With audiences stagnant, streaming platforms are looking to sports to attract new users. Apple TV+ has broadcast baseball games this weekend.
Netflix and company have forever changed cinema and television, in the field of movies and series. Could you do the same with sports broadcasts?
The streaming platforms they have entered a dangerous spiral created by themselves, which is putting them in trouble. To attract subscribers they release more and more content, to the point that Netflix spent more than $20 billion last year on shows and movies. And yet it has lost audience and subscribers in recent months.
Releasing a dozen series and movies a week seems to be no longer enough, so streaming platforms turn their eyes to new content: reality shows, contests, and even video games, as Netflix already produces and gives away. The next step? Sports:
Friday Night Baseball on Apple TV+ (which is produced by MLB Network) feels like watching the MLB App on an iPad.
Simple and clean gfx. Very on-brand for Apple; down to the sources.
Combined w/ 1080p and the shallow DoF camera around the dugouts, the overall show is crisp. pic.twitter.com/N4ANJug3KK
— Brandon Costa (@SVG_Brandon) April 9, 2022
AppleTV+ has broadcast this weekend in the United States various games of the MLB, the North American baseball league.
Along with live games, it also offers replays, and will soon broadcast a program called MLB Big Inning, with game analysis and commentary.
According to The Verge, these first live broadcasts they have received quite a lot of criticism from the fanswho have complained that the presenters were clueless, spending more time talking about other things, including Apple products, than the game.
At a technical level, many users have protested on networks for cuts in broadcastand because it was not possible to pause the transmissionsomething that can be done on other platforms.
On the positive side, good image quality and less advertisingwith respect to conventional television broadcasts.
Of course, It is not the first time that a streaming platform broadcasts sports. Amazon Prime Video itself does it regularly with English league matches and other events, and platforms like Dazn or Movistar + Plus live from them.
But just as until recently it was strange for us to watch a reality show or a game show on Netflix, or a baseball game on Apple TV +, let’s not rule out that we will soon start watching European sports live on Netflix or Disney +.
The Champions or La Liga? It’s complicated, because football rights are very expensive and are granted country by country, but if subscriptions remain stagnant, never say never…
George is Digismak’s reported cum editor with 13 years of experience in Journalism