Faultline and our investment oriented friends at JRPG were talking the other day about what could convince someone, especially in the recession ravaged America that may be coming, to throw in the towel on a pay TV service like cable or DTH. The conclusion was live sport on the internet and a decent film service like Netflix and the gradual rise in the simplicity with which internet video could be viewed on a TV.
It appears that DirecTV has seen something like this coming, and has tied up a deal with Adobe so that NFL American Football can be viewed on the internet using Adobe video applications ‘ but, and here’s the catch, only if you are a DirecTV NFL Sunday Ticket Superfan ‘ in other words if you spend a ton of money with the satellite TV operator.
Not only that but Adobe will push the Supercast application to its other customers, in other words help DirecTV advertise for more customers through the web.
This type of approach is typically what DirecTV and News Corp, its previous owner, have often done to retain viewers. For instance in a number of News Corp subsidiaries online film services are free, as long as you subscribe to the Sky film channel.
It is this big money approach to funding sporting events, and then taking those events onto a broader and broader spectrum of media, that stops the sports owners themselves setting up in competition with DirecTV instead of partnering it. They wouldn’t do as good a job as DirecTV, so they leave it to the professionals.
This new system will not only deliver the games, but also repeat plays, scores and statistics, all in real-time.