Live Sports Don’t Just Keep Linear TV Afloat—They Boost Streaming, Too

Last year’s most significant TV transaction by far occurred in March, when the NFL completed eye-popping new rights deals for all of its TV packages, worth an estimated $10 billion annually over the next decade. Not only did the agreements keep the NFL games on CBS, Fox, NBC, ESPN and ABC—ensuring that linear TV will continue to have its top audience draws for years to come—but they also extended them to a variety of streaming platforms. This includes Amazon Prime Video, which will have exclusive Thursday Night Football rights beginning this fall. The deal, in other words, was a microcosm of the dual role that live sports now plays in keeping eyeballs on linear TV and serving as a major subscription driver to streamers. And that’s why media companies must now pay equal attention to TV’s past (linear) and future (streaming) as they navigate new rights deals. “From a macro level, it's really about distribution flexibility,” said Burke Magnus, ESPN’s president of programming and original content. “Every deal we've done in some way, shape or form now has a streaming component to it. Getting broad distribution flexibility as part of the rights set for properties from the big to the middle to the smallest is really table stakes for us at this point.” Disney and the NHL struck a landmark rights deal last March for both linear and streaming properties, bringing the league to ESPN and ABC along with streamers ESPN+ and Hulu. Magnus described it as the company’s “new prototype structure” when it comes to sports rights deals. ViacomCBS also takes a dual approach to live sports, offering all sports available on the CBS broadcast network on its streaming property Paramount+. Its top subscriber draws are the NFL and soccer’s UEFA games. “What we're trying to do with every one of these deals is find the right balance between linear and streaming. We take a global view now of every deal,” said Dan Weinberg, evp of programming for CBS Sports. “We’re looking at them through multiple different lenses because we've got so many different platforms, be it broadcast, cable or streaming.” As companies stockpile sports rights—ViacomCBS recently acquired the FA Women's Super League in addition to deals with soccer leagues like Serie A, the NWSL, UEFA and CONCACAF—they're able to do so without worrying about the potential conflicts that once arose when there were more concurrent games than available linear networks. “With streaming, one of the benefits is you have unlimited shelf space. Things like Serie A, where you have windows that may compete with college basketball or college football or NFL, you have a place for those,” said Jeff Gerttula, CBS Sports Digital evp and general manager. NFL's TV TD After last year's pandemic ratings dip, football is thriving once again on television. Through Week 13, NFL games are averaging 16.9 million viewers on TV and digital, a 7% increase from 2020.NFL matchups account for 47 of the 50 most watched TV programs this season.The highest rated game this season was Thanksgiving Day's Raiders vs. Cowboys matchup on CBS, which pulled in 37.8 million viewers. Marketers are also much more receptive to appearing alongside live sports on digital platforms than they were just a few years ago. In 2018, the last time NBC aired the Super Bowl, some brands that bought linear Super Bowl ads opted not to purchase the corresponding digital inventory, said Dan Lovinger, evp of advertising sales for NBC Sports. But for next month’s Super Bowl 56, he added, they have all committed to multiplatform buys. NBCUniversal’s streaming service Peacock, which did not exist the last time the company had the Super Bowl and Winter Olympics, is helping accelerate the company’s digital advertising sales around both sports. “Whether it's our streaming platform or other people's, what these represent are future dominant distribution opportunities,” Lovinger said. “Advertisers today are looking at it, and they're saying, 'Well, this is where I need to plant my flag, because the future of content consumption is really through these streaming platforms.'” And those marketers are increasingly eager to follow sports audiences on whatever platform they end up on, including Amazon taking over Thursday Night Football from Fox in the fall. “We're going to take advantage of everything that Amazon has to offer to us back in regards to modeling out those audiences beyond the NFL,” said Jeremy Carey, managing director of Optimum Sports. “It's always the best thing available, and for us, we want to get the maximum amount of potential impressions that are available to us in any live opportunity.” (Additional reporting by Jason Lynch.)