Blog: digital content

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 with social platforms TikTok, Reddit, Facebook and YouTube.

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 half of the MLB’s 2019 regular season.

Following the English Premier League (EPL) announcing in November its plans to launch its own streaming service for the next rights cycle (2022-2025), the Sunday Times reported that the EPL is coming close to launching.

As debates on the sustainability of various digital content business models continue to play out live, OTRO, a new entrant to the market offers an opportunity to marry competing points of view. OTRO: the overview Otro is a new digital content offering for football fans: exclusive content, documentaries, competitions and access to personal moments with the world’s top players will populate this new $3.

Eurosport-parent Discovery and the PGA Tour have unveiled GolfTV , an upcoming international golf-centric subscription video on demand (SVOD) service. The announcement follows a 12-year, $2 billion June agreement granting Discovery the international rights to distribute PGA Tour content outside the US.

The value of Rugby has suffered another major blow in what has already been a tumultuous year financially for the sport. The asking price for the Six Nations title sponsorship has plunged 64% to just £6 million ($7.

Dutch production house Endemol is no longer going to be making cult reality TV show Big Brother for Viacom’s UK terrestrial channel, Channel 5. It announced that it was “disappointed not to reach an agreement with Channel 5”, following Channel 5’s admission to the BBC that “the forthcoming series of Big Brother will be the last – of either celebrity or civilian versions ­– on Channel 5”.

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 to reliably deliver high-demand premium sports events to paying sports fans.

Facebook, the latest tech major to get involved with sports streaming, last week agreed its first ever rights deal with the English Premier league (EPL). This deal signified another step towards the transition away from traditional broadcasters and to digital streaming services.

Chinese tech giant Tencent, the company that 12 months ago you probably were not paying attention to, is now the second largest messaging app ecosystem globally, behind Facebook. Tencent is the only company currently monetising its digital consumer base effectively.

Last week, Disney-owned ESPN acquired the exclusive rights to show the UFC tournament in the US for $1.5 billion over five years. The deal will see the UFC earn $184 million more each year than the previous deal with Fox, which begs the question; is the UFC mimicking Fox’s strategy and cashing in on its content? While Endeavor (formerly WME-IMG), which purchased the UFC for $4 billion in 2016, was seeking in the region of $450 million per year, UFC president Dana White is ecstatic with the new deal, telling MMAJunkie: “Our last deal was $116 million a year.

Facebook launched‘Music Stories’ for iPhone users who use Spotify or Apple Music with more hardware and listening options to follow. Music Stories let’s you share 30 second music snippets from Spotify and Apple Music.