The Plumber, The Gambler, and The Shopkeeper
Look at Comcast. They are the infrastructure giant with a foot stubbornly wedged in every door. Through NBCUniversal and Peacock, they own the broadcast network, but they also own the broadband pipes delivering the stream. When more households watch online, Comcast wins regardless of the platform.
But owning both the plumbing and the water is an intensely expensive business.
Then you have Fox. Years ago, they sold off their entertainment assets to Disney and bet the absolute house on live sport. It was a stark, almost prescient move. For Fox, a World Cup is not just a nice bonus. It is a matter of corporate survival. They plan to funnel massive audiences toward Tubi, their free streaming service. The potential upside is massive advertising revenue. If ratings flop, however, the financial hit to Fox could be uniquely painful.
And then there is Amazon. The dark horse that has fundamentally rewritten the rules.
Amazon does not care about broadcast ratings in the traditional sense. Prime Video buys live sporting events for one simple, cynical reason. They want to stop you from cancelling your Prime subscription. Sport is just another mechanism to keep you in their ecosystem. It is brilliant, but it also faces increasing regulatory scrutiny worldwide.
