According to a joint statement by the three main media companies—Walt Disney’s ESPN, Fox Corp., and Warner Bros. Discovery—a new sports streaming service is set to launch in an attempt to make a big splash in the streaming space.
Each member of the management and service teams, who have not yet been named, will get one-third of the joint venture’s stock.
The service will design, implement, and run a streaming sports bundle of linear networks and select direct-to-consumer (D2C) sports content and services. It is scheduled to start in the fall of this year. A later time will be used to announce pricing.
A new standalone app called the streamer would be made available. Additionally, subscribers may combine the product with Max, Hulu, or Disney+.
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The platform would house major league baseball (ESPN, TNT, and Fox), the NFL (ESPN and Fox), the NBA (TNT and ESPN), college football, golf, soccer, cycling, and other sports content under one roof. The streaming service would not be a part of the businesses’ existing TV network agreements.
Speaking on CNBC on Tuesday, Michael Nathanson, senior managing director of MoffettNathanson Research, stated that “what sports fans want is one place to get all their content.” “We’ve been saying this for ages: sports are the main focus of the [linear TV bundle].”
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Nathanson claims that Paramount Global and Comcast Corp., who were granted permission to transfer some of their rights to linear TV to their streaming services, Paramount+ and Peacock, are the driving forces behind this. This has especially applied to NFL football.
According to Nathanson, all companies that rely on linear TV networks suffer as “the [linear] bundle gets] weaker” as more of these incidents occur.
The linear sports networks, such as ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, SECN, ACCN, ESPNEWS, ABC, FOX, FS1, FS2, BTN, TNT, TBS, and truTV, in addition to ESPN+, would be available to sports fans.
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The WNBA, NHL, NASCAR, UFC, Grand Slam Tennis, and the FIFA World Cup are among the other sports that would be available on the proposed streaming service.
Customers can add other specific streaming services, whether for entertainment or other purposes, a la carte after they have a large sports TV streamer that provides them with almost all the sports they want.
Walt Disney shares fell 1.3% to $98.00 in after-market trading on Tuesday, while Warner Bros. Discovery saw a 3.3% increase to $10.40 and Fox Corp. saw a 2.2% increase to $29.99.
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