It’s been a big couple of days in US sports media. ESPN has (finally) launched its full-fat streaming product, and Yahoo! Sports Network is live. The first is the only way (for Americans) to get the full ESPN experience without cable. The latter comes with 60 hours of original programming. The services are huge steps forward for both brands and tell us a lot about where sports media is now. People either want high-quality rights exactly what they want, when they want. Or they don’t want to pay.
ESPN has never had a direct-to-consumer (DTC) offer through which you could get everything, despite long being the dominant player in (US) sports media. Of course, there is a very tempting bundle with Disney+ too. Announcing the launch today, ESPN Chairman Jimmy Pitaro said:
This is a monumental day for all of us at ESPN, for The Walt Disney Company and, most importantly, for our fans. ESPN DTC and the ESPN App are a powerful combination marking a major turning point in how we serve sports fans – anytime, anywhere – for years to come.
Pitrao added that “we’ve put a lot of hard work into this launch, with the full force of ESPN and Disney behind it, and we can’t wait for fans to experience all of ESPN in the ESPN App.” That’s putting it mildly. As a recent column by Andrew Marchand revealed, the service has been eight years in the making.
FAST And Direct Shows Sports Media Way Forward
Meanwhile, Yahoo Sports has gone from producing barely any original content to having shows going out not just on its website, but on a number of television platforms too. This includes LG Channels and Sling Freestream at launch, with Samsung TV Plus, Amazon Fire TV, Fubo, Plex, Prime Video, and The Roku Channel to be added in the near future.
Ryan Spoon, President of Yahoo Media Group said:
Our video business is growing rapidly – across the number of shows we produce, the hours of content we deliver, and most importantly, the viewership by fans. We are excited to officially launch the Yahoo Sports Network and make it widely available across leading FAST service.
I dipped into the programming this morning. It is not really for a British audience, but it seemed pretty slick. Talk shows are the predominant format for now. This means it works on Free Ad-Supported Streaming Television (FAST) platforms. You can have it on in the background.
Yahoo Sports is not trying to be ESPN and vice versa. I suspect, though, that both of these products will be successful for their parent companies on their own merits. We will see more sports brands try direct and/or FAST programming in the future.
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