Broadcasting in football:
The state of play
Since the first televised match was aired in the UK in the late 1930s, football’s relationship with broadcasting has evolved to become symbiotic. Television coverage has been the primary driver of revenue growth during the last 20 years for clubs and associations, as football has become ever more global and digital.
Expert insight: “Develop a direct conversation with your fans”
Arnaud Simon has spent 25 years helping sports organisations and broadcasters to navigate the ever-changing content landscape. He oversaw the transition from traditional to digital broadcasting during his time at Eurosport, and now works at the forefront of new streaming opportunities with a range of sporting rights holders. His insight provides a valuable look at the trends, risks and opportunities to be considered by football stakeholders going forward.
Having experienced the evolution of sport broadcasting during your career, what do you think are the key trends that are driving the changes and new opportunities in football?
“With most of the changes we have seen over the last decades, the key driver is the consumer and their changing habits and desires. You have to cater for how people want to consume content, and give them a great experience. We are more and more selective because we are so bombarded with content, we hardly even find time to watch our favourite team, let alone other matches. If you look at what happened in music with Spotify, or in fiction with Netflix: success is offering flexibility and personal experiences, and people want to pay for exactly what they want to watch. The same is now happening in football. It’s important to change the way you make your offer to your fans, and to develop a direct conversation with them.”
Rights holders and broadcasters across football are now balancing their traditional partnerships with new opportunities to build these links with their fans. What are the key considerations for such decisions, and how would you advise organisations to approach this?
“There is still a lot of value in working with traditional broadcasters, as they bring huge experience and credibility, but they are no longer the only destination, and a rights holder cannot depend fully on them. It’s important to have a good balance, and to ensure there is premium content for your fans to watch, as well as free material available to attract new ones. For decades, the business was built on live and TV. But suddenly, we are entering a new era where TV is part of the mix, but is only a part. You have to go digital, fully digital, and to use social networks effectively. These are all new ways to grab fans to your digital destination, and ultimately to your club or league.”
“Also, be cautious and considerate in your approach with your viewers. Talk first to the heart before talking to the wallet, especially with sports fans. A lot of industries would die to transform their consumers into fans. The lucky thing about the football industry is they already have fans, but don’t talk to them too much as ‘consumers’. There is so much passion behind their relationship with their team or sport, and this has to be considered and nurtured”
With the rise of on-demand viewing, and the increasing popularity of the ”behind the scenes” documentaries, this is clearly about more than just live matches. How can clubs and leagues start telling their stories better, outside of 90-minute match coverage?
“TV is still super important, but it is not enough anymore. If you only rely on live, it won’t be sufficient to grab new fans. On demand TV, applications and esports all contribute to the competition, and to live viewing going down, across all sports. It’s not because people are less interested in sport, but because they have less time, and you have to consider this. Good storytelling is important, to create that emotional connection with people who are not your traditional fans, but could be interested in the wider story. Storytelling is not an option anymore, it’s an obligation. It doesn’t always have to be super high production, but it could be simple action from behind the scenes, and this should be a key part of the mix.”
Finally, how do you think the disruption of COVID-19 has affected sports broadcasting?
“Sports organisations have always been built on live coverage, and many clubs and leagues continued to focus solely on this. With COVID, and the sporting shut down, this need to evolve and offer more suddenly became far more urgent. I don’t think COVID has revealed new trends or changed things dramatically, but it has just accelerated the process that was already underway. It’s about building a more direct conversation with your fans, and to provide ways for them to engage and interact with your content regularly.”
OTT platforms and their growing influence
We hear about them regularly, but what are OTTs? Simply defined, OTTs (or “over-the-top” platforms) are digital platforms for the sharing of content online, allowing interactions between users and the provider. Netflix is the most successful example from the entertainment industry, and in sport, a growing number of platforms are emerging. We will focus on two that are both making moves within the football world, Amazon Prime and DAZN, exploring their activities and future plans.
Amazon Prime Video
The internet giant, through its streaming service Prime Video, has entered the sporting world in the last 12 months, making live and on-demand multi-sport content available alongside its TV and movie offering. Focusing on football, they joined the bidding for the English Premier League last season, broadcasting a series of exclusive matches during the Christmas period.
For a reported (but undisclosed) EUR 100 million fee, Amazon Prime secured the rights for a package containing three seasons’ worth of EPL matches until 2022. They have continued to invest elsewhere, now offering Champions League football in the German market, using football as a strategy to get more Prime subscribers in their two biggest European markets. In August, they signed a landmark deal with MLS’s Seattle Sounders, the first of its kind between a streaming partner and a football club, making all games available to regional viewers across the state.
To complement the live action, Amazon have created original documentaries in partnership with leading clubs and players. Popular behind-the-scenes series with Manchester City, Borussia Dortmund and Leeds United have all aired in the past two years, alongside material on La Liga clubs, Steven Gerrard, Sergio Ramos and other stories from around world football.
DAZN
DAZN was founded as a sport-specific OTT platform, promising to “give sports fans the control and flexibility to watch their sports, their way”. They are now present in Brazil, Spain, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Canada, Italy, United States and Japan, and have seen a 950% year-on-year growth since their launch in 2016.
In partnership with traditional broadcaster Sky, they have purchased the rights to broadcast Germany’s Bundesliga and Italy’s Serie A, with collective deals worth in excess of EUR 2 billion. They also own Champions League rights, broadcast in several European territories and South East Asia, as well as the rights to the EPL in Canada and regional competitions in South America.
Inspired by Netflix and Amazon’s success with non-live sporting content, and due to the ongoing effects of the pandemic sporting shut down, DAZN have also announced this as a core focus going forward. They are also present outside of football, with extensive coverage of US sport, and a new boxing-specific streaming service due to be launched soon.
Clubs and Leagues: leading the way
With rights holders trying to maximise these new opportunities, certain clubs and leagues are already launching OTT platforms and partnerships of their own. In this concluding section, we profile a few of the early adopters who have made the leap.
Clubs: FC Barcelona
Barça TV was launched on 3 June 2020, offering fans the chance to watch matches live and on-demand, as well as accessing original content from Barça Studios and the club archives.
Having always been a leading club for social media following and engagement on their channels, they moved into new territory with this subscription platform, available for EUR 34.99 a year for fans (or ‘Culés’, to take the Catalonian nickname).
“The creation of this new digital products ecosystem opens up a new way of doing business for us, which we hope will become one of the main sources of regular income for the club in the coming years, helping us to continue growing and remain competitive in an increasingly sophisticated environment,” shared Oriol Tomàs, Barcelona’s vice president of commercial.
Leagues: Bundesliga, La Liga, EPL
While balancing their rights sales between traditional broadcasters and new OTT offerings, many leagues are also exploring developing platforms of their own.
La Liga became the first major European league to launch their service, ‘LaLigaSportsTV’ in March 2019, which features football highlights and behind the scenes content (but crucially not live matches) alongside content from other sports.
In Germany, they are reported to be launching their ‘Bundesliga Pass’ service next season, and rumours of an EPL-backed ‘PremFlix’ have been circulating in the media. Despite the huge revenues obtained from the broadcast deals, there are opportunities for leagues to control and manage their own coverage going forward, revolutionising the way football is consumed.
