The 2015 cord-cutter s guide to sports apps

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2 This year s guide to league-centric over-the-top sports apps unearthed a merciful reduction in the options for NBA fans, a big shift in the NFL and Verizon Wireless approach to NFL Mobile, and the addition of Major League Soccer to our comparison. Each league continues to offer a free app with basic features such as news updates, scores, stats and postgame video clips. But leagues are also beginning to converge around similar, more streamlined premium mobile video subscription tiers. Both the NBA and the pared down the number of premium package options available for their campaigns. The NBA cut its sizable array of subscription packages from five to three. The NBA now matches Major League Baseball in terms of the number of subscription tiers on offer. The eliminated its $9.99/season GameCenter Premium package, which provided access to all live game radio broadcasts. According to a league representative, live radio broadcasts of nearly every game became available to users of the free GameCenter app just prior to the season. For comparison, access to live radio broadcasts of MLB games requires a subscription to the MLB At Bat premium package for $19.99/season, or $2.99/month. Many of these OTT services are subject to local market game blackouts, which puts the brakes on widespread adoption, especially for Americans rooting for their local big league (MLB, NBA, and MLS) teams. Mobile sports apps, such as, emerged to allow fans the option of watching games via a high-speed internet connection. The apps, however, were not created as a substitute for a traditional TV package, as the games are subject to blackout restrictions. Blackout rules are now being implemented to discourage would-be cord cutters from dropping cable subscriptions and defecting to sports video apps to watch a local team. In this case, the blackouts serve as a mechanism to protect local RSNs, which have made large investments in securing territorial broadcast rights for a given team, from the existence of OTT sports apps. Big Five sports leagues app comparison 2015 Mobile video live game playback (2) Live mobile radio Months in season Season Season App Model (1) begins ends (9) MLB.com At Bat Lite Free No No April Oct/Nov* 8 MLB.com At Bat Premium $19.99/season or $2.99/month No April Oct/Nov* 8 $109.99/season or $19.99/month No April Oct/Nov* 8 Premium $129.99/season or $24.99/month April Oct/Nov* 8 MLS Live $74.99/annual sub or $15.99/month No March December 9 NBA Game Time Free No No October June 9 NBA Game Time Plus (3) $9.99/season No October June 9 NBA League Digital Choice (4) $149.99/season or $33.00/month October June 9 NBA League Pass Digital Premium (5) $199.00/season or $45.99/month October June 9 NFL Mobile Free No (7) September February# 6 NFL Mobile Premium (8) $5.00/month (6) September February# 6 GameCenter Free No October June 9 GameCenter LIVE $159.00/season October June 9 (1) Prices as of beginning of the season and as of the most recent season. Prices usually drop as the season proceeds. (2) Subject to local market blackouts. (3) Free to Unlimited Data subscribers at Sprint. (4) Allows users to watch most out-of-market games of five teams (of the customer s choosing) for a full season. (5) Allows users to watch most out-of-market games from all 30 NBA teams throughout the season. (6) Free for Verizon More Everything shared data plans as of the 2014/2015 season. (7) Available as an in-app upgrade to NFL AudioPass for $9.99 per season. (8) Only available to Verizon Wireless subscribers. (9) Season s end includes postseason/championship game. *The tentative start date for the World Series is Oct. 27, with Game 7 (if necessary) scheduled for Nov. 4. #Conference championships will be played on Jan. 24, Super Bowl 50 is scheduled for Feb. 7,

3 Pricing of top-tier mobile video packages remained fairly stable between the and sports seasons. MLS and the were the only leagues in our analysis to raise prices on top-tier mobile video subscriptions for The seasonlong subscription price of MLS Live grew 15.4% annually to $74.99 per season, while the price of GameCenter Live rose by 6.7% to $ per season. Top tier mobile video package pricing delta, 2013/14 vs. 2014/15 seasons 2013/ /2015 % change season price season price ($) (%) MLS Live GameCenter Live NBA Premium League Pass Premium Prices are as of the beginning of each league s respective regular season. Omitted NFL from this exercise, as they don t have a comp annual sub package SNL Kagan, a division of SNL Financial LC, estimates. All rights reserved. The and MLS do not monetize live digital radio feeds within their native apps as MLB does within MLB at Bat Premium or as the NFL does with NFL Audiopass (a $9.99 premium upgrade available to all users of the NFL Mobile app). When the full season price of these top-tier mobile video packages is divided by the number of months in each league s full season, the NBA s Premium League Pass is the most expensive (as it was last year) at $22.11 per month. Remaining second in 2015 is the s GameCenter Live app, which after its recent price increase is now more expensive than Premium by $1.53 per month. Premium mobile sports apps by monthly price 2014/2015 season ($) NBA Premium League Pass GameCenter LIVE Premium MLS Live NFL Mobile / Verizon Wireless* *Free for Verizon Wireless More Everything shared data customers, and $5.00/month for all other Verizon customers. MLB We estimate subscription revenue from MLB At Bat and MLB. TV is on track to hit nearly $600 million in the 2015 season, a double digit rise from For the 2015 baseball season, MLB at Bat and have been updated to include a Spanish-language user interface, and they now offer Spanish-language audio overlays for every available game on supported devices. Other new features include a Web-based HD media player and streaming portability to Sony Corp. s PlayStation Vita and PlayStation TV (PlayStation portability limited to premium subs). MLB advanced media digital tiers 2015 MLB.com At Bat MLB.com At Bat Lite MLB.com At Bat Premium Price Free $2.99/month, $19.99/season Live Gameday Audio Portability No In-Game Highlights No Live Look-ins No Game of the Day No Gameday Audio Archive Access No Gameday Pitch f/x* No Premium Price $19.99/month or $109.99/season $24.99/month or $129.99/season Includes MLB At Bat Premium No Subscription Mobile/Connected Device Live No Video Access Watch on Playstation Vita & No Playstation TV Choice of Home & Away No Broadcast Feeds (on all connected & Mobile devices) Audio Overlay (Available Online Only) + Spanish HD Picture LIVE Game DVR Multi-Game Viewing Full Game Archive Pitch by Pitch Widget (Available Online & On Mobile Devices) New Web-Based HD Media Player *Pitch tracking technology displaying the location and velocity of every pitch. New features in 2015 in bold. MLB Advanced Media, the Internet and interactive branch of Major League Baseball, has delivered such compelling results to fans that it has been tapped by outside media companies seeking streaming technology experts to power their own OTT services. 3

4 In arguably its highest profile partnership to date, MLBAM teamed with Time Warner Inc. s HBO for the rollout of its stand-alone OTT service HBO NOW, which launched in April. MLBAM is also the technology provider for OTT streaming services including World Wrestling Entertainment Inc. s WWE Network and Glenn Beck s online news network The Blaze TV. According to our weekly Apple itunes survey, MLB.com At Bat remained the most popular mobile sports app in , spending 39 weeks in the top 100 grossing iphone apps chart. Top-grossing iphone sports apps, 2014 Rank Apps Total 1 MLB.com At Bat 39 2 FIFA 14 by EA SPORTS/FIFA 15 Ultimate Team by EA SPORTS 26 3 Madden NFL 25 by EA SPORTS /Madden NFL Mobile 22 4 NFL Mobile 10 5 MyNBA2K NBA Game Time NBA2K14/NBA2K R.B.I. Baseball NBC Sports Tour de France Live NFL Fantasy Football Cheat Sheet & Draft Kit NFL NFL Mobile remains only available to Verizon Wireless subscribers, but the terms changed slightly last year. Verizon Wireless axed the $5.00 monthly price tag it had previously charged all of its customers for exclusive access to the premium app. On July 24, 2014, just over a month prior to the kickoff of the NFL s season, Verizon made the premium app freely available to all customers on its More Everything shared data plans. Verizon subs not on a More Everything plan still have the option to add NFL Mobile for $5/month. Verizon More Everything customers also had the option of adding NFL RedZone for an additional $1.99 per month. NFL Mobile NFL Mobile NFL Mobile Basic Premium (1) Price Free $5/month (2) Mobile Device Access (Smartphone & Tablet) HD Video No No Live NFL Video No NFL RedZone No NFL Network No Team Profiles, Scores, News, Schedules & Stats Video Archive No No (1) Only available to Verizon Wireless subscribers. (2) Free for Verizon More Everything shared data customers. NBA NBA Game Time Plus is free for Sprint Corp. s unlimited data subscribers via an exclusive arrangement with the carrier, and it is $9.99 per season for all other users. The most significant change made by the league for the season was dropping its mobile-only package and making both NBA League Pass packages portable across mobile, connected device and online platforms. According to the NBA, its move to eliminate the mobile-only option was reflective of a blurring distinction between mobile and non-mobile content access, among both its customers and in the broader media ecosystem. NBA Mobile options NBA Game Time NBA Game Time Plus (1) Price Free $9.99/Season Live Streaming of Press Conferences & Events Team Videos League Highlights Home & Away Live Radio Broadcasts Game Video Highlights No (inc. NBA TV & TNT clips) Advertising Free No Apple Watch Support NBA League Pass Choice NBA League Pass Premium Price $149.99/annual or $33.00/month $199/annual or $45.99/month Game Access 5 teams All teams Game Video Regular Season Access 2014 All-Star Access No 2014 Playoffs Access No 2014 NBA Finals Access No Season Access No Most Preseason Access No HD Video Streaming Multi-platform Access Game Video Archive (1) Free for Sprint Unlimited Plan subscribers. 4

5 The app now offers two tiers of service, compared to the three it offered in the previous season, and added extra features to its free app including in-game video highlights, mobile/connected device portability and free access to live radio broadcasts of games. GameCenter Live offers access to most live games subject to blackout restrictions. It was priced at $159 per season (or eight installments of $19.99) if purchased between Sept. 1 and Oct. 31, 2014, after which full-season subscriptions increased to $169. The app is compatible with Apple TV, Roku players, Sony PlayStation 4, Sony PlayStation Vita, Xbox 360 and most ios and Android powered tablets. Mobile options GameCenter GameCenter LIVE (1) Price Free $159.99/season Mobile/Connected Device Access Live Game Video* No Full Length Replays No Archived Video No Condensed Game Replays No In-Game Video Highlights Post-Game Video Highlights Live Radio Broadcasts Stats & Standings Ice Tracker & Play-by-Play Live Scoreboard (1) Early-bird pricing at beginning of season. New features in 2015 in bold SNL Kagan, a division of SNL Financial LC, estimates. All rights reserved. MLS Fans of MLS have been able to stream live games since 2010, when the league launched its Match Day Live mobile video app. In 2012, the app was overhauled and rebranded as MLS Live. Users can upgrade to the premium MLS Live service via an in-app purchase within the league s freemium MLS app. Wearables MLS Mobile options MLS MLS Live Price Free $74.99/season Live Game Video No Video Highlights & Clips AirPlay Support Standings Lineups Stats Breaking News Personalized Notifications HD No 5 years of archived games No 2015 SNL Kagan, a division of SNL Financial LC, estimates. All rights reserved. The MLB and NBA became the first two professional sports leagues to introduce a wearable app in 2015, launching free versions of MLB at Bat and NBA Game Time for the Apple Watch. The limited screen real estate on the watch informed a minimalist approach to the app design. Both apps offer a limited array of bite-sized information that can be easily presented and glanced at on such a small form factor. These include: live scores, player stats, pitch tracking, player cards, notifications, news and schedules. 5

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