sports fans blog by MIDiA Research

Blog: sports fans

WWE Q3 Earnings – An innovative digital strategy helps WWE overcome COVID-19 disruption

Blog post by Alistair Taylor

12 Nov 2020

WWE’s Q3 2020 results provide a fascinating insight into how a live event-focused entertainment business has successfully navigated a global pandemic. In its financials for the quarter , WWE saw a 19%...

Why the sports broadcast model is now under threat

Blog post by Alistair Taylor

6 Nov 2020

Sinclair Broadcast Group

Sinclair

sports broadcast

The Sinclair Broadcast Group reported its Q3 2020 results earlier this week, which highlighted the detrimental impact sporting investments had on its balance sheet. A 37% year-on-year (YoY) increase in...

The Premier League going pay-per-view means a sucker-punch for sports fans

Blog post by Alistair Taylor

15 Oct 2020

English Premier League

EPL

pay per view

English Premier League (EPL) clubs have agreed an ‘interim solution’ to allow fans to continue watching their teams live. EPL fixtures not selected for broadcast in October will be available to fans...

Wanda Sports Group’s financials highlight long-term impact of live hiatus

Blog post by Alistair Taylor

3 Sep 2020

sports fans

covid

live sports

Wanda Sports Group’s (WSG) Q2 financials highlight a significant decline in revenues on account of “the broad effects of COVID-19 mitigation efforts”. WSG reported a second successive quarter of...

Innovation via Free-to-air Highlights Missed Opportunity to date for the EPL

Blog post by Alistair Taylor

24 Jun 2020

Sports

live sport

Sporting rights

Following live sports’ hiatus due to the coronavirus pandemic, the English Premier League (EPL) saw two of the top three most-watched matches in league history occur last weekend. The previous record...

Premier League Acknowledges Priorities Have Changed During Lockdown

Blog post by Alistair Taylor

11 Jun 2020

artificial crowd noise

attention

BBC One

The English Premier League (EPL) is set to return to screens next Wednesday, over three months since the last fixture graced our screens. Considering the pandemic enforced-postponement has deprived sports...

Bundesliga Offers Reality Check for What to Expect of Sport Post-COVID-19

Blog post by Alistair Taylor

21 May 2020

AFL

AGF Aarhus

Football (via the Bundesliga) finally returned to screens last weekend, not only serving starved sports fans with content during lockdown, but more importantly demonstrated what we can expect live football...

The Last Dance – ESPN Raining Threes

Blog post by Alistair Taylor

18 May 2020

Adam Silver

bundle

Chicago Bulls

With the pandemic-enforced postponement of live sports creating an entertainment void for sports fans, US broadcaster ESPN played its trump card to capitalise on the thirst for stimulating content during...

The Battle Down Under

Blog post by Alistair Taylor

23 Apr 2020

#playerstogether

A-League

additive services

With COVID-19 exposing the vulnerability of pureplay sport streaming services , the importance of building out a robust and downturn-proof offering is fundamental to the viability of these currently additive...

Play for the World – EA Aims to Fill Void via FIFA Stay and Play Cup

Blog post by Alistair Taylor

16 Apr 2020

activity gap

broadcast

Brondby

In 2003, FIFA updated its primary logo to include the words ‘For the Game. For the World.’ Fast forward 17 years and governments around the world are instructing their citizens to stay inside. Now...

Self-Isolation: DAZN Concedes to COVID-19

Blog post by Alistair Taylor

6 Apr 2020

additive services

all-encompassing offering

asset class

Sports streaming insurgent DAZN has announced last week it plans to inform rights holders of its intent to defer its payments of rights fees for any content not yet delivered (i.e. postponed / cancelled...

The Show Must Go On – NFL Throws Screen Pass at COVID-19 with NFL Draft

Blog post by Alistair Taylor

2 Apr 2020

all-star

broadcasts

Bundesliga

The NFL’s commissioner Roger Goodell announced to all 32 teams in a memo on March 26th that the NFL draft will go ahead as scheduled from the 23 rd to 25 th of April, despite growing pressures resulting...

NFL Adding Music to Its Playbook

Blog post by Alistair Taylor

4 Nov 2019

archived footage

audio content

curated playlists

The NFL continues expanding its reach with the news that it is providing both video and audio content to global streaming services Spotify and Tidal. This follows the NFL’s recently- announced partnerships...

Could a Recession Change the Tide for Sports Rights Allocation?

Blog post by Alistair Taylor

24 Sep 2019

additive services

all-encompassing offering

AppleTV+

Revenue remains rights holder’s priority qualifier for allocating rights. However, with an impending recession, we are likely nearing an inflection point whereby rights holders may start to look towards...

Demographic cliff: Is gaming sports’ biggest problem?

Blog post by Alistair Taylor

14 Aug 2019

aging audience

daily active usage

daus

Is the peaking attention economy the underlying cause for the decline in sports consumption from the younger demographic, or is it the mediums through which rights holders are distributing sports content...

Is YouTube MLB’s Answer to Tap into Younger Audience?

Blog post by Alistair Taylor

29 Jul 2019

baseball

cable consumption

Channel 4

On July 18 th , Google-owned YouTube livestreamed the first of its exclusive Major League Baseball (MLB) matches, acquired through a partnership announced with the MLB at the end of April 2019 . YouTube’s...

Why the UFC Wants to Replicate the Yao Ming effect

Blog post by Alistair Taylor

25 Jun 2019

athlete

audience culture

brand leverage

The NBA is the third highest grossing league globally, generating $7.4 billion in 2017, behind domestic rivals MLB and NFL. Whereas the MLB and NFL have largely struggled to entice a truly global following,...

Can the NBA Capture the ‘Cord-Nevers’?

Blog post by Alistair Taylor

8 Mar 2019

audience engagement

cable providers

Clippers CourtVision

NBA commissioner Adam Silver, speaking at the MIT Sloan Sports Analytics conference in Boston last week, explained his vision of the league’s games, which will look “dramatically different” in five...

Fail Fast, Fail Early – Can Eleven’s UK Struggle Aid Future Growth?

Blog post by Alistair Taylor

21 Feb 2019

Allsvenskan

altice

Amazon Fire Stick

Eleven Sports announced last week it had successfully agreed long-term distribution agreements with all four TV operators in Portugal – Altice, NOS, Nowo and Vodafone. Achieving this agreement puts Eleven...

NFL issues warning to streaming services

Blog post by Alistair Taylor

6 Sep 2018

2018 World Cup

amazon prime video

consumer behaviour

As rights holders and tech majors continue to experiment with streaming video on demand (SVOD) services as a way to broadcast sports content, questions are being raised about the ability of streaming platforms...