Sports OTT: A new frontier for Magine Pro
It’s been a busy year at Magine Pro. We’ve attended some of the biggest industry events, including two of the most insightful in Sports broadcast/OTT recently, Sportel in Monaco and the Sports Pro OTT Summit in Madrid. Here are our thoughts on the Sports OTT market after engaging with the industry professionals and thought leaders.
We were delighted to take a stand at Sportel for our first time, and met with multiple rights holders, some who have launched, or dipped a toe in the OTT water, and others who are ready to go. Luke Boyle, Magine Pro’s CCO, noted a distinct move from those below the 1st tier (in regards to either geographic location or content) being ready to take advantage of a direct to consumer offering. He noted in particular how over his years of working in OTT the questions have changed. Questions like, “does it work and how?”, are now, “how do we monetize? what is the best content? which devices resonate greatest?’. He believes there is a more mature understanding of the requirements for OTT and the business positives. It’s not just revenues, but cross-marketing, fan interaction and engagement, new sponsorship activation opportunities, and more.
Sportel itself has changed, as the traditional rights sales market of some 25 years standing, is now much more than that. Conversations abound across the stands about OTT solutions and in particular, how to address the younger viewer (a problem for many sports). Similarly, multiple stands were showcasing their OTT ‘channels’ alongside their content for sale to traditional and OTT broadcasters.
At the more specific OTT event, the SportsPro OTT Summit this year, it was clear from the sheer increase of rights holders in attendance, that this industry continues to develop rapidly. Again many of the 1st tier rights owners and broadcasters were on stage offering best-practice advice. And while incredibly difficult to do, their thoughts on the future. The consensus is that OTT remains a game-changer, and continues to evolve, and live sports, in particular, remains a core driver. The questions are still, will we see aggregation? And if so, by who and how? Will there be global and local services? Niche content alongside premium or separate? AVOD or SVOD? – It seems the US is more ready for the former, while EMEA and most of the rest of the World (outside of huge Asian hubs) plump for the latter.
Conversations and debate around content were commonplace, short-form VOD, short-form or long-form highlights, and indeed live. There is no clear answer, each sport, each market, and each device requires thought and planning. Of course, the beauty of OTT means that analysis of success or otherwise is significantly more readily available. One thing is for certain though and was at the center of every conversation, there is a triangle of success (as we like to call it) – great content, great tech, and strong marketing. The latter is perhaps an oft-understated necessity for a successful OTT platform.
One of the more exciting outcomes to occur over the course of the events was Magine Pro picking up its latest sports client. Recently launched, we will be talking about that much more soon! Sign up to our newsletter now, to stay up to date on our latest news and to find out which industry events we’ll be attending next.
You can also find out more about Magine Pro video streaming services, and in particular how we can help you build your own OTT business, here. Head to our experience page to see our case studies and learn more about how we’ve helped our partners build successful and global OTT businesses.
