Forget liquid courage, Univision Deportes President Juan Carlos Rodriguez is focusing on liquid content. That is the idea that content, like a liquid, can travel through different conduits but will arrive at the same desired level. “The challenge is monetizing the different (media and digital) platforms at the same level,” he said during an interview at the ’17 NeuLion Sports Media & Technology conference. “The content will travel through different platforms and we have the ability to reach a certain level. It’s all about branded content. We believe the future is six-second ads.” He also said the model needs to move away from 30-second ads and toward integrating with the content. Rodriguez said he is seeing some key demographic changes as children and grandchildren of immigrants begin to add new sports allegiances to teams in the U.S. and Europe, in addition to clubs from their homeland. That is creating opportunities, as Univision has the rights for MLS and several major European soccer leagues. On top of that, Rodriguez said, “We believe the future will be one globalized audience that may or may not speak different languages. We have the ability for languages, but we want to become the global home of soccer. ... We have put incredible on-air talent and resources into the on-air experience. We are the most experienced in the market regardless of language. We don’t do things for Hispanics or Spanish language, we don’t do it in a different way (to customize for those audiences)." He added, "One global system will prevail, not a language system. We believe viewers of the ESPNs, the Fox's will come to us for Spanish rights and our audience will go to ESPN or Fox for English.”
FOLLOW YOU, FOLLOW ME: Rodriguez mentioned several times how social platforms are changing the game when it comes to securing and showing sports. He said, “Facebook and Amazon are coming in with deep pockets. Once they turn into video players we are going to struggle. It’s only a matter of time. We’re going to lose in the money fight. A combination of social plus technology is going to drive the future.”
