Sports Leagues Figure Out Build It Online, And They Will Come

from the somebody's-paying-attention dept

We've mentioned several times about how sports leagues are trying to crack down on unauthorized web streams of their games. It's a misguided effort that fails to recognize the opportunity here: people watch these streams because they generally don't have other options. Largely, they're not cheapskate pirates, but underserved customers. With that in mind, it was nice to see a story in the WSJ a few days back talking about how some American leagues' subscription streaming services are enjoying success. They've figured out that by offering users a better service than the pirate streams, they can get them to pay subscription fees. This gets to the heart of so many different industries' battles against piracy: it's not a technological problem that exists because there are inadequate locks for content, it's a business problem that exists because many companies are too complacent to develop services that deliver consumers content they want in a format they desire.

Filed Under: sports leagues, streaming, websites

Sports Leagues Missing The Point About Fans Streaming Live Games Online

from the foul-ball dept

Just a few weeks ago, we were talking about sports leagues freaking out over online streaming sites like Justin.tv destroying the value of their broadcast rights. However, in that discussion, we noted that these sports leagues seemed to be missing the point: the reason watching such streams online is popular is that the sports leagues have failed to adequately serve the needs of fans -- often falsely believing that online streams of games somehow take away from live attendance or TV viewing. Yet, now the NY Times is continuing this story, highlighting how various sports leagues are trying to crack down on such online streaming. About the only "good" thing in the story is that many of the leagues say they've learned from the RIAA not to sue people, but just to send cease and desist letters. That's a start, but it still misses the point -- which the NY Times contributes to by falsely claiming that anyone streaming a game live online is "stealing."

The only reason such streams are being placed online is because the leagues themselves have failed to adequately provide the video in a way that allows fans to conveniently watch the games. These unauthorized streams aren't "piracy" or "stealing." They're the market telling these leagues to shape up and improve their product. And, while the article incorrectly suggests that unauthorized streams have no ancillary product for people to buy (and thus are a true "loss"), that ignores pretty much all reality around sports fandom. If a sport or a team can build a strong fanbase, then there are tons of things that can be sold to that fan -- such as tickets to live events, uniforms, cards, memorabilia and much, much more. The real issue should be about trying to get and capture more fans -- because true fans will spend a ton on a sport or team that they love. It's disappointing that the various sports leagues mentioned in the article are too short-sighted to recognize this, but it's even more annoying that the NY Times reported their position as if it were factual, without any quotes from those who would point out how wrong the leagues are in their thinking.

Filed Under: sports leagues, streaming, websites

NHL Sued For Trying To Take Over Team's Website

from the fight!-fight!-fight! dept

A few years back, Major League Baseball demanded that all MLB baseball teams hand over their websites to the league as part of their effort to create MLB Advanced Media, a division devoted to managing the online presence of Major League Baseball. While MLB may go way overboard in claiming control over certain content, its online efforts have been quite a success. There was a rumored (and later scrapped) IPO plan -- but the company is apparently still doing amazingly well, with talk of it being valued somewhere around $5 billion. Already, MLBAM has tried to expand its coverage by running websites for other sports and even musicians.

All of that success apparently caught the attention of the National Hockey League, who had apparently let teams run their own damn sites for a while. However, it recently decided to bring them all in house -- but teams aren't thrilled with the idea. In fact, the NY Rangers are now suing the NHL for antitrust violations in trying to take over their site. The Rangers claim that the site is an important part of their team's marketing efforts and it acts as a competitive differentiator. They're also not happy that they've spent all this time building up traffic only to turn it over to the NHL. There are a few important differences with the NHL's plan compared to the MLB's. First, MLB took over all team sites years ago, before web sites were so important. These days, most teams recognize how valuable those sites are and have already built up a ton of traffic. Much more importantly, Major League Baseball has a special antitrust exemption that no other sports have. So, even if a baseball team had wanted to charge MLB with antitrust violations, it would have been difficult given the exemption. Since the NHL doesn't have that exemption, it's going to have to put up a fight to get the Rangers to hand over their website.

Filed Under: sports leagues, websites
Companies: mlb, nhl, ny rangers