New King of Sports Streaming?

How big of a business is streaming live sporting events to the American populace? Ask ESPN and CBS. According to an article in the NY Times, ESPN claimed that the recently played World Cup match between the United States and Algeria was the most watched sporting event over the Internet with about 1.1 million unique visitors during the match.

That sounds like quite a lot right? Not so fast. The first round double OT NCAA Tournament game between Brigham Young University and Florida drew 1.15 million unique visitors over the course of the game says CBS Sports. ESPN appears to have erred. They are now grasping at straws saying "the United States victory over Algeria was seen by an average of 328,000 viewers a minute, while the N.C.A.A. game was seen by just over 200,000."

Semantics. There is a much bigger point to be made here, sports streaming is an expanding market with the proliferation of broadband Internet in the US and can only grow larger. This provides yet another targeted demographic for advertisers to take advantage of in an era where TV advertising becomes less relevant every time someone plucks a Tivo off of Amazon.com or signs up for their cable/sat/tel co provider's DVR service.

As is stated on the website's FAQS, ESPN3.com carries over 3,500 live sporting events a year. They range from NBA, MLB, and college sports to niches like cricket, rugby, soccer and Australian Rules Football. Each event provides an opportunity that allows ESPN to market as an advertising vehicle for companies looking to reach their target demographic.

CBSSports.com, by comparison, streams only specific events like the Masters and the NCAA tournament. Other networks don't have the built up streaming capabilities of ESPN3 and will not for what appears to be a while. The major sports leagues in this country MLB, NFL, NBA and NHL all have their own streaming packages. Select national games are allowed to be streamed by ESPN (MLB, NBA) and NBC (NFL) but their is no rival to ESPN3 in the US.

It reaches over 53 million homes and 20 million college students through agreements with TV providers and free access to every college campus in the nation. Soon it will reach the roughly 20 million Xbox Live Gold subscribers with free access as well. It is unparalleled in terms of reach and offerings.

It's a safe bet that it will soon have the most streamed sporting event even though it has yet to reach that high water mark. It's less a matter of if than it is when. Hopefully that when will be a result of the USA advancing through the World Cup.