MSG Network Exec Says New Streaming Service Design is Underway; Set to Launch During 2022-23 NBA, NHL Season

Matt Tamanini

August 19, 2022

On Friday, executives from Madison Square Garden Entertainment took questions from analysts following the release of its 2022 fiscal year earnings report. While much of the conversation revolved around the company’s live events business, new state-of-the-art Las Vegas venue Sphere, and the potential spin-off of MSG Entertainment’s various divisions, there were some nuggets nestled into the mix about the previously announced in-market direct-to-consumer (DTC) streaming service.

Although the company’s original plan for the platform was to launch before the end of 2022, MSG Network’s president and CEO Andrea Greenberg said on the call that the plan was now to launch the DTC streamer “during the second half of the 2022-23 NBA and NHL seasons.”

Greenberg also revealed that development is currently underway on the service, but MSG wants to take its time during the creation phase in order to ensure that the product that they eventually put out meets consumers’ expectations and is able to compete in the increasingly fractured sports streaming space.

“The design and the build of our DTC product has gotten underway,” she said. “So we’re in the process of building, and we’re making good progress. But we really do want to ensure that we take the appropriate time to launch an exceptional product, one that meets our internal expectations and the expectations of our potential DTC customers. So this is really about getting the build and launch right.”

While established subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) streaming services have gotten more involved in sports rights bidding this year, we have also seen an increasing number of regional sports networks (RSNs) launch their own services as well. In June, Sinclair’s Diamond Media Group soft-launched the long-awaited Bally Sports+ service in five markets tied to the Major League Baseball teams that the company has already secured the streaming rights for.

Earlier this week, Sinclair announced that it would launch the full version of the app on Sept. 26 in time for the NHL and NBA preseasons. While the company did not reveal how many customers had subscribed to the service during the soft-launch, execs did report that 74% of consumers who signed up for the free trial stuck with the streamer once their subscriptions rolled over to paid plans.

When Bally Sports+ debuts wide this fall, it will add availability to markets for the 16 NBA teams and 12 NHL teams that Sinclair has streaming rights for. However, to date, Sinclair execs have not been able to announce any new MLB clubs agreeing to grant the company streaming rights, putting the long-term sustainability of the platform in question.

In addition to tracking how Sinclair has rolled out Bally Sports+, the company is also likely keeping an eye on how Boston-based network NESN has launched its similarly structured in-market streamer NESN+. NESN holds the streaming and broadcast rights for Boston Red Sox and Bruins games and its streamer is available throughout the New England area.

While the MSG Networks streaming service will be focused just on New York Knicks, New York Giants, New York Rangers, [Gotham FC], New Jersey Devils, and New York Islanders games and related programming — as well as other New York-focused sports content — locking down streaming rights is an integral part of MSG’s plans in the leadup to launch.

“We’re certainly looking at what others are doing in the space, not just for best practices and taking them into account,” Greenberg said. “We have recently renewed our digital rights agreement with the NHL for multiple years, and we are confident that we will soon renew our agreement with the NBA as we have many times in the past in the ordinary course. So all [is] on track, it’s really just a result of wanting to get the product right.”

Though it seems like New York sports fans will have to wait a little while longer to be able to stream games from some of their favorite teams without the benefit of a traditional cable or satellite subscription, it does appear that MSG Networks is working toward delivering a quality streaming product by midseason for the Knicks and the Rangers.