Alistair Taylor

Knock on: Rights holders cannot chance latency?

Alistair Taylor

26 Sep 2019

Sports Video Sports TV

The IRB Rugby World Cup (RWC) commenced last Friday with hosts Japan producing a fine victory over second-time qualifiers Russia, 30-10. The first RWC to be held in Asia provides Australasian countries with a much more sociable tournament in terms of kick-off times.

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Could a recession change the tide for sports rights allocation?

Alistair Taylor

24 Sep 2019

live sports Pay TV Sports

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 prioritising reach over revenue.

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Yao Ming 2.0: NBA & House of Mouse – Who Needs Who More?

Alistair Taylor

30 Aug 2019

Media and Marketing

Disney’s Q2 quarterly results illustrate the growing importance of its direct to consumer (D2C) streaming offering. With the launch of Disney+ coming up on November 12 , Disney looks set to take on streaming incumbent Netflix both domestically and internationally by presenting a unique opportunity...

Anyone Order Latency? Mediaset Falls at the First Hurdle

Alistair Taylor

23 Aug 2019

Strategy telco Media and Marketing

Mediaset’s newly launched Spanish subscription video on demand (SVOD) service, MiTele Plus, has suffered a succession of technical issues during the debut stream of its domestic La Liga coverage. Latency issues and Smart TV distribution plagued the streaming services broadcast, with complaints gal...

Demographic cliff: Is gaming sports’ biggest problem?

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 ? MIDiA argues… both.

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Not So Galactico; What Went Wrong for La Liga?

Alistair Taylor

7 Aug 2019

addressable audience broadcast deals carriage partnerships

Joris Evers, La Liga’s head of communications, confirmed last week that the rights holder has withdrawn its tender for broadcast rights to Spanish soccer’s premier league in the UK and Ireland after failing to receive any acceptable bids, due by the 25 th July .

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Sports Fans Consumer Trends 2019

Alistair Taylor

6 Aug 2019

subscribers Netflix Audience engagement

Sports-centric subscription video on demand (SVOD) services have largely struggled to entice subscribers, based on their current value propositions which consist mainly of niche rights. Pay-TV has the lion’s share of premium domestic sports rights, providing it with an advantageous set of assets partially justifying premium-priced contracts for i...

Tencent Renewal: NBA the Envy of Global Sports Rights Holders?

Alistair Taylor

1 Aug 2019

CBA Chinese Basketball Association custom interactive services

The National Basketball Association (NBA) and Chinese tech conglomerate Tencent have announced a five-year extension of their existing partnership, with Tencent acting as the NBA’s official digital partner until the culmination of the 2024/2025 season.

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

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 first exclusive live game distribution deal with the MLB covers 13 games during the second ha...

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Sports and Sponsorships: MLB Seeks Revenue Home Run

Alistair Taylor

22 Jul 2019

Innovation Marketing Media

Major League Baseball (MLB) could finally allow for sponsorship patches appearing on its teams’ uniforms, the league confirmed to the Sports Business Journal . US sports have historically steered clear from patch sponsors on game day apparel, until 2006 when the Major League Soccer’s Real Salt L...

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Go Big or Go Home: DAZN Poised to Swoop In on the Crown Jewel of Sporting Rights

Alistair Taylor

11 Jul 2019

Games Media Mobile content

Streaming insurgent DAZN, which now operates in nine markets, has announced its intention to bid for US domestic NFL rights, undoubtedly the crown jewel of sporting rights. Adding the world’s most valuable league to its roster would catapult DAZN into the next echelon of sports broadcasters and fi...

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Sports and the Tech Majors
A Competitive Partnership

Alistair Taylor

5 Jul 2019

Free Report

Apple Amazon Apple TV

The big gap in streaming video’s content mix has historically been sports. This is now changing through a combination of disruptive challenger sports subscription video on demand (SVOD) services such as DAZN accelerating its rights and territory offerings alongside the increased interest being shown by the tech majors – notably Amazon and Faceb...

Is Pay-TV killing off Niche Sports?

Alistair Taylor

4 Jul 2019

Awareness BBC BBC One

With both the ICC Cricket World Cup and FIFA Women’s World Cup approaching their climaxes, the stark difference in audience engagement raises the question, is pay-TV killing off niche sports? Deciding the medium through which to distribute live sports has never been more crucial.

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Why the UFC Wants to Replicate the Yao Ming effect

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, the NBA have become synonymous with Chinese sports fans, and offers a template for the Ultima...

Is Cricket the New ‘Greatest Show on Turf’?

Alistair Taylor

19 Jun 2019

21st Century Fox ad skippers addressable audience

Even before the St. Louis (now LA) Rams were setting records in the NFL during the 1999-2001 seasons, earning the nickname ‘The Greatest Show on Turf’, the Super Bowl was viewed as an unrivalled opportunity to advertise brands, products, and movie trailers to the masses that tune in (or increasi...

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2019-2021
Emerging New Metrics for Sports Streaming Success

Alistair Taylor

14 Jun 2019

Streaming Apple Amazon

The clock is ticking down to 2021 when the major domestic sports rights in the US and the UK will start coming up for renewal. Thus far, pureplay sports streaming video on demand (SVOD) services such as DAZN and Eleven Sports have experienced mixed fortunes.

Battle of the Docuseries: Who Mirrored Who?

Alistair Taylor

13 Jun 2019

addressable audience All or Nothing Capital

Leeds United are set to become the latest soccer club to feature in an original documentary series, with tech major Amazon securing a deal for a behind-the-scenes look at Argentinian manager Marcelo Bielsa’s dramatic first season in charge of the English Championship side, according to the Daily M...

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Heavyweight Battle for Premium Sporting Rights Dependent on Three Factors

Alistair Taylor

3 Jun 2019

BAMTech broadcast rights BT

The sports rights landscape has changed fundamentally with the emergence of streaming subscription video on demand (SVOD) services. Digital and broadcast rights used to be separate deals entirely, but now the lines are blurred, and competition is heating up for exclusive coverage of the most sought-...

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Sports SVOD Services Deep Dive

Alistair Taylor

23 May 2019

Apple Spotify Amazon

Sports-centric subscription video on demand (SVOD) services have entered international markets, looking to capture digital-native audiences from pay-TV and other established SVOD services. Eleven Sports’ demise in the UK provides the best case study for how streaming services can struggle when entering a market with insufficient rights offerings.

DAZN Financials Highlight Difficulty in Changing Sports Viewing for Fans

Alistair Taylor

14 May 2019

acquisition target consumer acquisition DAZN

DAZN, the sports-centric streaming service which made headlines in 2018 with several high-profile rights acquisitions , and according to documents seen by SportsPro Media , has managed to dramatically reduce its debt burden by 93% in the year up to 2018.

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