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Post by LTfan on Jan 25, 2023 9:53:02 GMT
The BBL has announced that the BBL Player, the league’s OTT streaming service, will close on 31/01/23.
Games and other content will continue on the BBL’s YouTube channel, and BBL Player exclusive content (i.e. classic games) will move across.
Whilst I think the BBL’s YouTube channel is by far the superior platform I’m a little surprised they’ve ditched the BBL Player as it’s built on the Nunchee streaming platform – owned by 777 Partners. I also thought that, although games are currently streamed free on YouTube, it was part of their future roadmap for when they presumably start charging a subscription for access to their content once a big enough fanbase is established.
Some interested stats in the press release too… the BBL’s YouTube channel has seen a 9244% growth of monthly video views compared to last season, and a 128% increase on viewership per game in comparison to 21/22 season.
I’m always a little cautious of numbers like this as they’re often ‘spun’ in a favourable way – for example the 9244% growth of monthly video views is largely due to more videos being uploaded this season. But regardless, viewership of the BBL on YouTube is increasing which can only be good news for the league.
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Post by dexter on Jan 25, 2023 10:33:24 GMT
The BBL YouTube channel is really good for us. Live games are getting about 3k views. BBL games on the Sky Sports YouTube channel get about double that. Both are really important for exposure. That needs to increase a lot before it has any monetary value though.
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Post by LTfan on Jan 25, 2023 11:06:13 GMT
I agree. I never liked the BBL Player… not being able to watch a live game from the start, previous games taking ages to appear (and sometimes not appearing at all), etc.
YouTube is, unsurprisingly, a superior service. And it obviously has a far greater reach, so greater exposure.
But obviously it can’t be the BBL’s long term plan to forever give away its content for free. 777 have stated they see the BBL’s greatest asset is it’s digital content. So I was expecting the BBL Player to be quietly ‘parked’ until the time is right and then relaunched as a subscription service when the time is right. Maybe 777/the BBL have decided that’s so far away there’s no point in keeping BBL Player running quietly in the background, and have instead decided they’ll launch an entirely new service when the time comes?
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Post by dexter on Jan 25, 2023 11:15:44 GMT
I think eventually the BBL could have something like Euroleague TV. Or be available on something like Viaplay or Fanseat. It doesn’t necessarily need its own platform.
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Post by LTfan on Jan 25, 2023 13:06:54 GMT
I think eventually the BBL could have something like Euroleague TV. Or be available on something like Viaplay or Fanseat. It doesn’t necessarily need its own platform. Ideally you want to own the platform and content, that's how you maximise profits. Partnering with a 3rd party platform can help with exposure, but I'm not sure the likes of Viaplay or Fanseat would add much value in that respect. I suspect the BBL will ultimatley have it's own OTT subscription streaming service, but that's still some years off yet. |
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Post by dexter on Jan 25, 2023 15:49:13 GMT
I think eventually the BBL could have something like Euroleague TV. Or be available on something like Viaplay or Fanseat. It doesn’t necessarily need its own platform. Ideally you want to own the platform and content, that's how you maximise profits. Partnering with a 3rd party platform can help with exposure, but I'm not sure the likes of Viaplay or Fanseat would add much value in that respect. I suspect the BBL will ultimatley have it's own OTT subscription streaming service, but that's still some years off yet. Looking at EIHL as an example, you can pay £15 to watch a single game or you can pay £15 a month to subscribe to Viaplay and watch all games on plus all NHL, La Liga, URC and a few other leagues. Fanseat is 10 Euros per month. If you’re a BBL fan you would probably be happy to pay £10 a month for all games on a good quality platform. But what’s that going to be? 10k people paying £10. £100k a month. |
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Post by LTfan on Jan 25, 2023 16:35:17 GMT
Ideally you want to own the platform and content, that's how you maximise profits. Partnering with a 3rd party platform can help with exposure, but I'm not sure the likes of Viaplay or Fanseat would add much value in that respect. I suspect the BBL will ultimatley have it's own OTT subscription streaming service, but that's still some years off yet. Looking at EIHL as an example, you can pay £15 to watch a single game or you can pay £15 a month to subscribe to Viaplay and watch all games on plus all NHL, La Liga, URC and a few other leagues. Fanseat is 10 Euros per month. If you’re a BBL fan you would probably be happy to pay £10 a month for all games on a good quality platform. But what’s that going to be? 10k people paying £10. £100k a month. EIHL's streaming options are awful. £15 a game, who's paying that?! You mention Viaplay, but I don't believe they stream all EIHL games, just one or two a week. Viaplay is to the EIHL, what Sky is to the BBL. And the '£15 a game' streaming option is to the EIHL, what YouTube is to the BBL. Only the BBL are streaming games for free! The issue with utilising platforms like Fanseat is that they take a percentage of the money made for themselves. If the BBL eventually launch a better version of BBL Player, but subscription based, they can keep every penny. And I suspect that's their ultimate plan, probably using Nunchee again given 777 own the software. The big question is when do they do it, when do they stop giving away their product for free? Certainly not yet, that's for sure, but things are moving in the right direction. |
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Post by dexter on Jan 25, 2023 17:19:35 GMT
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Post by ecrider on Jan 25, 2023 18:18:37 GMT
Bbl player was a god send during covid times. Its served its purpose with YouTube taking over
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Post by dexter on Jan 26, 2023 8:41:57 GMT
Looking at EIHL as an example, you can pay £15 to watch a single game or you can pay £15 a month to subscribe to Viaplay and watch all games on plus all NHL, La Liga, URC and a few other leagues. Fanseat is 10 Euros per month. If you’re a BBL fan you would probably be happy to pay £10 a month for all games on a good quality platform. But what’s that going to be? 10k people paying £10. £100k a month. EIHL's streaming options are awful. £15 a game, who's paying that?! You mention Viaplay, but I don't believe they stream all EIHL games, just one or two a week. Viaplay is to the EIHL, what Sky is to the BBL. And the '£15 a game' streaming option is to the EIHL, what YouTube is to the BBL. Only the BBL are streaming games for free! The issue with utilising platforms like Fanseat is that they take a percentage of the money made for themselves. If the BBL eventually launch a better version of BBL Player, but subscription based, they can keep every penny. And I suspect that's their ultimate plan, probably using Nunchee again given 777 own the software. The big question is when do they do it, when do they stop giving away their product for free? Certainly not yet, that's for sure, but things are moving in the right direction. I think you’re right. I thought Viaplay has all the games on their website but they don’t. That’s really bad. EIHL are often accused of being greedy and I have to agree. |
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Post by LTfan on Jan 26, 2023 11:08:05 GMT
Indeed, overinflated Premier League rights has a lot to answer for in this country. British broadcasters pay so much for exclusive Premier League rights that if they were to switch to a streaming subscription service the monthly subscription cost would have to be extortionate, and therefore prohibitive, to match what they currently get from Sky, BT Discovery, and Amazon. I'm not sure of any other sports league in the world that could be said of. Looking at Sky alone, most people don't realise that the Sky Sports subscriptions alone don't cover the cost of their Premier League rights. So Sky customers who don't even pay for Sky Sports are subsidising the cost of their Premier League rights |
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Post by LTfan on Jan 26, 2023 11:10:08 GMT
Bbl player was a god send during covid times. Its served its purpose with YouTube taking over Yes, BBL Player was sort of launched before it's time due to the pandemic/the behind closed doors season. To that point it's fulfilled it's purpose. But it hasn't fulfilled it's true purpose yet - we'll see that in years to come. |
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Post by D44 on Jan 26, 2023 17:40:28 GMT
Interview with the CEO “I expect to be principally free-to-air, it is critically important for us,” he said. “Before we start talking about paid options, subscription-based options, we’re going to need to generate a much larger audience footprint. “The decline of linear television viewing has, of course, led to the advancement of streamers. In parallel with that, the value of live properties has increased dramatically." So expect everything to stay free for a long time yet. Which is great if you ask me, big picture stuff. Growing the sport first instead of extracting money from existing fans Interview here if anyone interested www.sportspromedia.com/news/british-basketball-league-bbl-aaron-radin-ceo-private-equity-investment-teams-tv-rights/?zephr_sso_ott=hH3IzH |
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