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Counting down the five biggest streaming stories of 2024

Counting down the five biggest streaming stories of 2024

Price increases, lawsuits, and splashy sports rights acquisitions dominated headlines in the streaming world this year.

There were some major stories in the streaming world in 2024.

The year has almost come to a close, and for many, that means it’s a time to reflect on all the good and bad memories from 2024 before moving on to the new year. In the world of streaming, 2024 held triumphs for some streamers, pitfalls for others, and price increases pretty much across the board. Below we look back at the five biggest stories we covered at The Streamable in 2024, and see what they can tell us about what’s coming in 2025.

What were the five biggest stories in streaming in 2024?

Diamond Sports Group exits bankruptcy

Bally Sports Networks will continue life as FanDuel Sports Networks in Diamond's reorganized structure

There were plenty of questions throughout 2024 as to whether or not Diamond Sports Group — the company that owns and operates 16 regional sports networks scattered across the United States — would survive the year. DSG first entered Chapter 11 protections in March 2023 and had a rocky road of ups and downs to contend with via its partner sports leagues (primarily MLB) and channel distributors. Even as the company negotiated with pay-TV distributors to continue offering its channels, it cautioned that liquidation was still a potential outcome.

In November, however, the company won approval for its reorganization plan, finally emerging from the 20-month process as a going concern. Its RSNs — rebranded from Bally Sports channels to FanDuel Sports Networks — will be distributed through Prime Video as part of the deal, and the NBA, NHL, and MLB teams it broadcasts game for now all have satisfactory deals which should allow for the company to remain in business for the long term.

NBA rights get major shakeup

The NBA will play on different channels in 2025 than it did in 2024.

Entering 2024, the biggest basketball question on the minds of media watchers was which outlets would win the NBA broadcast rights beginning in the fall of 2025. The Association’s current deals with ESPN and TNT expire at the end of the 2024-25 season, and when it entered into exclusive negotiating windows with Disney and Warner Bros. Discovery, many assumed that they would continue to partner with the league for the next decade or so.

That assumption ended up being borne out in Disney’s case, but not WBD’s. The NBA wanted a stronger streaming presence for its games, and so split WBD's package into two, selling one to NBC and Peacock, and the other to Amazon for streaming on Prime Video. WBD tried to sue to win back the games, but to no avail, and starting with the 2025-26 regular season, live games from the league will have new homes.

The two sides did eventually reach a settlement which expanded WBD’s ability to use NBA highlights on its social and sports aggregation platforms domestically and broadcast games internationally, but after nearly 40 years, American fans won’t be able to watch games on TNT. The settlement also allowed WBD to continue producing the wildly popular “Inside the NBA,” but instead of airing ahead of games on its network, Disney licensed the show to air on ABC and ESPN.

Venu Sports is announced… and halted in its tracks

Venu Sports would have been a huge disruptor in live TV streaming, but likely will neer see the light of day.

In February 2024, Disney, Fox, and Warner Bros. Discovery dropped a streaming bombshell. The three companies announced their intentions to create a joint venture streaming service that would carry all of the linear channels owned by the companies that aired sports programming, including ESPN, FS1, TNT, and others. Eventually, the service was given the name Venu Sports, and was intended to be sold at a price of less than $45 per month.

“Intended” is the key word, however, because Fubo immediately identified Venu as a threat to its existence, and moved quickly on that assumption. Fubo filed an antitrust lawsuit against Venu just days after the joint venture was first announced, and has already scored a huge victory with a preliminary injunction that is preventing the companies from selling the streamer to customers until the lawsuit is resolved, barring appeal. While Disney, Fox, and WBD are going through the process to appeal the injunction, Venu’s trial is currently set to begin in October 2025.

Netflix goes live

The biggest streaming service of them all — in terms of subscribers, at any rate — was in the headlines plenty over the course of 2024. Netflix took some major steps in the arena of live streaming during the year, not all of which were as successful as the company might have liked.

Comedy specials from the likes of Joe Rogan were one thing, but when the streamer announced a deal to begin presenting episodes of “WWE Raw” every single week starting in 2025, analysts quickly realized the full scope of Netflix’s live broadcasting ambitions. A live boxing match between Jake Paul and Mike Tyson drew a monstrous global audience, but was also beset with technical issues. Nevertheless, things appear to be full speed ahead for Netflix’s live streaming plans after its first-ever NFL streams on Christmas Day — complete with a halftime performance from Beyoncé — went off with only minor hiccups.

Everyone raises prices

The biggest story in streaming of 2024 was undoubtedly the seemingly never-ending announcements of price increases. Nearly every top streaming service available raised subscription rates on at least one plan in 2024, including Disney+, Hulu, Max, Paramount+, and Peacock. Prime Video made ad-free streaming $3 more expensive when it launched its ad-supported plan, leaving Netflix as one of only a few streamers to keep subscription rates at the same level.

Is more of the same coming in 2025? Live TV streamers like DIRECTV STREAM, Sling TV, and YouTube TV also saw prices increase this year, but with the rising cost of programming, consumers might see more rate hikes in the new year. Netflix will probably raise its prices in the coming months as well, as every streaming service is still looking for ways to maximize profits, or simply achieve regular profitability in the first place.

The one financially saving grace amongst all of these price increases is that most streamers are actively looking to incentivize cord-cutters who opt for ad-supported options. Since the dual revenue streams of subscriptions and advertising allow media companies to achieve higher average revenue per user (ARPU) than from subscriptions alone, the largest price increases often are targeted on the ad-free options. While this doesn’t mean that ad-supported prices are immune from hikes, thus far it has proven to keep the increases relatively smaller than what the premium tiers have experienced.


David covers the biggest news stories, live events, premieres, and informational pieces for The Streamable. Before joining TS, he wrote extensively for Screen Rant and has years of experience writing about the entertainment and streaming industries. He's a Broncos fan, streams on his Toshiba Fire TV, and his favorites include "Andor," "Rings of Power," and "Star Trek: Strange New Worlds."

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