Three converging tracks lead to the next phase of sports broadcasting

What’s 2022 looking like, in the world of sports broadcasting? With life going back to what we remember just before the dawn of 2020, sporting events are running at full speed, catching up with technological advancements and the innovations that saw the light of the day over the past few years.

We attended SportsPro OTT USA and SPORTEL Rendez-vous earlier this month, and took the pulse of the sports industry in the American region and beyond. We scanned our notebooks and rounded up three key takeaways from the conversations we listened to between New York and Miami. Sports entities of all sorts are building a future that might move towards converging tracks: owning the relationship with the fan base, leveraging invaluable content banks, monetising through more interactive approaches.

Sports federations going D2C, the conversation continues

Fact: the media rights market is becoming more and more polarised. Outside of the sports top tier – think big organisations such as the NFL or the NBA – most sports entities have had a thought (or two) about the possibility of going direct-to-consumer. The widespread appetite is to control more closely a key revenue stream such as media rights. Being able to build a bespoke route to market in every single territory across the globe, especially where no broadcast deal is in place, is becoming paramount. How can this be achieved? Sports entities – in this case, the actual content-makers – don’t appear inclined towards completely outsourcing the workflow. In fact, they want to own and operate their distribution platforms, leveraging software and tools that let them run in a ‘self-service’ mode.

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FAST channels

Free ad-supported TV (FAST) channels are the hot topic in the broadcast space today. Are they relevant to the sports space too? Although still niche, a few organisations in the sports landscape are launching their own FAST services. An example can be found in esports’ property – BLAST. On the back of substantial investment on the production and content side, FAST channels are seen as an easier way to generate more revenue (if compared to standard OTT), by integrating with platforms that already have a wide viewership. No high cost-per-acquisition barriers, no need for specific marketing know-how, the model is something like ‘you bring the content, I invite the audience, and we share the revenue’. The expectation is to see sports federations and peers moving… fast on this front.

Monetisation? Yes please, better if through interactivity

We have already spoken about interactivity as a key element in the sports landscape of the future on a couple of occasions, towards the end of last year. This is still a hot topic, and it’s one of the loudest you can hear in the industry nowadays, especially when it comes to fan tokens, and opportunities to leverage the betting side of sport. Streaming and OTT platforms are increasingly offering add-ons on top of their live events, including polling, live chat, and instant betting integrations as a way of getting fans to engage more with the content. Clearly, this paves the way to enhanced sponsorship and monetisation opportunities, with the added value of a deeper connection with the end-user, and the collection of additional, granular consumer data. Think of what this can mean in terms of more targeted marketing messaging when organisations look to maximise the sale of their event tickets, merchandise, or NFTs, now we know they are here to stay!