV Now...it's essentially cable but it isn't so the under 30 crowd loves it. Look at SlingTV, YoutubeTV etc etc... Amazon could go the same way and have sports only...that would be a dominate product. NFL Red Zone is only on DirectTV imagine if loses that and Amazon or Facebook picks that up...there is huge money tied into that service... and that's just 1 channel from 1 sport.

 

[Guapo]

I don't know if they'd want to be cable, as cable isn't "cool" with 30 and under crowd. If anything they'd want to make something that looks like cable but isn't cable. DirectTV Now...it's essentially cable but it isn't so the under 30 crowd loves it. Look at SlingTV, YoutubeTV etc etc... Amazon could go the same way and have sports only...that would be a dominate product. NFL Red Zone is only on DirectTV imagine if loses that and Amazon or Facebook picks that up...there is huge money tied into that service... and that's just 1 channel from 1 sport.

Right, obviously they wouldn’t be literally be the cable. But, they want to be both the content provider and the platform on which that content is provided.

Vertical integration

Nonetheless @Fishy is 1000% correct. ESPN is the safest streaming bet. Brand recognition and familiarity is extreamly important.

 

[Jimdish255]

If the money is good I say take it, at least for FB and Women's Hoops. Pretty sure you can give them a package or a tier while keeping a lot of inventory with channels like CBSSN and SNY. Unless they want to pay real money and dive in by partnering with existing cable distribution for the vast majority of a conference product. There's lots of ways to slice the pie. We are the best deal ESPN has and others need to recognize that. Plus we now have the #1 Hoops recruit in the country to drive interest along with undefeated UCF FB and Uconn Women's Championship pedigree. Not a bad time to jump in.

 

[upstater]

If I’m signing a decade-long media rights deal, I would view Amazon with a hell of a lot more skepticism than I would look at Disney. This is a toe-in-the-water move for Amazon. If the water’s too cold, Amazon will pull the plug and then you’d be screwed.

First off, Amazon is way, way, way behind Disney/ESPN in any meaningful metric. You know who is the current leader in broadcasting sports? ESPN. Do you know who the leader is in streaming sports? ESPN.

ESPN+ is real. If the traditional method of delivering sports content is in trouble, ESPN+ is ESPN’s plan to deal with it and it’s already live and it’s already quite good. Before Amazon puts a digital shovel in the digital ground, ESPN has built a digital skyscraper.

ESPN is selling sports to people who come to them for sports - it’s a hell of a better starting place than trying to sell sports to people who come to you for the free two-day shipping.

But it should be noted that Amazon is actually bidding on traditional networks here. My guess is just like we saw them do with their HQ2 nonsense, Amazon is really just in this to gather information for some other day.

I agree that ESPN is way ahead. On the other hand, I am totally frustrated with +. I know it's my own fault but I don't currently have the time to figure it out. Half the time it asks me to sign in/sign out, and somehow it always remembers my cable provider but forgets my + account. I wish there was a + standalone app. Half the time, it doesn't show the game I want. I am totally frustrated by this app, and I know it's my fault for not jiggering it the right way, but man, ESPN has to remember, USERS DON'T READ.

 

[zls44]

I agree that ESPN is way ahead. On the other hand, I am totally frustrated with +. I know it's my own fault but I don't currently have the time to figure it out. Half the time it asks me to sign in/sign out, and somehow it always remembers my cable provider but forgets my + account. I wish there was a + standalone app. Half the time, it doesn't show the game I want. I am totally frustrated by this app, and I know it's my fault for not jiggering it the right way, but man, ESPN has to remember, USERS DON'T READ.

It does it to me too and I'm probably a top 5% superuser of it.