Sports fans are about to be served up yet another highlights- and analysis-heavy video streaming service.
Time Inc. will team up with MLB’s digital arm, the NHL, NBA and Nascar to form 120 Sports, a 24-hour sports network that will stream everything but live games to the ever- mobile-connected sports addict.
The venture joins a similar move by ESPN and the soon-to-launch NFL Now app in trying to attract eyeballs of sports fans through their smartphones and tablets.
Set to debut this spring, 120 Sports got its name from the two-minute video news clips and highlights rolls it will rely on to attract and keep fans entertained.
The 120 Sports app will be free but could, down the road, grow to include a premium pay service — as well as other sports.
While the new service is notable because it is the first effort by the leagues involved to own a streaming network designed to reach sports fans on the go, it may be constrained because it doesn’t have the NFL — the country’s No. 1 sport — in the fold.
Still, the effort by the leagues to go directly to the fans, as opposed to selling rights through a network like ESPN, shows that they are getting more aggressive.
“For all of us, ESPN is a great partner and a great entity to emulate,” Bob Bowman, president and chief executive of MLB Advanced Media, told Bloomberg News. “What’s different here is that it moves quickly,” Bowman said.
Like the NFL Now app, the 120 Sports product will not stream live games.
While that limits live action — those rights have already been sold by the leagues — the immediacy of sports news and the league-generated highlight and interview videos could keep sports fans sated until their team plays again.
“120 Sports is an innovative, addictive product that will give sports fans an amazing amount of always-on sports content and great technology so they can engage with news and highlights wherever they are,” Todd Larsen, Time Inc.’s exec VP, said in a statement.
Time Inc.’s Sports Illustrated will sell advertising for 120 Sports, and the production will be handled by Silver Chalice, a Chicago digital video production company located on the lot of Oprah Winfrey’s Harpo Studios.
For Time Inc., the venture comes as it preps to spin-off from Time Warner.
To get into prime fiscal shape, it is in the process of laying off up to 500 employees — while looking for new ventures, like 120 Sports, to fatten its top and bottom lines.