An editorial by Kim Jo-han, Media Guy·New ID Business Development Director

The top three most popular sports in the United States are NBA (basketball), NFL (American football), and MLB (baseball). Although NHL (ice hockey) is popular, it is not as popular as it once was. Most people believe that the NFL is the most profitable league among them despite playing the fewest games. 

The Super Bowl is one of the NFL's marquee events, with trailers for beloved films and forthcoming streaming releases competing for attention during commercial breaks. Thursdays or Sundays have been designated by the NFL as the days in the week when games can be played, and broadcasting rights have been sold accordingly to networks or pay-per-view broadcasters. The large sums of money generated with in these arrangements have substantially contributed to the survival of the pay-per-view broadcasting business model.

The current move toward over-the-top (OTT) services is not going to end any time soon. Since 2022, people in the United States who wish to watch NFL’s Thursday night games can only do so through Amazon Prime Video, rather than traditional broadcasters. Similarly, Coupang Play is broadcasting England and Wales’s EFL Cup and announced in 2021 that it had secured three-year exclusive broadcasting rights in Korea for NFL games, indicating a worldwide trend of streaming services competing with traditional pay-per-view channels.

In May, it was reported that Apple, Fox, and Netflix had been negotiating rates for NBA broadcasting rights, demonstrating their interest in acquiring sports programming. Apple already has broadcast rights to Major League Soccer and Major League Baseball. Without a doubt, sports broadcasting rights are growing more lucrative all around the world.

YouTube is now entering the fray. The platform, which just purchased the NFL Sunday Ticket broadcasting rights, now allows viewers to watch NFL Sunday games not only on YouTube TV, its virtual pay-TV service, but also on the ordinary YouTube website. However, you have to shell out KRW 450,000 (about USD 350) a year to watch these games. After all, YouTube cannot make enough income just with advertisement fees. While many users have already signed up to its premium services, the company has begun offering its Primetime Channels in the United States, which allows users to watch cable networks and live content directly through YouTube.

It remains to be seen what the future holds for sports broadcasting in Korea. It will be interesting to see if Coupang's growth in the sports streaming market will continue unchallenged or if Netflix will decide to start offering live sports broadcasting in Korea as well.

by Kim Jo-han (Media Guy·New ID Business Development Director)