Desser
NBA Commissioner David Stern (our boss for 23/8 years) often said that no one is going to treat you as well as you treat yourself. The NBA had to be the best property it could possibly be, not rely solely on its media partners to grow audience and value. That attitude helped propel the league’s ascension to its current place in the sports hierarchy.
Naturally, everyone wants a bigger media deal, but with the cross-currents of changing media consumption patterns and pay TV subscriber declines, this isn’t automatic. A sports enterprise must organize itself to continually grow, well in advance of rights negotiations, in order to capture more rights value. Here are some tips to consider, designed to build product value in today’s multimedia marketplace:
Kosner
DATA
Make yourself smarter. Understand how the market sees you, warts and all. Talk with media, advertising and business contacts outside your “bubble.” Google yourself to see what the uninitiated see in search results. Track the sentiment of your property on Twitter.
Systematically gather data (beyond TV ratings) to provide insight into the underlying popularity and growth of your product, such as stream views, unique visitors daily and monthly, “likes.” These digital metrics demonstrate the value of your property, and provide network partners with added evidence of the prudence of investing in you. Also quantify the stats for your sport’s collective players, coaches, personalities, teams on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube … the reach can be staggering!
Develop a database of fans by collecting emails for a newsletter and social media “likes/followers/subscribers” to indicate the strength of your property, and leverage it to increase participation.
STAFFING
Dedicate staff to your media relationship. David often said, someone who understands the partners’ business needs should be “losing sleep” thinking of ways to service and improve the relationship.
Annual or quarterly meetings with your media partner(s) can provide a useful forum to discuss issues before they become problems, and to work together to increase the value of your property and relationships. Senior and operational staff from each should participate. Immediate postseason meetings are ideal review/preview opportunities.
ADVERTISING & PROMOTION
Promotion is not just the province of networks. Properties can use their own assets to drive viewership, which increases popularity, ratings and media value for networks and distributors.
Harness controlled inventory in local game telecasts, in-venue video boards, websites, apps, radio and podcasts to build TV audience and engagement. Getting current fans to watch more is the lowest-hanging fruit.
Advertising your major events, using well-targeted, high ROI-value paid media, can increase consumption and lead to greater ultimate media revenue.
BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT
Sponsor development enlarges the pool of advertisers to buy into your sport and provides you immediate new revenue. It is also an implicit signal of value of association to fans and other sponsors and enhances networks’ investment willingness. The more sponsors you have, with budgets earmarked to support your media relationship, the greater the network will value your rights.
Making your media rights more valuable takes a concerted effort to understand trends and data.getty images
CONTENT
Strategic scheduling of event telecasts beyond the usual pattern can increase value. Look for alternate dates and times, consider stunts, and search for attractive lead-in windows.
Program development. New concepts and shows help to promote the core event and familiarize the casual audience with your athletes. Roone Arledge made famous the “up close and personal” approach of sports storytelling (people care about people), which will never go out of style.
A content factory operated by your property can efficiently generate an ongoing stream of highlights and feature material for streaming, website and social media posts, and for network partner telecasts with tight production budgets (more open than ever to using high-quality programming provided by the subject entity), as MLS has done for ESPN/Fox/Univision.
EVENTS
Improving the event experience better serves existing fans, and indirectly improves the atmospherics of game telecasts. The bigger and better the event feel, the more exciting on TV.
Don’t wait for your media partner to complain about camera locations, lighting, PA or game presentation. Objectively look at how your events appear on TV, and proactively improve wherever you can without being asked. Not only will this improve the product, but also your media reputation. The NBA has done this by tightening the length of its games.
AUDIENCE DEVELOPMENT
Think differently about millennials, who have unique interests, and want new ways to participate. Are there different kinds of highlights you can produce (such as vertical orientation) or new fantasy or video games that would especially appeal to the next generation of fans? The NBA uses a special tighter camera just for live action and highlights viewed on phones.
Social media participation by your teams, athletes, coaches, broadcast talent and administrators on a sustained basis is essential. No longer are publishing of media guides or post-event press conferences sufficient.
Serve new audiences through aggressive outreach and a dedicated strategy. Falling ratings is the new normal. Fans have more options, so don’t assume that they will continue showing up without catering/outreach. You must expand the base (e.g., younger fans, women, ethnic audiences, etc.) just to stay even. The NHRA and the Baltimore Orioles permit kids to attend free with an adult. Never underestimate the appeal of getting your youngest fans onto the playing surface, meeting your athletes and getting them hooked early.
These are just some ways you can grow the value of your media rights in anticipation of the next negotiation. Don’t wait until the exclusive negotiation period to engage with your partner(s) and focus on your future business. Making the commitment now will pay dividends.
Ed Desser is president of Desser Media (www.desser.tv), a sports media consultant, with 40 years of industry experience. John Kosner was a senior digital media executive at ESPN, and is now president of Kosner Media (www.kosnermedia.com).
