, Columnist
Tech Comes Off Bench to Show Sports
Leagues love money, and tech companies have a lot of it.
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Television and sports have had a beautiful and lucrative marriage for decades. Now, when extreme stresses are pressuring the couple like never before, rich technology companies are coming to break up the fragile relationship.
TV companies around the world pay billions of dollars each year for the rights to televise popular sports. That money has been essential in the boom of many sports leagues. And the popularity of viewing sports on TV in turn made the television industry rich. Win-win. But we have reached peak anxiety about the symbiosis between TV and sports.