
A changing landscape: Rights owners and broadcasters debate sports TV issues and innovation By David Fox
Monday, February 17, 2020 - 17:07
Print This Story
Sports broadcasting is going through a period of intense change and innovation with the rise of streaming services, new technologies and new business models, giving rise to an interesting debate in London last week (11 February 2020) at the Westminster Media Forum policy conference.
Innovation can be risky, and Premier League executive director William Bush recommends taking it slowly, especially in a sport with such vociferous fans as football, who, as the introduction of VAR has shown can get quite upset with changes. Besides, however much AI gets exciting, we are not going to break away from the viscerality, humanity and physicality of the real thing, he said.
Another reason for innovating with care is we are truly a global competition, and you don't want to alienate any markets. However, the Premier League does have a massive wrap-around of digital, which is where most key innovation is happening, and this has made a difference in increasing popularity in some overseas markets.
L/R: William Bush, Baroness Taylor of Bolton (panel chair), Rufus Hack, Jamie Hindhaugh and John Gleasure
The current business model for sports broadcasting has worked very well for both rights holders, who have got more money year on year , and broadcasters who gained high average revenue per user and low churn , while fans have got a much better product year on year, according to Rufus Hack, chief content officer, PGA European Tour and Ryder Cup.
However, as we move from a purely pay TV environment, the business is changing. In the US, pay TV has seen 16 successive quarter-on-quarter declines in subscriber numbers. Other regions are similarly soft, while in the UK, PGA's partner, Sky Sports, is promoting its OTT platform (Now TV) to stay relevant. This leads to a state of flux that is tough to manage for rights holders, because we are effectively going after different audiences, said Hack. The over-55s still prefer linear TV, but the under-25s view very little pay TV. They only want to pay for the content they are consuming. They don't want to pay this big subscription.
Jamie Hindhaugh, chief operating officer, BT Sport, believes that content exclusivity is key, regardless of the platform you are on. It shares the Premier League with Sky and Amazon, but has the Champion's League exclusively. Owning it all is fantastic, but you still want people to engage with the product, which is why BT Sport put the Champion's League Final free on YouTube to drive awareness and engagement and showcase what we can do as a brand.
Working with YouTube is one example of the types of partnership enters into, which now includes rivals like Sky and Amazon - in fact, BT Sport (with Sunset+Vine) delivered the Prime Premier League coverage at Christmas. We were really pleased with how it all went. Indeed, the first night I was worried it was too successful .
BT Sport has also done the Scottish Cup for Premier Sport, and sold the Amazon matches in to pubs and clubs. I want my people working on the best events that are out there. How do we enable that? By working with partners, said Hindhaugh.
Going OTT: Big challenges ahead for rights holders
The PGA's 60 broadcast partners are its main income stream, and it hopes to retain that value. But, it realises that in future it needs to work harder, and be more sophisticated and nuanced to create revenue from clips, social media and even free-to-air.
Some rights holders are trying to insulate themselves by moving into OTT themselves, but it is very hard to make the economics work for a rights holder, particularly one in a niche sport like golf, where you are sub-scale, because the costs of running and doing a production is high and the cost of recruiting customers is high, said Hack.
Hindhaugh doesn't see OTT as a separate medium. The new OTT providers are just broadcasters delivering over a different pipe. He sees it as a fantastic opportunity, and something BT has been doing for five years, while Sky has had Now TV for eight years.
It's just another mechanism that allows you reach a wider audience. However, what excites him most about IP delivery is that it allows you move away from the one-to-many to one-to-one, as it is now beginning to really enable personalisation, and to play with formats and innovate around what we do.
BT Sport COO Jamie Hindhaugh speaking at the Westminster Media Forum policy conference
Indeed, OTT was how BT Sport launched its UHD channel five years ago, and allowed it to introduce object-based broadcasting in 2017 with the world's first Dolby Atmos sports coverage. While 360 may detract from the shared viewing experience most sports fans want, it also enables a high degree of personalisation, allowing viewers replay action from any viewpoint.
Picture quality in sport is really important, he added. If you are not at the live event, you want to feel as if you are, and this drives innovation at BT Sport, such as its Ultimate service (UHD, Dolby Atmos, HDR, HD and SD - and 8K when it comes), which selects the best quality for whatever platform it is viewed on, and places the emphasis back on the content rather than the format.
Hindhaugh predicts that object-based broadcasting will be the next key innovation, allowing users to see exactly the graphics they want, suited to their level of knowledge and interest in the event. You can choose the commentary level you want, you can choose the camera angles you want within that live feed.
DAZN is the fastest growing sports media company in the world, and was created in 2016 because we saw the way people were watching sport was changing and spotted the gap in the marke
Most recent headlines
14/03/2025
BURLINGTON, Mass. Avid has expanded its executive leadership team (ELT) with the appointment of three experienced executives: Tom Sharma as chief technology off...
14/03/2025
CUPERTINO, Calif. TVU Networks, a pioneer in live video production and a leader in cloud-based media solutions, is marking its 20th anniversary at the 2025 NAB ...
13/03/2025
(L-R) Stephanie Suganami, Tatanka Means, John Malkovich, Ayo Edebiri, and Juliette Lewis attend the premiere of Opus at Eccles Theatre in Park City. (Photo by...
13/03/2025
Spotify took center stage at the London Book Fair this week, reaffirming our commitment to the audiobook market and showcasing our impact on the publishing indu...
13/03/2025
At Spotify, we work every day to lift up new voices, giving creators the opportunity to live off their art. Through Spotify Audiobooks, our in-house publishing ...
13/03/2025
Every time airborne law enforcement (ALE) teams fly, they expect their equipment to perform. Whether airborne units are conducting support for ground teams, bor...
13/03/2025
Sunday February 9 saw the annual return of the US' biggest television event, the Super Bowl LIX. Jamie McCombs, Fox Sports Audio Consultant / Sr. Audio capt...
13/03/2025
On Sunday March 2, stars across the film industry gathered at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles for the 97th Academy Awards. Production Sound Mixer Paul Sandweis...
13/03/2025
WUPPERTAL, Germany Riedel Communications will feature its new StageLink family of smart edge devices, Smart Audio and Mixing Engine (SAME) and Virtual Smart Pan...
13/03/2025
TAG Video Systems and Harmonic Partner to Deliver Enhanced Real-Time Monitoring ...
13/03/2025
DigitalGlue Invites NAB Visitors to Experience New Features in Managed Storage P...
13/03/2025
FOR-A America Theme - Connecting the Present, Building the Future - Comes to Lif...
13/03/2025
CTIA, the wireless industry association, has named former FCC Chairman Aji Pai as its President and Chief Executive Officer, effective April 1. He replaces Mere...
13/03/2025
he National Association of Broadcasters is urging the FCC to end its investigation of that controversial CBS interview with Kamala Harris stating there is no ...
13/03/2025
MIAMI CBS News & Stations continues to expand its use of augmented and virtual reality technologies with the planned launch of an augmented reality/virtual real...
13/03/2025
Srividhya Srinivasan, co-founder and chief customer success & innovation Officer at Amagi, tells TVBEurope how staying ahead of the latest trends is essential f...
13/03/2025
WASHINGTON FCC Chairman Brendan Carr announced that the agency has launched a massive, new deregulatory initiative that could potentially subject virtually all ...
13/03/2025
SUNNYVALE, Calif. SDVI has announced that it has integrated its Rally media supply chain management platform with the Spectra Vail multi-cloud data management s...
13/03/2025
ATLANTA Gray Media has announced that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has granted a waiver of its local ownership rules to permit Gray Media to acqu...
13/03/2025
TV Tech: What do you anticipate will be the most significant technology trends at the 2025 NAB Show?...
13/03/2025
Watch Student Naomi Soleils Folk Pop Performance on The Voice The songwriting major sang Stars by Grace Potter and the Nocturnals during the blind auditions.
...
13/03/2025
Roku Debuts NWSL Zone' Within Roku Sports to Spotlight Live Games, Content Feature marks Rokus first women's league-branded zone within service By Bra...
13/03/2025
Pixels, Images, Video, AI - and Us: A Perspective on AI from NDI Inventor Andrew...
13/03/2025
SVG New Sponsor Spotlight: Lighting Design Group's Steve Brill, Dennis Size ...
13/03/2025
IOC, Comcast NBCU Ink $3B Media-Rights Extension for Olympic Games Through 2036;...
13/03/2025
NCAA March Madness Live Returns with Expanded Availability of MultiView Vertical...
13/03/2025
SVG Sit-Down: Cosm's Devin Poolman on What It Takes To Deliver the Immersive...
13/03/2025
Sky Business, Sky's B2B division, providing connectivity and content to busi...
13/03/2025
Rohde & Schwarz launches R&S NRP140TWG(N) thermal power sensor: A new benchmark ...
13/03/2025
We asked the questions, analysed the answers and now we're excited to share the results of the fifth edition of the ICG Marketing Survey.
Our 2025 survey p...
13/03/2025
SAN JOSE, Calif. - March 13, 2025 Harmonic (NASDAQ: HLIT) today announced a breakthrough in video streaming innovation with the launch of new origin capabilitie...
13/03/2025
Haivision Showcases Mission-Critical Video Solutions at SOF Week 2025
Haivision's video wall systems, ISR technology, and DoDIN APL-certified video distri...
13/03/2025
Company Leads the Way with New Software-Based Production Platform, 12G Switcher,...
13/03/2025
A new Apple Immersive concert experience, Metallica, is coming to Apple Vision Pro this Friday, March 14. Filmed in Mexico City during the sold-out second-year ...
13/03/2025
Here is your host, Patrick Kielty!
Shake your Shamrocks, Patrick Kielty will be...
13/03/2025
This St. Patrick's weekend, RT invites you to celebrate all things Irish, showcasing the very best of Irish sport, entertainment and live coverage from the...
13/03/2025
What's next in AI is at GTC 2025. Not only the technology, but the people and ideas that are pushing AI forward - creating new opportunities, novel solution...
13/03/2025
Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn
By combining T-Mobile's robust network, Thal...
13/03/2025
Bundle up - GeForce NOW is bringing a flurry of Blizzard titles to its ever-expanding library.
Prepare to weather epic gameplay in the cloud, tackling the genr...
13/03/2025
AI is leveling up the world's most beloved games, as the latest advancements...
13/03/2025
PC game modding is massive, with over 5 billion mods downloaded annually. Mods p...
12/03/2025
O Spotify acaba de lan ar o relat rio Loud & Clear deste ano, uma vis o transpar...
12/03/2025
Spotify acaba de presentar el informe Loud & Clear de este a o, una mirada trans...
12/03/2025
Ramadan, a period of profound spiritual significance for Muslims worldwide, is a time for fasting, prayer, reflection, and community. Enrich your experience thi...
12/03/2025
Spotify has just unveiled this year's Loud & Clear report, a transparent loo...
12/03/2025
More than 70% of FAST programming has been produced since 2010, according to new Gracenote report
NEW YORK March 12, 2025 Gracenote, the content data busin...
12/03/2025
GEONA, Nev. Independent digital and linear advertising rep firm Viamedia will adopt cloud-based ShowSeeker Pilot as its primary ad campaign and order management...
12/03/2025
BRUSSELS Mediagenix has announced that Wael Yasin has joined the company as sales director Central Europe....
12/03/2025
LONDON A new study highlights opportunities for shoppable TV and the massive impact online consumer spending is having on the economy, with Omdia predicting tha...
12/03/2025
CUPERTINO, Calif. Interra Systems has announced that Comcast Technology Solutions has integrated recent updates to BATON Version 9 into its operations....