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The big sports channels announced a deal earlier this week that would launch a mega sports streaming service later this year. This includes Disney, Fox, and Warner Bros Discovery, which would see 14 live sports channels in a single streaming service. Now, local Fox and ABC stations are voicing their opinion about this new service. And to no one’s surprise, they want money.
Gray Television, which owns and operates around 113 local TV stations that cover about 36% of the United States, put out a statement about the incoming sports streamer. Stating that “Gray welcomes any venture that expands the reach of local broadcasting stations, which in turn supports the ability of local stations to maintain trusted local news operations that benefit everyone.”
Gray also explains that in this streaming service, the local signals of ABC and FOX broadcasts would be used, which is owned by local broadcasters like Gray. The company also noted that “local affiliated stations not only carry nationally televised sports but also provide local sports coverage, local news and weather, local jobs, and extensive community support.”
Fubo has also raised concerns about the new service
Gray Television isn’t the only one upset with this announcement, and so is Fubo. They are worried that this new venture, which is a pretty heavily sports-focused streaming TV service, would undercut them. Especially where companies like Disney force TV streamers like Fubo to pay them more for carriage to include ESPN in their bundle. Typically, companies that own multiple channels will force carriage agreements to include all of their channels. This is a big reason why cable and streaming TV have gotten so expensive over the past decade.
With this venture, Fubo says that Disney would be cutting out the middleman, which is Fubo in this instance. That would allow Disney to undercut Fubo, YouTube TV, Sling TV, and others by offering ESPN itself versus forcing those TV services to offer it along with a number of other Disney-owned channels.
While this venture is supposed to launch by the end of the year – actually this fall, likely in time for the 2024-25 NBA and NHL seasons – it’s pretty clear that it is going to face a lot of backlash, unfortunately. It’s a good move for consumers but not for companies, and it could squash competition. And that won’t be good for consumers in the long run.
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