Report in the SMH suggested one Foxtel customer is worth as much as 5 Kayo subscribers. So if people switch to streaming wholesale, at the price they will be willing to pay for streaming, something has to give. Either sports accept a lot less money, or the cost of streaming is going to have to rise.The issue is the Netflix model is still very different to the sports model. As it stands most sports streaming services have get there content from local broadcasters. Very few if any are producing there own content. Even Netflix have had to up prices to cover costs of there own produced shows.
It's only early in the streaming era and platforms have had to offer cheap services to move people away from cable tv. The question is how long is this sustainable for them. Content cost money no matter who delivers the product. Everyone believes streaming will be substantially cheaper than the cable model but reality suggests it may not be long term.
This will be markedly compounded if the sports market fragments on streaming services, which is almost certain. Kayo is attractive because it has lots of sports, but if it starts to lose them to different competitors? How many subscriptions is the average person willing to pay for?
Pirating was on the decrease, but is now rising again, for this very reason. There is so much good content locked up with exclusive deals. Most people are not going to pay for 4 or 5 subscriptions, if there are only 1 or 2 shows per subscription they are really interested in.