The Future of Live Sports and How Paramount+ is trying to get Involved

Sports have been one of the reasons why people are staying on cable. They are paying $65-100 or even $250 just to watch a few sporting events and are stuck on a long-term contract. But with the new age as people are streaming everything, it was a smart idea for major sports leagues (despite the NBA having to wait 4 more years to transition due to current contracts) to make the transition to streaming as well.

Paramount+ has been rapidly trying to be the place for live sports. It started with CBS acquiring the rights to the UEFA Champions League, Europa League, Europa Conference League, and the Super Cup. (the Euros, Women’s Euros, Nations League, and Under-21, 19, and 17 championships are currently with ESPN). CBS had the least experience with soccer coverage but with the first games of the Champions League on CBS All Access (now Paramount+), it was praised for its great coverage. So CBS acquired more soccer league rights including NWSL, CONCACAF Nations Men and Women League, Italy’s Serie A, and many more.

Of course I can go on and talk about how great this is but I want to take some time and share what some of my colleagues had to say about sports and streaming.

Here’s what Kasey from What’s on Netflix (and soon What’s on HBO Max) had to say:

Well from ViacomCBS's point of view it's a logical vertical integration. They already invest heavily in the rights to various events. 

There's a bunch of evidence that sports are great drivers of new subscribers but rights costs are going up astronomically.

I agree with Kasey as sports makes the transition from linear to streaming, the rights are getting more expensive. Hence the $110 billion NFL deal that includes expanded streaming options. ViacomCBS is paying over $2.1 billion a year ($23.1 billion total) to keep NFL games, playoffs, and super bowls on CBS while gaining more rights for Paramount+.

Here’s what Roger from What’s on Disney Plus had to say about sports on ESPN+ in the US and Star+ in Latin America:

Sports are a major draw for subscribers and will no doubt continue to get bigger. ESPN+ continues to grow as a dedicated sports streamer and with Disney signing every new contract with streaming rights as standard. And these new contracts also give Disney flexibility to also show many of these games on Hulu and on its traditional channels like ABC. It's only likely to get more competitive as other streamers use sports to pull in more viewers. The launch of Star+ in Latin America, shows that Disney is looking at experimenting with mixing sports and general entertainment into one. Disney is also having great success in India with sports included in Disney+ Hotstar. Sport is, without doubt, going to become even more important.

I also agree with Roger. ViacomCBS, Disney, Comcast, and others are trying to get as many sports leagues as possible and Disney is experimenting with mixing sports and entertainment with Star+ similar to how ViacomCBS is trying to do with Paramount+.

Here’s what Amitt had to say about it:

I’m impressed by their commitment to Soccer, rumors are they are trying to bid for Premier League this fall. I think Sports is going to be one of the main offerings of Paramount+

I agree with Amitt also. It has been rumored that CBS may get Premier League rights from NBC. I honestly don’t know if this may happen with certain windows the network can broadcast on TV. It won't be a problem for Paramount+ though.

Getting more sports rights other than soccer can generally impress people to check out the other leagues they have to offer. One great start was when they acquired the rights to Combate Global. With that, Paramount+ is able to show boxing matches to their subscribers. Plus Paramount+ subscriber can watch March Madness (the CBS games) on the service

Paramount+ will be a great place for sports fans alongside ESPN+ and Prime Video to watch great live sporting events. Now I’m going to wait for NBC to acquire some more big marquee sports leagues for Peacock.