CTV moving Super Bowl stream behind paywall, including it in new CTV Go app

BCE Inc. plans to put its online stream of next year’s Super Bowl behind a paywall, sending a message to cord cutters that the days of free, and legal, premium content online are numbered, industry experts said. “They’re doing this as a strategic marketing communications move to send a signal to TV subscribers that if you think you can cut the cord and still enjoy life, you’d better think again,” David Ellis, a communications instructor at York University, said in a telephone interview Friday. “This is a message to cord cutters to put away the sharp instruments and stick around.” This month, Bell Media said it will launch a new online service called CTV Go in the fall, as part of its TV Everywhere products. The service will make content from the Bell-owned CTV network available live and on-demand online, though only to users who already subscribe to a TV service offered by one of Canada’s broadcast distributors. Bell Media spokesman Scott Henderson confirmed in an email statement Friday that CTV has the Canadian broadcast rights to next year’s Super Bowl, to be played in East Rutherford, N.J., and that CTV will make Canada’s official online stream of the game available on the CTV Go service. “CTV has announced it will launch CTV Go later this year, which will include authenticated live streaming of our schedule—this will include CTV’s broadcast of SUPER BOWL LVIII,” he wrote. “Go is mostly an authenticated product, but some content will be available unauthenticated. In this case, the Super Bowl will require authentication." Bell, which also operates a broadcast distribution service, made a live stream of the Super Bowl available for free for the first time on its CTV.ca website last year. Fox, owned by News Corp., has the U.S. broadcasting rights to next year’s National Football League (NFL) championship game, and is also considering moving its stream of the game behind a paywall, U.S. website MediaPost News reported this week. NBCUniversal Media LLC, which had the U.S. rights in 2012, said last year that its free, online stream of Super Bowl XLVI set a North American record for most online viewers of a single sports event, reaching 2.1 million viewers. Gord Hendren, president of Charlton Strategic Research, said in an interview that CTV’s plan to put the game behind an online paywall will encourage consumers to sign up for the CTV Go service. He said the move could effectively encourage people who aren’t already paying TV subscribers to sign up for a service, since most people want to see major sporting events live, even when they don’t have access to a television. The Super Bowl is considered one of the biggest sporting events of the year. In Canada, the game has drawn average audiences between 6.6 million and 8.2 million television viewers each of the past three years. “They’re using the Super Bowl to enhance the perceived attractiveness or the perceived value of the CTV Go app,” Hendren said, noting that big sports events are a “key driver” of TV subscriptions. “Absolutely they’re trying to entice consumers that way, 100 per cent.” Hendren said the plan could also help CTV draw more advertising revenues for the game if it can convince advertisers that it can better target segments of viewers, such as younger demographics, which are more likely to watch the game online. Ellis said the move could also “backfire” on Bell if it drives more of those younger consumers to seek out free, pirated streams online, driving them further away from the paid content system. “It will encourage more pirating,” he said, noting that people will use whatever source is available to them to watch marquee events like the Super Bowl. “Whether the sources are licit or illicit doesn’t matter to a lot of people." Kaan Yigit, president of consulting firm Solutions Research Group, said his research has indicated that about one in every five Canadian Internet users—or about five million in total—access illicit or pirated content regularly. Despite the Super Bowl’s popularity, moving the game’s official stream behind a paywall “won’t make a dent” in that number, he said, since most people who want to use illegal streaming sites already do. Yigit agreed that the move could encourage more consumers to sign up for the CTV Go service, introducing many of them to the “authentication process” for the first time. He said that’s good news for broadcast distributors who want to keep people in the paid system, even if it’s not what consumers want. “The consumer wants more access, not less, and more free access,” he said. “But clearly that’s not going to happen.” Hendren called Bell’s move to put the Super Bowl behind a paywall a “logical progression” of its online strategy because it offers paying consumers more on-demand access to content, including sports, while reducing their ability to access that content without paying. He said he expects to see more sports content that was previously available for free online moved behind paywalls. Bell has said it will launch similar authenticated services for its TSN and RDS sports specialty channels, though neither channel streams live sports events. Brian Schecter, a media consultant and president of firm Puddle Duck Productions in Vancouver, said CTV will need to make the process for authenticating online accounts as easy as possible, or risk alienating paying customers. “If you don’t do that, you’re just asking for trouble,” he said. Schecter said people considering getting rid of their paid television services are unlikely to keep paying their monthly bills for more access to online, on-demand content. “And if they are interested in watching events like the Super Bowl and they want to get rid of their cable or satellite service, they’ll just go to a bar,” he said. Schecter said he doubts many people will watch next year’s Super Bowl on the CTV Go application, since most viewers prefer watching marquee events on a big screen TV. —With reporting by Nicholas Kyonka and nkyonka@thewirereport.ca and editing by Simon Doyle at sdoyle@thewirereport.ca

CTV moving Super Bowl stream behind paywall, including it in new CTV Go app

Broadcast | June 21, 2013

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CTV moving Super Bowl stream behind paywall, including it in new CTV Go app

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