UEFA Champions League blog by MIDiA Research

Blog: UEFA Champions League

The crowd still matters for live sports broadcasting

Blog post by Tim Mulligan

17 Jun 2021

Euro 2020

At opposite sides of the globe, two top-flight international football events have kicked off over the last week. In semi-vaccinated Europe the month-long Euro 2020 tournament began on Friday June 11th,...

Watch Together: BT Sport adapts to lockdown, offering synchronised group streaming

Blog post by Alistair Taylor

4 Feb 2021

BT Sport

telco

The pandemic-enforced prohibition of fans in attendance at sporting events has weakened the viewing spectacle, forcing rights holders and operators to experiment with the viewing experience. The NHL pioneered...

Why DAZN is adapting to German consumer nuances with linear and digital bets

Blog post by Alistair Taylor

22 Oct 2020

AZN

sport-centric

SVOD

DAZN’s recently-established position as the ‘Netflix of sport’ has been a hard fought one, requiring extensive rights investment in order to carve out a compelling proposition. In the markets where...

German Bundesliga faces 20% decline in value for its international rights

Blog post by Alistair Taylor

1 Oct 2020

Bundesliga

premier league

EPL

German business publisher Sponsors has announced the German Football League (DFL) is facing a 20% decline in the total value of its overseas’ broadcast rights for the 2020/21 campaign. This is down from...

Can LiveScore learn valuable lessons from Eleven Sports’ UK failings?

Blog post by Alistair Taylor

24 Aug 2020

streaming service

LiveScore

OTT

Streaming insurgent LiveScore launched its first ever over-the-top (OTT), ad-supported direct-to-consumer (D2C) streaming proposition in the UK back in June, harbouring a similar rights portfolio to that...

DAZN’s belated UK launch: Can it avoid Eleven Sports’ 'mistake’?

Blog post by Alistair Taylor

24 Jul 2020

Video

Sports

Media & Marketing

DAZN, the anointed ‘Netflix of Sport’, has announced plans to resume launching its services globally via a beta service covering boxing bouts In July and August, for users who have registered their...

Reach for the win: BT Sport to air UEFA Champions League final on YouTube

Blog post by Alistair Taylor

23 Jul 2020

Video

Sports

Media & Marketing

UK pay-TV incumbent BT Sport has announced it will air this year’s (COVID-delayed) UEFA Champions League (UCL) final free-to-air (FTA) on Google-owned YouTube. YouTube’s head of sport in EMEA, Tomos...

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...

Can BT Lay the Smackdown on Its Rivals?

Blog post by Alistair Taylor

3 Jan 2020

addressable audience

broadcast

This Saturday at 1am GMT BT will debut its live broadcast for WWE Smackdown, having acquired the exclusive rights from long-term UK broadcaster Sky in June 2019 . This signalled the end of Sky’s tenure...

Amazon One - Family Christmas Nil

Blog post by Alistair Taylor

18 Dec 2019

addressable audience

AFC Bournemouth

ageing audience

Ever since the English Premier League (EPL) awarded rights to tech major Amazon in June 2018, the excitement for December 2019 and how Amazon’s live stream delivery would pan out has been palpable. The...

BT Sport’s Key Ingredient for Competing in an Increasingly Saturated Landscape

Blog post by Alistair Taylor

22 Nov 2019

American football

basketball

broadcast audience

The strategic dilemma as to whether rights holders should seek revenue over reach when allocating domestic rights is inevitably impacted by how dependent services are on premium rights for securing subscriber...

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 Cricket the New ‘Greatest Show on Turf’?

Blog post by 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...

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...

ESPN+ leverages UFC appeal to double subscriber base to 2 million in five months

Blog post by Alistair Taylor

8 Feb 2019

BAMTech

combat sports

direct-to-consumer

Disney announced in its Q1 earnings call on Tuesday that its sports-centric streaming service ESPN+ had surpassed two million subscribers, doubling its subscriber base in less than five months. Launched...

Eleven Sports Loses Serie A Rights As Partnership With IMG Ends

Blog post by Alistair Taylor

1 Feb 2019

Allsvenskan

audience acquisition

Bundesliga

Eleven Sports, the fledgling sports-centric streaming service has lost the UK and Irish rights for Serie A and Eredivisie, following a strategic decision to ‘amicably’ end its partnership with international...

Can Eleven Sports Disrupt the UK Sports Video Landscape?

Blog post by Alistair Taylor

19 Jul 2018

Allsvenskan

broadcasters

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...

Facebook Gets Further Into Premium Sports Content

Blog post by Tim Mulligan

30 Jun 2017

facebook

Fox

Fox Go

The UEFA Champions League is coming to Facebook for the 2017-2018 season. Facebook is partnering with Fox Sports to live stream next season’s games starting in September, via the TV network’s Facebook...