Brace for the Amazon effect on live sport
The last redoubt of the pay-TV bundle is under siege
IN 1993 FOX, a nascent network owned by Rupert Murdoch, an Australian-born tycoon, paid a fortune to scoop the rights to National Football League (NFL) games from under the nose of CBS, a veteran broadcaster. It caused a tremor in American television history. As one CBS reporter put it, “The NFL was ingrained in the walls of CBS like Edward R. Murrow and Walter Cronkite.” The cost of sports rights took off. So did the cash cow of modern broadcasting—the TV “bundle” of sports and other stuff, most of it barely watchable. At the peak in 2012, almost 90% of American homes subscribed to one pay-TV bundle or another.
This article appeared in the Business section of the print edition under the headline “Unbundling sport”
Business April 10th 2021
From the April 10th 2021 edition
Discover stories from this section and more in the list of contents
Explore the editionMore from Business
Corporate America’s diversity wars are just getting started
Donald Trump’s attacks on DEI are causing huge headaches for bosses
What Elon Musk should learn from Larry Ellison
The founder of Oracle has demonstrated remarkable staying power
Football clubs are making more money than ever. Players not so much
For both teams and their top stars, it helps to have a brand
The allure of the company town
Lego, Corning and the survival of an old idea
From cribs to carriers, high-end baby products are in vogue
Demographic and technological changes are making infancy more expensive
No one gains from American tariffs on cars from Mexico and Canada
Donald Trump’s levy will hit his country’s carmakers hardest