Sports coverage is integral to the health of the industry, but as the years have gone on, certain niche sectors within it are running into trouble. Regional sports networks are in danger of going away completely for many local sports teams across the country. Sports coverage for these teams is essential for keeping small regional sports teams alive and within the public consciousness.
Cord-cutting has increased the financial strain on regional networks, which have largely survived on cable TV for decades. This has led to major operators like Diamond Sports Group and Main Street Sports to scale back operations. To stay affat many regional networks have looked towards airing on subscription services or even going free-to-air, while others are bought up by industry giants like the MLB.
However, this has only exacerbated the issue of availability to long-time audiences that watch local team games. Cable TV was phenomenal for regional sports because of how easy it was for viewers to watch local games. Now that these organizations are pulling out of cable TV, it’s gotten harder to view these games.
Audiences would have to juggle multiple streaming apps to stay up-to-date with every local game, and for many families, that might not be worth their time or money. Regardless, no solution in this situation is ideal. However, with the recent controversy and criticisms over streaming prices, streaming services might not be the best platforms for these networks to stay on.
More than ever before, more viewers are tuning in to free-to-air sporting event coverages, with Tubi’s recent free coverage of the Super Bowl being the biggest example. Regardless of the ads, sports audiences were shown to have enjoyed the coverage despite the ads.
