Lockdown continues to influence the sports industry through multiple avenues. Viewership records in football reach an all-time peak in Europe’s biggest club competition, Spotify look to utilise sport to diversify their audience demographic and could we see a spike in value for sports highlights?
HBSC develops an organisation-wide strategy to defeat systematic racism
Harris Blitzer Sports & Entertainment (HBSC), multi-sports property owners have invested $10m to combat systematic racism. This investment includes support to the newly-formed NBA foundation, financially supporting multiple programmes to empower black communities.
HBSC is also aiming half of their $10m investment to an innovative scheme to support black-owned businesses. The multi-sports team owners will be committing the remainder of their venture capital to the NBA’s Philidelphia’s 76’ers and National Hockey League’s New Jersey Devil’s. This will entail the creation of education and youth-orientated foundations for the teams to improve residential life in local communities.
Despite racism already causing unerasable damage, we must stand up against its negative influences. Sport will always have an instrumental role to play in our world, providing a profile to impact lives for the better.
The return of the UEFA Champions League scores record domestic ratings
Multinational sports television group Eleven Sports has recorded an illustrious set of results from the 2020 UEFA Champions League (UCL) returning. The network has gained a 40% rise in digital subscriptions, 4,000 new social media followers, during the finals of the competition and 165,000 viewers tuning into the system for the quarter and semi-finals.
French TV channel TF1 has had a revamp thanks to European Club footballs most significant competition. On average, 6.68m viewers tuned into Bayern Munich’s 3-0 victory against Lyon, while rival broadcaster RMC Sport witnessed their medium accumulate an average of 1.7m viewers for PSG’s triumph against RB Leipzig.
US network Univision and its TUDN FTA channel broke US viewership records for a live UCL semi-final with PSG’s 3-0 win against RB Leipzig at 879,000 viewers. Football’s largest club competition has brought outstanding viewership revenue and records to sports broadcasters which have never been seen before throughout this contemporary era of sport; it’s fair to say COVID19 has been a blessing in disguise!
Spotify aims to leverage a new audience in the sports media industry
Audio streaming giants Spotify grows its sports offer through a new Daily Sports playlist which involves commentary and music. This venture will require a specific team in Spotify to select sports podcasts and shows to inform users while personalised music suggestions get developed.
This activation adds more string to Spotify’s bow to collaborate with US digital publisher Ringer. The US firm holds exclusive podcasts through Spotify’s medium which will also feature on the Daily Sports playlist.
Swansea City enlighten opportunities for local University students
Earlier this week, championship football club Swansea City announced their front-of-shirt sponsor for the new season is Swansea University. The Welsh club has swapped their gambling sponsor for the first time in four years for a stakeholder in the education sector.
The Swans have also established the University as their higher-education partner, which leverages further opportunities for the EFL clubs U-23 and ladies teams to gain front-of-shirt sponsorship.
It’s positive to see Swansea AFC use their brand to influence opportunity for University students and making a bold decision to switch from the norm of collaborating with gambling firms. Could this spark a new sense of direction for football sponsorship?
Could video highlights become more valuable than live TV rights?
It’s a no brainer that the sports ecosystem is continuously evolving, from streaming services becoming a significant competitor for sports broadcasters, the rapid growth of esports and online content consumption.
WarnerMedia’s vice president spoke with SportsProMedia earlier this week. He discussed how broadcasters could monetise short-video content similarly to live sports events. In perspective, sports highlights play a significant role for a typical sports consumer. From being used in promotional trailers, uploaded onto online mediums soon after the live event and without fail, they can accumulate millions of views with little effort.
What impact could this have for the average sports consumers experience?
That’s a wrap! Could Swansea’s educational partnership with Swansea University inspire new ideas to diversify football sponsorships? Could we see Spotify’s competitors imitate their approach to reach further audiences in sport? And, will Bayern vs PSG (the UCL final) hold the all-time viewership record this season?
Sharing lessons sports professionals can learn through sports content 
great to see the world of sports taking the lead on issues of social justice; nice to see my hometown team, the 76ers, mentioned!
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Absolutely, it was a close game for the 76ers today for sure!
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but to no avail… swept out of the playoffs…
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