What the Sports Streaming Super App Means for Sports Bars
ESPN, Fox Sports, and TNT Sports have announced a joint sports-streaming super app. But what does this mean for sports bars and restaurants?
Don’t Miss These Two Big Streaming-Only NFL Games
If your sports bar wants to show two big streaming-only NFL games this season, you'll need to sign up for Peacock Sports Pass, exclusively through UPshow. Here are the deets.
What to Know About the ACC Network
Ladies, gentlemen and other esteemed guests, your long wait is over. The ACC launched their new network on August 22nd. If you’ve been in the sports-themed restaurant world for a while, then you’ve seen this dance before. It’s a new channel on DIRECTV (ACCNX – 612) that will carry extra content that doesn’t appear on the nationally distributed networks. It’s a collaboration with ESPN and includes content on the streaming system ESPN+. You’ll need to contact your dealer to determine the price for your location. Here are the Details. Currently ACC Net is only being carried by Spectrum, Google FiberTV and DIRECTV. The programming is also streaming on YoutubeTV, Hulu, Charter/Spectrum TV, DIRECTV & Playstation Vue. It’s also included in content available via an ESPN+ subscription. Currently, ESPN told us that they have no plan to sell ESPN+ commercial, but [...]
How Sports Bars Can Stream eSports Events
Part 4: Airing eSports Events on Your Sports Bar's TVs Ok, so you’re onboard and ready to show streaming eSports at your sports bar, but how do you do that? We’re glad you asked. There are two basic elements to providing streaming eSports at your location -- the device and the content source. We’ll review both and give you the tools you need to get rolling. It’s also important to note that the amount of streaming eSports available via traditional inline broadcasting has increased dramatically in the past few years. When you are done, you’ll know how to access it all and from there it’s up to you how to proceed. What are My Device Options? Let’s start with the devices for streaming eSports. This is way less complicated that you may think, but it does require some consideration of [...]
What to Know about eSports Fans & Gamers
Part Two: Know Your Audience While you’ll find eSports fans across the age spectrum, it’s the younger generations – Millennials and even more so Gen Z – that have really embraced this “alternative” sports category. In fact, the very future of the modern sports bar may depend on catering to eSports fans. Data shows that nontraditional sports, like eSports, are far more interesting to Millennials with 56% favoring them, and only 44% saying the same for traditional sports. Bottom line: If you’re not trying to get eSports fans into your establishment, you’re likely dooming your business. Who are eSports Fans & Players? Suffice to say, eSport fans and players likely don’t resemble your typical bar guests. They are a highly populated and underserved group of folks. They’re a community that have never had a place like a sports bar to [...]
Understanding the Marketing Potential of eSports for Sports Bars
On paper, the concept may seem absurd. Who wants to watch somebody else play video games? Is there really a market of third siblings forced to spectate while their older siblings take turns with Mario and Luigi out there? To ask those questions in the first place is to fundamentally misunderstand the appeal of eSports. Nobody questions why millions of people tune into the NFL every Sunday afternoon or shell out hundreds of dollars for baseball tickets. The concepts of professional eSports and major league athletics are not as different as you might think. Sure, the gladiator aesthetic and the barbarism is virtually non-existent -- or is it existent, virtually? -- but at the end of the day, in both events, you have spectators observing someone else playing a game. There are flamboyant personalities, tense drama-inducing moments, and fanbases cheering [...]
The OTT Sports Program Provider Directory
In a previous post we talked about why sports bars need to show sports programming only available on OTT services. In short: if you're looking to stand out from every other sports bar that shows what's on ESPN, Comcast, Fox, etc. then you need to look for different and interesting content that sports fans can't get anywhere else. That means OTT sports program providers. Sports bars looking to dip their feet in the OTT sports content waters have a lot of options to choose from. Depending what your bar’s specialty is might sway you one way or another, but here are some of the more mainstream players and what they provide. Amazon Prime Launched: N/A Cost: $99/annual for Amazon Prime, $8.99/month for Prime Video Amazon is a relatively new player in OTT sports but is quickly making waves. Amazon Prime subscribers [...]
Why Sports Bars Need OTT Sports Programming to be the Best
There are a lot of sports bars in the US, so sticking out as being different and the best can be pretty challenging. Most often, operators look toward doing something crazy or fancy with their beer and food menus. And often this is can create a fantastic little niche for many locations. But there are more and more bars out there with a beer list the length of War and Peace. And frankly, if you’re a tried & true sports bar, your guests are coming to your location for one reason beyond all others – to watch sports. So, it would stand to reason that you’d want to give your guests the best possible viewing experience. Be it from the best TV screens, personal audio, a fantasy sports-friendly atmosphere, etc. But sports bar operators would also be wise to create [...]
How to Watch the MLB on Facebook Watch
The relationship between sports and social media has been evolving since Facebook hit the scene in 2004. Various platforms have tested live events from Twitter’s NFL experimenting in 2016 to the full Thursday Night NFL schedule hosted by Amazon Prime. Now it appears that Major League Baseball wants to wade into social streaming with their 2018 season Facebook Watch schedule. Today’s the game between Milwaukee and St. Louis is exclusively available on Facebook Watch, and we list them all on the SportsTV Guide's streaming section. Facebook Watch will host 25 games exclusively on the platform for broadcast. Most games will be shown on Wednesdays and will include both game action and curated content provided by MLB Network. The Facebook Watch deal is likely the beginning of an unstoppable trend. Below is three ways you can watch the MLB on Facebook Watch, [...]
What Does the AAF Mean to Sports Bars?
By now you’ve likely heard. There are two new professional football leagues vying for the opening left by the NFL’s most recent woes. Just a few years ago an alternate league would have been unthinkable, but the NFL has seen ratings drops while the player protests, and the head injury issues erode their stranglehold on all things football in the US. Enter Chuck Ebersol and Vince McMahon. Ebersol is the son of former NBC Sports President Dick Ebersol, who was a partner of Vince McMahon in the failed XFL experiment from 1999. Fast forward almost 20 years and it appears the landscape has changed -- even if the central players have not. While all these machinations are fascinating, what does The Alliance of American Football (AAF) mean to sports bar’s operations and marketing efforts? Below are three potential advantages from [...]
5 Alternative Sports TV Content Sports Bars Should Show
Football. Basketball. Baseball. Hockey. Soccer. Every sports bar worth its salt shows these games. Your loyal patrons and irregular guests expect you to be showing these sports on the regular every day and night of the week. So how do you stand out? You could give your guests a superior guest experience through technology or your atmosphere. That’s something we’ve harped on a ton in the past couple of years. Another way is to show alternative or “off-beat” sports programming on some of your TVs. This does a few things: It positions you as the sports expert in your neighborhood. Opens up your venue to a whole new group of fans & potentially regular clients. Opens your traditional guests into new sports they might love (and then come back to watch). Shows that you really care about sports entertainment and [...]
What the Mayweather-McGregor Fight Tells Us About Sports Live Streaming
One week this past Saturday night, the world was captivated by the spectacle that was Floyd Mayweather Jr vs. Conor McGregor. It is estimated that around 100 million folks tuned in to see the biggest fight ever on PPV -- and a lot of them were live streaming. Except that many of those who tuned in experienced significant technical issues, both with the in-line broadcast delivery and streaming options. When the numbers are finally tallied it’s expected that the fight garnered 5 million PPV orders from cable/satellite operators, the UFC app, and the Showtime app. Those are staggering numbers, which is why you can understand that the systems for delivery were strained. We have been trying to convince you that integrating streaming sports into your programming portfolio is the answer for today and the future. Unfortunately, when issues like this [...]