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
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
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...
02/05/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...
01/05/2026
January 5 2026, 18:30 (PST) NBCUniversal's Peacock to Be First Streamer to ...
07/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
07/04/2026
Frequency, the engine behind many of the world's leading streaming television channels, at NAB 2026 will be launching new Studio services to help content ow...
07/04/2026
Ikegami USA has chosen NAB 2026 in Las Vegas as the launch platform for new additions to its range of broadcast-quality television production equipment. These w...
07/04/2026
April 19, 2026, Las Vegas Kiloview, an innovative provider of AV-over-IP technologies, will showcase its latest broadcast IP solutions at NAB 2026, presenting...
07/04/2026
Bitmovin has announced support for Server-Guided Ad Insertion (SGAI) across its playback products using HLS interstitials, enabling more advanced ad-supported s...
07/04/2026
Synamedia is unveiling AI by Quortex at The NAB show, a just-in-time AI plugin framework that applies intelligence only when needed across video processing, dis...
07/04/2026
Cuez will showcase four additions to its cloud-based newsroom, rundown and automation platform at NAB Show 2026 (April 18 22, Las Vegas, Booth N1867):
Cuez ...
07/04/2026
CueScript to Showcase Innovations at NAB that Add Mobility Options, Ease Editing...
07/04/2026
Barix Extends Transport Options for Multi-Engine IP Encoder
Brie Clayton April 7, 2026
0 Comments
New for NAB, Barix adds SRT and RIST support to Mult...
07/04/2026
Elite Media Technologies Selects Interra Systems' BATON File-Based QC Soluti...
07/04/2026
Tightrope Media Systems to Debut Cablecast LiveBridge for Simultaneous Streaming...
07/04/2026
Cuez Brings Four New Innovations to NAB 2026: From Story-Centric Newsroom to Ope...
07/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
07/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
07/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
07/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
07/04/2026
Designed for synchronized multi-stream playback, low-latency delivery, and real-time analytics, MATCH introduces a unified viewing experience for sports broadca...
07/04/2026
Berklee Students to Honor George Martin with Performance of Original Scores The orchestra, led by associate professor Xander Rovang, will perform several work...
07/04/2026
THE GAA CHAMPIONSHIPS ARE BACK WITH A BANG
LIVE AND FREE TO AIR ACROSS ALL RT PLATFORMS
The Sunday Game and The Sunday Game Live return on Sunday 12 April
L...
06/04/2026
Michigan legends bring a new voice to the broadcast as TNT Sports and CBS Sports...
06/04/2026
From high school sports all the way up to the major leagues, building high-quali...
06/04/2026
Quickplay, an AI company for the media and entertainment industry, has been accepted into the Advanced tier of the TwelveLabs Ecosystem Partner Program. Quickpl...
06/04/2026
Grass Valley has announced the Future Playmakers Program, a global initiative to...
06/04/2026
El l der de operaciones impulsa la producci n en estudio mientras encuentra insp...
06/04/2026
The ops leader helps lead the charge in studio for the Spanish-language broadcas...
06/04/2026
Behind The Mic provides a roundup of recent news regarding on-air talent, includ...
06/04/2026
The National Hockey League (NHL), in partnership with Verizon and the New Jersey Devils, today announced the opening of the NHL Innovation Lab powered by Verizo...
06/04/2026
Rock League, a new professional curling league, has announced that ESPN+ will stream its inaugural 2026 season for fans in the United States. The first Rock Lea...
06/04/2026
Advanced Systems Group has announced the appointment of Andrea (Andy) Cummis as Vice President of Systems Design and Engineering. In this role, she will lead de...
06/04/2026
Backed by Bolt Ventures, the venture brings Bryson DeChambeau, Grant Horvat, and...
06/04/2026
With this environment we can start that collaboration even earlier because we ca...
06/04/2026
Like the immortal lives of vampires, some stories never really end. That's t...
06/04/2026
As podcasting continues to evolve, growth increasingly means building beyond aud...
06/04/2026
Multiband dynamics plug-in enhanced
California-based developer FSK Audio have released a significant update for their innovative multiband dynamics processo...
06/04/2026
Share official & user-created full-rig presets
IK Multimedia's latest TONEX update makes it possible for users of the popular amp and effects modelling ...
06/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
06/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
06/04/2026
Dalet Showcases Dalia Agentic AI and End-to-End Media Workflows at NAB Show 2026
Brie Clayton April 6, 2026
0 Comments
Dalet, a leading technology and...
06/04/2026
OpenDrives Shows Off Sports Expertise in Sports Business Hub located in NAB Show...
06/04/2026
Proton to Demonstrate 3D Application at NAB 2026
Brie Clayton April 6, 2026
0 Comments
Yet further creative potential unleashed through innovation in ...
06/04/2026
Autoscript Highlights Voice-Driven Prompting and PTZ Solutions at NAB 2026
Brie Clayton April 6, 2026
0 Comments
Experience Autoscript Voice, PTZ prom...
06/04/2026
Mediaproxy Highlights Significant Enhancements to its LogServer suite at NAB Sho...
06/04/2026
Wayne, N.J., April 6th, 2026 Phantom High-Speed announces the release of PCC 4...
06/04/2026
April 6th, 2026
TRIBECA STUDIOS AND LILLY ANNOUNCE WINNERS OF INAUGURAL VITAL...
06/04/2026
Back to All News
Netflix Expands Kids Entertainment Lineup With Playground App ...
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
