mst
Peter Johnson (47)
^^I think you are closer to the mark with having to have a good look at our market and the opportunities.
The MLB who are at the forefront of anything digital have spent a few years dabbling in the Australian sporting landscape and have just walked away without any souvenirs, buying anything or taking anyone's business cards which is really interesting. Its also good to understand that the whole subscription and taking control of your on TV rights and broadcasts is not for all sports. The MLB, NFL, NHL WWE etc examples are of success stories but that seems to be a direct correlation to their size and established market position.
Other sports who are fairly heavy hitters who have gone down the same track are now suffering significantly. The NHRA is a perfect case example. They split from ESPN as to not only take over their oven production, but also to exploit digital and subscription opportunities. For the first time decades they are running short fields - not enough entrants. Sponsorship has dropped, audience has dropped and now owners / teams cant afford to race and the sports is suffering all in public view.
The streaming subscription take up has been low ($100 US per year minimum), the international rights haven't sold they way they envisaged (Foxtel in the past aired 3-6+hrs of content per event, its now 1hr per event that started part way through the season), the production is poor and their saviour ironically atm is the limited air time they have with a cable network. The cable network is laughing all the way to the bank having added approximately 300,000 additional viewers and love it as they don't wear production costs so its super cheap content to buy that the sport desperately need to get airtime with to survive.
The MLB who are at the forefront of anything digital have spent a few years dabbling in the Australian sporting landscape and have just walked away without any souvenirs, buying anything or taking anyone's business cards which is really interesting. Its also good to understand that the whole subscription and taking control of your on TV rights and broadcasts is not for all sports. The MLB, NFL, NHL WWE etc examples are of success stories but that seems to be a direct correlation to their size and established market position.
Other sports who are fairly heavy hitters who have gone down the same track are now suffering significantly. The NHRA is a perfect case example. They split from ESPN as to not only take over their oven production, but also to exploit digital and subscription opportunities. For the first time decades they are running short fields - not enough entrants. Sponsorship has dropped, audience has dropped and now owners / teams cant afford to race and the sports is suffering all in public view.
The streaming subscription take up has been low ($100 US per year minimum), the international rights haven't sold they way they envisaged (Foxtel in the past aired 3-6+hrs of content per event, its now 1hr per event that started part way through the season), the production is poor and their saviour ironically atm is the limited air time they have with a cable network. The cable network is laughing all the way to the bank having added approximately 300,000 additional viewers and love it as they don't wear production costs so its super cheap content to buy that the sport desperately need to get airtime with to survive.
