BETA
This is a BETA experience. You may opt-out by clicking here

More From Forbes

Edit Story

Even If You Want To Cut The Cord, Sports Is Strapping You To Your TV

Following
This article is more than 9 years old.

Chances are, if you’re reading this, you watch video in one form or the other via computer or smartphone. Be it movies, original programming for just streaming, or short films, more and more are accessing YouTube, Netflix , Hulu and other internet-based outlets to get what was once exclusively the domain of television.

There is now a growing populace that wonders why they need cable and satellite television at all. These are the so-called “cord cutters” but in the not too distant future there will be “no corders”; those young people that grew up in a home where they never watched cable or satellite TV and got everything streamed. For them, they will be the first generation to watch all video content via the internet. That has some writing that cable TV is fading to black.

Sports has been a large part of this, as well, although as we’ll see, there’s underpinnings that can leave those cord-cutters in the cold.

Ten-years ago, Major League Baseball Advanced Media streamed its first baseball game to the masses via MLB.TV. Since then, MLBAM has become the industry leader in streaming not only baseball content, but branching out to supply the backend infrastructure for others such as CBS March Madness. Flash-forward to today, and all the major sports leagues provide streaming video packages in one form or other, most notable for out-of-market games that are lucrative cash cows for the leagues, as smartphones and tablets have devoured market share.

This hasn’t come without some bumps along the way. Most notably, matters of blackout policies have raised the ire of not only fans, but politicians. Major League Baseball cites their blackout policy as the #1 customer complaint for MLB.TV and Senators John McCain (R-AZ)and Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) have called on the NFL to end their blackout policy. The crux of the dispute is that fans are paying to see all the games, not just some due to arcane policy about driving fans to see games live by forcing blackouts.

Recently, there’s been some thawing on the blackouts for internet media. This year Major League Baseball worked with FOX Sports to get the their All-Star Game available via streaming internet, and shortly, the World Series will be streamed for the very first time. MLBAM CEO Bob Bowman has said that beyond these premier baseball games on FOX, the league is working to remove all local blackouts to computers and mobile devices saying that it would be a “nice retirement gift for Commissioner Selig” when he steps down early next year. Beyond baseball, ESPN has ESPNWatch for Apple ’s iPhone, iPad or iPod touch. ESPN touts that you get “24/7 access to live streaming feeds from ESPN, ESPN2, ESPN3, ESPNU, SEC Network, SEC Network Plus, ESPNews ESPN Deportes and Longhorn Network.”

The problem for both of these platforms—and a growing host of others—is they are built upon a model that will get you access to streaming sports content, but you can’t do it without still being tethered to your television provider. In a case of protecting broadcast deals at the expense of a growing sector of those cutting the cord, you have to be a cable or satellite television subscriber to get streaming video to your computer or smartphone. Back to ESPNWatch, they do give you Google Fiber as currently the lone way to access without a pay-television package, otherwise you need AT&T U-verse, Bright House Networks, Charter, DISH, and others to gain access. Without being able to prove you’re subscribed to one of those pay-TV carriers, the app is worthless.  FOX Sports GO! follows the same exact model. There you need AT&T U-verse, Bright House, Cable One, Cablevision Optimum, Comcast XFINITY, COX, Mediacom, Midcontinent Communications, Suddenlink, Time Warner Cable, WOW! and other smaller television providers.

While it’s too soon to say with Major League Baseball, chances are good that as will be the case with FOX games this year, the easing of blackouts will come with being able to provide who your pay-television provider is.

The NFL is one example that’s a bit different. In that case, they inked an exclusive deal with Verizon that allows those with that carrier to get games (for a price) streamed to their smartphones via the NFL Red Zone app. You still get caught in the NFL’s blackout policy, but cord-cutters at least get a break from the pervasive model of others that tie you to “television”. The downside here is the NFL instead ties you to “Verizon”.

As to why this model is growing, it’s a way for the leagues that have inked massive television media rights deals to not undercut or cannibalize those agreements through those carriers.

Sports continues to be the one area of programming that viewers wish to see live. It has unscripted drama and with it, a massive viewing audience. With a model that continues to strap you to your television, even if you don’t need it, for streaming sports video content, the notion of a society completely cut from the cord is a ways off. Sports leagues and networks that air the games are offering ways to see games without your TV, but for much of sports, you’ll still need to prove your television provider. That will slow cord-cutting growth to an extent. How much it will impact it depends on sports leagues, and those that negotiate media rights deals. For the sports fan, it may be you that are some of the very last to join the cord-cutting revolution.

Follow me on Twitter or LinkedInCheck out my website