Single-game purchases intriguing for new MSG+ streaming service

No one knows exactly where live local sports programming is headed — or exactly when it will get there.

But regional sports networks around the nation continue to prepare for a new reality, following fans wherever they are to be found.

The latest step is direct-to-consumer offerings that allow viewers to access games without being part of a traditional programming bundle.

The YES Network, which carries the Yankees, Nets and Liberty, took that leap this spring, but the first area channel to announce a direct-to-consumer plan was MSG Networks, in early March.

Now it is time for MSG, and everyone else, to find out how much demand there is for its product, with the hockey and basketball seasons starting this month.

MSG’s plan includes a ground-breaking wrinkle: single-game purchases that do not require a monthly or annual subscription.

“I think it's all super-interesting,” said Kevin Marotta, MSG’s senior vice president of marketing and content. He said the single-game deal is particularly intriguing.

“We're really excited and interested to see how that resonates with the fan base,” he said. “Testing things in surveys can only get you so far, but seeing it in real life, we're excited to see the adoption. We're excited to see it in-market.”

MSG’s pricing is similar to other outlets with live streaming. YES charges $24.99 per month. MSG costs $29.99 per month, $309.99 per year or $9.99 per game, accessed through its MSG+ app.

Subscribers to a traditional bundle that includes MSG Networks can watch the streaming product on MSG+ for no additional charge.

Pricing these things is complicated, because making streaming too inexpensive risks undercutting regional sports networks’ partners in the traditional distribution system, where most of the revenue still comes from.

ESPN is expected to offer a national direct-to-consumer option within the next few years, which will be a huge step in the evolution away from cable bundles. But for now, local channels are leading the way.

The goal is to “meet [fans] where they are,” as Marotta put it, including people who have cut their cable cord and those (particularly young people) who never have had one and never will.

With the Knicks, Rangers, Islanders and Devils in the fold locally, Marotta called MSG’s offering “a good value proposition.”

As for those single games, they figure to attract fans who live in the New York area but follow a visiting team and might want to see a particular game.

Or perhaps they will draw casual fans having friends over for a special occasion.

Marotta noted that MSG’s single-game price is less than other live streaming options, from sports such as mixed martial arts to recently released films.

“It's hitting a different part of their mindset and wallet than a subscription to us,” he said. “So we want it to be tapping into that consumer who is a little bit less about making that long-term commitment and a little bit more about those impulse purchases and impulse buys.”

But MSG hopes the single games serve as a sample of its product that leads to monthly and/or annual commitments.

“We want to make sure we get them in the door but then show them the value for the overall offering,” Marotta said.

In a news release, Andrea Greenberg, MSG Networks president, called “MSG+ a game-changer for fans who do not subscribe to a traditional, bundled pay television subscription and a win for our subscribers of participating traditional distribution partners who will have free access to this robust streaming service.”

One byproduct of eliminating the cable middleman is a more direct relationship between sports networks and their customers.

“We've been disintermediated from our consumers through our affiliate partners throughout, basically, our existence,” Marotta said.

“Building a direct-to-consumer relationship meant that we needed to be smarter. We needed to build a smarter back end to give our consumers more personalized communications and alerts and emails and also inform the products by feedback in the form of consumption data and how people are using the app.

“We needed to really sort of rethink the way we built it in order to have that level of understanding of our consumers.”

The YES Network has not released its subscription data for 2023, so it is difficult to predict how popular MSG’s livestreamed games will be.

Some of this is experimental, some about preparing for the future. But Marotta said it mostly is just another way to reach consumers in the present.

“I think it's more about serving the fans who aren't currently in the existing ecosystem,” he said. “There are byproducts of that which allow us to be more prepared and to have more of a direct relationship with our consumers.

“But we still see a lot of value in the existing ecosystem and the way people subscribe to a bundled offering. So we're not by any means trying to move past that.”

By Neil Best

neil.best@newsday.com@sportswatch

Neil Best first worked at Newsday in 1982, returned in 1985 after a detour to Alaska and has been here since, specializing in high schools, college basketball, the NFL and most recently sports media and business.