Sports and streaming go together like peanut butter and jelly. It sounded better in my head, but while cheesy, it is true.
We've seen direct streaming work for quite a few sports over the last year with the NFL being the last to jump on.
With the NBA finals raging (go Knicks!) I wanted to see how the NBA's official app is doing in terms of streaming revenue, and the easy answer is - very well!
The NBA's official app has seen the most revenue ever during the '22 - '23 season. Our estimates show that between October and May (the first few days), the app earned a total of $21.4M of net revenue from the App Store. And that's net, meaning after giving Apple roughly $9M in fees.
The '21 - '22 season, which lasted a bit longer, brought in a total of $14.9M in net revenue from the App Store, according to our estimates. That means the NBA saw a 43% increase in revenue year over year.
And when compared to the previous season, which started extra late because of covid but also forced everyone to go digital because of covid, that number grows to 60%.
Clearly, streaming in-app is a good strategy. Which sport will be the next to make the leap?
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