John Griffiths, chief commercial officer at Spicy Mango, takes a look at the sports broadcasting landscape and why segmented subscriptions are likely to be the future of sports consumption
By Contributor
Published: May 20, 2022 Updated: May 23, 2022
John Griffiths, chief commercial officer at Spicy Mango, takes a look at the sports broadcasting landscape and why segmented subscriptions are likely to be the future of sports consumption
target=_blank title=Share on LinkedIn class=share-linkedin>
Sport as an entertainment genre like film or TV has been emerging for a couple of decades, especially here in Europe. Once Sky started to pay big money for exclusive TV rights for the Premier League the landscape changed. Sports like rugby turned professional for the first time and tried to compete, initially unsuccessfully, with football for a share of the cash and audience.
However, now private equity and other investors have spotted the underperformance in terms of commercial value for some sports, their investments are beginning to show the direction of travel to maximise that untapped value.
The question though, is it all good for the sport and the fans? A recent example of this is in rugby, and specifically the English Premiership. Channel 5 was the home of the weekly highlights show until their contract was not renewed for this current season, meaning that the only way to watch the Premiership was through BT Sport, the sole holder of the live rights and highlights. Then came an announcement in January 2022 that the Premiership Rugby will return to free-to-air with ITV with a new highlights show and they will show four live matches this season as well as the season final in June, live on ITV4.
Premiership Rugby chief executive Simon Massie-Taylor said: Our ambition is to grow the game and make Gallagher Premiership Rugby available to as many people as possible. BT Sport have done an amazing job in building the core Premiership Rugby TV audience and the ITV partnership allows us to expand our reach into the households of millions of other rugby fans. This season our average match audience on BT Sport has risen 30 per cent year on year, which shows the potential.'
We also want to make the Gallagher Premiership Rugby Final 2022 the most-watched in our history and we believe we can achieve that with the match screened on both ITV4 and BT Sport. A phenomenal proposition for English club rugby's showpiece occasion.
Despite the good news that ITV is now bringing regular free-to-air coverage of top-level club rugby to viewers across its platforms, there are other aspects to consider about the future of rugby and sports in general.
What about other sports? We can also consider the English and Wales Cricket Board's (ECB) new competition that rolled out in the summer of 2021, The Hundred. A new format of the game, not dissimilar to Twenty20 that launched in 2003. The aim of this new format was to attract new audiences both attending live and watching on free to air broadcast TV on the BBC.
Why, if the revenue from selling media rights to subscription TV platforms has been so good for so long, do these major sports and their commercially focused investors now feel the need to reach a wider audience on free to air TV?
The answer lies in the fact that whilst selling media rights to pay-TV has brought much needed investment and stability to these major sports the viewing audiences are relatively small. The knock-on effect is that a whole generation of young people have missed out watching these mainstream sports and consequently have not had heroes to admire and imitate in their back gardens and on into local clubs and the development pathways.
It feels as though there has been an awakening that in the not-too-distant future unless a new audience can be engaged there will be no new TV money as subscriptions dry up and media values decrease.
A welcome return to free to air So it is with some optimism that more sports are now being made available on free-to- air platforms. For those fans who become more engaged they will have a choice to pay more if they'd like to watch more of game and matches by taking out that pay-TV subscription.
When a fan is ready to pay more for this exclusive content then broadcasters will need a broader engagement strategy to deliver them what they want, where they want it and when they want it. Choice and flexibility are key to winning that fan's share of wallet when it comes to where they spend their subscription pounds or dollars.
In particular, cricket and rugby, have already acknowledged that audience attention spans are shorter and have developed short format versions of their sports to address this.
This is not just a millennial issue, all of our attention spans have changed to be shorter but across many more entertainment channels. We can so easily be drawn down the rabbit hole of Instagram, TikTok or YouTube watching short videos on our favourite topics for hours.
Broadcasters have to find a new ways to interrupt these random distractions and create a compelling narrative to entice fans in, for the initial short form and then into longer programming. However, it's all about the what, when and where. Content snacking on the move with short 3-5 min highlight reels linking to longer 10-15 mins packages all available online and a 60 min broadcast package for free to air TV.
The live experience can be made premium through subscription. F1 and Sky have done this well by providing a deeper fan engagement experience for subscribers with multiple camera angles, additional data not available to the casual viewer watching a shorter highlights show on free to air broadcast.
Evolution or revolution? Fan engagement is a long-term play for sports and clubs. There has been a shift in fan attitudes towards watching sport on digita
Europe Stories
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
04/08/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...
04/07/2026
April 7 2026, 19:00 (PDT) Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway Opens in...
01/06/2026
January 6 2026, 05:30 (PST) Dolby Sets the New Standard for Premium Entertainment at CES 2026
Throughout the week, Dolby brings to life the latest innovatio...
09/05/2026
New desktop instrument focused on tactile performance
Bastl Instruments have announced Kalimba, a new desktop instrument that combines physical modelling, F...
09/05/2026
Compact sampling workstation gains new features
1010music have announced blackbox 2, a new version of their compact standalone sampler designed for DAWless ...
08/05/2026
One-button synth generates random four-track ideas
Cyma Forma and French artist Bambounou have announced RND synth, a compact hardware synthesizer built aro...
08/05/2026
Portable four-layer granular and sampling instrument
Tasty Chips have announced the GR-2, a new granular synthesizer and sampling instrument that combines e...
08/05/2026
Video Show Report
Video of SUPERBOOTH 26: Polyend Drums
Polyends big announcement for Superbooth 2026 is the Drums, a new drum machine that features both ...
08/05/2026
Deal agreed as NI enters new chapter
Native Instruments CEO Nick Williams has announced that a definitive agreement has been signed for the company to be ac...
08/05/2026
Video Show Report
Video of SUPERBOOTH 26: Erica Bullfrog Drums
The Bullfrog Drums is the latest collaboration between Erica Synths and Richie Hawtin, and ...
08/05/2026
In our latest blog, Tim Pearson reflects on the recent launch of Play Snooker, the new digital home of snooker by the World Professional Billiards and Snooker A...
08/05/2026
Pete reunites with Dogs Trust for a fourth series and a two-part overseas special
London, Friday 8th May 2026: The award winning factual entertainment series P...
08/05/2026
Wuppertal May 8, 2026
Riedel to Support Glasgow 2026 as Official Connectivity Integration Provider Riedel Communications today announced its return as a spons...
08/05/2026
ICG is excited to share news of our official launch in Northern Ireland, marking a significant milestone in the agency's growth.
Led by Digital Marketing M...
08/05/2026
Over the past ten years, Thames Water, in partnership with Arqiva, has installed more than 1.2 million smart meters, creating one of the most extensive advanced...
07/05/2026
Journalists reporting on Sudan are working in one of the most complex and fast-m...
07/05/2026
Seit dem Start im Jahr 2023 hat DJ (Beta) das personalisierte H rerlebnis von 94...
07/05/2026
Da quando stata presentata nel 2023, DJ (beta) ha aiutato a definire un'esperienza d'ascolto pi personalizzata per 94 milioni di utenti Spotify Premi...
07/05/2026
Since launching in 2023, DJ (beta) has helped shape a more personalized listenin...
07/05/2026
Desde o lan amento em 2023, o DJ (beta) j ajudou a deixar a experi ncia de ouvi...
07/05/2026
From our earliest days, Spotify has been built on a simple principle: Great audio should be easy to reach. It's what's driven us to expand from music to...
07/05/2026
Asian and Pacific Islander artists continue to shape the global soundscape, pushing creative boundaries and connecting with fans worldwide. This Asian & Pacific...
07/05/2026
Company announce long-requested choir instrument
In the latest expansion of their Symphonic Elements series, UJAM have introduced an all-new vocal instrumen...
07/05/2026
Modular-inspired sound generation with digital control
Buchla have introduced Ziggy, a new compact synthesizer built around the company's complex oscill...
07/05/2026
Combines analogue voices with digital synthesis and sequencing
Polyend have announced Drums, a new hybrid analogue and digital drum machine that combines sy...
07/05/2026
Control surface now officially supports four DAWs
When Nektar launched the Panorama CS12 control surface, it worked exclusively with Apple's Logic Pro, ...
07/05/2026
In the first quarter 2026, SGL Carbon generated consolidated sales of 184.5 million, which was 49.8 million, or 21.3%, lower than in the prior year (Q1 2025: ...
07/05/2026
Rohde & Schwarz and Greenerwave achieve precise and fast ESA antenna characteriz...
07/05/2026
January 8, 2024
Colorfront (colorfront.com), a leader in high-performance, on-s...
07/05/2026
February 9, 2024
Colorfront (colorfront.com), the multi-award-winning pioneer i...
07/05/2026
March 20, 2024
NAB 2024, Las Vegas - Colorfront (colorfront.com), the multi-awa...
07/05/2026
April 1, 2025
CINEMACON, APRIL 1, 2025 - Colorfront (colorfront.com), the multi-award-winning developer of high-performance dailies/transcoding/streaming syste...
07/05/2026
June 15, 2025
Colorfront (colorfront.com), an Academy and Emmy Award-winning de...
07/05/2026
June 15, 2025
Colorfront participated in the ICTA Barcelona Cinema Technology Summit on Sunday, June 15, 2025. Held at The Phenomena Experience, the event feat...
07/05/2026
July 1, 2025
Colorfront (colorfront.com), the multi-award-winning developer of high-performance dailies/transcoding/streaming systems for motion pictures, OTT,...
07/05/2026
July 1, 2025
Passion and dedication will take you places. Come with us on a short trip to the heart of India, where Annapurna Studios is living-up to the inspi...
07/05/2026
July 3, 2025
Colorfront (colorfront.com), the multi-award-winning developer of high-performance dailies/transcoding/streaming systems for motion pictures, OTT,...
07/05/2026
September 1, 2025
IBC 2025, Amsterdam - Colorfront (colorfront.com) - the Acade...
07/05/2026
April 17, 2026
LOS ANGELES - April 17, 2026 - Colorfront today announced Colorf...
07/05/2026
April 23, 2026
NAB 2026, Las Vegas - the Academy and Emmy Award-winning develop...
07/05/2026
Comscore to Announce First Quarter 2026 Financial ResultsRESTON, Va., May 7, 2026 - Comscore, Inc. (Nasdaq: SCOR), a trusted partner for planning, transacting a...
07/05/2026
Thursday 7 May 2026
Sky continues Sphere Abacus partnership with The Death of S...
07/05/2026
Thursday 7 May 2026
Sky Confirms Saturday Night Live UK will return this September for Series Two
Saturday Night Live UK will return for a second series, as S...
07/05/2026
Save 20% on the Sky Glass Gen 2 and Sky Glass Air TVsThursday 7 May 2026
How to watch the World Cup on Sky Glass
Tune into the World Cup on the BBC and ITV vi...
07/05/2026
Production sound mixer Dirk Sciarrotta has mixed Family Feud for 28 seasons. Thats up to 200 syndicated episodes per year, plus primetime celebrity specials - a...
07/05/2026
As audience expectations have evolved, Owen has stopped trying to hide microphones or excuse amplification. Instead, he treats sound as a fully immersive part o...
07/05/2026
Well known Irish faces pushed to the edge in new series of
Uncharted with Ray G...
07/05/2026
RT will premiere A Traveller Family, a compelling new documentary exploring the...
John Griffiths, chief commercial officer at Spicy Mango, takes a look at the sports broadcasting landscape and why segmented subscriptions are likely to be the future of sports consumption
