England captain Harry Kane during the 2018 Fifa World Cup. Photo / Getty Images
England captain Harry Kane during the 2018 Fifa World Cup. Photo / Getty Images
OPINION:
World footballing body Fifa launched its own streaming service yesterday - and broadcasters worldwide will be keeping a close eye on how it evolves.
As it has launched, Fifa+ looks nothing threatening, with its mix of documentaries, interviews, bios and backgrounders on teams and some 2500 archive videos goingback to the 1950s.
But Fifa promises the new service will feature on-demand versions of every Fifa World Cup game broadcast by the time this year's instalment kicks off in November in Qatar - and there are already hints that it has much wider ambitions.
From launch, there are plans to stream 1400 games live - growing to 40,000 per year - many from leagues you've never heard of.
Some media have labelled Fifa+ a "Netflix of football" - but to livestream A-list games in future, the service would have to charge.
There was a hint today that could be the case.
England captain Harry Kane during the 2018 Fifa World Cup. Photo / Getty Images
Fifa+ will initially be free and ad-supported, Fifa+ lead Charlotte Burr told Variety. But a subscription fee could be introduced "depending on where this goes and where the industry disruption heads", she said.
Geoblocking would protect regional TV rights in the event that paid streaming was launched.
Pay TV players and streaming services - like Sky TV and Spark Sport here - are already keenly aware of the nascent direct-to-consumer trend.
The NFL is developing its own paid streaming service, NFL+, according to a March report by the New York Times-owned The Athletic. The NBA is already there with global streaming, albeit not at a viable price for Kiwi basketball fans.
And in February 2020, new chief executive Richard Masters said the English Premier League will eventually sell matches on a Netflix-style channel - a global "Premflix" streaming service.
After all, via Premier League Productions, the EPL already controls the production of much of its content, and there are plenty of delivery platforms for hire, such as NeuLion (utilised by Sky for Sky Sport Now).
Sky headed off any immediate threat - and then some - in February when it revealed it had won Premier League rights for six years from August (when the 2022/23 season kicks off).
Amid ongoing Covid disruption, the EPL obviously preferred the relative safety of deals with local partners like Sky over a globalised, direct-to-consumer streaming service.
And Sky also headed off ESPN's direct-to-consumer push when it signed a new, multi-year deal with the US sports giant last May - albeit with the twist that Sky subscribers now get the option to access streaming ESPN content via ESPN+.
The NFL is developing its own, direct-to-consumer streaming service, according to a report by New York Times-owned The Athletic. Photo / Getty Images
But we only have to look to the world of entertainment, and the runaway success of the global Disney+ (and the disappearance of Disney content from Sky and its peers) to see where this is going to eventually head. Both old-school middlemen like pay-TV broadcasters and new-school ticket-clippers like streaming aggregators will get cut out of the picture.
The likes of Sky will also be aware that Apple - which has previously shown no interest in sport - has just inked a Major League Baseball deal for Apple TV+, and that Amazon's Prime Video continues its slow but steady increase in sports content for US and UK subscribers, and that an Amazon tilt at Indian Premier League rights for 2023 - 2027 is expected if the IPL confirms plans to split traditional broadcast and streaming rights.
It's a world of upheaval and change, but for Sky in New Zealand, its best strategy remains the same: Keep a lock on local sports rights.
