//// SPECIAL REPORT By Rodrigo Cantisano
SPORTELMonaco: Old game, new rules On its 29th edition of SPORTELMonaco, held this year from October 22 to 24 at the Grimaldi Forum, seeks to keep positioning itself as one of the main hubs for the world of sports’ business within the audiovisual sector. In 2017, were over 3,000 executives, from 1,048 companies, from which 25% where broadcasters, and 24% sports programming distributors, showing the relevance of audiovisual on a business that is growing every year, not only for traditional players. Describes Dan Reed, head of Global Sports Partnerships, Facebook: ‘Our platform has 650 million sports fans but this is a new landscape and it’s changing fast. So part of our role is to show broadcasters and rights holders how they can use our platform to support existing and future businesses.’ According to a research from CSG, even when Pay TV is still the main niche for sports, with 71% of global consumers choosing to watch live sports through cable subscriptions, mainly in their home (69%), streaming live events on mobile devices continues to become increasingly commonplace in the digital world, trailing 18% on streaming services, and 11% on mobile. In the US, for example, Millennials and Gen Z, are increasingly turning to alternative sources, with nearly one out of four (24%) leveraging streaming services such as Dish’s Sling TV for their live sports consumption. For this reason, not
Key figures, by global involvement
Source: Sportel
only global OTT platforms like Amazon are betting on sports (invested USD 40M on the UK rights to the US Open), but also local ones like Star India’s Hotstar, which offers 100,000 hours of contents including sports events like ICC and IPL cricket. One of the reasons is that, as in other sectors of the audiovisual industry, consumers are
Key figures, by sectors of activities
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seeking new ways to enhance the experience through new apps and information like interviews, data, special camera angles, etc. But this doesn’t means necessarily distraction, considering that a 59% of audience is committed to watch full games, regardless of how long it may go. Consumers primarily tap social platforms and other online resources for the consumption of other sports related content, not only for current games (42%), but also relevant stats from other matches (37%). However, is important to understand that this multiplatform environment, offers new engagement opportunities, but on a less receptive and tolerant to intrusive ads. When asked what types of services they would be willing to pay more for, 64% of respondents of CSG’s study said that they would not pay extra for any of these features. Of those that would pay extra, less intrusive advertising was the most popular choice at 18.5%. If given the option to tailor their own personalised viewing package, consumers indicated a nearly equal preference for