Warner Brothers adding live sports to streaming platform

Warner Brothers Discovery owns the broadcast rights to professional baseball, basketball and hockey, along with the NCAA Tournament and international competitions through EuroSport. 

Now, they're offering live games, including the playoffs, as part of a new service called "Bleacher Report Sports Add-On'. That will be available free to Max subscribers through February and then cost $9.99 per month.

The games will still be simulcast on WBD's cable networks, so for now, it's an alternative for sports fans who have given up their cable packages, AKA "cord-cutters." It's also going to give the NBA some valuable information as it prepares to negotiate its new TV deal, which would kick in after the 2024-25 season.

Knowing how many people subscribe to B/R Sports Add-On will help the NBA gauge how much demand there is for paid, streaming NBA content. That's a tempting alternative, given the NBA's recent struggles with cable broadcasters.

Diamond Sports Group has the local TV rights to 15 NBA teams, but it's in bankruptcy court, forcing the league to make contingency plans to take over local telecasts. For example, many fans of the NBA champion Denver Nuggets can't watch their team's local broadcasts at all. 

But it remains to be seen if the public is willing to pay for one yet another streaming service, even if they can access "Inside The NBA" on Max. ESPN lost subscribers for its premium ESPN+ service for the first time last quarter.

Right now, it's great that there's a streaming alternative, especially for the playoffs. But if paid streaming starts to replace instead of duplicate cable broadcasts, it could be bad news financially for fans.