Sports Video Group
UK-based digital network BigBalls Media is poised to
overtake ESPN by volume of unique viewers it attracts per month, according to
its CEO, Tom Thirlwall. He claims the company, whose chief brand is the
soccer-focussed channel Copa90, is on target to exceed the 105
million monthly unique views recorded across ESPN’s digital properties by
the end of 2017.
“ESPN do 105 million a month and are the most valuable
sports media brand in the world. By the end of the year we will have overtaken
ESPN [in monthly views],” Thirlwall predicts.
In March the site drew 53 million uniques, and in April it
pulled in 65 million. “We will continue to see growth,” says Thirlwall. “Our
ambition is to be the world’s most influential football media business by the
time the 2018 World Cup kicks off.”
The startling fact about Copa90 is that it has achieved this
without any football rights. Instead, it offers soccer features and commentary
– 90 percent of which it produces in-house – and targets millennial 16- to
24-year-olds. It also runs a Creator Network, described as an invite-only
global creative community of 150 “talented and creative” football fans.
“We are not saying that one way of producing and presenting
sport matters more or that the old guard is irrelevant,” says Thirlwall. “We
are just saying that rights aren’t everything. We’ve proved that it’s not all
about rights. There is much more context and rich narrative to be told outside
of the pure match action.
“We launched on the principles of telling the stories around
the 90 minutes,” he adds. “The young audience we reach feels disenfranchised
from the broadcast packaged version of the game. We’ve concentrated on becoming
a brand in the most relevant [media] spaces that they are inhabiting.”
Gearing up for 2018
Driven by Fantasy Football, coverage of the NFL, College
Football, MLB pennant races, and U.S. Open tennis among other properties, ESPN
has consistently outperformed CBS Sports and the Yahoo! Sports-NBC Sports
Network for the best part of two years. That reign could be coming to end –
when measured by the number of uniques – as Copa90 gears up for the FIFA World
Cup in Russia.
Its rise has not gone unnoticed among big media. In 2015,
Liberty Global acquired a stake worth $10.7 million in which by
some estimates made Bigballs Media worth over $50 million. Then, in
January this year, Time Warner’s Turner International division bought another
undisclosed stake.
“Turner has big brands for us to partner with distribution
platforms for our content,” says Thirlwall, citing CNN and Bleacher Report.The
investment, by Turner’s Digital Ventures & Innovation Group will be used
for international expansion, content production and distribution, and the
enhancement of its data capabilities. Turner and Bigballs Media also signed
a commercial agreement that will see the two share distribution and content
production expertise.
It will have some way to go, though, before it tops ESPN’s
estimated market cap of $50 billion.
Since launch in 2012, Copa90 – which Thirlwall says will now
supercede BigBalls Media as the company’s trading name – has scored over 1.5
billion video views. Users spend an average of 47 minutes per week with its
content.
“The way we have presented a [football] game continues
to be different and distinct from broadcast media,” he says. “If you are
broadcast media it is very hard to get away from the thing that made you money.
Everyone got comfortable with viewing football in a certain way. For the
audience that tends to subscribe then this formula does work. This older
audience is comfortable seeing ex-footballers in suits next to the main
pundit.”
However, he adds, “we set out to connect to younger fans by
presenting content that feels like it’s coming from fan culture.”
Copa90 is not averse to working with ‘old media’. Last year
it teamed with UK broadcaster ITV to create The Fans Daily, an on-demand show
centred around the 2016 UEFA Euros.
Among Copa90’s most popular all-time features is a
documentary about the Belgrade derby (Red Star v Partizan). “In terms of where
that match ranks in terms of rights it would be well down the list, but the
story about the game is so much more interesting and clearly shows there is
much more interest among the average football fan than just about the most high
profile games.”
He also notes that younger fans have a broader diet in terms
of the teams they support. “Our fans are equally adept at jumping onto a
Belgrade derby as they are a game with Manchester United or Real Madrid. We see
our audience as having a first club allegiance such as a team in the EPL but
beyond that keeping an eye on a team in La Liga, Seria A and a favourite
Bundesliga team too.”
He continues: “The younger audience may not be watching as
many live games at home – in part because it’s expensive and it’s on their
parent’s media [the TV] – but their appetite for the game is growing
voraciously.”
Thirlwall suggests that the sports media industry will
continue its path toward “blended” revenue models in which the live pay-TV
rights co-exist with digital reach.
“Everyone has seen the pace of change pick up and no-one
wants to be saddled with expensive rights, declining ad revenues and a
declining audience with no foot in the future,” he says.
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