The fan impact of Australian sports' streaming revolution vs traditional TV broadcasts

One expert believes the goalposts are set to keep shifting as sports try to find harmony between making money off their product and keeping supporters happy.

Sporting bodies have always put a high value on their biggest sellable asset - broadcast rights - and the addition of streaming technology in recent years has seen that value increase with more avenues than ever to watch your favourite code, as well as the game highlights that follow.

That drives competition in the market, which drives up the price of broadcast rights, and the highest bidder is rewarded with a very lucrative prize - an exclusive, truly live product with an inbuilt following, courtesy of sport fans.

This shift has resulted in the end of the one-stop shop like Foxtel for most of your sport viewing, and the emergence of multiple streaming outlets, each showing a handful of different sports.

"For some it's opening up more possibilities with greater portability and accessibility, but for casual fans who just want to sit down and and flick on the footy, they are slightly limited now," senior lecturer in screen media at Victoria University, Marc C-Scott, said.

C-Scott said the "fragmentation of sports rights", like the NRL and AFL showing some games on free-to-air and other games on subscription streaming outlets, could "have a negative impact on the consumer", but it's an ever-changing landscape.

In Australia, sports broadcasts via digital platforms are divided into two types - subscription-based live streaming, and free live streaming.

Foxtel/Kayo, Stan Sport, Paramount+, Optus Sport, ESPN, and Amazon each offer their own subscription-based models to stream various sporting codes in the country. There's also sport-owned streaming options like NBA League Pass, or NFL Game Pass, for Australian fans of international codes.

Meanwhile free-to-air channels such as 7Plus, 9Now, 10Play, ABC iView and SBS OnDemand cost nothing to use, but require separate applications to be downloaded and a sign-in process to access.

For the average fan, it can be a nightmare to try and follow which sport is shown on which streaming platform, and expensive too if more than one sport is followed and on different subscription streaming services.

"It's a bit of a double-edged sword, because the codes want to get the most amount of money they possibly can and then hopefully reinvest that into the game," C-Scott said.

"The codes are really trying to work out - how are we not going to upset the fans, but also how are we going to get the most amount of money to bring the best game possible to the fans? So it's really tricky.

"With streaming services as a viewer, you do get to the point where you say, I want to watch something, but how do I find it? - and it changes where it is too."

One of the biggest obstacles in streaming sport is technology.

A good viewing experience will rely on having high-speed internet and smooth back-end performance of the applications those streaming channels run on, as well as being compatible with various mobile phones, tablets and televisions.

There have been many examples in Australia of live sport streaming cutting out, having buffering issues, or simply not working altogether, and unfortunately, that may yet continue as the technology continues to be tweaked.

"We're still going to see teething issues because it's unlike a TV broadcast with antennas that send a signal," C-Scott said.

"The issue is sport is a live event, so that creates a lot of issues around the technology behind that. It can be extremely difficult for some when it's not necessarily on free-to-air. Whether it's a smart TV or another device, it's definitely complicating things, especially for the older generation."

The streaming market is still growing.

Big streaming players like Netflix, Disney+ and Apple haven't yet taken on long-term live sports streaming deals in Australia, however that might change in time, with the reception of sports documentaries on those platforms being closely monitored.

"They have a lot of data that they can gather that television broadcasts can't," C-Scott said.

"The rating system for TV is quite loose, and rough, to say it frankly. So streaming services have a greater opportunity to analyse and gauge from their data whether they could potentially take it a bit further and start to look at the sports media rights."

One of the ideas that experts like C-Scott have put forward is for Australian sporting clubs to be more involved in the broadcast rights arrangements, so members can be rewarded for their support by being able to easily watch their team, no matter where a game is shown.

"If you are going to break down a code across multiple platforms, then you somehow have to not disturb the fans' viewing experience," C-Scott said. "One way of doing that is building it into a club membership.

"I'm a Hawks fan, so let's say the footy ended up going across Foxtel and other subscription-based streaming services. Maybe as a Hawks member, I get a code where I can watch my team across those various platforms.

"It would allow you to at least see your team playing across all those and you get to decide what you actually want to subscribe to.

"There's examples in the UK where sporting clubs have their own channels."