Yankees, Knicks owners form sports streaming tech alliance

The people who own New York City's biggest sports brands have come together to build a new streaming platform in the region.

The YES Network (the cable home of the New York Yankees) and MSG Networks (which broadcast the Knicks and all three NHL franchises in the metropolitan area) are coming together to launch Gotham Advanced Media and Entertainment (GAME). The new platform plans to sell digital content to third-party services and aims to use its technology in the same manner that Major League Baseball's formerly best-in-class tech had been used throughout the media world. Disney purchased MLB's tech several years ago, leading to the launch of Disney+.

Andrew Marchand of the New York Post believes that this partnership could be the start of a unified streaming service for all sports teams under the YES and MSG footprint, which is a lengthy list of franchises with the exception of the New York Mets, which has its own channel, and the NFL teams.

"If all the New York teams, outside of the Mets with SNY, were in one place for the majority of their games, it could be easier for consumers who like multiple teams," Marchand writes. "From the companies’ point of view, they would likely benefit from consumers keeping the product all year round as opposed to a Yankees fan paying for YES from April through September or a Knicks fan doing the same from October until April." 

Although the decline of regional sports networks has upended media markets across the United States, one of the few areas that appear untouched is the New York City region. YES launched in 2002 but was immediately caught up in a prolonged carriage battle with Cablevision – the former parent company of MSG and its associated teams – that actually kept many Yankee fans within the city from watching games. YES also has rights to the Brooklyn Nets, New York Liberty and New York City FC. 

MSG, a former TV home for the Yanks, has been the network for the Knicks and Rangers for decades. It has longterm deals with the New York Islanders, New Jersey Devils and the Buffalo Sabres (the latter as a result of MSG's former corporate parent buying the assets of a Buffalo area cable network).

Both networks offer direct-to-consumer services but for fairly high prices. YES's service runs at $24.99 per month while MSG+ can run close to $300 for the season – twice the amount of the premium version of the out-of-market NBA League Pass. However, traditional cable subscribers can access either platform for free through authentication. What makes MSG+, in particular, stand out is the ability to stream live games outside of the market – ideally, someone who is traveling to California can still watch the Rangers' broadcast on MSG on any device.