The Disney, WB, Fox Sports Streaming App Is Coming To Finally Kill Traditional TV Forever
The streaming wars are an ever-evolving beast, but one thing remains true: Streaming is the future. For better or worse, the media business continues to remake itself in the image of Netflix, with traditional TV losing more ground by the day. As a testament to just how true that is, Disney, Fox, and Warner Bros. have announced they're joining forces to launch a brand new sports streaming app that is expected to launch later this year. When that does happen, it will be yet one more nail in the coffin of TV as we used to know it. New media is going in for the kill.
While the service does not yet have a name, the three companies, who are competitors in the streaming era, have recognized that with their powers combined, they can potentially become the new destination for sports fans in the U.S. This app will combine all of the sports-centric broadcast and cable networks owned by these companies. This list includes ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, SECN, ACCN, ESPNEWS, ABC, TNT, TBS, TruTV, FS1, FS2, and BTN. Subscribers will have access to all of that and more. Disney CEO Bob Iger had this to say about it in a press release:
"The launch of this new streaming sports service is a significant moment for Disney and ESPN, a major win for sports fans, and an important step forward for the media business. This means the full suite of ESPN channels will be available to consumers alongside the sports programming of other industry leaders as part of a differentiated sports-centric service."
Rather crucially, Disney will still be allowed to pursue a standalone ESPN streaming service, which is currently expected to arrive in 2025. In short, sports will soon no longer be dependent on cable and over-the-air TV. What happens when that time comes? It'll be a bad day for anyone with stock in a company that relies on traditional TV.
Traditional TV isn't dead yet, but it's on its deathbed
Sure, we've had sports streaming for years, with Disney's ESPN+ steadily gaining subscribers. But this new venture is like the Hulu of sports, with the might of three media conglomerates getting behind it. It's going to advance things greatly, assuming all the regulatory hurdles can be cleared along the way. Sports rights have helped to prop up cable and TV channels for years. What happens when people can ditch cable and opt-in for this instead? The writing is on the wall.
Good or bad, this is what needs to happen for these companies to survive in the long term. They've made streaming the future and they can't go back to TV as it used to exist. Streaming, as it happens, is also not profitable for pretty much anyone but Netflix. That means these companies must innovate and find ways to increase streaming revenue before it's too late. So here we are. Sports fans will be asked to shell out anywhere between $40 and $50 a month (the expected price for the service), which will undoubtedly cause many of them to bail on cable. No, it won't be all sports in one place (NBCU and CBS are sitting this whole thing out), but an awful lot of games will be covered by this new streamer.
NFL Sunday Ticket went to YouTube last year and upended DirecTV's business model. Netflix just shelled out a fortune for the rights to stream WWE's "Raw." Sports streaming rights are a hot-ticket item right now, and it was the last card that old-school TV had to play. Disney, Fox, and WB would surely love to keep the money from their legacy TV businesses rolling in for years to come, but that's no longer possible. The future they foisted upon us is calling.
I spoke more about this on today's episode of the /Film Daily podcast, which you can listen to below:
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