5 ms·

I don't really understand why, at least for sports, they care as much. You are still watching the advertisements that they want you to watch; the only differen

I don't really understand why, at least for sports, they care as much. You are still watching the advertisements that they want you to watch; the only difference i can think of is how difficult it is to track how many people are watching. If anything, this just proves that there is a market for putting live sports online with the same commercials and people will still watch.

anonymousDan 17y ago
Because a lot of the sports they screen illegally are pay-per-view.
stuartjmoore 17y ago
It has to do (I assume) with markets. They can control who sees what ad based on where they are. Not so with the internet. Well, they can even more so with the internet, just not when people pirate via justin.tv and ustream.
qeorge 17y ago
Sports are by a mile the most valuable content on television, and the only thing that you can't watch online. Any revenue they could make with online ads would be irrelevant compared to the TV contracts. Here's some anecdotal data: Baseball: - Fox pays MLB $625 million per year to show the World Series, every other NLCS and ALCS, the All-Star game, and 26 Sunday Night games. In addition, Fox pays $43 million per year for an additional 2 games during the week with no exclusivity. - Simultaneously, TBS pays for one Sunday afternoon game per week, and the remaining NLCS and ALCS games not shown on Fox. I couldn't find a price-tag, but based on similar deals $200MM/year is about right. - On top of that, ESPN pays $80 million per year for 2 games on Wednesday and the Sunday night game. - In addition, the rest of the games are sold to major and local networks. There are > 2400 MLB games in the regular season alone. Football: - ESPN pays $1.1 billion per year just to show the Monday Night Football game - NBC pays $600 million per year for the Sunday night game. Interestingly, the Sunday night game is the most expensive 30 second spot on a recurring TV program, at $400,000 per spot. - If you're at all familiar with the NFL, you'll know about the ongoing drama between the NFL network, Comcast, TWC, and DirecTV. I don't know what DirecTV is paying for the rights to broadcast every game, but I would be shocked if its less than $1 billion per year. And that's just some of baseball and football. There's no way in hell online ads are worth threatening that cash cow.
- dschobel 17y ago
  Unless I'm mistaken though, the OP's point is that if you're streaming the video directly from the network justin.tv's stream will still have the FOX, ESPN, et al, ads in place. The real threat would be a live stream from the game or as another poster said, PPV content.
  - qeorge 17y ago
    Right, but of my monthly TWC bill, $45 is for internet and $90 is for cable. If I cancel the cable because I can watch everything online, they'll have a very difficult time recouping that $1080/year another way. That's bad for the content producers as well (NFL, MLB, etc). They don't want their best customers going out of business. Nothing online can offer them anywhere close to the money they get from cable and DirectTV contracts (yet). So although there may be some additional revenue opportunities through online viewing, neither the NFL or the cable company will risk cannibalizing their main source of income.
- brandong 17y ago
  You can actually stream Sunday Night Football through NBC's site: http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/26393211 http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/26393211 It's actually a very cool setup, allowing you to choose your own camera angles or watch in HD. There are no commercials, but the main stream does default to a "stay tuned" screen during commercial breaks. I'm not sure why exactly they offer this service (from a business perspective), but it's certainly worth taking a look at- if not at least for the bit of tech wizardry going on.
akeefer 17y ago
MLB does put their games online, but it's a pay service. Similarly, you can buy a cable/satellite package to watch out of town NFL/NHL/NBA games but those are all fairly expensive packages.

anonymousDan 17y ago

Because a lot of the sports they screen illegally are pay-per-view.

stuartjmoore 17y ago

It has to do (I assume) with markets. They can control who sees what ad based on where they are. Not so with the internet. Well, they can even more so with the internet, just not when people pirate via justin.tv and ustream.

qeorge 17y ago

Sports are by a mile the most valuable content on television, and the only thing that you can't watch online. Any revenue they could make with online ads would be irrelevant compared to the TV contracts. Here's some anecdotal data: Baseball: - Fox pays MLB $625 million per year to show the World Series, every other NLCS and ALCS, the All-Star game, and 26 Sunday Night games. In addition, Fox pays $43 million per year for an additional 2 games during the week with no exclusivity. - Simultaneously, TBS pays for one Sunday afternoon game per week, and the remaining NLCS and ALCS games not shown on Fox. I couldn't find a price-tag, but based on similar deals $200MM/year is about right. - On top of that, ESPN pays $80 million per year for 2 games on Wednesday and the Sunday night game. - In addition, the rest of the games are sold to major and local networks. There are > 2400 MLB games in the regular season alone. Football: - ESPN pays $1.1 billion per year just to show the Monday Night Football game - NBC pays $600 million per year for the Sunday night game. Interestingly, the Sunday night game is the most expensive 30 second spot on a recurring TV program, at $400,000 per spot. - If you're at all familiar with the NFL, you'll know about the ongoing drama between the NFL network, Comcast, TWC, and DirecTV. I don't know what DirecTV is paying for the rights to broadcast every game, but I would be shocked if its less than $1 billion per year. And that's just some of baseball and football. There's no way in hell online ads are worth threatening that cash cow.

dschobel 17y ago
Unless I'm mistaken though, the OP's point is that if you're streaming the video directly from the network justin.tv's stream will still have the FOX, ESPN, et al, ads in place. The real threat would be a live stream from the game or as another poster said, PPV content.
- qeorge 17y ago
  Right, but of my monthly TWC bill, $45 is for internet and $90 is for cable. If I cancel the cable because I can watch everything online, they'll have a very difficult time recouping that $1080/year another way. That's bad for the content producers as well (NFL, MLB, etc). They don't want their best customers going out of business. Nothing online can offer them anywhere close to the money they get from cable and DirectTV contracts (yet). So although there may be some additional revenue opportunities through online viewing, neither the NFL or the cable company will risk cannibalizing their main source of income.
brandong 17y ago
You can actually stream Sunday Night Football through NBC's site: http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/26393211 http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/26393211 It's actually a very cool setup, allowing you to choose your own camera angles or watch in HD. There are no commercials, but the main stream does default to a "stay tuned" screen during commercial breaks. I'm not sure why exactly they offer this service (from a business perspective), but it's certainly worth taking a look at- if not at least for the bit of tech wizardry going on.

akeefer 17y ago

MLB does put their games online, but it's a pay service. Similarly, you can buy a cable/satellite package to watch out of town NFL/NHL/NBA games but those are all fairly expensive packages.