We Are Social’s Post

WATCHING SPORT ON YOUTUBE As #streaming platforms ramp up their coverage of live sports, a growing number of viewers are making the switch make the switch from smartphones to televisions to view online video. More than 35 billion hours of sports content was viewed on YouTube in the past year, marking a 45% increase on the previous year, according to its CEO Neal Mohan. He added that much of that was due to viewers embracing a more traditional #TV experience to watch the online video app. During the #ParisOlympics, viewers can choose to watch official broadcasters’ YouTube channels, spanning 200 countries and territories, including partners like NBC, Eurosport, Claro Sports and CazéTV. On the Olympics YouTube channel, there is Olympic archive #content and highlights in select territories, during and after the event. Popular creators including Haley Kalil, Jeenie Weenie and Kristy Scott are at the Games as part of NBCUniversal’s Creator Program, all with their own personal takes. They are part of more than 30 #creators at the Games in collaboration with official broadcasters, like Eurosport, and the IOC, including the likes of Rick Azas, Liza Baez, Enaldinho, Robbie Lyle, Gabinouvilla, Underrated Hijabi, Paul Ferrer Z, Tina Yong, and RJ Karishma. In the lead-up to Paris, @NBC approached social platforms with the idea of having creators as part of their coverage. They asked the companies to find people who they thought would fit the role the network envisioned. In the world of BMX freestyle, Kieran Reilly used online videos to showcase his stunts on YouTube, including landing a trick that no one had ever done successfully before. The Briton has since surged to the forefront of the sport, making his Olympic debut at Paris 2024. According to YouTube, views on connected TVs have increased more than 130% in the past three years, with watch time for sports on those devices growing by 30% year on year. Mohan expects YouTube’s presence in sports is likely to grow considerably in the near future. #sportsmarketing #streamingplatforms #sportsinfluencers Ampersand Advisory Ampersand Sports https://lnkd.in/g3pcTcXW

We’re thrilled to announce our latest partnership with Bauer Media Audio – Portugal | Bauer Media Group. Bauer Media is part of a selected group of companies piloting Mediaprobe’s solution to measure the emotional impact generated by live events, starting with one of their concerts - "45 In the Night," Rádio Comercial's anniversary concert in Lisbon. Exceptional Findings: ⬆ The concert was more exciting than watching Portugal’s National Soccer team playing in the last FIFA World Cup, or as the Bauer team prefers to say, the experience was equivalent to 12 rollercoaster rides ;) 📊 Four moments registered an average emotional impact above 1000 EIS (Emotional Impact Score) points, surpassing all Mediaprobe's benchmarks for both live events and television. Want to learn more about this groundbreaking innovation? Read more on our website ▶️▶️▶️ https://lnkd.in/dDyVBJ6P #MediaMeasurement #LiveEvents #emotionalimpact #innovation #Mediaprobe #BauerMediaGroup #concerts #BiometricData #MediaProfessionals #EventOrganizers #Advertisers #Sponsors

Free-to-air #sport is worth €4.9bn to the European #economy. New European Broadcasting Union (EBU) report outlines the value of airing sports content that’s free to watch. #freetoair #sports #broadcasting #business #revenue

Very interesting article here regarding the free-to-air sports broadcasting landscape across Europe. Some key takeaways: - Free-to-Air (FTA) broadcast contributed €4.9bn to the European economy. - Direct impact showed Public Service Media and broadcasting of sports content contributed approximately €900m and employed over 5,000 workers. - FTA sports broadcasting supported more than 60,000 jobs in 2022 across Europe. #sportsbroadcasting #europeansport

Breaking news from the Paris Olympics! If your brand isn't part of the action, you're missing out! - Advertisers saw an 18% increase in attention, 33% greater message recall, and a 67% boost in search likelihood. - NBCUniversal has seen a 79% increase in viewership for the first three days of the 2024 Paris Summer Olympics, averaging 34.5 million viewers across all platforms. This is a significant jump from the 19.3 million viewers in Tokyo 2021. - The opening ceremony had 41.5 million viewers, almost doubling Tokyo's figures. - Peacock averaged 10.9 million viewers over three days, nearly doubling its digital viewership compared to Tokyo. https://bit.ly/3A8OAom

We are truly in our sports era, and I could not be more excited coming out of Monday’s State of Play #ClioSports Marketing Summit. There were so many dynamic conversations, but one in particular stuck out to me that I wanted to share with all of you. We brought together executives from Universal Production Music and the sports world to talk about how the sports industry can work with the music industry to enhance the fan experience. While there are a few teams and entities pushing collaboration forward, the biggest takeaway I had is that most industries don’t know how to work with the music industry to make music work harder for their brands. There is a massive opportunity for brands to bring music/artists into the brand experience in a way that drives mutual value. I’m so glad the Universal Production Music team joined us as a sponsor this year to shine a light on this. As a follow-up to this year’s summit, we’re dedicating space in the #MusebyClio platform to help brands and partners better understand how to make partnerships in music happen! #Advertising #Marketing #ClioAwards #ClioMusic #Creativity #SportsMarketing The Clios

Transforming Live Events: How Our Shift to Sports Partnerships Fuels Growth What happens when a live event platform built on the passion for music suddenly sees sports take the lead? Our business has flipped from 80% music to 80% sports, driven by strategic partnerships and evolving market dynamics. While music remains a core passion, the growth in sports partnerships, particularly with universities, has transformed our approach. Discover how we navigated this shift, building stronger relationships and expanding our offerings to meet the demands of an ever-changing market. Whether you're a sports enthusiast or a music lover, there's something here for everyone. #FestivalPass #BusinessGrowth #SportsPartnerships #LiveEventExperience

The beginning of a creative partnership is here.

A very good piece by Daniel Thomas on #DAZN post-the announcement of more funds being pumped into the service. My own view I am sceptical of DAZN's long-term success for the following reasons: 1. DAZN is outgunned financially when it comes to potential competitors, fighting against giants with far more money. Look at the US, where the cash-rich Tech giants such as Google, Amazon and Apple are snapping up sports rights (even Disney with ESPN would pose a threat). DAZN couldn’t or wouldn’t bid for any of the Premier League rights in England because it would have been outbid. DAZN has done the best it can (namely rights in “global” sports and then selective rights elsewhere) but it is unlikely to be enough to ensure long-term survival. 2. The problem with the Spotify analogy is that music tends to be universal – while local language artists are gaining more share of listening, mainstream artists like Taylor Swift have the biggest following. And the nature of music (i.e. there is no language / cultural barrier) means local language artists can become global hits if they gain traction (think K-Pop). That is not the case with sports. Most sports tend to be national in nature (e.g. NFL / NBA with the US, Serie A in Italy etc). Those that are more “global” are either too expensive to acquire worldwide (the English Premier League) or are more “second tier” (e.g. boxing); 3. Unlike with Netflix, which has a range of content upon which it can draw, DAZN is only really focused on sports so it limits the total addressable market for the service. The article notes DAZN has around 300m monthly customers in 2023 but only 20m paying subs. Given how long the service has been operating, how do you convert the other c. 93% to suddenly start paying for the service. As Spotify has shown, it is the paying customers who drive profitability; 4. The proof is in the numbers – losses were £1.3bn in 2023 up from £1.2bn in 2022. Comments from the company suggest these numbers do not reflect where most of its top 10 markets are profitable but (1) there is no detailed access to the numbers and (2) it depends on the internal accounting standpoint as to how numbers are allocated across countries etc. 5. At the end of the day, I suspect the end game is to be acquired by a global Tech or streaming giant who wants a ready-made sports-focused platform with a significant base of signed users upon which to then build a much more well-financed and significant global sports streaming proposition. If I had to guess one, I would say #Netflix. As usual, this is not investment advice. 

The penultimate session of day one at Host City 2024 looked at the changing connection between audiences and action. Colin Grahamslaw, Secretary General of World Curling, began by explaining that the concept of ‘audience’ is evolving, from a single body to a mix of people with different priorities and consuming habits. “We consider our audience as everyone from the committed fan who buys their tickets 12 months out, to the person watching it on TV, to people who just take a passing interest in our sport.” Kerry Halliday, Head of Group Ticketing & Customer Engagement at Scottish Rugby, added that digital ticketing has changed the nature of how they communicate with audiences. “We know 80-85% of the people sitting in our stadium on match day. That gives us an ability to engage with them before, during and after the game. So you can get very creative about reimagining the match day, and personalising experiences in a way that people increasingly expect.” Jonathan Potts, Lead Consultant at Two Circles - spoke of seeing your fan base in terms of a funnel, and the importance of having tailored communication strategies for each layer. Colin went on to explain how the concept of audience can also shift from event to event. “As a federation, we are hosting our championships in Beijing one year, and then Las Vegas after that. Those are very different markets, and need very different strategies.” He added that, by bringing media production in-house, World Curling now has more control over monetising its content. “Having established a paid-for ‘over the top’ (OTT) channel for our broadcasts, we are in a stronger position to negotiate with linear broadcasters.” It is also able to work with host cities and sponsors to manage how they are represented in the footage. The other benefit of an OTT model is the data it generates, such as where fans are concentrated (which can then inform where events are hosted), and how to engage with them. Jonathan said that OTT is an exciting option for rights holders, but must be considered alongside the logistics of broadcasting. “That can be hard. You’ve got to be confident that you can produce a quality product that fans will pay for.” Thanks to Jack McGill, CEO at QTV for excellent moderating!