In the ongoing tug-of-war between the gatekeepers of sports programming and the viewers who consume it, there were two important developments this week.
New streaming deals lead to a landmark week for access to Bally Sports North and the NFL
FuboTV announced a new carriage agreement with Bally Sports parent company Sinclair, while the NFL announced its Sunday Ticket package is going to YouTube.
December 22, 2022 at 7:10PM
The bigger national story: YouTube won the bidding for the NFL's Sunday Ticket package, an expensive but important move as it moves toward a more robust and mainstream sports offering.
The story with the potential to have more of a local impact: fuboTV, a live TV streaming service with more than 1 million subscribers, is bringing back Bally Sports regional sports networks – including Bally Sports North – after successfully negotiating a new carriage deal with Sinclair.
I talked about both things on Thursday's Daily Delivery podcast.
Let's get into greater detail here, starting with the news from fuboTV. It's significant for a few reasons:
- fuboTV was one of several streaming services that dropped the Bally RSNs in either 2019 or 2020, doing so almost exactly three years ago. But it is the first one to bring them back.
- There are now multiple no-contract streaming options for fans who want a full menu of sports channels that includes Bally Sports North. But fuboTV seems like it will be cheaper than the other existing option, DirecTV Stream, which is increasing its rates to $100 a month in January. The Streamable reports that Fubo's plan will cost $69.99 plus an undisclosed regional sports fee.
- fuboTV's negotiation could theoretically spur others who dropped the Bally RSNs – Sling, Hulu and YouTube TV – to negotiate new deals. That notion is speculative at this point, but it stands to reason that there is an entry point for negotiation – particularly since subscribing to the Bally Sports standalone app for $20 a month is also an option as of a few months ago.
As for Google-owned YouTube securing rights to NFL Sunday Ticket – the out-of-market package with a rights fee of at least $2 billion per year — it signifies yet another shift in how we watch sports (and how viewers of all ages are perhaps getting more comfortable navigating non-traditional platforms).
Sunday Ticket has been a DirecTV property since 1994, with only subscribers to that satellite service having access. Beginning next season, it will be available to YouTubeTV subscribers or as a standalone purchase.
Opening it up to a wider pool beyond just DirecTV subscribers is a huge deal as the NFL attempts to grow its already massive audience.
And re-adding regional sports networks is a big deal as fuboTV tries to grow its much smaller audience.
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