If the streaming world isn’t enough to give you a headache yet, get ready for this twist. Fox Corp., Warner Bros. Discovery, and Disney are coming together to reinvent the wheel. And by the wheel, we mean cable. Yes, these companies are launching what Variety terms a “joint streaming sports” venture, but it sounds a lot like plain old cable to us. Except this time, it’s in app form. Apps and streaming were meant to disrupt cable, but more and more, they are just becoming it. And this latest union seems to be the most salient example to date.
In what we at Nerdist have christened cableless cable, we’ll soon see an app that, get ready, combines streaming sports offerings from different networks. Variety shares that this move would “make all [three networks’] sports programming available under a single broadband roof, a move that will put content from ESPN, TNT and Fox Sports on a new standalone app.” And additionally, “Subscribers would get access to linear sports networks including ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, SECN, ACCN, ESPNEWS, ABC, Fox, FS1, FS2, BTN, TNT, TBS, truTV and ESPN+, as well as hundreds of hours from the NFL, NBA, MLB and NHL and many top college divisions.”
There’s no news about the pricing for this new joint venture, but we bet whatever the cost is, we’ll see it increase sooner or later. (And don’t even think about sharing your password!) We also don’t know yet what the app will be called, only that the “service would have a new brand.” Each company, it seems, will own a third of the new product. Between them, Fox Corp., Warner Bros. Discovery, and Disney will be able to offer viewers access to much of the NHL, MLB, and NBA. Only the NFL will seemingly remain uninvolved… for now. But we feel like the siren song of this cable streaming business will soon spread to all sports.
But ultimately, for us, it’s not so much about sports but about the implications this has for the wider world of streaming. How long is it until other types of content come together on one app… in different channels… in cableless cable? It feels like not very long at all. It will feel like the ultimate irony to call streaming channels, which once so voraciously discussed cutting cords, cable. But… Time is a flat circle.
