Ahead of the 2024-25 season, there will be a new digital streaming app to watch New Jersey Devils games: the Gotham Sports App. This replaces the MSG+ app and is from a joint venture between MSG and YES. James Dolan continues his control.
Way back in January, a joint digital venture was formed between MSG Networks and YES Network. You all should be familiar with MSG. They own and air the broadcasts for the New Jersey Devils. They also air games for the New York Islanders, Buffalo Sabres (upstate, of course), the New York Knicks, and Our Hated Rivals. The latter two are also owned by Cablevision, whom also own MSG. For the unaware, YES broadcasts the New York Yankees and the Brooklyn Nets. In other words, they own and air a lot of sports around here both on television and through digital streaming. The venture was called the Gotham Advanced Media and Entertainment, appropriately called GAME.
Back then, Andrew Marchand of the New York Post reported that the venture could lead to “a direct-to-consumer streaming service.” That turned out to be correct. Earlier this week, Justin Tasch of the NY Post reported that GAME will be launching the Gotham Sports App before the 2024-25 NHL and NBA seasons. The application will stream games of all of those teams on one platform. This also means that this app will effectively replace the current apps by MSG, which is MSG+, and the app from YES. I wish it had a catchier name than Gotham Sports App (GSA) considering the venture is called GAME. It is what it is.
Per Tasch’s article, here are some key highlights about the app:
- If you are already a subscriber of MSG and YES on TV and you live in the NYC Metropolitan Area (e.g. Northern and Central NJ), then the app will not cost extra. You will probably have to log in your TV subscription, similar to what MSG+ had you do to access its app.
- If you are not a subscriber on TV, then you can subscribe to either MSG or YES through the app. This is where things get a bit costly.
- You can subscribe to both to get the Devils, Nets, Yankees and the rest. A monthly subscription will cost $41.99 per month. A yearly subscription will cost $359.99, which is a rate of $29.99 per month.
- You can subscribe to just YES, which will presumably give you access only to the Yankees and Nets. That costs $24.99 per month for a monthly subscription. Or $239.99 for a year’s subscription, which is a rate of $19.99 per month.
- You can also just subscribe to MSG for the Devils and other teams they can broadcast. The monthly subscription is $29.99 per month. The annual subscription is $279.99, which is a rate of $23.33 per month. You can also spend $9.99 for just an individual game. I am not sure if that option is available for YES or the combined subscription.
Clearly, GAME wants you to buy a year’s subscription to either or both network services. Which makes sense if you want to legally stream plenty of games. Less so if you just want a smaller ranging of the sports or just one game. The monthly subscription price for the season may be cheaper if you remember to activate it only for the NHL or NBA season. Will you remember to cancel it by the end of the season? That is up to you. GAME is betting that you likely will not. Which I understand given how companies tend to “conveniently” renew subscriptions for you (even season tickets!) and there are programs out there (example) that can end those subscriptions you forget about to save you some money.
By the way, is this an increase over what MSG+ charges last year? Compared with the MSG-only subscription, no – but only for the annual subscription. The annual subscription of MSG+ – the app now going away when GSA goes live – was $309.99 per year. What GAME is announcing is actually a reduction. However, the monthly subscription price and the individual game price from last year remains the same for this incoming app. Once again, the correct answer is not so clear. And
Also, it is clear to me that the trend in broadcasting has swung hard against “cutting the cord.” Your mileage may vary about your TV provider – MSG and Xfinity are still at odds with one another – but it may actually be cheaper now to pay for a whole TV package than to get these different services. I am old enough to remember when streaming was supposed to be a gamechanger for broadcasting. It is now basically cable TV with extra steps.
Oh, and extra costs. The sticker shock on this app, to me, is quite a lot. $10 for an individual Devils game? Really? $24 per month for a yearly subscription just for the Devils? Really? If I want the other teams, it’ll be $30 per month for a yearly subscription. I guess an extra $6 per month is worth the Yankees and Nets to some. To me? I do not know. I am focusing on the yearly subscriptions because the monthly subscriptions are priced such that you are paying more per month for a shorter commitment. I understand that is by design of GAME. I also understand that it is still ridiculous. Not that the cable companies were ever generous, but they also did not charge me $30 per month for just two channels. Scratch that – games on two channels. Already some of the People Who Matter are expecting an increase on their end and are understandably unhappy.
Unfortunately, I find myself standing athwart entertainment yelling “No” and “Too expensive” and “Come on, really” to no response. We are in an entertainment world where keeping up with the latest shows often means subscribing to multiple services for about this much per month – and possibly more than what a cable subscription would be. A world where suggesting a movie to watch means actually Googling or Binging to see which platform it is on and whether it will be there. A world where my Red Bulls season ticket has the perk of free access to the digital-only broadcasting platform, AppleTV, so I can actually watch the team away from Harrison. No, not the whole platform – just their MLS coverage. A world where there are actual movements of people urging physical media – games, movies, books, music, etc. – to be bought such that no one can just pull content away or modify it in the future. Despite all of the options and access that simply did not exist 30 or 40 years ago, the main structure remains: company owns the TV/broadcasting rights, the consumer can like it, lump it, or not get to see it legally. There is not really an alternative despite digital streaming not being a viable platform for live events until the last 15 years or so – and even 15 years ago was a stretch in terms of viability.
What about the Devils taking matters into their own hands and broadcast their own games like what the Dallas Stars are doing? I personally think it is a very interesting idea. I do not think it is a viable one for the Devils from my outsider perspective. MSG still pays the Devils quite a bit to broadcast their games. While plenty of regional sports networks are unstable, Cablevision is absolutely not one of them. James Dolan may not make good music but he has control of the market. And with this venture, he still has control for better and worse. YES has managed to get a foothold, stick around for 22 years and counting, and has multiple owners between the Yankees, Diamond Sports Group, Amazon, Blackstone Group, RedBird Capital Partners, and the Mubadala Investment Company. Even if one or two of them fall, the remainder will not suffer – not to mention that other groups would likely want a piece of the action if some ownership shares become available. Unless the Devils owners are that dead-set on wanting to own their own broadcasts and will front the costs to make that happen, I do not think it will happen anytime soon. Of course, I could be wrong. If the Stars come out very well business-wise in streaming their own games, then other teams may be more willing to at least explore the idea. Still, I would not expect the Devils, Islanders, or Sabres to follow suit anytime soon. Especially since the Devils and MSG extended their previous 20-year contract prior to last season starting, as reported by Ryan Novozinsky at NJ.com reported in April. It is not clear how much and for how long, but it is still there.
And so here we stand. MSG and YES came together to create GAME and made an app for you to watch games for a considerable cost digitally. Which is not too different than from the MSG+ app MSG had last season for this. Will you pay it? Will you subscribe knowing you could get more than just what MSG+ had? Are you already paying through other means? What even would an alternative look like? Please leave your answers and other thoughts in the comments. I apologize if I missed any common viewing situations. Thank you for reading.