There was a time when the only way you could watch a major sporting event was to head to the arena or stadium where the game took place, purchase a ticket, and soak up the atmosphere. Occasionally, the most significant events, such as soccer’s World Cup or the NFL Super Bowl, made it onto terrestrial television. Nowadays, almost every sport under the sun is available to watch on the Internet.
The way we consume television, including sports, has drastically changed over the years. Although millions of supporters head to stadiums worldwide each week, an ever-increasing number of sports fans stream the action direct to their televisions, smartphones, and tablets. The streaming companies spend astronomical sums of money for the rights to stream content to their subscribers.
Amazon Pays the NFL $13.2 Billion for Thursday Night Football Rights
For example, in 2021, Amazon agreed to pay $13.2 billion to stream the NFL’s Thursday Night Football, plus two Super Bowls, over the next 11 years. The NFL is the most-watched professional sports competition in the United States and one of the most popular with the top online sportsbooks due to the sheer number of games running during the regular season and the playoffs.
Viacom18 paid the Indian Premier League, the top cricket tournament worldwide, $3 billion for five years of digital rights. Apple got in on the action by acquiring the rights to every Major League Soccer (MLS) game for the next ten years. Apple paid $2.5 billion so its customers can tune into every MLS fixture via the Apple TV+ app.
Granting a New Level of Access
Fans previously had to make do with post-game interviews for any insight into their team’s inner workings, which often left them wanting more. The rise of streaming sites has resulted in a new level of access for die-hard supporters.
The Amazon Prime Video documentary series, All or Nothing, has proven to be a massive hit with supporters of the featured teams and fans of that sport. The series debuted with the 2016 season of the Arizona Cardinals. The Los Angeles Rams, Dallas Cowboys, Carolina Panthers, and Philadelphia Eagles are the other NFL teams that have, so far, allowed Amazon’s camera into previously inaccessible areas of the team’s day-to-day operations.
Three of the most-watched All or Nothing documentaries feature English Premier League teams. Manchester City was the first of this trio to hit the digital airwaves, followed by Tottenham Hotspur and Arsenal. Viewers get to see pre-match and half-time team talks, how the players train, how injuries are treated, and get a glimpse of what it is like to be a professional athlete, thanks to the Internet.
Giving Sport to a Much Wider Audience
Sport brings people together like nothing else in the world. You can travel to the other side of the planet, meet someone who follows your team, and you instantly have a friend for life. Streaming sports is such big business and a significant revenue earner for the streaming sites that elite-level and even some lesser-known sports are broadcast globally.
DAZN, for example, is a key player in the world of pay-per-view boxing and has also recently spent a combined $4.9 billion for the rights to Italian soccer’s Serie A and Spanish soccer’s La Liga. Soccer fans from far and wide can now watch games from two of Europe’s best leagues wherever they have an internet connection and, of course, a DAZN subscription.
Some sports teams even use YouTube to stream some of their fixtures for free, opening the door for potential new supporters from previously unreachable parts of the world.
The Internet receives plenty of bad press, often rightly so, but the way it spreads the joy of sport worldwide should be applauded.