Streaming has affected several parts of the media landscape, with sports media seeing several shake-ups in how major sports leagues deliver coverage to fans.
With Amazon flexing its muscle in sports media, Peacock expanding its NFL offerings, and Netflix acquiring the rights to air WWE Raw, streaming platforms have made their mark on various parts of the industry. Here is a look at how streaming platforms are moving into legacy sports leagues.
NFL
The NFL is famous for keeping most games on over-the-air television nationally. Even when games air on cable or a different platform, the NFL will offer it on over-the-air television of the markets of the teams playing, but since 1987, it has aired some regular season games exclusively on cable for the national audience.
The league has only ever put one playoff game exclusively on cable for a national audience, a 2015 wild card game between the Arizona Cardinals and the Carolina Panthers, which aired on ESPN. For the following seasons, the NFL had ESPN simulcast the game on ABC nationally.
In recent years, the NFL has taken steps into the streaming market, beginning in 2016 when it partnered with Twitter, now known as X, to simulcast 10 Thursday Night Football games broadcast by CBS and NBC. In 2017, the NFL would switch to partnering with Amazon’s Prime Video for Thursday Night Football simulcasts before eventually giving Amazon the package exclusively, beginning with the 2022 season.
Starting with the 2023 season, the NFL stepped into uncharted territory, making a playoff game exclusively available on a streaming platform to a national audience for the first time. The Jan. 13 wild card game between the Kansas City Chiefs and Miami Dolphins aired only on Peacock nationwide.
While several consumers expressed frustration at the decision to put an NFL playoff game behind a paid streaming service, the NFL and NBC Sports, whose parent company, Comcast, owns Peacock, touted the 27.6 million total viewers who tuned into the broadcast on various platforms.
“We couldn’t be prouder of our partnership with Peacock and are thrilled with the results of the first-ever exclusively live streamed NFL playoff game,” NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said in a statement. “To best serve our fans, we need to ensure games are available to them as their viewing habits change and this includes digital distribution as we continue to help shape the future of the sports and entertainment industry.”
NBA, NHL, and MLB
The NBA has yet to move any of its nationally televised games behind a streaming platform, but the NHL and MLB have made moves in recent years to put some nationally televised games exclusively on streaming services.
In 2021, the NHL ditched NBC Sports as its broadcasting partner in the United States, splitting the national television contract between ESPN and Turner Sports. With the new contract, ESPN+ gave subscribers access to all out-of-market locally televised games, and the platform received, along with Hulu, exclusive nationally televised games. Before the current contract, nationally televised games would air on NBC or cable channels NBCSN or NHL Network.
For the 2022 season, the MLB created two new national game packages exclusively for streaming. Apple TV+ received the exclusive rights to two Friday night games most weeks of the season, while Peacock received the exclusive rights to a Sunday midday game for most of the season.
For all three leagues, one of its regional television partners has also become swept up in the streaming craze. Diamond Sports, operator of the Bally Sports regional sports networks, announced earlier this month that Amazon has committed to a “minority investment” and an agreement to give access to Diamond Sports programs through Amazon’s Prime Video. The agreement is part of its restructuring plans to emerge from bankruptcy.
Other sports
Several other sports have seen streaming platforms venture into sports media rights, with Major League Soccer putting nearly its entire slate of games on a streaming platform.
The MLS and Apple announced in 2022 that from 2023 through 2032, every MLS match would be available exclusively on Apple TV+. The move removed games from its national broadcast partners, Fox Sports and ESPN, and local broadcast partners for each team.
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After the deal was announced, the MLS said in the U.S., a select number of regular season and playoff games would air nationally on Fox and FS1 through 2026, meaning the league would still have a limited presence on traditional television.
Netflix, one of the leading streaming platforms, has largely stayed out of the live sports media field, as Paramount Plus, ESPN+, Prime Video, Apple TV+, and Peacock have acquired rights to various leagues globally. Earlier this month, the streaming giant announced it would be the home of WWE’s Raw beginning in 2025, but Netflix is cautioning that the move is not changing its strategy on sports.
