{"id":2245720,"date":"2024-05-16T06:56:01","date_gmt":"2024-05-16T10:56:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/sports-leagues-squeeze-fans-dry-trying-to-make-a-buck-across-streaming-services\/"},"modified":"2024-05-16T06:59:05","modified_gmt":"2024-05-16T10:59:05","slug":"sports-leagues-squeeze-fans-dry-trying-to-make-a-buck-across-streaming-services","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/sports-leagues-squeeze-fans-dry-trying-to-make-a-buck-across-streaming-services\/","title":{"rendered":"Sports Leagues Strain Fans with Multiple Streaming Services for Profit"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">20<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fsports-leagues-squeeze-fans-dry-trying-to-make-a-buck-across-streaming-services%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2245720&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>The \u200cNFL \u2063schedule \u2062release, though hyped, is seen as trivial by fans \u2063already aware of opponents since\u200d January. The league&#8217;s \u2062strategic move to spread\u2062 games across various platforms aims to maximize \u200cprofits and inconvenience fans with multiple subscriptions. Complicated viewing habits emerge as more sports leagues partner\u2064 with different streaming services, demanding fans juggle multiple \u2064platforms to follow their favorite teams.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<p><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><\/p>\n<div class=\"article-content\">\n<p>For a league that seems to run on hype, Wednesday\u2019s annual release of the NFL schedule seems like one of the biggest non-events in sports history. <\/p>\n<p>Since the end of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/opinion-college-footballs-playoff-expansion-is-all-about-greed\/\" title=\"OPINION: College Football\u2019s Playoff Expansion Is All About Greed\">football regular season<\/a> in January, fans have known which opponents their teams would play in the season that starts in September, and which of those would occur at home or on the road. The concept that the release of the specific days and times of said games deserves days of selective leaks, along with a prime-time special on the day of the official schedule release, brings to mind the phrase \u201cover the top.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"fdrlst__b89e9-paragraph-2-long d-flex justify-content-center\" style=\"margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center; \" id=\"fdrlst__b89e9-185741085\">\n<div id=\"div-gpt-ad-1379703300879-0\" class=\"mb-30\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"fdrlst__b89e9-04f641bf7f1a74659280162437dbc9e4 fdrlst__b89e9-paragraph-2\" id=\"fdrlst__b89e9-04f641bf7f1a74659280162437dbc9e4\"><\/div>\n<p>And yet one element of the schedule release hype hints at a broader theme: The NFL, like other major sports leagues, is taking very deliberate steps to make it harder, and more expensive, for fans to watch their games. At first, the statement seems counterintuitive, until one realizes that, as with most things in sports (and life, unfortunately), the answer is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/archive\/sports\/1994\/02\/11\/a-dash-for-the-cash\/6fa12f04-5d05-4eaf-ae7d-d8de5d74b64e\/\">about money<\/a>.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Multiple Streaming Services<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>The announcement of two NFL games on Christmas Day stands out, but not for the reason one might think. It illustrates the extent of the money grab that the league would schedule games on Dec. 25 even when that day occurs on Wednesday this year \u2014 not a day normally scheduled for games. Playing a physically intense game on only a few days\u2019 rest potentially raises the risk of player injury, in a league that purports to care about safety. Of course, scheduling another round of games on Christmas also further intrudes sports into a day associated with religious celebrations and time with family and friends.<\/p>\n<p>But what seems most notable about the Christmas Day games is where they will air \u2014 on <a href=\"https:\/\/thespun.com\/more\/sports-media\/netflix-officially-announces-deal-with-nfl-for-christmas-games\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Netflix<\/a>. They won\u2019t air on any of the NFL\u2019s existing broadcast partners. They won\u2019t even air on Amazon Prime, which televises Thursday night football games. Instead, they will air on a completely new streaming partner, one which presumably was thrilled to get in on the NFL broadcast action.<\/p>\n<p>The move reveals the league\u2019s true strategy: The NFL wants to force you to pay as many different times to see your favorite team\u2019s games as possible. It wants to keep you paying for cable, to see games airing on its over-the-air partners and ESPN. It wants to make you pay for Peacock, NBC\u2019s streaming service, which exclusively televised a playoff game for the first time earlier this year. It wants to keep you paying for Amazon Prime, to watch your team when it appears on Thursday night. And it wants to entice you to subscribe to Netflix, to see the NFL\u2019s Christmas Day games.<\/p>\n<div class=\"fdrlst__b89e9-2e7f915ab0d5862a4a68dc9d643a685f fdrlst__b89e9-paragraph-6\" id=\"fdrlst__b89e9-2e7f915ab0d5862a4a68dc9d643a685f\"><\/div>\n<p>In theory, the NFL would probably air each team\u2019s 17 different games on 17 different networks, if it could get away with it all to bleed the last possible dollar out of fans. And streaming services and broadcast networks desperate for the eyeballs that live sports bring will happily play along.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Complicated Viewing Habits<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>The Wall Street Journal ran a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wsj.com\/business\/media\/sports-streaming-complicated-watching-fans-season-20c37c9c\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">story about this problem<\/a> last fall, pointing out that baseball fans in particular have a tough time tracking the broadcast whereabouts of their favorite teams during the 162-game schedule: \u201cFans say the sheer complexity of having to juggle so many streaming platforms has made watching sports a sport unto itself.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>And more sports are getting into the act. NASCAR recently announced that, as of next year, the marquee Coca-Cola 600 on Memorial Day weekend would air not on Fox but on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nascar.com\/news-media\/2024\/05\/14\/amazon-prime-video-to-open-its-2025-race-coverage-with-coca-cola-600\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Amazon Prime<\/a>, its new streaming partner for 2025. At the same time, the league <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/bobpockrass\/status\/1790788848361836588?s=46\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">announced<\/a> it would migrate the digital in-car streams previously available through the NASCAR app to yet another streaming service, the Warner Brothers-aligned Max.<\/p>\n<p>All this added complexity represents a full-circle moment for the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/nascar-teams-call-revenue-model-broken\/\" title=\"NASCAR Teams Call Revenue Model \"Broken\"\">stock car racing series<\/a>, which back in 2001 assumed control of television rights that had previously belonged to individual tracks, bringing some rationality to a broadcast schedule that flipped between half a dozen different stations during a single season. Having forgotten \u2014 or more likely, chosen to ignore \u2014 their lesson from a quarter-century ago, NASCAR\u2019s move will make it harder for fans to watch races. In the case of rural fans lacking access to fast broadband, it may make it impossible for them to watch races live at all.<\/p>\n<div class=\"fdrlst__b89e9-f9cd805c01a5caa3a7b85cb4c14911dd fdrlst__b89e9-paragraph-10\" id=\"fdrlst__b89e9-f9cd805c01a5caa3a7b85cb4c14911dd\"><\/div>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Don\u2019t Play Along<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>To the sports leagues\u2019 effort to make viewing more complicated for fans, and lucrative for owners, I can merely say: <em>Good luck with that<\/em>. I have yet to give up my broadcast bundle precisely because I want to retain easy access to live sports, although my bundle comes via Verizon broadband rather than cable. And I have little interest in the hassle and added costs that navigating <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/netflix-shares-lose-40-percent-of-value-since-start-of-2022\/\" title=\"Netflix Shares Lose 40 Percent of Value Since Start of 2022\">multiple streaming services<\/a> will create.<\/p>\n<p>For now at least, I plan on watching only those sporting events I can readily access via my existing bundle. If NASCAR wants to make some of its content exclusive to streaming services, then I can find other things to do with some of my summer weekends. Ditto for the NFL and other sports leagues. Therein lies the risk: that at a certain point, fans run out of patience, money, or both and just stop watching. The way leagues are trying to cash in on streaming, one imagines the trend will continue up until the point where someone kills the goose laying the golden eggs.<\/p>\n<div class=\"fdrlst__b89e9-f5e89019b6722ab4c89d8992ec098406 fdrlst__b89e9-after-post-content\" id=\"fdrlst__b89e9-f5e89019b6722ab4c89d8992ec098406\"><\/div>\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\">    \t\t\t\t\t   \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The annual release of the NFL schedule on Wednesdays seems anticlimactic despite the league&#8217;s hype. Fans have known their teams&#8217; opponents since January, making the September season start predictable<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":521,"featured_media":2245721,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/adrian-curiel-KgYazRO3l8A-unsplash.jpeg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[546],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2245720","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-federalist"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/adrian-curiel-KgYazRO3l8A-unsplash.jpeg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2245720","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/521"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2245720"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2245720\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2245721"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2245720"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2245720"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2245720"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}