The audiovisual entertainment industry is changing and sports broadcasts are not exempt from this. Social networks and on-demand online services are already strong competitors of traditional television signals, which are currently seeking to upgrade so as not to lose the rights to the main competitions in the near future. In Argentina, the transmission of football is still under the traditional logic, although sports such as basketball have already begun to show new trends.
Facebook has been broadcasting several sporting events in recent years, such as a classic between Barcelona and Real Madrid. In the current season, it reached an agreement with UEFA to be able to show live one Champions League game per day for Latin America, while it also managed to obtain the rights of the Spanish League so that all the matches can be seen for free in various countries from Asia, one of the most desired markets in football due to the large number of fans.
Nor has Twitter been left behind, which has the rights to broadcast matches from the NFL (the American football league) and the MLS (the First Division of soccer in the United States) with the addition of special half-hour programs for all the fans. In addition, for several years it has been carrying out different campaigns together with the IOC and FIFA when the Olympic Games and the World Cup are held, respectively. Without transmitting the meetings, they allow users to follow the results live and interact, one of the keys of these times.
YouTube, the video giant, has a Premium service where one of its objectives is to be able to exploit it with nba중계 sports broadcasts. It has the particularity of being a valuable archive for different associations or leagues, such as the IOC, which has thousands and thousands of videos of the different editions of the Olympic Games on its official channel.
But the advance not only goes through social networks, but the success of services such as the one offered by Netflix to watch movies and series has also opened a new world in sports. Two years ago, the NBA presented its “NBA Pass” so that those interested in the best basketball league in the world can subscribe and watch the games in high resolution from any device, as well as exclusive material. In the world of tennis something similar launched the ATP (Tennis TV) and the WTA (WTA TV).
In football, the first big step seems to have been taken by Serie A, just in the season that Cristiano Ronaldo joined Juventus and generated a true revolution worldwide. Although the television rights are in the hands of the Sky Sports network, it also presented “Serie A Pass” so that anyone from anywhere in the world can subscribe by paying a monthly fee and watch all the matches.
Clandestine transmissions, one of the greatest rivals
The clandestine transmissions of sporting events seem to be one of the biggest losing battles for large companies and organizations. FIFA has been one of the organizations that were most concerned about this situation and, during the World Cup, it tried to quickly remove those sites that were showing matches illegally. Despite their efforts, the meetings could also be seen through various pirate routes.
Likewise, many specialists assure that in recent years quality is having more and more weight and, if the price of the service is reasonable, users prefer to make the effort. For this reason, the companies in charge of transmissions are investing large sums of money in cutting-edge technology to be able to offer different experiences to the viewer.
In this sense, social networks seem to have, for the moment, a point in favor: free and quality transmissions. For example, those people in our country who want to watch the Champions League match on Facebook can do so simply by having an account and entering the official Fan Page of the tournament from a cell phone, tablet, computer or Smart TV.
What happens in Argentina?
Soccer dominates in our country and, in the last year, the First Division (now called Superliga) has returned to the “pay per view” model – pay to watch – after several years where you could even watch the matches released by YouTube. The challenge for Fox and Tuner, the owners of the rights, is to achieve a product that seduces abroad.
At the moment these companies have not introduced major changes in the experience of watching a match and the transmissions remain traditional. An online service is not offered either, since to have the “Football Pack” you need to have previously contracted a cable operator.
As for the rest of the sports, basketball seems to be one step ahead with “La Liga Contents”, a free service where you can watch all the matches of the National League, the Argentine League and the Federal Tournament online.
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