SI:AM | A Big Development in Sports Streaming
Good morning, I’m Dan Gartland. Congratulations to the Vegas Golden Knights for snapping the Edmonton Oilers’ 16-game winning streak.
In today’s SI:AM:
🤔 Brock Purdy, system quarterback?
🏈 Pro Football Hall of Fame finalists
🏆 Ranking every Super Bowl MVP
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Yikes. Another streaming service?
Disney, Fox and Warner Bros. Discovery announced plans yesterday for a new streaming service set to launch in the fall that could change the way fans watch live sports.
The planned service will combine most of the big sports networks together under one umbrella. Users will have access to a long list of networks, including ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, SEC Network, ACC Network, ESPNews, ABC, Fox, FS1, FS2, Big Ten Network, TNT, TBS and truTV.
Those networks have the broadcast rights to a variety of coveted events. As a refresher, here are highlights of what each company airs.
- Disney: Monday Night Football, SEC football, NBA regular season and playoffs, NHL regular season and playoffs, women’s NCAA tournament, Sunday Night Baseball, WNBA, The Masters and PGA Championship, three of the four Grand Slam tennis tournaments
- Fox: NFL regular season and playoffs (including next year’s Super Bowl), MLB regular season and playoffs, Big Ten and Big 12 football, Big East men’s and women’s basketball, NASCAR, MLS, the 2026 FIFA World Cup
- Warner Bros. Discovery: NBA regular season and playoffs, MLB regular season and playoffs, men’s NCAA tournament, NHL regular season and playoffs, All Elite Wrestling
That’s a staggering amount of inventory. It doesn’t include sports broadcast by CBS or NBC (like college sports on CBS, Sunday Night Football, the English Premier League and the Olympics), but it’s an impressively broad collection of what sports fans care about.
I know what everyone wants to know: How much is it going to cost? Variety reports that “the companies will likely set a monthly subscription that is more than a consumer would pay for a standalone regional sports network, which costs $20 to $30 per month, and less than a larger digital programming package such as Hulu + Live TV or YouTube TV, which cost around $75 to $80 per month.” The Athletic’s Andrew Marchand estimates that the cost will be about $50 per month.
The planned service could provide an alternative for people who don’t want to pay for a full cable or internet TV subscription that includes more non-sports content. But it’s tough not to cynically view the planned Disney-Fox-WBD combined service as just a step toward the reinvention of the old cable bundle.
It’s certainly beneficial for consumers to have to subscribe to fewer streaming services, and it could be beneficial for the broadcasters to pool their resources. The concept of “economies of scale,” which basically says that larger businesses can operate more efficiently than smaller ones (up to a point), is one of the few notions I have retained from my college economics classes. ESPN, Fox and TNT can team up to create a mega-platform that has certain advantages.
But how popular will the new streaming combo be if it isn’t a true one-stop shop for sports? Without CBS and NBC, an NFL fan, for example, would still have to pay for another service to get access to those networks to watch all the games. So while the proposed new service isn’t a magical fix for cord-cutting sports fans, it could be the start of something big. If Disney, Fox and WBD are willing to pool their resources, maybe CBS and NBC could eventually join the party, too. Perhaps a combined service providing customers with access to all five companies’ content could even be beamed directly into a person’s home via internet or satellite.
The best of Sports Illustrated
Kelley L Cox/USA TODAY Sports
- Greg Bishop weighs in on the great system quarterback debate that hounds Brock Purdy.
- Matt Verderame and Gilberto Manzano examined the cases for all 15 of this year’s finalists for the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
- Manzano also ranked all 57 Super Bowl MVPs.
- Conor Orr spoke with Angelo Pizzo, the screenwriter of Rudy, to pitch some narrative ideas for this year’s Super Bowl.
- Here are the 25 best quarterback performances in Super Bowl history, according to Craig Ellenport.
- Jon Wertheim’s tennis mailbag this week leads with a question about Saudi Arabia’s involvement in the sport.
- Clayton Kershaw has agreed to a new contract to return to the Dodgers for his 17th season.
The top five...
… things I saw last night:
5. Two goals in 57 seconds for Canadiens captain Nick Suzuki.
4. Jonathan Huberdeau’s pinpoint accuracy on this goal against the Bruins.
3. This wacky play by the Boston University men’s lacrosse team.
2. Jalen Brunson and Josh Hart surprising Mike Breen and Clyde Frazier to congratulate the broadcasting duo on 25 years together.
1. Kevin Durant’s powerful dunk on Giannis Antetokounmpo.
SIQ
On this day in 1970, LSU Tigers star Pete Maravich set an NCAA record by scoring 69 points in a 106–104 loss to the Alabama Crimson Tide. Maravich’s record stood for more than 20 years until it was broken by a player from which school that is no longer a member of Division I?
- St. Francis (N.Y.)
- U.S. International
- West Texas A&M
- Savannah State
Yesterday’s SIQ: On Feb. 6, 2011, Tom Brady became the first player in NFL history to win the MVP award by unanimous vote. Who is the only other player to do so?
- Patrick Mahomes
- Lamar Jackson
- Peyton Manning
- Drew Brees
Answer: Lamar Jackson. He was a unanimous selection when he won the award in 2019. Interestingly, Jackson was not named Offensive Player of the Year that season. That honor went to New Orleans Saints receiver Michael Thomas.
Brady had come close to winning the award unanimously before. In 2007, he received 49 of the 50 votes after leading the New England Patriots to a 16–0 regular season. His stats that year were outrageous, throwing a then-record 50 touchdown passes with just eight interceptions. He also led the league with 300.4 passing yards per game and a 68.4% completion rate.
But those numbers weren’t enough to sway one voter, Frank Cooney of the stats provider Sports Xchange, who cast the lone dissenting vote. He picked Brett Favre (28 touchdowns, 15 interceptions, 259.7 yards per game and a 66.5% completion rate).
In response to an email from the Boston Herald, Cooney said he felt Favre was more deserving of the individual honor because he didn’t have the same great supporting cast as Brady.
