The adage has all but turned old now. You know the one, “streaming is the future of television.” Yeah, that one. Some embrace the idea of cutting the cord. Some complain that it is turning into cable all over again. Needing to subscribe to multiple streaming services just to watch what they want.
For sports fans, this is getting old quickly. The NBA has agreed to having games and portions of the playoffs on Prime. The MLB has done the same with Sunday Night Baseball now on Peacock. NASCAR has dipped
their toes in, having practice and qualifying streamed while keeping races on television platforms. The NHL has gone back and forth. There have been streams on ESPN+ and some now on Peacock as well. Even college football has entered the fray over the years with certain conferences streaming certain games. The Mountain West Conference is no stranger to that, having many games during the season streamed on the conference’s internet network. Then comes the NFL.
The NFL has worked its magic with streaming. At first, only working in preseason games. Then, the league moved to having Thursday games. Most recently, the league has gone to streaming some games on Christmas Day, the occasional special Friday night games and are soon to begin playoff games being streamed exclusively. Then recently came something that diehard fans have known was coming, but could have bigger implications.
Amazon’s Jay Marine was talking with Andrew Marchand last month about Prime’s NFL package when Marine mentioned that the platform will have the rights to the Super Bowl one year within the decade, and it would be an exclusive deal for that season.
Investing potentially billions of dollars into the biggest television event in the country will certainly catch the eye of many. Some of whom also control other sports contracts.
This leads me to the Mountain West Conference. As stated earlier, the conference already dabbles in streaming for both football, basketball, and other Olympic Sports. Gone are the days of a television network (RIP, The Mountain), but the league has signed deals with several television networks with streaming platforms. The league has CBS, which has Paramount+, and Fox Sports, which now has Fox One, plus the CW Network, which now has an agreement to be streamed on ESPN Unlimited. This leads me to a bigger question; If the NFL can move its biggest game off television and onto streaming, then is it out of the realm of possibilities that the Mountain West becomes a streaming only conference with its partners?
Certainly, with the loss of namesakes like San Diego State and Boise State would hurt both the football and basketball fanbases, but with the future of streaming becoming a bigger part of sports every day, and the conference already having a footprint into the business, then it only seems like the next step would be streaming only.
The football markets would recoup with exclusive non-conference game potentials. Like the conference newcomer North Dakota State. How much could ESPN Unlimited sell if they had the Bison and Colorado Buffaloes with Coach Prime a few years ago? And bigger in conference clashes that could have playoff implications, if and when we move to 24 teams.
The basketball market would also help recoup the move. Now with the NCAA Tournaments moving to 76 teams, big games await down the stretch for many schools, and having the exclusive streaming option would bring in diehards of the sport and even some casual fans. It is a win-win for everyone involved right now. Especially with postseason expansion occurring.
If Prime is willing to shell out billions for the Super Bowl, granted they will get tons of subscribers and views in the process, then the chunk change needed to bring the Mountain West Conference to the streaming only era wouldn’t scratch the surface of any of those providers that the conference is already partners with. The only catch would be that is it withing a decade as well, or closer to two? The future is a lot closer than we might be thinking.
