Technology means sports franchises are no longer in thrall of big TV deals
Not so long ago, the holy grail for sports franchises was The Big Television Deal. An up-and-coming organisation’s success was measured in ratings and the value of the agreement. But today, technology has allowed some of the best companies to circumnavigate those constraints and speak directly with their viewers. It’s been a boon for marketers and sports stars.
One’s ambitious founder Chatri Sityodtong
In 2018, sports organisations have redefined the concept of advertising platforms, data collection and even created new competitions. As tech advancements have created more avenues and advertising opportunities, forward-looking companies have taken advantage of these new platforms.
The professional wrestling giant WWE was ahead of the curve when it established its own streaming platform, providing a singular and exclusive place for fans to see their content and back library for just $14 per month. It’s been an enormous success. In the last six months, WWE Network subscribers increased 10 per cent to 1.8 million; video views grew 58% to 14.4 billion; and hours consumed up has leapt 71 per cent to 509 million across digital and social media platforms.
But more importantly, by establishing this stream-only platform, the WWE has created a way to own 100 per cent of the advertising dollars it procures for placement on WWE Network programming. For now, the WWE still has two regular programmes on network television, and its biggest shows are still available on pay-per-view. However, it’s not implausible to envision a time when an even larger percentage of its product is exclusive to the streaming service.
One Championship, a Singapore-based martial arts organisation and the largest global sports media property in Asia, is taking things a step further. Like the WWE, One has established its own mobile app which streams all of its events. However, unlike the WWE, One doesn’t charge for its app.
It’s free and streams all of its events live. One is already easily the king of martial arts in Asia, but the app served as a means of exposure for the One product to other areas of the world. In fact, one could argue it has been the precursor to the recent meteoric rise in popularity of One in the United States.
The promotion signed former UFC and Bellator champion Eddie Alvarez and made an unprecedented trade of Ben Askren for all-time great Demetrious Johnson. One also lured women’s MMA pioneer Miesha Tate to the organisation to become its vice president. All of these moves happened after One launched its mobile app.
“Technology has and will continue to be an integral part of One’s growth,” says One chief executive officer Chatri Sityodtong. “By putting our fans first, One is platform agnostic and focused on making our exciting and action-filled live content readily and easily accessible to fans all over the world. Working with like-minded and customer-centric partners like Singtel is a major step in executing our vision of delivering our digital content from Asia to the entire world.”
One hasn’t stopped with its own app. The video game industry is in its third decade of success after the crash in the early 1980s. There are no signs of a falloff. In fact, the cash cow has spawned the eSports monster, which has quickly become a billion-dollar industry.
One is getting involved in that game in a major way. It recently announced the launch of One eSports. Along with Dentsu, Razer, Singtel and other investors, One is leading the US$50 million joint venture. One isn’t just looking to run its own eSports leagues and competitions alongside its martial arts schedule, the promotion also has its sights set on producing eSports-specific content like documentaries, competitor profiles and more.
Each of those programmes offers more opportunities to earn advertising dollars.
One’s Kingdom of Hearts became one of its most successful events
“As a global media asset with large-scale event production and live broadcast capabilities, unique world-class content production, global media distribution, as well as storytelling and marketing expertise, we see the opportunity to deliver additional forms of content such as eSports to both new and existing One fans,” says Sityodtong. “One remains committed to delivering highly-engaging and relevant content to be the home to millennial live sports in Asia.”
The business of data collection for the purpose of informing fans and teams has also seen a significant spike. In 2017, Major League Baseball’s Statcast technology earned an Emmy award. Statcast gathers statistics and data that would have been unimaginable at one time, but it places its findings right in front of fans and the more advanced metrics in the laptops, PCs and mobile devices of talent evaluators, scouts, and general managers. This data is used to evaluate players, lineup construction and even for player personnel decisions.
Similar tech is being used in other team sports. NBA fans can go to nba.com and see statistics such as shooting percentages for each player with a defender within a variety of distances away. There are even metrics for statistics that once seemed incidental, or as things that didn’t show up on a box score, such as deflections, loose balls recovered, screen assists, contested two and three-point shots. Soon, these stats may become far more common than they are now.
We’ve gotten to a point where the use of advanced statistics is standard. Organisations and coaches who don’t put this data to use are considered dinosaurs and archaic thinkers who are less likely to win or to play a style that is fan pleasing. It’s been quite the transformation, but it’s likely just the beginning as technology continues to evolve and create more efficient, fun and practical ways to share, participate and earn money from sports.
Have your say