So what exactly defines ‘linear’ in terms of sports broadcasting? Anything available OTA or that is commonly included in most Live TV streaming services, cable pkgs, or satellite services? I thought it referred strictly to FOX, NBC, CBS, ABC.
Linear is anything that offers
programming at set times vs. on-demand. So linear includes NBC, ABC, CBS, FOX, USA, ESPN, ESPN2, U, TNT/TBS, CW, etc., etc.
OTA are stations available
Over
The
Air and can be accessed using rabbit ears antennae. So OTA would be ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX, WB, Local .2/.3, public access, etc.
On Demand would be Netflix, Prime, ESPN+, Hulu+: mainly subscription platforms
I have always thought the main difference was capacity. ESPN only 3 linear channels (ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU) on most cable, satellite, streaming platforms. So it can only show 3 games at once. Whereas on their ESPN+ platform, they can essentially show unlimited games on once.