I recently signed up for the NBC Sports Gold track & field season pass. It's actually not a bad deal. $70 for a year's worth of track & field, including, among other events, all of the Diamond League meets and all 10 days of the World Championships. A lot of this will also be shown on NBC or NBCSN. But not all of it. And not to the extent that it will be streamed.
This is nothing new. One of the best things about the times we live in is that if you try hard enough, you can watch pretty much anything online. There's a stream somewhere (either legal or illegal) of virtually any sporting event you can think of (although those pirated streams aren't always the clearest). This isn't even anything new for NBC. They've streamed every event of the last three Olympics live, often offering multiple streams of the same event at the same time.
And if you're a fan of a sport that doesn't get regular TV coverage, live streaming has been a Godsend. Thanks to live streaming, skiing fans have access to all of the major ski races. Same thing with cycling fans and the major stage races. And figure skating fans. And rugby fans. You get my drift. People have gone from not being able to watch these events at all (or, at most, an hour-long highlights package) to being able to watch them live from start to finish.
NBC Sports Gold was created with this in mind. It started with cycling, then expanded to include rugby, and now features track & field, as well. We're probably going to see more in the future. Swimming? Gymnastics? And, frankly, this is no different than MLB.tv or NBA League Pass, or even paying for NFL Sunday Ticket on your TV. Or ESPN3, which shows a ton of college games in a number of sports, for that matter.
It's also incredibly smart from a business perspective. There's a demand for these events, just not enough of one to justify TV air time for what would likely be low ratings. But there's a demand nonetheless. And if people are willing to pay to watch these events, it makes sense for the on-demand service. You also know what your audience is. If people are willing to pay for it, they really must be true fans.
How many colleges do this for their athletic events? How many sport-specific websites are there that offer similar services? Track & field already has three in RunnerSpace Plus, FloTrack Pro and USATF.tv. The only difference is that this one is backed by a network TV carrier. The one that has the rights to these major events. So now people can watch these major meets online in addition to all those smaller ones.
Broadcasters have been looking for a response to the cord-cutters who choose to not have cable in their homes and rely only on streaming services instead. This is NBC's way to appease those cord-cutters who still want to watch these events, but are unwilling to pay for a whole cable package. And I do think it's the start of a trend. Why wouldn't it be? It's smart business to offer people something they'd be willing to pay for and otherwise wouldn't get.
Of course, there is one major concern. A lot of the sports that have these streaming packages are already considered "niche" sports. Offering these events online and pay-per-view is great for the existing fans of that sport. But that's the only people you're appealing to. You're not going to attract the casual fan by offering these events only via an on-demand pay-per-view model. (This is the same criticism I have about ESPN3.)
That's a very valid worry. Because, as great as the increased exposure is, it's still not TV. Just look at the Final Four. The ratings for this year's Championship Game between North Carolina and Gonzaga were significantly higher than last year's classic between Villanova and North Carolina. Why? This year's game was on CBS. Last year's was on TBS. People love to knock broadcast TV, but it still blows cable out of the water when it comes to live sporting events...even if the game is exclusive on cable!
Same thing applies here. Even if these sports attract low TV ratings, they're still on TV. And, like it or not, TV is still a much more powerful medium than online streaming.
Now, some of these events are being offered both online and on TV. I watched a little bit of the Boston Marathon online today, and it looked like it was just a simulcast of NBCSN's TV coverage. But I bet there will be value in this package moving forward. My guess is that for the Diamond League and the World Championships, they'll show the world feed (which is much better than American TV coverage) live online, while the tape-delayed TV coverage will be the traditional commercial broadcast.
My guess is that the existence of the NBC Sports Gold track & field package will have very little impact on NBC/NBCSN's TV ratings for the Diamond League and World Championships. Just like the live event streaming has had no bearing on the network's Olympic ratings. I think, I hope, that will be the case. Because either they're on to something here or this is the beginning of the end of track & field on TV.
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