Bally Sports+ Offers Cord-Cutters 1080p Live Game Streams, First-Time In-Market Access
COO/GM Michael Schneider: ‘I think we have an opportunity here to bring something to fans that they’ve never had before’
Story Highlights
Almost anyone who works in streaming media will tell you that the old mantra is true: no news is good news.
That’s how things have felt so far this fall for Michael Schneider, chief operating officer and general manager of new regional-sports-network streaming service Bally Sports+. The service, which went wide to all 19 Bally Sports markets on Sept. 26, is up and running with both the NBA and the NHL seasons fully under way, and his team has been “pretty pleased” with how the product has performed.
Bally Sports+ grants cord-cutters access to in-market live games across Bally Sports’ 19 markets. Features include dynamic graphic overlays that feed many more stats. (Image: Bally Sports)
“It was the quietest launch I’ve ever been a part of, which is usually a good sign,” says Schneider. “I’ve been a part of launches where things just get completely lit on fire. The fact that it was out there and it worked well is great. On the support side and on the product-stability side, we’re in a pretty good place. That is a huge testament to the team that has been working tirelessly on this.”
That team is led by Schneider, in addition to Chief Product Officer Michael Allen, former SVP, digital products and emerging technology, NBA and a key Bally Sports hire in early 2021. Other key contributors include VP, Engineering, Matt Pawluk; VP/Head of Product Timon Chiang; and DTC lead, Bally Sports+, Vidya Dabir.
Bally Sports+ is an important product for the RSN industry: its release marks a notable shift for much of the country, offering a direct-to-consumer streaming product that allows in-market fans to subscribe directly to their local Bally Sports RSN without a third-party live-TV provider, such as cable, satellite, or streaming-TV service (YouTube TV, fuboTV, etc.). Fans in those markets can stream their local NBA and NHL games, a first for cord-cutters. At $19.99 per month, the service isn’t cheap, but it does offer a new way to access local games.
“I think we have an opportunity here to bring something to fans that they’ve never had before and to build something that really fits their individual needs and preferences,” says Schneider.
Via the Bally Sports+ app, fans can access on-demand videos, Bally Sports and Stadium original programming, and the live-streamed games. Within the game stream, dynamic graphic overlays can be easily accessed with a tap or a swipe, putting more info in the user’s hands. The game streams are 1080p, and, according to a Bally Sports rep, HDR is in the product’s future.
As for the feedback that comes with live streaming, any issues of buffering, outages, or poor image/audio quality inevitably draw the ire of users on platforms like Twitter. The entire industry faces it. Some might even abide by the philosophy of “don’t read the comments” to escape the ruthlessness of the complaints. Schneider doesn’t operate that way. In fact, he seeks out feedback both positive and negative to help shape the present and future of the Bally Sports+ app.
“It’s important to stay close to places like Reddit, Discord, and across a lot of the social channels to understand what fans are feeling and what they’re going through,” he explains. “I think the better we get at understanding that, the more-effective products we can build. The way fans watch sports and experience sports has changed, and the most complex thing about our business is that every market is different. I think it’s important, especially as we staff up, that we stay close to what fans are going through, what they’re feeling, and how they want to interact with the product.
“If you build a product without [the user] in mind,” he continues, “then I don’t know what you’re building.”
Bally Sports’ Michael Schneider: “If you build a product without [the user] in mind, then I don’t know what you’re building.”
“The soft launch, for us, was about getting the product out there and getting customer support up and running,” he says. “It was a nice trial run for three, four months. In terms of what we learned, I think it was the product improvements made from the soft launch through the end of September that were really big. We looked at buffering and quality, and we’re pleased about that. Customer support was responding to things quickly. Given all those operational pieces, I think we were pretty pleased with how that went.”
Now that the product is serving all Bally Sports’ regions, Schneider says it has been exciting seeing greater usership drive improvements and generate new ideas within the development team.
“Now we’re out there, and it’s exciting to have data actually flowing in from all these different markets,” he says. “We’ve seen some good and interesting things in some markets around preseason games and even high school sports that have driven awareness and ultimate engagement for us. I think it’s only going to get better as NHL and NBA get under way. We’ll see even more activity then, but so far so good. We’re pleased with where everything’s at.”
The app is built by parent Bally Sports, and there’s an operations center that constantly monitors the quality of the streams and the product itself. Even so, Schneider says, promotion and support of the app is an all-hands-on-deck effort because the individual RSNs understand their territory and fanbase better than anyone. Promotion of the app happens from the individual social accounts on platforms like Twitter and Facebook.
Bally Sports+ is available on Roku, Amazon Fire, Android TV, Apple TV, Xbox, mobile and tablet devices through iOS/Android, and at BallySports.com.
