Are sport leagues waging war on fans? – The Prospector
There was a day not too long ago when fans could enjoy major sporting events like the Superbowl, the World Series, and the National Basketball Association (NBA) Finals without a hitch. These sporting events are now readily available as they are broadcast on major networks such as FOX, NBC, ABC and others, but the games that lead to major events have become a commodity for only those willing to pay.
In the 2010s, streaming services like Netflix started selling themselves as a cheaper alternative to cable. From there, entertainment companies such as Disney, HBO and NBCUniversal produced streaming services for their own content. As more and more competitors entered the market, prices started to rise. The average household would spend more on streaming services than cable.
In the background, sports leagues like the NBA, National Football League (NFL), and Major League Baseball (MLB) began selling streaming rights to Amazon, Apple, and ESPN+. The NFL, for example, sold the Thursday Night Football license to Amazon and Amazon Prime Video for an exorbitant price $105 billion. MLB sold some of its streaming rights to Apple for several games Friday night. This deal was worth it $85 million a year. The most notorious act was committed by the NBA when the league sold regional basketball games to Sinclair-owned Bally Sports.
Bally Sports Southwest, the package offered for the El Paso area, costs $229.99 per year or $19.99 per month. With this package, fans can watch select Dallas Mavericks and San Antonio games, Dallas Stars games, Dallas Wings games and select Atlantic Coast Conference games. This pricing places Bally Sports at the top all major streaming services at least five dollars a month.
An alternative would be the NBA League Pass, which would offer fans hundreds of NBA games per season at a more palatable $49.99 per season with ads or $64.99 without ads. If fans are only interested in one team, the NBA offers a team pass that allows fans to follow only their team for $44.99 per season. But if you’re a Mavericks or Spurs fan in El Paso, you’re out of luck. Thanks to the existing deal with Bally Sports, the NBA can’t offer streaming options for regional markets as the exclusive deal forces fans to pay the premium price to follow their teams.
If a true sports fanatic wanted to stream every major sports league in the US, they would have to pay at least $71.83 per month or $862 per year. This number is a sum of the cheapest services offered by Bally sports, NFL+, ESPN+, Amazon Prime Video, Outstanding+, peacock, apple tv And MLB TV. If a fan wanted the premium versions of these services, they would have to top up $200 per month, which adds up to $2,400 per year.
The solution is simple; look at the cable. Although there are other solutions such as B. Limiting the types of sports content you consume, Cable offers several packages that include games already on the market that can only be found at providers like Bally Sports. Direct TV, DISH network And charter spectrum charge an average of $70 per month for their services. Some plans include the streaming services already mentioned. It will be missing games like Thursday Night Football or Friday Night Baseball, but for the average fan committed to an on-the-market team, Cable would allow them to enjoy their team’s season without breaking the bank.
Emmanuel Rivas Valenzuela is a sports editor and can be reached at [email protected]: @rivasemmanuel2 on Instagram.