by Christine Somers
Throughout the 2010s, streaming services have become the #1 way to enjoy movies and TV shows. In recent years, however, live sports broadcasting has made the leap to streaming service platforms. As Netflix and Amazon Prime Video snap up broadcasting rights for certain sports, sports teams in New York have settled on Gotham Sports, a homegrown regional sports streaming app.
The Streaming Boom Aftermath
Until 2019, Netflix was relatively uncontested as the world’s largest streaming service while producing its own movies and TV shows. It almost singlehandedly drove the streaming boom, becoming one of the largest subscriber-based companies in the world. Since then, giants like Amazon and Apple joined the fray by stepping up production, while broadcasters like NBC and HBO launched their own services.
This led to where we are today, an aftermath where streamers are merging, bundling and drawing up plans to survive one of the world’s most competitive entertainment markets. As part of those plans, they have correctly identified that streaming can be used for more than just fictional entertainment. For example, websites online have been using the same technology to host live streams, best seen in industries like iGaming. There, streaming technology is used to facilitate live casino gambling, where games like blackjack or roulette are managed by a real person while interacting with an audience in real time. That kind of interactivity is absent with big-name streaming services. The closest thing is Netflix’s interactive specials library, which functions more like a choose-your-own-adventure book.
While live streaming is popular online, platforms are moving toward a different kind of live entertainment – sports. Besides the news, sports competitions are the largest, most influential televised events in the world. Every year, hundreds of millions of people tune into their favourite sports, and then do it all over again the next year. Sports have a much longer shelf life than a lot of fiction. If anything, years of uplifting wins, crushing losses and dramatic athlete rivalries just make fans even more invested next time.
GAME & Gotham Sports
In American sports, New York is home to some of the world’s most popular teams. The New York Yankees are one of baseball’s oldest teams while in basketball, the New York Knicks and the Brooklyn Nets share a dedicated fanbase. In hockey, the New York Rangers were also the first American team to win the Stanley Cup. Amidst the shifting media landscape, these New York teams have come together for their own streaming venture.
These teams are broadcast by two TV networks – YES and MSG. These regional services have united to form GAME – Gotham Advanced Media and Entertainment. Together, they plan to release a Gotham Sports app that gives subscribers access to all teams, including other local teams like the Islanders, Sabres and the New Jersey Devils. Launching in late 2024, the app hopes to make sports streaming more convenient for fans and reduce competition between YES and MSG’s own streaming platforms. If successful, it could provide a blueprint for regional, low-level sports streaming services that cater to other parts of the world.
Sports Streaming on Other Platforms
GAME’s efforts have already been likened to the Diamond Sports Group. Formed in 2019, it combined multiple regional sports networks into a single package that spanned 42 teams in basketball, baseball and hockey. After a rocky start, the group made headlines in 2024 after Amazon injected over $100 million (£76 million) into the company as part of its sports push. At the same time, Amazon has inked a landmark 11-year deal with the NBA for exclusive streaming rights across the whole world.
While they have a healthy lead on the rest of the streaming market, even Netflix has identified sports streaming as the next big thing. They have secured the rights to broadcast NFL’s Christmas games, alongside their historic $5 billion (£3.8 billion) deal with the WWE to stream everything inside and outside of the wrestling ring.
A feeding frenzy has already started for sports content of all kinds, including documentaries and biopic films about celebrity athletes. If streaming’s big move into sports pays off, fans can expect even more of these deals in the future.
