September Broadcast Directors Community Zoom Call Summary

With the current climate impacting the opportunities for broadcasting and adapting to the environment, what are the key talking points and questions coming out of this.

Covid-19 has given an opportunity to innovate

• Compression rate and the capability of the internet speed depends on what we can do.
• It is driven through connectivity through the internet and the flexibility of the technology.
• Broadcasting is capable.
• There is a strong hunger for live sports more than ever.
• It is great using the empty stadiums to create extra angles for the camera but it’s a short-term solution before fans go back.
• Will fans want to spend their money to go back to stadiums? The value exchange needs looking at to hold on to fans during this time.
• Once the “real world” picks back up, will the viewership be the same? How do we keep fans exchanged when other responsibilities come back? Use data to work out how to pull viewership back!
• How do you future-proof your production and be malleable to what is thrown our way.

The importance of Viewer and User Analytics

• Are we wasting time and energy on opening teasers and content when we should spend money and time on cameras and live event support?
• The taste of viewers have changed and consumption of sport has changed.
• We are moving to a direct-to-consumer model – if you don’t know who is watching you are putting yourself at a disadvantage.
• User data and understanding of your audience will be the catalyst to the future – to customise the experience for the fans.

Addressing habits of change and consumption

• Sports fans are incredibly traditional – make it more about the sport and game itself.
• Dial back and give the fans what they want in a financial responsible way.
• One piece of material can be given out in different formats to reach different types of fans, technology has helped to do this in an inexpensive way.
• There are different versions of fans that want to watch the game with a different experience – reversion!
• The traditional broadcasters need to know there is a movement and work out how we can be a part of it and use the product to tap into different types of viewers.
• As a rights holder, how can we get to grips of how we can evolve?

Working with partners

• We don’t want to work with a channel that just sits on our platform, we want to help build their audience and our intelligence in first-party data.
• The winning strategy is that our partners are happy working with us to build more content to reach their fans.
• Sports betting will impact the way sports content is consumed with the amount of money involved.