Sports debate: Are streaming fans stealing rights? – CNBC

Abe Madkour, executive editor of Sports Business Journal, predicted a 12- to 16-month time frame “before we start seeing changes on what’s protected and what’s blocked.”

“The people who own the intellectual property, the rights holders, will take a more active stance to protect their property,” he said.

Last month, Major League Baseball’s president of business and media, told CNBC last month that the league will not ban fans from using live-streaming apps at stadiums.

Cris Collinsworth, a NBC broadcaster and former player, on Wednesday said he wondered when the rights bubble would burst. “I keep thinking we are going to reach a saturation point, and people are going to say enough football,” he said, “but we’re not even close to that. Everyone is begging for the next rights to the games.”

Read MoreNo, MLB won’t ban Periscope, Meerkat, says executive

WNBA star player Swin Cash took a different approach, saying that fans were going to use the apps anyway. The leagues and owners need to figure out how to make it all work, she said.

“It’s a very slippery slope, if you look at where social media is at now—I just got married and you can tell people not to stream things, but it’s really like people are addicted…they have to get whatever happens in the moment and they want you to see it. So for the leagues that do it right, they should be able to capitalize on it.”

Mark Herzlich, a current linebacker for the New York Giants, said he doesn’t see the live streaming apps as a threat.

“It’s a free market, and it will work itself out in the way it does,” he said. “The more people who are able to access the content of the sports—as an athlete, in my opinion—the better.”