Once a staple of any pay TV package, league-owned networks may soon go the way of the dodo.
As cord-cutting continues to accelerate, and fewer people subscribe to traditional cable and satellite packages, league-owned networks will likely be some of the first sports channels to fold. In recent years, networks owned and operated by the NFL, NBA, MLB, and NHL have all taken measures to cut costs and pare back live programming. And as these same networks continue to air fewer and fewer live games, especially during the postseason, their value to distributors continues to dwindle.
These headwinds have caused leagues to reevaluate strategies for their media arms. The NFL, for instance, is actively talking with ESPN about a sale of NFL Media, which would include it’s 24/7 linear channel NFL Network. Starting next season, the NBA will do away with playoff games on NBA TV.
One media reporter thinks the writing is on the wall for these channels. Puck’s John Ourand, appearing on The Main Event with Andrew Marchand podcast recently, sounded the alarm on league-owned networks.
“These league-owned networks, they’re losing subscribers by a ton,” Ourand began. “And so that’s what we’re seeing with the NFL talking with ESPN about some sort of sale of NFL Media. I wouldn’t be surprised if, like, when the rights come up, something happens with the MLB Network. NBA TV is sort of, like, it’s going to lose all of its playoff games next season and some of the exclusive games that it has.
“And so, in the early aughts, all of the leagues decided, like, ‘We want to launch our own networks and we want to control our own media.’ And it worked really well. They all grew. They all got to be like, you know, in 70 million households. They all forced their way onto cable systems. NFL has, you know, exclusive games, so all the cable operators had to carry them. MLB Network would put exclusive playoff games on that network. And so they grew and they were really successful. And now, they’re not as successful and so it makes sense to get out of that business.
“And I’m waiting to see which, if any, of these leagues decides, ‘You know what? We want to try our own streaming service and start to, like, seed games on there and try to grow that service.'”
A league starting its own streaming service is nothing new. At this point, most professional sports leagues have a paid streaming service that features some premium content (usually anchored by a live feed of their linear television network). Putting games exclusively on a league-owned streaming service would be another thing entirely, and one that is unlikely to manifest for some time.
For now, it seems like leagues are more interested in downsizing and offloading their media assets than trying to grow different platforms for the digital age. Perhaps it’s a possibility down the line that leagues will want to grow their own platforms, but they’re seemingly more focused on spreading their inventory around to the platforms where people already are. And rightfully so. There’s no big payday that comes from launching a league-owned streaming service like there was from launching a league-owned television network back in the early aughts.
The reality is, league-owned media arms are declining assets in the modern landscape. And soon enough, they’ll likely be seen as relics of a bygone era.