Current status of sports distribution a moving target

The current state of sports TV distribution is a “moving target,” according to Ben Grad, Senior VP and Head of Content Strategy and Acquisition at FuboTV, who emphasized that traditional TV distribution is declining. “Sports distribution on platforms like ours is on the rise,” said Grad, who was part of the panel El Futuro de la Distribución de Deportes (The future of sports distribution) in the framework of the StreamTV Sports Summit.

FuboTV currently features 50,000 sporting events a year. “Having rights to live events supports our production of shoulder programming,” says Grad.

In addition to Grad, the panel included Jean-Luc Jezouin, Senior VP of NAGRA Sports; Charlie Neiman, Head of Sports Alliances for Amazon Prime Video, and Blake Stuchin, VP of Digital Media Business Development, NFL. Andrew Bucholtz from Awful Announcing / The Comeback hosted the event.

Regarding the recent mega-deal for the NFL’s football rights including various streamers – ESPN +, Amazon, Paramount +, Peacock, and Tubi-, Stuchin highlighted: “Our focus has always been to make American football available on the largest media out there. And now we aim for it to be on all platforms throughout the year, keeping the conversation about football alive all year long.” He added that there has never been a better time to be a football fan than now.

For his part, Neiman of Amazon Prime Video explained why to go now for a premium agreement with NFL. “We have a multi-year relationship with the NFL as one of our channels and this agreement represents the natural evolution of having this exclusive content,” he said.