Almost two dozen New York Yankees games for the 2025 season will air exclusively on Amazon Prime.
It did not take long for Amazon to pounce on the opportunity to announce the partnership, which came just days after MLB and ESPN announced a mutual split between the two brands at the end of the season.
While the majority of Amazon Prime viewers will also need a subscription to MLB TV to see the 21 games, all games will be available to those in what is considered the Yankees' home market. This includes New York State, Connecticut, North and Central New Jersey, and Northeast Pennsylvania, according to Amazon.
Amazon Prime has continued to collect more and more broadcasting rights to live sports, including pulling in Bally Sports NBA broadcasts and streams of NHL games. The deal from 2024 signals a continuing trend toward live sports on streaming apps, as audiences have seen with Netflix successfully airing the NFL on Christmas during the past few seasons.
MLB and ESPN had announced their intention to part ways just days earlier, as the two companies opted out of their contract that was slated to run through the 2028 season.
As reported by Investopedia, ESPN wanted to lower the fees for broadcasting rights from the $550 million it had been paying on average.
League officials were allegedly displeased with the amount of coverage, or lack thereof, given to MLB across ESPN's talk shows. The league subsequently called ESPN's request for lower fees "simply unacceptable."
ESPN claimed it was simply following through on its fiduciary duties by exercising "discipline and fiscal responsibility" through the decision.
ESPN also reportedly is set to end its broadcast deal with Formula 1 racing, which has cost the network approximately $90 million per year.
The Disney-owned sports network has been in the news for its poor numbers in NBA viewership this season, dropping an apparent 18% year over year toward the end of 2024. However, ratings bumped back up by another 5% after a successful Christmas season, according to Front Office Sports.
The NHL's 4 Nations Face-Off in February also brought in record viewership, outpacing any non-Stanley Cup finals hockey game in the last five years. The game saw a whopping 4.4 million viewers on average, with a peak of 5.2 million viewers.
A 2019 playoff game between the Columbus Blue Jackets and the Boston Bruins on NBC averaged 4.5 million viewers.
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The Kamala Harris campaign announced its own map on the popular shooter game Fortnite just a week before the election as part of a bid to reach gamers. The map was met with very few initial users.
"Freedom Town, USA" sports some of the Harris campaign promises and presents itself in the exact way an out-of-touch politician would attempt to reach young audiences.
In a promo video, "Fight for freedom" appears in large text as generic rock-rap music begins to play. On the map's backdrop, fictional retail outlets like "Kamala's Kicks" fill the streets.
The imagery also showcases signs in rainbow colors that display generic messages like "Promise of America" and "Freedom."
"Kamala Harris and Tim Walz's campaign have released their very own Fortnite map in a bid to court the most oppressed demographic: 12-year-old gamers who play Fortnite," writer Ian Miles Cheong wrote on X.
"Freedom Town, USA is a custom creative map themed around some of Harris' campaign, including tax breaks for small businesses and affordable housing."
Cheong also revealed that audio cues in the new map included clips from Donald Trump. For example, when you pick up a cat, Trump says, "They're eating the dogs, they're eating the cats," plays.
"You have to wonder who they're even campaigning for," Cheong added.
The map, which was officially released on October 28, so far has not been a hit. It carried an impressively low all-time peak of 261 concurrent users and is ranked No. 435 as a map. At the time of this publication, there were 1.7 million people playing Fortnite.
Other pushes from the Harris campaign into the gaming world have included a Geeks & Nerds for Harris fundraiser.
Embarrassingly broken up into the categories "Earth heroes" and "space explorers," the organizers describe themselves as a "diverse group of fandoms and artists teaming up to support Kamala Harris."
'Those guys drew up a playbook and it's project 2025.'
Additionally, vice presidential candidate and Governor Tim Walz was joined in a video game streaming session by Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. The pair played the football game Madden 25 and the driving game Crazy Taxi.
During their stream, Walz attacked Trump for wanting an administration that tells citizens "what books to read" while connecting him to Project 2025.
"I think a lot of folks on here are kind of independent folks, independent thinkers about things," Walz stated. "Why would you want the government telling you what books to read, or what doctor to see, or what how big your family can be?"
"It's that kind of stuff [that] is ridiculous and so I think, you talk about football planning, it's the same way; if you're going to drop a playbook in football you're going to use it. Those guys drew up a playbook and it's project 2025."
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Disney's streaming platforms have finally posted a net profit after a long-term struggle saw the company lose billions.
In a Q3 earnings call, the company announced profits from streaming a full quarter ahead of expectations. The third quarter direct-to-consumer income totaled $47 million, according to Disney, which is quite the turnaround from a $512 million loss in the previous year.
The profit appeared to come solely off the back of ESPN+ after Disney+ and Hulu were packaged with the sports network.
Disney+ and Hulu reportedly incurred a combined loss of $19 million, according to Bounding into Comics, meaning if the profit margin came from ESPN+ alone that would mean the sports network brought in $66 million. However, the breakdown of the figures is unclear at the time of this publication.
'We are confident in our ability to continue driving earnings growth through our collection of unique and powerful assets.'
As Blaze News reported in May, Disney CEO Bob Iger had previously blamed the streaming services for a $4 billion loss:
"As we got into the streaming business in a very, very aggressive way, we tried to tell too many stories. Basically we invested too much, way ahead of possible returns. It's what led to streaming ending up as a $4 billion loss," Iger said in a webcasted conference.
The company did have the stated goal however of bundling Hulu and ESPN+ with Disney+ to increase overall engagement, and that calculated gamble appears to have worked out.
At the same time, the Walt Disney company announced in a press release that prices for its streaming packages, both ad-free and ad-supported, will increase by $1 to $2 per month.
Disney+ basic and premium plans will go from $7.99 and $13.99 per month, respectively, to $9.99 and $15.99
The ad-free and ad-included Hulu plans will go up to $18.99 and $9.99 per month, while ESPN+ goes up to $11.99 per month with ads.
Some bundle plans, such as the Duo Basic plan, are also set to increase prices.
Subscribers who pay more are set to receive "ABC News Live" and a "preschool content" playlist, with the promise of four additional curated playlists in fall 2024, according to the Dallas Express.
Iger has promised viewers that the Disney creative departments were going to "reconnect" to the monetization side of the company to ensure "quality is not lost," but price increases likely aren't what fans were hoping for out of that promise.
"This was a strong quarter for Disney, driven by excellent results in our entertainment segment, both at the box office and [direct-to-consumer], as we achieved profitability across our combined streaming for the first time, and ahead of our previous guidance," Iger said. "We are confident in our ability to continue driving earnings growth through our collection of unique and powerful assets."
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Only from the ashes of such a magnificent and glorious failure can Hollywood return to its glory days.
Unlike most other sports leagues, which have sliced and diced their licensing rights to maximize revenue, IndyCar has done the opposite.
The NFL sold out to streaming. Now loyal league fans are literally paying the price.
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