Victory+, a new free streaming service launched last week, will broadcast Dallas Stars and select Anaheim Ducks games, marking a significant shift in how local sports games are delivered to fans. Jointly owned by the Stars and A Parent Media Co. Inc (APMC), Victory+ is part of a seven-year agreement to stream all regional Stars games starting with the 2024-25 season. The service will carry select Ducks games under a separate agreement, with other Ducks games airing locally on FOX 11 Plus/KCOP Channel 13.
Victory+ was officially launched in the Dallas-Fort Worth market, with the Stars’ preseason game on Sept. 21 being the first live event aired on the platform. The platform promises a streaming-only alternative for local sports broadcasts, led by Jason Walsh, a former FOX Sports Executive Producer and current Dallas Stars Vice President of Broadcasting. This move is timely, as several Regional Sports Networks (RSNs), including Bally Sports owner Diamond Sports Group, are struggling with the economic reality of cord-cutting and bankruptcy.
Victory+ will be accessible on smart TVs, tablets, and smartphones in Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, and Arkansas. Ducks games will be available in California counties and Hawaii. Fans outside these territories will have access to ancillary content provided by the teams.
Offered as a free, ad-supported streaming service, Victory+ focuses on enhancing fan engagement with a low-latency feed and high-quality ad integration, allowing for both direct and programmatic advertising. The platform utilizes APMC’s ad-tech solution, Safe Exchange, ensuring a robust ad-fill rate for advertisers targeting this highly engaged audience. This ad-supported model mirrors the current shift across sports as teams increasingly look to streaming and digital ad revenue models, especially as RSNs struggle to maintain viability.
Brad Alberts, President and CEO of the Dallas Stars, emphasized the team’s innovative approach. “We do big things here and we’re proud to pioneer this model. A lot of teams are going to be watching how we navigate this,” he noted, alluding to the risks and rewards of bypassing traditional TV broadcasters in favor of streaming-only delivery.
The Take
Victory+ represents more than just another streaming platform; it signifies a disruptive shift in how local sports are broadcast and consumed. By offering free, ad-supported access to games, the Dallas Stars and Anaheim Ducks are directly challenging the long-standing RSN model, where fans typically pay for bundled channels to access their favorite teams’ games.
Shifting the Sports Broadcast Model
Victory+ introduces a groundbreaking concept: providing local sports games without subscription fees, relying solely on advertising revenue. This bold move challenges the traditional RSN framework, which has been slowly losing its appeal due to the rise in cord-cutting and streaming services. By bypassing RSNs, teams like the Stars and Ducks take full control of content distribution, revenue generation, and audience engagement.
This strategy appeals to both diehard fans and casual viewers alike. By removing the subscription barrier, Victory+ opens up the viewing experience to a larger audience, fostering greater engagement and loyalty. Fans who have been alienated by the rising costs of cable packages and RSN subscriptions can now access their favorite teams’ games for free. As RSNs like Bally Sports enter bankruptcy and struggle with maintaining agreements, teams like the Stars and Ducks are creating new ways to engage fans without relying on traditional media channels.
The Challenge of Monetization
While the ad-supported model is promising, the challenge lies in generating enough ad revenue to replace the guaranteed payouts that RSNs once provided. To succeed, Victory+ must attract a substantial audience to appeal to advertisers. The key to its success will be balancing the ad load—delivering enough ads to be profitable without overwhelming viewers with too many interruptions.
Additionally, Victory+ must offer a smooth, high-quality viewing experience to retain users. With advanced ad-tech solutions like APMC’s Safe Exchange, the platform can tap into targeted programmatic advertising, allowing advertisers to reach a highly engaged local fanbase. With RSNs increasingly unstable, Victory+ is emblematic of the broader shift teams must make to ensure that digital ad revenue can match or exceed the lucrative agreements RSNs once provided.
The Streaming Wars recently caught up with Narendra Nag, Chief Strategy Officer of APMC, to understand how Victory+ is overcoming the challenges of live streaming and revenue generation. Here’s what he shared:
The Streaming Wars: Live streaming sports often comes with the challenge of app crashes, especially during high-traffic events. How is APMC ensuring that Victory+ delivers a stable and seamless experience for fans, even during peak viewing times?
Narendra Nag: APMC has a history of delivering video to very large audiences across our Kidoodle TV and Dude Perfect TV streaming services. This experience is serving us well as we scale Victory+. Our single-minded focus on user experience is reflected in the most significant choice we have made—offering live, major league sports for free.
The interesting technical impact of this is that we don’t have to bother with checking entitlements (whether a user has a subscription and can watch a game or not)—one of the key choke points in many streaming services that plays up when lots of people log in to start watching a stream. All we have to do is follow the league’s rules on geo-fencing.
So, besides the very real benefit to users who get to watch the sports they love for free, there is the added technical benefit of making our service simpler to scale. I don’t want to diminish the real effort our engineering teams have put in to creating massively scalable streaming infrastructure—it’s based on real world experience that’s been gained over the last decade or more.
The Streaming Wars: There’s no doubt that offering free access to sports is a model fans love, but how are you sizing up the revenue opportunity for Victory+, especially compared to traditional broadcast television?
Narendra Nag:: Broadcast television has earned money primarily by charging users a cable fee and also by selling in-game sponsorships and spots. The second has an interesting limitation—the number of spots and sponsorships is limited. With streaming, each ad is served to an individual user—allowing us to sell impressions that is limited only by the number of people watching. This essentially removes the cap on the amount of money that can be made per game.
Our ad-technology has been built from the ground up to take advantage of this and we are incredibly excited about what this means for us, and our teams, as we head into uncharted waters.
Competing with ESPN+ and Venu Sports
In a landscape dominated by subscription-based services like ESPN+ and to be launched Venu Sports, Victory+ takes a different approach by offering free access to local games. ESPN+ charges a fee for its broad sports programming, while Venu Sports bundles premium content for paying subscribers. Victory+, by contrast, gives fans a direct, cost-free way to watch their teams, relying on advertising as its sole revenue stream.
This model offers a competitive advantage, particularly for fans primarily interested in watching their local teams and who don’t want to pay for additional content. It also gives the Stars and Ducks more control over the content and advertising on their platform, unlike ESPN+ or Venu Sports, which serve as intermediaries.
The Decline of the RSN Model and Rise of Direct-to-Consumer Platforms
The success of Victory+ could mark a turning point for the RSN model, which has long dominated local sports broadcasting. As cable subscriptions decline, RSNs are losing their grip on the market, and teams are exploring new ways to reach their audience. Victory+’s direct-to-consumer model allows teams to control their content, advertising, and engagement strategy. This shift follows the moves of the Phoenix Suns and Utah Jazz, which have also broken away from RSNs, and signals the potential for a much broader move toward direct-to-consumer streaming.
Teams like the Utah Jazz and Phoenix Suns have shown that breaking away from RSNs can lead to significant viewership gains. The Jazz saw a 50% increase in viewership after partnering with local TV networks for free broadcasts, while the Suns nearly doubled their audience. Victory+ takes this further by offering an entirely digital solution, removing the need for traditional broadcast television.
Will Other Teams Follow Victory+?
Victory+ raises the question of whether other teams will follow in its footsteps and launch their own direct-to-consumer streaming services. The Phoenix Suns and Utah Jazz’s success stories have shown that making local sports more accessible can significantly increase fan engagement. Victory+’s success could inspire other teams to adopt a similar model, bypassing RSNs and controlling their own distribution and revenue streams.
However, launching an independent streaming platform is a large feat. Teams must be confident in replacing the revenue lost from RSNs with advertising dollars. Victory+ has the advantage of a solid technological infrastructure, thanks to APMC, but other teams may face challenges in building or partnering with similar platforms.
A New Era for Sports Broadcasting?
Victory+ signals a bold new direction for local sports streaming. If successful, it could pave the way for other teams and leagues to explore ad-supported, direct-to-consumer models, breaking free from the traditional RSN framework. This comes at a time when major leagues like the NBA and MLB are also reconsidering how they handle local broadcast rights. NBA Commissioner Adam Silver recently described the RSN model as ‘broken’, and the league is exploring ways to create more national and direct-to-consumer options.
As more teams embrace streaming, the future of local sports broadcasting could shift away from subscription-based models, making it easier for fans to access the games they love. Whether this marks the end of the RSN era or simply a new chapter in sports broadcasting remains to be seen, but Victory+ is certainly leading the charge into this new frontier.
