ESPN Senior VP/Programming & Global X SCOTT GUGLIELMINO took over the X Games last June and oversaw this week the biggest announcement since the franchise’s inception. X Games opened bidding for three international X Games events that will join two domestic events and one event in Tignes, France, in '13. ESPN hopes to make all six events as large and significant as its marquee Summer and Winter X Games, which are currently hosted by L.A. and Aspen. Guglielmino yesterday spoke to SportsBusiness Journal staff writer Tripp Mickle about the plan.
Q: You had events in China, Brazil and France last year. Outside of creating a bidding process, how is this really different?
Guglielmino: It’s different in a few different ways. Everything that’s been offshore in the past has been much smaller -- the event, the scale, frankly the support in terms of television coverage in the U.S. They haven’t been tied together. They’ve been partnerships we created. This is about upping the stature and scope and size and support of those events and bringing them on the same par with Aspen and L.A., and also about going into the marketplace with a very comprehensive platform for sponsors. One of the things we’ll make a concerted effort to build off of is brands within brands. “Next X” (a show on Disney XD) is one of those.
Q: When you say stature and scale, what do you mean?
Guglielmino: The idea is to bring the best athletes and support them with the same way we support L.A. from a course-design to a mega-ramp perspective. We also want to look at adding other sports in certain markets. Surfing could make sense in some markets. Each event could take on its own local fair, if you will.
Q: How much hiring will you have to do to support it?
Guglielmino: It’s something we’re looking at as the plans evolve. We’ve made some shifts already and will continue to do that as the process unfolds. We’ll staff up as needed.
Q: What’s the broadcast strategy here?
Guglielmino: Live and best available stream. We are going to broadcast, or put on ESPN and ESPN2 all six events. That’s where the 130 hours of linear live coverage comes in. From a digital perspective, we are going to build a digital strategy that not only supports the six events but actions sports year-round. The other piece is that around the world we’re not only going to distribute those 130 hours, but we’re going to seek syndication deals to expand our distribution of those events in each market. For example, any place we have a network like Brazil, we could go to one of the terrestrials that has better distribution in terms of number of homes and cut a non-exclusive deal for that content.
Q: What’s the vision behind this? Is it about growing X? Growing ESPN? What’s the endgame?
Guglielmino: We see the success of the X Games as an action sports event. We believe action sports as a category travels well from one place to another and believe there’s a gap in the marketplace when it comes to an event that’s relevant to youth and an event that can be a worldwide platform. I say worldwide, not meaning every country in the world, but I really mean a globally significant youth-oriented action sports event. We think there’s a gap in the marketplace and we can take advantage of it.
Q: X Games has wrestled with its sales packages over the last few years. How much of this is about boosting the sales package with new events for sponsors?
Guglielmino: It gives athletes a broader platform to grow their brand around the world. We think from a marketing partner/sponsorship platform, these six events give a sponsor a much larger platform off which to work. On the sponsorship, it’s going to be a tiered approach. You’re going to have a certain number of global positions and local and regional positions as well. The reality of it is that by owning the event and controlling most of the media, we’re going to be able to be very flexible and work closely with potential sponsors to make sure we’re driving value from a brand perspective. It allows us to be creative and aggressive with partners.
Q: Why not tie all the events together from a competitive standpoint?
Guglielmino: I did not want to make a number of those events qualifiers or subservient to one or the other the events in the group, if you will. We’re even trying not to refer to them as series. They don’t lead into each other. They’re standalone celebrations of youth and action sports. The local flair each one has will be unique enough. I don’t think it’s the right plan to make qualifiers.
Q: ESPN is about to bid on the Olympics in the U.S. and you’re looking to increase these international X Games events at the same time. If you all won the Olympics, how would that affect what you’re doing internationally?
Guglielmino: For disclosure, I’m not working on the Olympics, our exploration of the Olympic rights. We have Olympic rights in several territories under RUSSELL WOLFF. That’s completely unrelated to the X Games. The X Games we own and operate and are looking to grow aggressively outside the U.S. The Olympics are the Olympics. They’re not related.
