Streaming Media Europe
Young sports fans are going to sites like Whistle Sports and Copa90 to catch the action, supporting a new style of sports coverage that invites fans into the conversation.
The decades old wisdom that premium live sport drives pay TV subscriptions is in need of a reality check. The youth audience—called millennials or generation Y—definitely want to engage with sport, but seem to prefer doing so online by visiting sites which show hardly any live or recorded in-game action.
To prove this, look at the rise of U.S.-based Whistle Sports which launched in January 2014 and has attracted 110 million subscribers across multiple channels, including 25 million on YouTube, 51 million on Facebook, 11 million Twitter followers, another 20 million on Instagram, and 4.5 million on Vine. It is growing by 2 million a week in terms of aggregate social links and has just launched a e-gaming platform on Amazon-owned Twitch.
Or look at the similar content and distribution model of the U.K.'s Copa90 which focuses on football. It averages 3.6 million views and 13.8 million minutes watched per month on YouTube (where it recently reached 1 million subscribers), and publishes content across all the main social networks. In January, it acquired Kick.tv the digital network of Major League Soccer as a launch pad for its expansion into the U.S.
The common wisdom is that 14- to 25-year-olds prefer to access and interact with content on screens other than the TV, and that traditional media needs to react by adopting a mobile-first policy. But the reasons the YouTube social media audience for sports is growing is deeper than this. An aversion to paying for content is part of it, certainly, but there is also a feeling that the likes of Sky Sports, the BBC, NBC, or EPSN are peddling a brand of coverage that simply has less appeal.
Where conventional TV sports presentation is based around the live event and has a hard news, studio and desk-bound talent-in-suits approach, Whistle Sports and Copa90 have succeeded in capturing the spirit of the game by focusing on the culture and social aspects that surround the sport.
Both businesses encourage a network of independent content creators to publish authentic grass roots fan-based videos, and both supplement this with brand-funded content which aims to speak the same language.
According to Whistle Sports' executive vice president Brian Selander, short content includes instructional videos, bloopers, trick shots, and behind-the-scenes access. “Pretty much everything except for live game action,” he says. “There's a special emphasis on the aspects of athletics that is fun and surprising.”
The approach is similar at Copa90: “We think people go to Sky Sports to see what happened and fans come to Copa90 to find out how they feel about it,” says Phil Mitchelson, head of marketing at Copa90's parent company Bigballs. “We take every single piece of content that may be seen as wastage in a normal sports production—the build up, what restaurants to go to, what taxi to catch—and present it so that we have engaged fans weeks before the main content has even happened.”
Both companies say that their audience doesn't cannibalise the live viewing experience. “It's generative,” says Selander. “Once you go behind the scenes and get the insider perspective you can get a stronger connection to the [sports] brand and a stronger connection for audiences to want to watch the live game.”
Questioned at IBC as to whether or not this approach reached the new generation of fans, Dave Gibbs, Sky Sports' director of digital media, said: “A traditional broadcaster says 'I am going to talk at you and expect you to watch what I want you watch.' Copa90's approach is about building a community and bringing them into the conversation. There's a lot we can take from what they are doing.”
A few days later, Sky announced its first public collaboration with Whistle Sports, in which it invested $7 million a year ago. Whistle and Sky launched a social media channel in conjunction with Sky chat show brand Soccer AM.
Sky says its younger audiences are not deserting live broadcasts on its platforms, but hopes the move will expand its reach with millennials. “What we liked about Whistle was some of the commercial opportunities they create by working with brands to create branded content opportunities,” says Gibbs.
LG, Sony, Subaru, and Gillette have all customised campaigns for the network. “Branded content can't be along the lines of your traditional TV spot, but the millennial audience is more realistic than the older generation about accepting a brand's involvement in content at face value,” says Selander. “If the editorial tone and style is delivered in the right way then the audience will accept it.”
Whistle Sport revenue shares with 300 YouTube content creators including channels from Dude Perfect and NBA star Jeremy Lin. In return, creators get Whistle support and expertise.
“We support them with a data analytics and insights team does a lot of work mining data for what works, when it works, how it works, and how to do more of it,” says Selander. “On top of the data science piece we have a content production team providing advice on the best ways to make your video 'pop.' This team also creates and produces content. We can provide a business relationship for creators, for example in talking to Sky, and we also bring brands and agencies into the conversation.”
Global Reach for Sports
For Whistle Sports the partnership with Sky is about expanding its reach beyond the U.S. “We had lots of options and interest from people wanting to partner with us,” explains Selander. “Sky seemed like a fascinating fit—adding what is next into what is now. Sky has built a great brand in Soccer AM and strong relationships with the English Premier League, its teams and players. They have a great roster of traditional broadcast talent. Soccer AM is a great way to bring all of that more forcefully to a digital audience.”
Signs are that it's working: 400,000 people have already liked it on the Soccer AM Facebook page.
According to Selander, more than 35 percent of Whistle Sports' audience is not based in the U.S. An international expansion has been planned for a while, led by Jeff Nathenson, former YouTube head of football, based out of Whistle Sports' new London office.
“Even before Sky we had several hundred thousand followers in the U.K.,” says Selander.
“While soccer is a focus for us given its massive global fanbase, the Whistle Sports social media experience is less about 'which ball' and more about the uplifting moments in sport—and those moments tend to cross boundaries.
“Millennials are global sports fans: They like to stream global sports content and discuss it on social media,” he argues. “Sport is inherently exportable compared to other verticals. A ball goes into the net in the same language whether you're in North America, Scandinavia, or China. We think there's real value in owning one vertical like sports.”
Sports Rights Shift Online
Whistle Sports has content deals with the NFL, Major League Baseball, MLS, NASCAR, the PGA Tour, and the Harlem Globetrotters. The leagues share archived content with Whistle Sports, though not live games. While Google has so far not dipped into its purse for live rights it could be just a matter of time, using growing YouTube sports fans as a base.
Live rights to streamed content from the major leagues remain at a massive premium, but signs are that both rights owners and internet players want to shift the action online. The NFL will stream the live game between the Buffalo Bills and Jacksonville Jaguars on October 25 from London's Wembley Stadium on Yahoo sites—the league's first exclusive pact with a digital channel. The NBA and Turner Sports streamed the first live game on Facebook in simulcast with cable's NBA TV.
“When you look at the NFL streaming rights paid by Yahoo, it's a breakthrough, but sports rights is not the best use of our money,” says Selander.
BigBalls CEO Thomas Thirlwall says rights holders are keen to share content with the network for free.
“With the connection with fans that we have we find that footage is being offered to us for no payment because rights holders are very keen on making sure they engage with the right audience which for them is the future of their sport.” As an example, Copa90 gained exclusive behind-the-scenes video access to the Brazilian soccer team during the World Cup 2014. “Football leagues and clubs want to play the game in front of fans. They want loyalty from fans and they realise that this group is being consistently overlooked by traditional media and are going online first.”
From 2016 to 2020, Sky will be able to take advantage of a new deal with the English Premier League allowing it to show clips from every EPL game across its digital platforms, including in-match content and highlights. That's something the Soccer AM social site could tap into.
The Sports TV Disruptor
However, there is skepticism from BigBalls which says it was approached by Sky to partner with the broadcaster.
“I don’t know any business that can survive by ignoring the next generation of fans,” says Thirlwall. “We’ve spent the last five years only going after that audience. We know how to talk to them because we listen to them and we invite them to be a part of the conversation. When we listen, we react and alter our programming to give them more of what they want."
The sports broadcast community will come more and more into this space, he says. It’s difficult to move away from legacy business models. “The problem is that big media businesses always handle young audiences very clumsily, and often in a very patronising way. We’re a massive disruptor of traditional linear broadcasting. The way we engage sports audiences, the way we find our talent, and the editorial tone of the stories we tell defy all previous logic that applied to TV sports programming.”
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