For the last decade, the cable bundle has been unwinding as every network and major studio has launched its own streaming service to host its various popular (and unpopular) shows and movies.
The problem with this, of course, is at some point it became more expensive to have all of the different streaming services than to just have cable. That’s because networks have learned it’s expensive to host a streaming service, so prices to have them keep rising, and most of them are losing money because they didn’t want to just leave it to the established services to buy rights to popular content. The result is these companies are starting to look to re-bundle themselves together, just not specifically via cable services. We’ve already seen ESPN+, Disney+, and Hulu tie themselves together in a bundle option, and now a sports-specific bundle is soon to be on the way from three of the largest sports-rights holding networks.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Fox, ESPN, and Warner Bros. Discovery (which owns TNT) will launch a combined sports streaming venture that will include all of their various sports offerings under one roof. This will apparently be available to those with an ESPN+, Hulu, or Max subscription and will launch later this year — with no other real details available right now.
This would be a particularly big deal for college sports fans, as Fox and ESPN control most of the broadcasting and streaming rights in college football and basketball (with ESPN holding rights in most every other sport too). That figures to be one of the main selling points of this new deal — with a few exceptions for NBC/Peacock and CBS/Paramount. It also should be a big deal for NBA and NHL fans, as ESPN and Warner split the national broadcast rights for both sports (for now, pending the new NBA broadcast deal). The creation of this new network might also be part of their negotiations with the NBA, which has wanted to take a look into streaming options for some time.
What games and sports will be available solely to subscribers without a TV subscription remains to be seen and will likely determine how successful this venture is. That said, considering how difficult networks have found it to profit off of sports on streaming, combining forces to share a service and provide more options to fans makes a lot of sense, even if this is really just “new cable for sports.”
Source: https://uproxx.com/sports/fox-espn-warner-discovery-sports-streaming-service-2024/