Monday’s news of AT&T merging WarnerMedia with Discovery sent waves through the industry. The sports sector is paying close attention with a big role to play in the streaming wars. Sportico chatted with media consultants Ed Desser and Pat Crakes about how the merger might change sports rights moving forward.
“It shows sports still matter—and will continue to matter—in a major way,” The president of Desser Sports Media said to Sportico. “You can’t really have a streaming service with broad appeal without a representative sample of key sports.”
AT&T punted on their media assets just three years after their $84 million acquisition of Time Warner. The deal expected to close next year includes a mix of CNN, TNN, TNT, Cartoon Network, HBO, and the HBO Max streaming service. Discovery’s assets combined with these properties would create the second-largest media company behind Disney.
All of this as sports media rights continue to grow in value amidst a splintered entertainment space. Netflix recognized this last decade by injecting original content across the platform. It doesn’t get more original than live sports, but Desser said “It’s not in their DNA” to go after them.
Crakes was a little more bullish on the prospects but indicated it would have to be a unique setup. “The most efficient way to do it is [for Netflix] to get together with someone else. It seems complicated to make acquisitions fast enough because the content simply isn’t available,” Crakes explained to Sportico.
The industry is torn on what the future might hold for live sports rights. There was a slight movement with the NFL rights this year and a big shift from NBC to ESPN and TNT for the NHL. As this merger finalizes in 2022, the new company will have a couple of years before their chance at a big pot of deals.
The College Football Playoff, NCAA, NASCAR, Big Ten, and PAC-12, all expire in 2024. A tectonic shift away from ESPN, CBS, and FOX may not be likely, but it’s on the radar in this media environment.
