Whether you’re watching the University of Toledo’s game on Saturday from inside Notre Dame Stadium or the comfort of your northwest Ohio home, it’s going to cost you money.
Tickets on StubHub can be had for as little as $40. The going rate on Peacock, the streaming service owned by NBCUniversal that will broadcast the game, is $4.99 per month. And Saturday won’t be the last time Rocket fans have to pay extra to see their team in action.
If a UT game gets picked for ESPN Plus, depending on someone’s cable provider or streaming service, viewing all 12 games could require access to seven different outlets: the Peacock and ESPN Plus pay streaming services, the ESPN3 streaming service bundled with television provider subscriptions, and linear cable channels ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, and CBS Sports Network. It’s the latest signal that college football viewing habits are about to change in a big way.
“Streaming is going to keep growing and growing and growing,” said Andrew Marchand, who covers sports media for the New York Post. “And there’s definite value in live events. If you look at TV last year, and basically every year for the last decade or more, 49 of the top 50 shows are the NFL. So those games have huge significance. But we’re all learning to watch with Netflix and On Demand. Viewership might change over time.”
The news in 2016 that Toledo would play at Notre Dame in 2021 was met with exultation.
It would be UT’s first meeting with Notre Dame, an event that comes with a trip to fabled South Bend, playing under the gaze of Touchdown Jesus, and in the presence of the Golden Dome. Mystique is always around the corner.
A game at Notre Dame Stadium comes with perhaps the biggest perk of all: a national television audience on NBC. Except that won’t be happening on Saturday.
“People are just disappointed because, candidly, it was thought that the game was going to be on NBC,” Toledo athletic director Mike O’Brien said.
The Peacock announcement received less laudatory reviews than a wintry mix forecast in January. One poster on the popular UT message board the Launch Pad wrote, “Well that sucks. Another $4.99 offering to be made to the media gods I guess.”
The biggest obstacle is older fans who are programmed to sit in front of their TVs and toggle between games with the click of a button. Extra steps are involved with streaming, and the 60-and-over set is less inclined to understand new gadgets and advancements in technology.
“Five years ago, I didn’t even think we could tell you it was going to look like this today,” said Austin Karp, managing editor at SportsBusiness Daily. “If you think about where we were with games moving to cable TV, it was, why isn’t everything on ABC, CBS, or NBC? There’s going to be stubbornness among sports fans who are used to seeing things a certain way. This just creates another hurdle that TV viewers have to go through.”
Numerous industries have gone through a transition where they educate consumers on why it’s worth paying for a particular service. Streaming is now having its moment after the music industry (Napster, iTunes, Spotify) and newspapers (paywalls) have found success convincing people that a subscription or small fee is worth it.
The sports world is entering an era where streaming is going to become prevalent. Not overtaking the eyeballs and advertising dollars that are available on cable, but certainly playing host to games and teams of consequence. Watching every game will require a combination of cable channels and streaming services.
“It’s not just Toledo,” Karp said. “It’s a lot of programs out there. Not everybody is Alabama, who’s going to have national advertising pushes. You’re going to have to check your schedule and see where your team is going to be playing. The good thing is, your team is probably going to be on TV. That's the whole point of this -- you do have access to watch your team every Saturday, or Tuesday in the MAC’s case. And that’s where the ESPN exposure comes in.”
The SEC’s contract with ESPN states that each team must play one nonconference game on ESPN Plus. Amazon’s Prime Video is taking over exclusive rights to the NFL’s Thursday night games for a reported $1.2 billion. NBC used Peacock to air portions of the Olympics and U.S. Open golf tournament to mixed reviews. And Peacock is now the preferred mode for delivering English Premier League soccer broadcasts.
“Yes, they’re being overly aggressive,” Marchand said. “But you can understand from their business point of view why they’re doing that. Is it good for the consumer? No, it’s going to upset people.”
The goal for each media company is to drive subscribers to their service. The Notre Dame-Toledo game will serve as a Rorschach test of sorts to gauge the appetite for streaming. It will be particularly telling because of Notre Dame’s star appeal and national fan base. A critical element, according to Marchand, is providing subscribers with a premium product, not simply a typical game broadcast.
“Transition is hard,” he said. “I don’t think we’ll necessarily look back and say, ‘Wow, I have to pay for something I didn’t have to pay for previously.’ I think that’s the hard thing. Here’s something you've been paying for and someone is asking you to pay again. I can understand the uproar.”
First Published September 9, 2021, 2:35 a.m.
