With Amazon’s first exclusive NFL Thursday game in 2022, we figuratively crossed the sports media “Rubicon,” a point of no return. Increasingly remarkable developments followed this year:

Nielsen’s Big Data Panel audience measurement. Amazon was the NFL’s first exclusive partner that could provide “actual” viewing data, prompting a Nielsen overhaul, including expansion of its Out-of-Home Panel to 100% coverage. Football’s growth has been stratospheric.

ESPN and Fox go direct-to-consumer. ESPN and Fox both launched DTC platforms this fall, finally making the cable bundle optional for sports fans. It is now possible (though not cheaper) to see nearly every major sports event (100% of NFL and NBA national games) via a streaming platform. Conversely …

You can no longer watch every major sports event via cable alone. Now also required: Amazon, Netflix, YouTube and Apple TV.

Streaming passes cable. Pay-TV penetration fell to just 50% midyear, down from a 2011 peak of 90%, per Madison and Wall. Nielsen Gauge says streaming percentage of screen time has surpassed linear viewing. With its first exclusive NFL game, YouTube (12.9%) tops all other viewing sources.

YouTube TV and Disney settle two-week dispute. But not before allowing YouTube to ingest all ESPN Unlimited content. Beyond the money, this is the beginning of sports fans being able to replicate cable’s ease of switching between games from different streamers.

ESPN opts out (and back into) baseball. In February, ESPN ended a 36-year, seemingly unshakable marriage, ironically while planning to launch its DTC........

© Sports Business Journal