The NBA's Futuristic Blend
While it may seem that streamed media will be a major part of the daily information we consume in the future, it is not clear how we will access that information. Already, content is being planned for PDAs, and there may even be a day you'll be able to get a sports audio feed from your wristwatch.
"We will be delivering audio and video news on-demand every day," says Yahoo!'s Rightmire. Furthermore, "instead of a scheduled investment of 30 minutes of sports highlights at 6 p.m., you could access it on-demand, and some form of a Yahoo! communications device will let you know when that information is ready for consumption," he says.
Spoonemore of the NBA predicts that by the time the experience of watching a live game on the Internet is good enough to be a real revenue driver, television and the Internet will have merged into an interactive television experience. "I am not sure you will ever see a point when Internet rights for live games threaten broadcast rights, because they will be the same," says Spoonemore.
Rightmire of Yahoo! thinks TV-quality broadcasts of streamed content on the Internet are several years out. Reiss of ESPN.com thinks it will be sooner than that, but both agree that someday the computer and the TV will be one and the same.
In the future, fans might be watching the Hawaiian Open golf tournament on a multi-channel, broadband-feed television and the coverage will provide access to additional information, ranging from replays of the final putt of last year's tournament to the cost of airline tickets to Hawaii.
Yet, it's not clear if Yahoo!, ESPN.com, PGA.com or any other media site is going to be in control of the distribution of the content when convergence occurs. Traditionally, the leagues and the media companies have been partners in broadcast coverage, but in the online world, the two are quickly becoming competitors. An example of how serious the leagues are taking the power of convergence is that of Major League Baseball (MLB). One TV network official, who preferred anonymity on the issue, said that MLB has spent $40 million on its Web site. It seems natural that the league would want exclusive control of online baseball coverage on that site, if only to maximize its return on investment.
Perlman of the NHL agrees that the future relations between broadcasters and leagues could get muddled. "We want the people to get their hockey information from NHL.com, not from the Web site of one of our broadcasters," he says. "That raises issues that everyone is going to have to deal with as we go forward."
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