Opening day of the Major League Baseball (MLB) season featuring the New York Yankees vs. the San Francisco Giants had a twist this season. Ten years ago, a cable subscription would have been enough for Yankees fans to watch every single game of the MLB season and post season. Unfortunately, fans now have to pay for multiple streaming subscriptions, and suffer through the burden of finding out what service each game is on in order to see games of their favorite teams.
Streaming services work by delivering audio and video data over the internet through small packets. This allows playback to be played through real time instead of having to download the entire file first. This allows platforms such as Netflix, youtube, and others to allow customers to subsequently tune into shows without having to download a massive file first.
By placing baseball games on mainstream media apps like Netflix and Disney, MLB was able to reach new and wider audiences who wouldn’t pay cable and look for the specific channel. Moreover, new mainstream media are known for more modern approaches to marketing through social media and technology, allowing the MLB to have its game reach broader audiences. hese new platforms, like Apple TV, Peacock, Disney plus, and others can give baseball more detailed data and analytics that the MLB and other league confederations can use to their advantage.
Many leagues around the world are built around television and streaming rights. Streaming rights often determine how much revenue a league makes a year, how much players can make, and even in some cases, how many teams participate in a given year. League media revenue helps determine contracts and overall pool money. When a league signs a richer contract with a streaming service, players overall benefit from higher caps and wider spending from teams. But, dependence on television rights deals can also turn for worse if league demand is declining.
In France, the top tier of soccer, ‘Ligue 1’, had to reconsider its size and structure of competition to protect payouts and broadcast money for teams. This led to their controversial decision to cut their number of teams from 20 to18 in 2023 to 2024. The French League’s controversial decision shows how important television rights deals are to professional sport organizations.
In India, we saw a modern approach to television media and right deals. In order to maximize profit, the (IPL) signed a contract that splits between TV and digital media rights. This allowed the Indian premier league to sign a record 6.2 billion dollar contract.
Cable and digital both have strengths and weaknesses that allow both to remain on the market for customers. Digital allows customers and fans to have better image quality, better sound quality, and be able to tune in from anywhere outside of home. On the contrary, cable TV is still valued for being steadier, faster, and more reliable in many situations.
Moreover, digital might fail in cases where many fans tune into the same stream causing the site to crash. For example, in Nov. of 2024, Jake Paul and Mike Tyson caused many viewers to experience buffering, pixelation, login problems, and other sorts of issues. When famous artist Taylor Swift attempted to stream her concert ‘New Heights’ on Youtube, the streaming cut out and many delays were reported. These kinds of failures usually arrive when too many viewers simultaneously join a website at the same time resulting in the platform’s servers not being able to keep up. Overall, these sudden spikes occur when famous one time events occur resulting in sudden and extreme traffic spikes.
As old contracts begin to expire and new contracts begin to be negotiated, sports will be chasing bigger audiences and right fees that satisfy their needs. Digital and cable will continue its battle on who can provide the better viewing experience and deal to customers, and viewers will continue to suffer the burden of having to manipulate and pay multiple sites and television companies in order to watch their favorite teams play.
