Exclusive: HBO Max Working on Commercial Package to Stream Sports, but Not in Time for National Team Soccer Matches
Last night, streaming history was made as the United States Women's Soccer Team beat New Zealand 4-0 in the first of two international friendlies as both squads work toward the 2023 World Cup that will kick off in Australia and New Zealand in June. While a one-sided victory is nothing new for the USWNT, the game carried far more significance from a fan perspective as it was the first live sporting event that HBO Max had ever broadcast for U.S. audiences.
Just weeks before Discovery acquired WarnerMedia in April 2022, Turner Sports won the rights to broadcast select U.S. men’s and women’s national soccer team matches beginning in 2023. TNT and TBS will televise approximately half of those matches, while Warner Bros. Discovery’s flagship streamer will exclusively air the remaining matches, while also simulcasting all of the games set to appear on the linear cable channels.
However, despite WBD’s first steps into domestic sports broadcasting, there are a few gaps in the coverage that have concerned some of America’s most passionate soccer supporters. While many fans who tuned in had some of the typical complaints about the broadcast that come with introductory streams — inconsistent video quality, pause function not working properly, glitches that require exiting the app to fix — perhaps the biggest complaint was not about how fans were watching, but how they were unable to watch.
Despite the fact that soccer has nowhere near the cultural impact in the U.S. that it does internationally, the sport’s most fervent fans always find a way to make every match a major event, whether it is played domestically or abroad. However, for the rest of this month, that will be uncharacteristically difficult.
In addition to Tuesday’s match, HBO Max will broadcast a second game between the USWNT and the Football Ferns on Friday, Jan. 20. Then, on Jan. 25, the U.S. Men’s National Team will play Serbia in its first match on the streaming service. However, as of now, WBD has not made it possible for bars, restaurants, and other businesses to be able to stream the games in public. This is not a unique problem for when sports move from traditional broadcast outlets to streaming exclusives; last fall DIRECTV partnered with Amazon to provide commercial access to the Prime Video exclusive “Thursday Night Football” broadcasts. The satellite company is hoping to maintain its deal with the NFL to be the commercial provider for NFL Sunday Ticket this fall when YouTube TV takes over the bulk of the out-of-market package.
To date, Warner Bros. Discovery has not made arrangements to allow commercial establishments to show these games. However, while there is no plan in place to bridge the gap between the streamer and businesses looking to show these games to customers, fans, and watch parties, WBD is in the process of finding a solution.
“HBO has a long history of working with bars and restaurants for live sports viewings in commercial settings,” an HBO Max spokesperson told The Streamable. “We understand and appreciate U.S. Soccer’s passionate following and are working towards a solution. We will share any updates as soon as possible.”
HBO does have considerable experience of broadcasting major sporting events, primarily boxing, and making them available in commercial settings. According to a different WBD rep, the network regularly sells licenses to sports bars and restaurants on individual baseis, but the company has not yet finalized a process to translate that from pay-per-view events on its premium cable channel to regular games on its streaming platform.
Although not being able to gather to watch three upcoming games in large groups might not seem like a big deal to outsiders, these types of communal watch parties have become instrumental to the growth of the sport domestically, especially for the women’s team as it continues to fight for respect in not only in a male-dominated sporting culture but also from its own domestic governing body.
“A massive part of the growth of the women’s game has to do with community,” entertainment attorney and owner of Invest in Women apparel Kelsey Trainor told The Streamable. “There is no better way for that community to grow than USWNT watch parties. Even though we’re confident there will be a solution before the World Cup, every fan matters in women’s sports, and the inability to watch these USWNT games as a community right now is reflective of how women’s sports usually play second fiddle.”
While the women’s team is the first to miss out on the watch-party opportunity, this is not a problem exclusive to that squad, as fans of the men’s team will likely face a similar situation later this month. WBD made it clear that the broadcaster plans to present a balanced offering of men’s and women’s matches both streaming on HBO Max and on cable on TNT this year.
The full schedule of men’s and women’s HBO Max matches hasn’t yet been released, but a lack of a commercial license isn’t the only issue standing in the way of businesses showing streaming-only games; in many cases, the streaming itself is an issue as well. Unlike with cable and satellite, where TVs are receiving a single feed from the source, in streaming, each individual device has a separate stream that eats up bandwidth and can cause buffering. Also, to reduce buffering, streaming generally has up to a 30 second delay to the in-stadium action, known as latency.
Not only do streaming broadcasts have a naturally longer delay between real-time action and it appearing on the TV — something that the NBA is working to fix in its streaming broadcasts — but because of the variance between devices, there could be differences of five to 10 second or more between TVs that sit side by side, resulting in a less-than-ideal watching experience, especially in a crowded sports bar.
At this point, it isn’t clear how HBO Max is going to address the concerns around commercial availability of games, but if it is able to put together a package that also cuts back on latency-related issues, that would go a long way to improving the watch-party experience at bars and restaurants like The Sports Bra in Portland, Ore. The near-iconic establishment has become well-known amongst sports fans as being one of the first sports bars to focus specifically on women’s sports, which is not always easy to do, especially as more programming moves to streaming.
“Since before we opened, we knew that getting enough women’s sports content up on our TVs was going to be one of the greatest challenges,” Sports Bra owner Jenny Nguyen told The Streamable. “Based on some research it seems about 95% of all streaming services are for personal use only, meaning that there is no commercial licensing.”
Nguyen has worked with various services — including WNBA League Pass and ESPN3 — in the past to get around streaming issues, and directly with leagues like Athletes Unlimited and ATA Football to get content firsthand; something that Nguyen says has been instrumental to the success of the bar. But even with a growing brand and established relationships with leagues and content providers, it’s not always easy to be able to provide all of the programming that The Sports Bra customers want, especially as the broadcast landscape continues to fracture.
“It is such a tedious and long, convoluted process that oftentimes we just don’t have time for it,” Nguyen said. “Being as we are the first place to really push towards highlighting women’s sports in a commercial environment, we knew that this would be a challenging endeavor, but we also hope that it helps to pave a way for businesses to follow in our footsteps. Bar owners, managers, and staff can have the wonderful intention of airing more women’s sports, but if there isn’t an easy enough way to do so, it won’t happen.”
While this month’s matches are the first to air on HBO Max in the United States, they are far from the first to appear on the service. HBO Max first debuted live sports in August 2021 with its first Brasileirão Brazlian men’s pro-soccer league broadcast and has since been streaming live games of the UEFA Champions League in Mexico and Brazil, and Paulistão in Brazil. The success of these events in Latin America has led WBD to position soccer at the forefront of its move into live sports streaming in the U.S.
As the company continues to stake out a larger piece of the sports streaming industry, soccer might be first, but it will almost certainly not be the last. With Warner Bros. Discovery cable channels owning rights to air NBA, NHL, MLB, AEW Wrestling, and the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament, there will undoubtedly be more games appearing on the service eventually, especially as company execs have said that HBO Max has the flexibility to move some sports content streaming whenever it wants. With more varied sports content potentially moving to the service, there will be even more businesses calling for the ability to broadcast en masse.
Warner Bros. Discovery hopes to roll out a solution for bars, restaurants, and other businesses to be able to show streaming sporting events soon, and when it does, not only will it be welcomed by establishments like The Sports Bra, but it will also likely represent the next major step in HBO Max planting its flag as a major player in the rapidly expanding business of sports streaming.
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