https://www.yahoo.com/sports/fourth-quar...05065.html

Suggests that the pandemic may be the dividing line between the cable era (i.e., the third quarter) and the streaming era (the fourth quarter).

This article addresses the road that got us here, including a brief history of sports broadcasting and discussion of the emergence of streaming media. A second article will address the more interesting question of what a streaming media world is likely to look like for sports rights.

Quote:The Fourth Quarter of Sports Media: Falling Bundles, Rising Streams

The advent of electronic sports media’s “first quarter” started a century ago, first as radio game recreations from press reports in 1920, and then as live on-site play-by-play (boxing and Pirates-Phillies baseball) in 1921 on KDKA in Pittsburgh. In the second quarter, broadcast TV ascended, with live sports becoming national weekend daytime and local primetime TV staples in the 1960s and ’70s. The third quarter came via cable TV, adding huge programming volume and bringing to fruition in 1979 the previously unthinkable notion of a 24/7 sports network: ESPN.

Today, as platforms like Netflix, Disney+ and Amazon lead entertainment, and now have higher penetration of broadband than pay TV, we are entering the sports media’s “fourth quarter” and its impending inclusion into the new mainstream—emphasis on stream.