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Comment by protomyth | Hacker News Reader

I think ESPN is destined to become the Netflix of second tier sports. MLB, NFL, NBA, and NASCAR will probably start being their own national contracts when the big [edit]four[/edit] stop being able to pay such high fees, and the little sports will be what ESPN has left.

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Similar idea, but since MLB has its Productions service, things might become more monopolized through them over time.

If I remember correctly, the NHL is already using them as a provider for online streaming (as well as HBO Go for that matter).

...and WWE if I remember the press. An important difference is the MLB effort is more of an infrastructure play / turnkey solution versus an actual network. They don't provide content, just capability.

True. Interesting change in direction though for how things are changing.

I think it showed great vision on the part of MLB. If you are going to build a platform for delivering your content, you might be a platform provider for the same. Strikes me as taking the lessons of Amazon and AWS to heart.

I think that should be a goal for many situations. If you can build a high-quality tool/platform/etc. for yourself, then you could, eventually, share it.. especially if it's better than the typical alternatives.

It might explain their incredibly large investment into College Football. Even other networks use ESPN to schedule games, and they own the copyright to some conferences even if they don't broadcast the game themselves.

That's what makes the theory of disruption so powerful.. someone will come and offer sports that don't have these restrictions with rights and pave an entirely new landscape of digital sports.

You mean Twitch and eSports? Or alternative leagues?

My guess is things like rugby could suddenly become popular if ESPN were to get the rights.

Rugby is regularly shown on ESPN, at least here in South America, and also in Europe I think.

We get it on saturdays in the summer sometimes, with no fanfare. I used to work for ESPN. They do the "ERT" trucks, aka espn regional TV, which is like the "C" team truck. Nothing like high caliber college football, etc.

Funny what made ESPN popular in the early years was their constant coverage of Aussie Rules Football. So many in the US were curious about it and helped ESPN grow. I'm sure other sports were a factor too.

Too bad ESPN dropped coverage of that sport - I used to pretend I was an Aussie trying to bounce the ball and catching it and kicking etc with friends who had ESPN as well.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_rules_football_in_t...

    D I G I T A L   S P O R T S

It's already a thing. Twitch is massive, and seemingly profitable. They're not the best company but they're providing a platform for millions of people to watch online events in traditional games (chess, poker) as well as eSports (called digital sports by some companies).

Who will pay the majors the billions of dollars then?

I think they are going to have to go direct because I don't think the networks will have the money to keep up with those contracts. Both the NFL and MLB already have direct to the customer paid feeds.

The massive distractions allowed by the Internet, gaming, and the choice of what to stream is going to slice into those billions pretty deeply in the coming years.

Cutting out middle men seems like a no brainer, but it doesn't work out in reality too well. See wholesalers. They just provide too many value added services, including pricing buffers (bundling).

For the big sports, I don't think ESPN will provide the extra value. Particularly when you have the MLB able to provide expertise to other sports. I do see them providing value to second tier sports and events. The money for ESPN to pay the big contracts will just not be there.

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