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Facebook slides into live streaming deal with MLB (FB)
BI Intelligence
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Facebook will live-stream at least 20 Friday Major League Baseball (MLB) games during this year’s regular season, according to the MLB.
While only users in the US will be able to watch, the new partnership certainly extends access to games beyond their local markets.
Facebook is aggressively investing in live video, and the addition of MLB follows its agreement to live stream some games from the top Mexican and Spanish soccer leagues.
Terms were undisclosed, but Facebook likely won’t pay a dime in this partnership. The games are not exclusive to Facebook, which will stream from the feed of a local broadcast rights holder. This is likely the very early stages of a test of viewer receptiveness to watching games live on Facebook. The 20 games currently set to be streamed are a tiny portion of the MLB’s over 2,400 regular season games.
Here's what's significant about the deal:
Revisiting live-streaming baseball on Facebook. Back in 2011, the MLB live-streamed a few spring training games by embedding its video player directly in its Facebook Page. But the new deal is the MLB’s first foray into live-streaming full, regular-season games on the social network.
Reimagining the stadium experience online. The chatter, rituals and debates that go on between fans in the stands during baseball games are often as meaningful as the action on the field, according to Facebook’s Head of Global Sports, Dan Reed. Fans will be able to experience an online version of that on Facebook.
Promoting Facebook's video tab. Facebook recently unveiled a video tab for consuming video, and the company wants to kickstart an ecosystem of video content here. Live sports would be perfect for this. Facebook says there are 650 million sports fans on its site.
Other tech giants are aggressively pursuing sports, too. Amazon secured rights to next season’s Thursday Night Football games for $50 million, five times the amount paid by Twitter for the same games in 2016. This highlights how competitive the market for streaming sports rights is becoming. Twitter also has deals to stream games from the MLB, the the National Hockey and Lacrosse leagues.
Viewership across major sports programming like the NFL and English Premier League has underwhelmed in the 2016-17 TV season. Meanwhile, subscriptions for pay-TV and, in turn, for sports networks like ESPN, are in free fall.
The causes behind the decline of live sports viewership are varied and complex. In addition to cyclical issues at play, sports programming is falling prey to the wealth of new content produced by the rise of new media platforms.
And as more and more TV viewers cut the cord, live sports content itself is moving off the TV screen and onto other devices. Last year's NFL broadcasts on Twitter were just the beginning of digital disruption in the live sports arena. In fact, Amazon, a far mightier force than Twitter, will host the same slate of games online next season. And similarly formidable tech companies — namely, Google and Facebook — are also setting their sights on live sports. Will broadcasters be able to thrive or even survive in this emerging environment?
Robert Elder, research analyst for BI Intelligence, Business Insider's premium research service, has compiled a detailed report that takes a deep dive into the decline of live sports on TV. The report explains how digital disruption and shifting consumer habits are contributing to this decline, and profiles the promising new players in the space. In addition, it discusses emerging business models for the live sports industry, and what's next for legacy broadcasters as they strive to adapt.
Here are some key takeaways from the report:
As cord-cutting continues to accelerate, it's growing more difficult for live sports to resist the shift away from linear TV.
Meanwhile, the increasing cost of sports broadcast rights and, accordingly, the higher advertising rates for brands, is making the current live sports business model unsustainable.
With the legacy live sports model in decline, social and digital video platforms are making large strides to acquire sports programming.
Broadcasters will likely be forced to relinquish a slice of the lucrative revenue pie generated by live sports content.
In full, the report:
Assesses the evolving live sports landscape.
Examines how ESPN's business model is threatened by the decline of live sports.
Profiles the promising new players in the space.
Looks at what's next for legacy broadcasters.
To get your copy of this invaluable guide, choose one of these options:
Subscribe to an ALL-ACCESS Membership with BI Intelligence and gain immediate access to this report AND over 100 other expertly researched deep-dive reports, subscriptions to all of our daily newsletters, and much more. >> START A MEMBERSHIP
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