MVPDs' Sports Rights Challenged, and IP Protection Key Amid 5G, Vendor Says
Major sports broadcasters and platform providers such as Amazon could be the most significant threats to pay-TV providers’ retention of top sports rights and customers in a changing over-the-top market, Nagra reported Thursday. The vendor to MVPDs noted the array…
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Communications Daily is required reading for senior executives at top telecom corporations, law firms, lobbying organizations, associations and government agencies (including the FCC). Join them today!
of top tech platforms experimenting in this area. “Sports have been a key driver of growth in pay-TV for more than two decades,” said Jon Watts, managing partner at consulting company MTM. He said the rise of sports OTT introduced competition and innovation to the market, “prompting traditional providers to adapt their pricing, packaging and overall value propositions to stay successful.” The supply of sports content is expanding significantly, with new sports OTT services and providers potentially reducing demand for pay TV, said Nagra. Limit the impact of sports streaming piracy by leveraging new anti-piracy technology and industry collaboration, “particularly as 5G begins to roll out,” the company recommended. Nagra’s analysis of 65 of the world’s top services shows mobile as the first priority for all players, with more than 90 percent of services on iOS and Android, followed by streaming devices such as Apple TV, Fire TV Stick, Roku and Chromecast. Smart TVs had the lowest priority for services; 36 percent were on Samsung and 30 percent on LG TVs. New aggregators are seeking distribution via traditional pay-TV bundles “with limited success, reflecting pay-TV’s lack of interest in tier-two and three sports,” it said.