Watching Sports & Streaming NFL: A New Viewership Culture
The average viewer feels they are getting less quality programming nowadays whole monthly cable rates rise on a yearly basis. Ravenous sports junkies hate paying for extra sports packages & pay per view programming in order to view their sports teams. Want to watch all of the NFL games on Directv? Pay $299+ and you'll have your coverage. Same thing goes with the NBA, NHL, MLB, Formula One Racing, Premier and Champions League Soccer and all major sports leagues. So now where do consumers turn for a cheaper but just as broad alternative? Where else: The Internet.
Streaming media websites have been showing up over the past 2-3 years and should continue to grow significantly in years to come. Why? The consumers have taken back some control from Big Brother media organizations and its not going to change in the near future. What do I mean by this? The ability to virally share and spread not only working files but also live video and media has changed the expectations of those involved in television and media in general. What is currently costing consumers hundreds of dollars per month should begin to decrease with the setup of sharing and social media. Why should a viewer pay for a service that is easiliy available online via any of the thousands of streaming media websites? Lets look at at some examples in the world of sports.
Sites such as Justin.tv, UStream.tv and Channelsurfing.net are known as the leaders of streaming shared media and have a huge following especially for watching live sports online. Love the National Football League and want to Watch nfl games ? Piece of cake. Most major sports leagues [in the world.
People question why the large media companies don't attempt to shut down sites that share their content. The answer is simple: More exposure utilizing a new means is never a bad thing, even at the expense of losing a few dollars. This is the standard of new media thus media organizations will surely find ways to profit and join the crowd in the world of streaming websites.
