Blog: Sports - Page 8

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.

ESPN+, Disney’s sports-centric streaming video on demand (SVOD) service, has gained more than one million paying subscribers in just over five months following its launch in April 2018 , with Kevin Mayer, chairman, Direct-To-Consumer and International, The Walt Disney Company announcing : “Reaching one million paid subscribers is an important milestone for any video subscription service, but reaching this benchmark in such a short amount of time is an incredible testament to the teams from DTCI and ESPN who have worked tirelessly to bring this product to market and continually improve it since our April launch.

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.

Nike’s choice to use Colin Kaepernick as one of the faces of its Just Do It slogan anniversary campaign is the latest – but as yet unmatched in scale – step in overt brand politics. The issue which Nike has just dived into, has to be one of the most profoundly personal and local – and at the same time, national-conscience defining – issues of US politics on the table today.

Amazon’s latest play into the TV ad market with the launch of Free Dive, an ad-supported video service for Fire TV users, showcases the company’s intent to further diversify revenue streams from its video services, pushing into advertising video on demand (AVOD).

Sports entertainment disruptor Eleven Sports has been making headway over the previous 12 months with a series of notable acquisitions of premium sports rights in non-premium markets. Eleven’s business model involves building a next-generation direct-to-consumer proposition through a contract-free on-demand sports streaming service.

The sports landscape fundamentally changed when tech major Amazon won the exclusive rights to package F in the landmark English Premier League (EPL) rights deal in June. The acquisition of key rights previously held by traditional TV networks represents the culmination of a succession of market shifts: Declining traditional broadcast sports viewingAn ageing TV sports audienceTransition of sports consumption to online and mobile,The emergence of SVOD sports services In light of this downturn and a fall in the consumption of sports content on traditional linear TV, moves are being made into the subscription video on demand (SVOD) space, with Disney’s new direct-to-consumer flagship sports SVOD service ESPN+ leading the charge.

Eleven Sports is a global sports content provider intent on global expansion. Already established in Belgium, Italy, Luxembourg, Poland, Singapore, Taiwan and the US. Eleven is systematically acquiring new rights to increase its value proposition before launching local channels into new target markets.

The football World Cup – historically the world’s biggest international sporting event by viewership, kicked off last Thursday (14 June) in Moscow, with host nation Russia dispatching Saudi Arabia 5-0.

Following the landmark rights deal that saw the English Premier League (EPL) sell domestic rights to the tech major Amazon, the sports landscape has fundamentally changed. For the first time the EPL has sold domestic digital rights, allowing for matches to be live streamed on Amazon Prime.

Today is a historic day for the English Premier League, the most followed and the most valuable football league internationally. Back in February, when the 2019–2022 EPL domestic rights were auctioned off for a combined £4.

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.

Last month’s NBA 2K partnership announcement between Take Two Interactive (the publisher for the NBA 2K video game) and Twitch to livestream all the new NBA 2K league on its platform was yet another milestone in the rise of e-sports as a content destination in its own right.

In December, we wrote about a deal that brought the NBA’s G League (minor league) live matches to Twitch. Now Twitch’s focus on basketball is about to extend further, though this time it will be through video games, as it was announced that the platform will live stream all matches of the NBA 2K League in 2018.

On 12 April Disney will launch ESPN+ into an increasingly competitive market. The move forms part of Disney’s stated aim to reach consumers directly, following on from the creation of a dedicated direct-to-consumer and international business unit established last month.

Yesterday the English Premier League (EPL) announced the winners of its triennial domestic TV broadcast rights. As expected the two incumbent rights holders (Sky and BT) retained their privileges to cover the competition domestically.

This is a big week for the English Premier League with the bid submissions for the 2019-2022 broadcast rights due to be delivered tomorrow. The Premier League is the world’s most lucrative football league, with 14 of the 30 largest revenue generating clubs competing in the league.