Dallas Stars Partners Should Seize Chance to Make History

It’s quite possible that the first week of July 2024 will someday be viewed as a watershed moment in sports media and marketing.

Monday’s announcement that the Dallas Stars would become the first major U.S. pro sports team to offer coverage of its live regional games through a free, direct-to-consumer streaming service beginning this season could mark the start of a passage from linear television broadcasts to digital distribution of live content for top-tier professional sports organizations.

Many dominos will have to continue to fall for that to happen, perhaps most importantly the willingness of marketers to support FAST platforms with their advertising and sponsorship dollars.

For decades, sports properties and their media partners have operated with the assurance that brands would show up with their checkbooks in tow in order to reach their legions of fans. Likewise, those fans could be confident that they would not have to pay any more to watch their favorite teams’ games than they already did for their cable provider or favorite streamer.

In launching the Victory+ Sports Network with partner A Parent Media Co.—the company responsible for Dude Perfect’s streaming channel and the kids’ content platform Kidoodle.TV—the Stars are banking on the ad-supported model continuing to function in a new OTT world.

There is no denying the move carries risk for the NHL team, which previously could rely on a media rights payment estimated by the Fort Worth Star-Telegram at $25 million a year from it last rights holder, regional sports network Bally Sports Southwest—whose parent company Diamond Sports Group’s bankruptcy led to the mutual termination of their agreement last week. APMC is providing the Stars a minimum revenue guarantee, however it is no doubt far less than Bally’s payment.

But if brand marketers can overcome their fear of uncharted territory and be willing to seek solutions that go beyond 30-second spots and billboards, the brave new world of digital content delivery need not be a scary place for them or their sports property partners.

First and foremost, with rights now in the hands of the club and its JV partner, the opportunity exists for truly integrated sponsorship/media packages that provide brands with the bundled experiential and advertising benefits that previously would have been difficult or impossible to cobble together with multiple parties controlling different assets.

It will take a commitment on the part of both sponsors and the APMC/Stars sales teams to put in the work necessary to ideate, negotiate and execute fully integrated partnerships, but the payout should come in the form of higher rights fees for the property and the elevated prospect of earning real return on investment across multiple objectives for brands.

Nothing will happen automatically. Although the decision to not charge for Victory+ should help allay fears of a drastically smaller audience on streaming versus linear television, brands will only embrace the new opportunity if, as Stars president and CEO Brad Alberts said to The Dallas Morning News, fans in the team’s regional territory of Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana and Arkansas “download the app and use it. We need a lot of people to download the app, and we need a lot of people to watch.”

And that will only happen if APMC delivers on its promise to provide high-quality streams without service interruptions alongside compelling content outside of live games when Victory+ becomes available for download on smart TVs, tablets and smart phones in September.

APMC president & CEO Neil Gruninger told Sports Business Journal the company is “having conversations with several teams in the NHL and beyond” regarding the Victory+ model. With those and other rights holders outside of stick-and-ball sports either contemplating or already entering the fray, the Stars and APMC are under a microscope, as what they are able to accomplish in their first year together could be critical to the future of FAST solutions in sports.