YES Launches Streaming Platform Offering Access to Yankees, Nets Games Without Pay-TV Subscription

The move follows a similar launch weeks earlier by another major carrier of Greater New York City teams,

MSG Networks,

whose new MSG+ service gives fans of the NBA’s New York Knicks and the National Hockey League’s New York Rangers and New Jersey Devils access to games for $29.99 a month or $309.99 annually.

The launch of platforms that offer fans direct access to live sports—historically the backbone of the cable industry—comes as millions of U.S. households cancel their traditional cable-TV packages every year in favor of streaming services, a phenomenon known as cord-cutting. 

YES—which is owned by the New York Yankees,

Sinclair Broadcast Group Inc.,

Amazon.com Inc.

and private-equity firm RedBird Capital Partners—said its new streaming option would only be available locally, and not on a national basis. It also said subscribers to YES through traditional cable and satellite services will continue to have the ability to stream the network. 

The emergence of direct-to-consumer options is of growing importance to teams concerned about the drop in subscribers for traditional pay-TV distributors, because sports-TV rights are a crucial revenue driver for local teams that have high expenses, such as player salaries.

Pricing is a challenge. Sports networks are typically contractually bound to not offer their channels directly to consumers via streaming at a price lower than what multichannel video providers pay to carry them. 

Unlike the Yankees, many professional teams don’t own their own networks, which can complicate the efforts to launch a direct-to-consumer option as teams, leagues and media-rights holders often aren’t on the same page when it comes to launching a streaming service. 

The largest operator of regional sports networks—Diamond Sports Group LLC—filed for bankruptcy earlier this month in part because cord-cutting severely hurt its bottom line. Diamond has been trying for years to negotiate deals to offer streaming-only service for the teams it has media rights. It has had success with the NBA and NHL teams in the markets it covers, but when it comes to MLB teams has so far only been able to conclude a handful of deals.

Write to Joe Flint at [email protected]