Imagen CEO Charlie Horrell outlines his predictions for 2020
Contributor 4 hours ago
Imagen CEO Charlie Horrell outlines his predictions for 2020
target=_blank title=Share on LinkedIn class=share-linkedin> Imagen CEO Charlie Horrell outlines his predictions for 2020
https://www.tvbeurope.com/features/2020-the-year-sports-will-go-direct-to-consumer title=Share via Email class=share-email>
The way sports fans consume media has changed dramatically over recent years. No longer are they reliant on watching live broadcasts on TV or having to avoid seeing the score until they can watch highlight shows in the evening. Instead, almost a third of sports fans are streaming live sports to their phone or tablet and 2018's FIFA World Cup saw record numbers of fans streaming games. As broadcasters and sports federations adapt to this change in viewing habits, a growing number are developing their own over-the-top (OTT) services. For instance, sports fans can now subscribe to the NBA's League Pass, Formula One's F1 TV Pro or the NFL's Game Pass to access live streams of events, as well as exclusive content such as interviews, whilst streaming service FloSports provides access to niche sports like bowls and cycling. Meanwhile, in a survey of sports industry executives, Imagen found that almost half (46 per cent) said their organisation is investing or planning to invest in the launch of a direct-to-consumer (DTC) streaming product in the future.
Over the course of the next year, when traditional broadcast deals come to an end, the DTC approach will become more popular. Launching a DTC platform is a fraction of the cost it once was and is easier than ever to set up. Arguably, niche sports have more to gain by addressing the consumer directly via OTT solutions, because their events won't be subject to the priorities and schedules of the linear channels.
What can sports gain by going DTC?
A major benefit of sports associations developing OTT platforms is that they can promote a deeper engagement with their fans. While they already have deals with various broadcasters, a dedicated OTT service provides a more direct relationship with the audience. For sports organisations, a tailored, branded OTT platform provides an efficient way to engage with a geographically fragmented fan base, no matter where they live, unconstrained by TV schedules. It enables them to own and manage the entire user experience, helping to reinforce the brand while gathering valuable customer data. DTC channels are easier to market via social media, which is often an intrinsic part of the service and the sports also stand to increase revenues by being paid directly by the consumer.
Additionally, DTC initiatives allow sports broadcasters and federations to play into the consumer trend of subscribing to OTT platforms such as Netflix. From a customer perspective, OTT services are supremely convenient and their popularity is evidenced by the number of new OTT services currently being launched, including Apple TV+. Fans can choose the content they want to watch, when they want to watch it, and on their preferred device. OTT can also deliver concurrent streams, offering a choice of viewpoints, as well as information and live data. Motorsport fans, for example, may have a number of screens open to view multiple camera angles, as well as lap times and race statistics.
Making DTC a success
While creating a DTC offering is fairly cheap and easy to set up, some niche sports platforms launching in 2020 will struggle to attract wide audiences, meaning this approach won't be economically viable in the long-term. Therefore, some of these platforms may attempt to forge alliances with other services to offer bundling'. This approach has been adopted by other streaming services including Disney+ in the US, which is offering customers a bundle alongside ESPN+ and Hulu, and means that for a set fee a user can gain access to all three platforms. If these partnerships mean that the fee is only slightly more than paying for just one platform, it could encourage more sports fans to sign up, helping to prop up DTC services that may struggle alone. Alternatively, smaller DTC offerings could be picked up by bigger sports organisations and integrated into their current offering.
DTC services are revolutionising sports media. In 2020, sports associations, federations, leagues and even individual teams that adopt a Cloud-based media management platform to create their own DTC offering will realise greater value from their content. While not all will succeed in reaching a big enough audience to make this economically viable, those that do will be able to use the platform to create their own narrative and provide a better, more direct service to an engaged, tech-savvy fan base. Though the DTC model might create some competitive tension within the world of sports broadcasting, it's fair to say that, for the foreseeable future, more than one consumer model can exist at the same time in each market.
SubscribeFor more stories like this, and to keep up to date with all our market leading news, features and analysis, sign up to our newsletter here.
Most recent headlines
06/10/2025
France T l visions, France's leading broadcaster, has received the 2025 EBU ...
04/09/2025
Monumental Sports & Entertainment (MSE), in collaboration with Dalet, has been a...
29/08/2025
Australian Red Cross and SBS launch training to help workplaces in the fight aga...
29/08/2025
The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF), an agency of the Department of Sp...
29/08/2025
L3Harris Technologies has concentrated decades of expertise across the entire enterprise to develop affordable and reliable best-of-breed solutions to rapidly c...
29/08/2025
BURBANK, Calif. The CW Network and the Pac-12 Conference have announced a new media rights deal that will extend their broadcast partnership beginning with the ...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK Gracenote has released a new analysis of its global video dataset showing that the number of FAST channels grew nearly 14% from Q1 2025 and 76% since 2...
29/08/2025
SAN JOSE, Calif. Harmonic has announced a series of improvements to its live sports streaming solution that the company said will improve fan engagement, protec...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK and LOS ANGELES Fox Corp. and YouTube TV last night announced a renewal of the full portfolio of Fox networks, including Fox News Channel, Fox Business...
29/08/2025
Budapest, Hungary, August 2025 - The integration of Microsoft Teams Rooms (MTR) with Lightware's Taurus universal matrix switchers delivers a new level of f...
29/08/2025
Frequency, the engine behind many of the world's best-known streaming television channels, today announced it will launch Studio Live, a next-generation uni...
29/08/2025
In an era when AI and cyber resilience are essential, Scality will mark the 10th anniversary of Scality Day on October 16, 2025 in Paris. This flagship global e...
29/08/2025
Disguise's In-House Creative and Technical Teams Pre-Visualised, Programmed and Delivered Content for the Experience, All Powered by EX 3+
Technology solu...
29/08/2025
Disguise will be demonstrating the latest workflows for TV, film and live events on a number of partner booths at the show
Disguise, the industry-leading tech...
29/08/2025
STOCKHOLM, Sweden Accedo will showcase Accedo Compose, its AI agent-powered modular orchestration layer that assists streaming providers in transitioning client...
29/08/2025
LOS ANGELES Cineverse has announced that it is working with Xperi to bring four of its streaming channels to automobiles for the first time as part of the DTS A...
29/08/2025
DALLAS & ATLANTA Gray Media has announced an agreement with the sports streaming service Victory+ to simulcast 17 Dallas Stars NHL games in 15 television market...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK AND CULVER CITY Comcast NBCUniversal and Amazon have announced new and extended distribution agreements that will expand the content available on their...
29/08/2025
FOOTHILL RANCH, Calif. RED Digital Cinema will feature its Cine-Broadcast Module supporting live broadcast workflows during IBC2025, Sept. 12-15, at the RAI Ams...
29/08/2025
29 Aug 2025
Kyivstar Rings Opening Bell at Nasdaq Marking Landmark Listing and ...
29/08/2025
More than half of all NFL games live on Sky for the first timeFriday 29 August 2025
Sky Sports has announced a new three-year deal with the NFL, extending its ...
29/08/2025
Back to All News
RIV4LRIES: The Trailer of the New Series With Samuele Carrino ...
29/08/2025
Get ready for an inspiring and emotional insight into the world of competitive Irish dancing with My Story: Tomi Champion of the World airing on RT 2 this monda...
29/08/2025
RT has today announced that David McCullagh is to be the new presenter of RT Radio 1's flagship Today programme, which airs every weekday at 10am, replaci...
28/08/2025
By Kristin Feeley, Director, Documentary Film & Artist Programs
If you want to tell untold stories, if you want to give voice to the voiceless, you've got ...
28/08/2025
Directed by Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert, Sundance Institute-supported Amer...
28/08/2025
Corridos have been a cornerstone of M sica Mexicana for generations, telling stories rooted in everyday life. Now, a new chapter is taking shape: motivational c...
28/08/2025
Los corridos han sido un pilar de la M sica Mexicana durante generaciones, contando historias enraizadas en la vida cotidiana. Ahora, un nuevo cap tulo est tom...
28/08/2025
Earlier this month, we promised our Verano Forever party would bring the heat, a...
28/08/2025
L3Harris will provide the Polish F-16V fleet with the Viper Shield electronic warfare system as part of an upgrade program....
28/08/2025
Bilbao, August 26, 2025 - AgileTV, an international television and video technol...
28/08/2025
Ken Wilkinson is an Emmy Awards nominated New York audio engineer who specialises in production sound mixing for film, commercial, episodic and documentary work...
28/08/2025
NEW YORK FuboTV today announced that it will launch Fubo Sports, a skinny bundle that focuses on sports with a subscription price of $56 monthly....
28/08/2025
NEVADA City, Calif. At IBC2025, Sept. 12-15 at the RAI Amsterdam, Telestream will debut its new Global Ingest strategy, introducing a next-generation ingest arc...
28/08/2025
Dr. Rhoda Bernard Releases Groundbreaking Debut Book on Accessible Arts Educatio...
28/08/2025
TAG Video Systems, the leader in software-based IP end-to-end workflow monitoring, deep probing, and real-time visualization, has named Oliver Gappa as Sales Di...
28/08/2025
AI-based voice enhancement will be among a series of innovations making their IBC 2025 debut on the DHD stand B46 in Hall 8 at the RAI Amsterdam Convention Cent...
28/08/2025
Telef nica Servicios Audiovisuales (TSA), the leading system integrator and service provider in the media sector in Spain, with the support of Appear, the globa...
28/08/2025
To fully immerse sailing fans in the world's biggest offshore yacht race, production company, Optical Media turned to LiveU's On-site Production solutio...
28/08/2025
Working with Calrec on its most recent overhaul, radio and television broadcaster, WNED has migrated to a fully IP infrastructure with multiple Type R consoles,...
28/08/2025
Cleeng, the Subscriber Retention Management (SRM ) inventor, has unveiled Cleeng Pro, the first-ever direct-to-consumer (D2C) subscription management platform t...
28/08/2025
Zixi, the industry leader in live broadcast-quality video over IP, today announced that French media distribution platform OKAST has selected Zixi to enable rel...
28/08/2025
Solution offers a streamlined, speaker-free architecture to optimize integration with premium external loudspeakers and advanced loudness metering
Nixer Pro Au...
28/08/2025
Cinegy, the premier provider of software-defined television technology, has announced a strategic partnership with Vision One Touch Film Production Services L.L...
28/08/2025
Telestream, a global leader in media workflow technologies, will debut its new Global Ingest strategy at IBC2025, introducing a next-generation ingest architect...
28/08/2025
Tier 1 operator selects Broadpeak to power high-performance, unified CDN solution across Norway, Sweden and Finland
Broadpeak, a leader in streaming and moneti...
28/08/2025
Leading video software provider, Synamedia, today announced that 24 Frames Digital, one of India's leading live event streaming service providers, has chose...
28/08/2025
Meet VisualOn at IBC2025: See What's Next in AI-Powered Video Streaming Join VisualOn at IBC2025 and discover how our AI-driven Optimizer and advanced media...
28/08/2025
IBC stand 5.F81
Wowza to Reveal Next-Gen Video Streaming Innovations at IBC 2025
Amsterdam, August 28, 2025 Wowza, a leader in video streaming infrastructur...
Imagen CEO Charlie Horrell outlines his predictions for 2020
