The evolution of the media industry’s business model has never been more dynamic than it is today, and these are especially interesting times in the sports space. Many cable subscribers, especially the young people who form a core audience for college sports, are either cutting the cord or not subscribing to a paid bundle. Others are seeking lower prices in the form of “skinny bundles,” and new entrants, such as Twitter and Google, are entering the mix. An entire generation of sports fans are consuming content in ways and forms vastly different from those of just a few short years ago, with social media and mobile experiences front and center.
What does it mean for the conference networks — including our own Pac-12 Networks — that sprang up over the last decade or so? Some think the future is ominous. A Sports Illustrated article last year quoted media consultant Frank Hawkins: “It was a nice model, but it isn’t going to last.”
But here at Pac-12 Networks, we believe our model, which is different from all the other conference networks, is ideally suited to today’s rapidly evolving landscape. We are wholly owned by our member universities, with complete ownership of our media rights, platform and partner choices, and editorial bent. This offers us strong flexibility to innovate and to develop content that best delivers compelling value to our fans wherever and on whatever device they want it.
The Pac-12 Networks produce more than 800 telecasts of collegiate events each year.getty images
That’s going to be critically important as business models change and new players change marketplace dynamics. None of us can possibly know what the landscape will look like in 2023, but my bet is that there will be more competition, which bodes well, as always, for the owners and providers of premium content, like us. There will be more and different types of players: Facebook, Amazon, Google, Apple, Netflix, Twitter or others. And there will still be a very limited number of highly valuable sports properties like ours.
That turmoil will reward those media organizations and rights holders — and the Pac-12 Conference is both — with the flexibility to respond to changing marketplace conditions. Having complete control over our rights will give us far more options than traditional media entities. It will also open up more options for our fans to be able to access the Pac-12 Networks on whatever device and platform they desire.
Of course, whatever the form of distribution, the value of sports content will continue to rise. I agree with those prognosticators who see further growth and greater value, spurred by the entry of new media and technology companies into the sports arena. The research firm Midia has noted that advertisers “are intrigued by the marrying of premium content with social media. Twitter and its big brother Facebook are data-harvesting platforms that provide far more insight into how audiences think and behave than TVs ever can. Audiences live online through their social media presence, and if this can be joined to an integrated premium sports offering, then it represents the most targeted audience imaginable for video content owners and creates a halo effect of premium advertising being sold around it.”
I firmly believe college sports will remain within that core of premium content. While pro sports are also strong, their loyalties sometimes shift as fans move from city to city, while college sports affinities and passions are formed for life. If you’re an alum of, say, USC, UCLA, or Stanford, you’re an alum no matter where you live or what else you do. And a new batch of alums is created every year.
Moreover, I think there’s a significant, largely untapped potential in both Olympic and women’s sports. At the Pac-12 Networks, core to our mission is the promotion of women’s and Olympic sports. We see our role as the “Conference of Champions” as promoting the full breadth of our sports and student athletes, which mirrors the spirit of excellence of our universities both on the field and in the classroom. We are seeing growth in the audience for Olympic sports and as sports content becomes increasingly mobile, the financial viability of programming these sports, and the depth of engagement we can offer is increasing as technology evolves. For example, providing a gymnastics meet on social media, either live or through extended highlights, can be viable in a way that blocking a few hours on a traditional linear channel might not be. And this fits perfectly into our model, which from the beginning has emphasized providing more exposure for women’s and Olympic sports as well as the full spectrum of digital rights, not just those experienced on linear TV.
Certainly the marketplace is changing, and no one knows exactly what it will look like. But Pac-12 Networks are positioned to evolve in light of those changes and thrive as new paradigms emerge. I look forward to building on the foundation that we have laid, and I am confident we will succeed in whatever media landscape emerges.
Mark Shuken is president of Pac-12 Networks.
