CHAPTER SEVENTEEN:

FIRST STREAMING SPORTING EVENT

You can now watch soccer at virtually any time, on any device streamed from any location in the world. Yet, before the advent of streaming technology and the first sports streaming event in 1995, that wasn’t possible. Linear broadcast networks and a growing, but still limited, number of cable sports television stations determined if and what soccer you could watch in America. But that all started to change in the mid 90’s, opening the global world of soccer to American fans and changing the way the game was consumed in the United States (and around the world).

ESPN soccer commentator Luis Miguel Echegaray, who has also taught classes on engagement media, joined Founding Futbol to discuss the impact of streaming media on the growth of soccer in America. He talks about how giving fans access to different flavors of the game on different platforms has a magnifying impact.