Deutsche Fussball Liga Enhances International Engagement With AR, New Perspectives By Michael Burns
Tuesday, August 23, 2022 - 11:19 am
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The media business of football leagues has been fundamentally changing for at least the past 20 years. But this structural realignment is offering new opportunities for clubs, fans, broadcasters, the leagues themselves and the companies that service and provide digital support and broadcast facilities for them all.
These trends were very much in evidence at the Red Bull Arena, home of RB Leipzig, and host to the Supercup 2022 title game against FC Bayern Munich. At a media day preceding the match, representatives of the Deutsche Fussball Liga (DFL), the Bundesliga and the two clubs, as well as technology partners and broadcasters, were able to showcase, discuss and predict the changes in the media business of football.
In the past, we as a league were basically selling media rights to broadcasters, and the fans were watching the end product, says Steffen Merkel, member of the management board and EVP of audiovisual rights at DFL. That meant that with the selling process the job of the league was more or less over; the broadcasters were assembling a unidirectional product and delivering it to the customers - the fans - who didn't have the chance to interact with the media product. It was less complex and a bit easier, but also offered fewer opportunities than we and the fans see today.
While live broadcast of course remains key, representing an 85% share of the DFL's domestic media rights revenue, the opportunities today include what Merkel refers to as sports content solutions .
We are engineering ready-made products, highlight clips, live matches with comments and graphics that we're delivering ready-made, especially to the international broadcasters to increase the international exposure of the league and maximise the product quality, he says. It's not all about broadcasters anymore, but media partners; it's not only linear channels but also their OTT solutions and social media channels that they need content for and that we need to equip them with. And, of course, the fans do not only watch anymore, but they also participate and engage with the product. That interaction offers a lot of new opportunities for us in terms of product development, but [at the same time] it's far more complex than it has been in the past as well.
Home and away
Following a panel session on The international growth of the Bundesliga and its clubs', SVG Europe discussed new ways of reaching Bundesliga fans in Germany and abroad with Andreas Jung, executive board member for FC Bayern Munich, and Evelyn Holderbach, director of sustainability and international development at RB Leipzig.
We are engineering ready-made products, highlight clips, live matches with comments and graphics that we're delivering ready-made, especially to the international broadcasters to increase the international exposure of the league and maximise the product quality
Jung was adamant that the lessons in digital strategy learned during the lockdowns of the past couple of years and, in particular, the new reliance on technology to connect with the global Bundesliga audience when teams couldn't tour, would continue.
We had experience of using digital routes due to COVID where we had no other choice, he says. We had the [real world] tour in the US. But our fans in Asia, who couldn't see us for three years, were informed about every step we made. It's a compromise, but it's a very good one.
This hybrid approach continues to offer benefits today. Now it's more or less become a platform, he continues. You can promote a tour much better, set out everything you want to do on there. The fans are much more aware of what is happening, and this helps everyone. You can control your strategy better. The fans want to see and talk to the players, so if you can arrange and prepare it in advance, you can fulfil all the requests. I think [going forward] it's not possible to do it without digital support.
It helps the players too. You can't always take a player here, there and everywhere, but if you have digital material that you have prepared, you can send it and [present] him live', says Jung. The [profile] awareness is higher for the player, but the stress is less.
When we suggest further innovation would see players using VR to teleport' for wider social engagement, Jung agrees. Maybe you could talk to the player in the metaverse, he says. Maybe you could watch a whole match in the metaverse. The stadium is sold out, but you're sitting in a virtual arena with millions of fans. That could happen, and with one tour we can conquer the whole world, he laughs.
Jung feels that technology like VR will let Bayern, and the whole Bundesliga, achieve greater reach outside Germany. We have millions of fans, but only a [relative] few can travel, because no stadium has that big a capacity, he says. With this one [metaverse] match, more people will know the Bundesliga. And as we reach more fans across the world, there's a financial advantage in the end. The effort required is small in relation to that benefit.
Evelyn Holderbach, director of sustainability & international development at RB Leipzig
Leipzig's Holderbach was also keen on applying technology for greater fan engagement. There is a strong interest in new perspectives in broadcasting, especially in the US and especially for young target groups, where they also play video games, she explains. They have so many more angles and they are used to faster cuts and faster movements. They're more into highlights, so if we want to address the younger target groups, we should definitely go that way.
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Deutsche Fussball Liga Enhances International Engagement With AR, New Perspectives By Michael Burns 
