Disney, Fox and Warner Bros. Discovery announced Tuesday that they will merge and sell access to all the sports they televise through a new streaming service. It will be available this fall, but many other details, such as the price or who would manage the service, are not yet known.
The bottom line of the deal — and of most decisions made by media companies — is that the cable bundle is collapsing. A decade ago, about 100 million homes in the United States subscribed to a cable or satellite television package. Today, that number is about 70 million, and falling.
Media companies know that young adults are no longer subscribing to cable TV and that their best customers are also older. They know that people no longer think of “TV” but instead are used to “content” that can be watched on a TV, phone or some other device.
Cable’s days seem numbered, but right now it’s still a profitable business — streaming, for most companies, is not — and the biggest audience for broadcasts, especially sports, is still on traditional TV. So how do media companies get from where they are today to where they are going to be?
With, they hope, deals like the one announced this week.
How does it work;
Disney, Fox and Warner Bros. Discovery has bundled 14 of their sports channels — the full list includes ABC, ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, SEC Network, ACC Network, ESPNews, Fox, Fox Sports 1, Fox Sports 2, Big Ten Network, TNT, TBS and truTV — and the ESPN+ streaming service, and will sell them as a single package.
How much will it cost?
This was not announced. But you can expect it to cost more than the $15 or so a month most streaming companies charge, and less than the $100 or so a month it costs to subscribe to a pay TV package. Ads will appear on the new service.
Is this a streaming service or a cable-like bundle of channels?
Both, sort of. It’s definitely a streaming service that you’ll be able to subscribe to and watch on a variety of devices. But instead of a menu of different shows to watch on demand, there will be channels you can watch live, just like cable customers do.
As a result, this means that subscribers to the service will also be able to watch the non-sports shows that these channels air, such as “The Simpsons” and “The Bachelor.”
What’s up with all the non-sports content?
Contracts between networks and leagues are usually specific about where games can be shown. Because of the fear of smaller audiences, most leagues are reluctant to allow too many games to move away from broadcast and cable channels and go entirely to streaming. But this new service is structured in such a way that it offers everything in the channels provided: sports and non-sports content. That makes it more like existing cable packages and means companies didn’t have to secure permission from the leagues to show games on the service.
Is this the only service I need to watch all the sports I want?
No. Disney, Fox and Warner Bros. Discovery have paid for the rights to many sports, but they don’t own the rights to everything.
NBC, CBS, Amazon and other smaller players are not part of this deal. So if you want to watch the sports they have the rights to – which include many National Football Leagues, golf championships and the PGA Tour, the men’s basketball tournament, the Olympics and the English Premier League, among others. you must subscribe to these channels.
So how do I get all the sports?
Well, you sign up for a pay TV package, or in Amazon’s case, Amazon Prime. You can get what’s on CBS and NBC with a cheap digital antenna, but if you want the games in the US or on the CBS Sports Network, you’ll have to get a pay-TV package. For any games exclusive to NBC’s Peacock streaming service (like this season’s NFL playoff game between Kansas City and Miami) or CBS’ Paramount+ streaming service, you’ll need to subscribe to them.
Disney’s, Fox’s and Warner Bros.’ Discovery channels. will they still be part of regular cable or satellite packages?
Yes.
If I have to subscribe to cable to get sports on CBS and NBC and the Disney, Fox and Warner Bros. Discovery channels. will be there too, why bother with this new service?
Extreme sports fans may not want it. But this service takes a lot of sports that were available on cable and sells them in another way. If you’re into all sports or non-sports channels like the Food Network or Nickelodeon, this probably isn’t for you.
But if you paid the one-time cost for a digital antenna and then bought this package, you could watch a large percentage of all sports on TV for a price that is likely much cheaper than a cable subscription.
It could also be worth it if you’re a fan of just a few sports. Do you like the NBA? You can get 100 percent of the nationally televised game through this package. Like a smaller college sport, like volleyball? You can get most of this package.
Doesn’t sound like a perfect solution.
Probably not. Right now, your options are to pay for a TV package (and a handful of streaming services) to watch everything, get a digital antenna and watch the NFL and a few other big events on traditional TV, or watch no sports at all. .
Someday, you might be able to pay for individual games à la carte, or some service might bundle all the sports together and somehow offer them at a lower price than a cable subscription. This package may serve as a bridge to that future for some sports fans.
Can you stop calling it a package?
Blame the no-name companies. They just call it “consortium”.
