Streaming is the future and the future is now.
As it relates to the streaming of sporting events, the House Subcommittee on Communications and Technology will conduct a hearing on sports media rights in the current digital age.
Via Sports Business Journal, the “points of discussion” during the hearing are expected to include the “impact the transition to streaming services has had on the acquisition and distribution of sports media rights,” along with “how major sports leagues negotiate and structure their media rights deals with broadcasting networks and streaming platforms.”
The hearing comes less than three weeks after the NFL made waves by making a playoff game available by streaming only, on Peacock. As we explained in the days leading up to the Dolphins-Chiefs game, fears of widespread postseason streaming (up to and including the Super Bowl) must be balanced against the reality that, at some point, Congress will attack the NFL’s broadcast antitrust exemption, which allows the rights to be sold collectively and not on a team-by-team basis.
Also, the massive numbers the NFL has enjoyed during the 2023-24 postseason (which has had 11 of 12 games on three-letter networks) will drop dramatically if more games are streamed.
There’s no NFL or major-network representative on the list of witnesses, so it seems the NFL’s streaming of a playoff game isn’t front and center in the discussion. It surely will be mentioned a time or two during the hearing. And the question becomes whether and to what extent Congress will continue to explore the situation, and potentially introduce legislation that could jeopardize the NFL’s ability to herd cats by carving the TV pie 32 ways.
If/when the NFL’s teams ever have to sell broadcast rights one team at a time, and if/when the Cowboys sell their rights at a number anywhere from 10 to 100 times greater than other teams, it will be very challenging to maintain the longstanding model of revenue sharing.
