Source: Unsplash
Broadcasting Sports Online
For decades, live sports coverage has consistently been the most popular programming available on broadcast television. It built giants like ESPN and Eurosport, and the sports arms of existing broadcast companies like FOX and Sky. Their channels had exclusive access to the world’s largest sports leagues, beaming the biggest games to TV sets across the globe.
That changed with the internet. As sports communities made their way online, leagues realized they could find larger audiences by streaming online. At the same time, other businesses surrounding sport had already found a new home on the internet. Take sportsbooks like Paddy Power, which give odds on basketball inside and outside the NBA. The internet also meant sports fans had access to a lot more information, including betting tips about their favorite sports. It also put less popular leagues on the same stage as the American leagues, so European and Asian sports found new fans.
This combination of factors slowly but surely chipped away at geographic barriers in sports, and broadcast TV’s stranglehold over live sports coverage. Elsewhere, services like Netflix took over the market for on-demand entertainment. They started making their own shows and movies, creating exclusive content that couldn’t be found anywhere else. Then competition got fierce and now, established streamers like Netflix and Amazon Prime are eyeing the rights to exclusive game coverage in football, soccer, and basketball. In response, broadcasters are starting to lean into the streaming model themselves. Earlier in 2024, news dropped that FOX, ESPN, and Warner Bros. Discovery are joining forces to launch an all-in-one sports streaming service. The stage is set for a bidding war on sports coverage but, away from the big leagues, European basketball has had online integration for years.
EuroLeague TV’s Streaming Platform
Fans of EuroLeague will know that they have had their own proprietary streaming service for almost a decade now. EuroLeague TV is a paid subscription that covers men’s basketball match-ups across continent, including the EuroCup tournament. It’s the league’s official broadcast, managed entirely in-house, and wholly dependent on the success of the league. This service came about in 2015 – the same year Netflix started creating its own content.
It was created through a partnership with NeuLion. Now known as Endeavor Streaming, NeuLion was responsible for NBA’s European distribution after 2010, pioneering mobile accessibility for League Pass International holders. That subscription catered to 200 countries, primarily those in Europe, to try and expand the NBA’s global reach.
Source: Unsplash
By working with NeuLion, EuroLeague created its own on-demand service accessible by desktop and portable devices, with integrated social media features. The EuroLeague had a lot more to gain by going online than the NBA did. For a long time, American sports from the NFL and NBA enjoyed coverage by European broadcasters. Channels in Europe air the largest American sports events, but European football or basketball don’t find the same audiences stateside. For context, it took until 2023 for a EuroLeague event to attract ESPN coverage.
With that dynamic, it made sense for the EuroLeague to go all-in on the internet instead of seeking broadcast deal. Those deals came, but the ELTV allowed them to provide a one-stop shop with live, geographically unrestricted games for fans, no matter where they were in the world. They didn’t tier passes based on whether you were in Europe or outside of it, instead providing daily, monthly, and annual subscriber packages instead.
They correctly identified that it doesn’t matter where the viewer comes from if the internet is the new home of sports coverage. Now streamers and broadcasters have realized the same thing, and a feeding frenzy of exclusive streaming deals are being signed across multiple leagues.
