Live sports streaming frustrates fans
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Illustration: Natalie Peeples/Axios
Yankee outfielder Aaron Judge has tied Babe Ruth at 60 home runs, and is one long ball away from tying Roger Maris' American League record of 61 in a single season.
Why it matters: While he’s chasing baseball history, fans Friday night must have Apple TV+ to see it — a situation which has not only caused a bit of drama in the New York market, but also illuminates the messy realities of watching sports through streaming.
Catch up quick: Streaming services are snapping up larger pieces of the sports landscape, and increasingly larger games.
- But as it does so, it's turned a traditional "turn on the tube and watch" experience into one that involves multiple apps, reliable internet service and a memory stable enough to keep track of which games are playing where on any given day.
- It also presents limitations on where — and how — fans can watch and interact with games.
State of play: Most bars and restaurants don't have streaming services on their TVs, which would require upgrading their video systems.
- When Amazon Prime won exclusive rights to stream NFL Thursday Night Football for $13 billion, it also signed a deal with DirecTV to carry it to its business customers, muting an outcry from bars around the country.
- At home, the need to download various apps — let alone stream them through televisions — has frustrated less tech-savvy fans, and in some cases made it impossible for them to watch.
The big picture: Latency — or the delay in getting live action to screens — is one of the biggest hurdles for streaming.
- A traditional cable broadcast will typically deliver game action to a viewer's screen in 6 to 15 seconds. Live sports streaming, by contrast, can take 45 - 60 seconds — in some cases even a couple of minutes, according to MediaKind.
- That delay is enough for fans to hear about a big play over text or social media before seeing it on their screen.
- It also means the same game could be streaming out-of-sync at the various TVs in the same establishment.
- Meanwhile, streaming's delays can present problems for the growing number of fans making fast, in-game bets.
Pete's thought bubble: Apple TV+'s fortunate timing in having this game tonight is a huge win for the company — exactly the kind of moment that it needs to attract a national audience (and to drive app downloads).
- But it also puts Apple on the national stage at a time when live sports streaming might not be quite ready.
