The truth behind the Premier League's DTC launch

Hello, everyone. Welcome back to the next episode of Streamcom Sports. My name is

Chris Stone. The community lead joined us always by our CEO, Nick Meacham. Now, Nick, I sent

you a tweet last week that was incredibly difficult. We are going to expand on it a little

bit. But basically, Nick, I sent you a tweet from a guy named Sam Block, his Twitter is at

the block spot. And I've seen he's done a couple of these. Now, this was the first one I saw.

He listed out 12 sporting events. You got to keep three of them. And you had to cut nine

of them. The events listed off. We're in CW March, madness, NBA playoffs, WNBA playoffs,

Stanley Cup playoffs, which is the NHL college football playoffs NFL playoffs. And they'll

be postseason, the college baseball world series, which for those that aren't American

might not get this, but is incredible television, um, Wimbledon, the world cup, the Olympics

and the Masters. No, Nick, what I will say is that's a very US focused list. So I think

we agreed we'd expand it a little bit. Um, based on all those, they're either postseason

tournaments or kind of major events. So you couldn't just throw in the Premier League,

but I figured you could do Champions League. You could say knock out onwards, knock out

onwards of the Champions League. I'm going to throw in the darts because I love the darts.

Um, I knew that was going to get in there. And there's no cricket, Nick. So I don't know

if you want to include the ashes is an Aussie or if there's another cricket event, you

prefer over that, but I will leave that to you. And I say instead of picking three of 12,

we'll say keep four of 15 with that added list. I'll let you clarify which cricket event

you want placed in there. So keeping, it's just a keeping four of the 15. Correct. Yeah.

Tough, tough. I would say, oh, that's a very good question. I would say ashes is probably

the one to have in there. Well, that's a no brainer, like for any cricketing fan to say,

you know, I was going to say the IPL because that's quite seasonal as well. Um, and that's

more of a balancing act. I think I'd love to go do it, but there's a lot of events I'd like

to go do. I only get to pick. Pick a handful. So I throw that in the mix. So how are we doing

this? Exactly. I've got a rattle off. What are we doing? We go one by one or?

Sure. Let's go one by one. I mean, for me, first and foremost, we'll keep it easy. I'm

thinking about the NFL playoffs. I want the Super Bowl at the end. It's also an annual event,

which not all these necessarily in here are annual except I guess the Olympics is the one. But

I'm going to start the NFL playoffs, Naker. Are you keeping that or you're not prioritizing it?

I'm going to not prioritize it. I think there's too many unique events in that list that I would

actually fair. It's too much travel. You're going to fly all the way around the US for the

whole thing for the playoffs. It was the Super Bowl only. I put the Super Bowl with the playoffs.

I mean, I'm a pretty big NFL fan. There's a lot in there that you've listed. I think I'll have to

keep my cards, like keep my options open for now. All right. So pick one. Where do you want to start

off with? All right. Let's do the NBA playoffs. They just keep it on the American sports theme

since you've picked the NFL. What about the NBA? You know, I'll be honest. You and I are actually

going to do a podcast on this. We've spoken about this whether or not we have long-term concerns about

the NBA and its current product. I personally don't want to watch SGA flop around on the court.

I'm not particularly happy with the the encore product right now. So the NBA playoffs is I think

I think all playoff sports are better than what they are in the regular season. But I'll be honest

like I just don't watch as much NBA as I used to with the time difference. But I don't like what

I'm seeing on the court right now from the bits that I do see. What the thing with all this is

like when I'm looking at these is events they're not they're not just one off. There's a lot going on

again with the NBA and I think I'm good I'd say the same now for the MLB. There's just so many games

that happen. I know there's a lot of exciting builds up to these but there's a lot of attention

a lot of my attention needed to enjoy these events whereas I kind of like the concentration

of some of the others over to I think it's going to skew my vote a little bit as we go. So I'm

going to leave that at the NBA as well. All right. I guess for me, I say one like we've already

I'm picking the darts. I love the darts. It's just incredible. A, it's I think it's great television.

I also have been in person. Best spore and I've never been to in person. I get that won't be for

everybody. But like if I go and get a pick for like the world arts championship is up there for me.

I've never been and I think I know everyone everyone I know who's based in the UK and London is

pretty much gone at some stage and it's like a, I don't know, a ride of passage to go into the

darts, the alipale event each year. But I have never been so for everything I've heard and seen

it sounds like something that is too good to miss. But I am going to leave it off by this still.

That's fine. That's fine. Okay. So what is one you do want to keep then?

I'm definitely going to go with the masters. I think there's too much

behind the masters there that the list that all the stories you hear about that experience

it feels like it's like an out almost an out of body experience you'll have if you're a golf fan

going to an event like that and just the way they manage the experience and the prestige of it all.

So I think that's going to be my must-have in the list. Yeah, maybe next year when I've just

just been my second year of like golfing maybe I feel different. But Nick, I will say like I wouldn't

go into the waste management open. That seems like basically if you took golf and darts and

put it together. Have you seen the there's a live golf event they run in Adelaide in Australia?

It's almost as wild as the waste management open now. It's like I don't want to call it the

portman version but definitely the Southern Hemisphere version of that. There's there's

there's shots on if you look online where people like players I hit a drive and they'll be throwing

beers from the crowd onto the the tee box and it's full of Australians which you know the

the very abilities of what Aussies can do is is pretty is pretty out there. I mean Americans give

them a good run for their money as well. So that's not the waste management open level was at the

17th hole. I think it's got all the craziness that goes on. Well, there's another wall where the

caddies race each other which is great. Really? Yeah, they race each other down the fairway carrying

the bags. It's great. I love that. I just love when they try something to do something different

breaks that tightness that comes out of it is manifested around golf which is nice to see. So

I'm all for it. The masses is my go to this. That's the first one on my list. Fair. And then

between the two football we got the World Cup and the Champions League knockout. This is

interesting Nick because I know the World Cup is the big one. My challenge is only once every four

years whereas I get you know Champions League every year. Quality of football but we don't watch

the World Cup for the quality of football right Nick like we understand we're not going to

get the best of the best. I'm going to go clearly the World Cup. I think it's just there again.

I'm looking for the highs and when I've been to those types of sporting events that

nationalized they just sort of transcend the sport a little bit. It's about the culture,

their positive energy around it. Now granted they can go quite negative if things go pear-shaped

but generally there's such a good aura around those major events that I I think I'd have to do

the World Cup although I will not be going out there. I hadn't even considered going out there

for the US version of it but I think there would be up there is being part of the whole atmosphere.

It's like almost the main part of that is almost what's happened between the matches as much as

the match itself I think. Yeah it is it is a big it is a big party. You're not going to get that

with Champions League. Maybe maybe you're just going to watch but if you were for the whole of

then you're probably all right. One place I will disagree with you on Nick in this is just me being

a bias American. I think major league baseball playoffs are incredible because every pitch the strategy

behind it is just so cranked up on steroids. Now granted my Cincinnati Reds have not been good.

I don't think they've won a playoff series since the year I was born in 1990. Very similar to mine

my Cincinnati Bengals but I I think playoff baseball is just incredible but again that might be

the purest in me but yeah I can watch it's one of the few times like I to this day will stay up

and watch live baseball. I think it's I think it's incredible. I think because the season's so

freaking long yeah season it for me it's made the season basically almost redundant as an

existence but then the playoffs come and I've heard this from a lot of people that they say the

postseason is a whole different environment. It's the best of all those experiences in terms of

all the other major leagues in terms of the importance of the playoffs relative to the main season.

So I definitely can understand that. I think these these events they're just still so long for

me yeah if it was like what's the world it was the world series yeah sure it'd be like yeah

sign me up but the this the postseason is quite long it is well Nick I've come to my four I've

got the darts I've got the NFL playoffs I've got the NLB postseason and I've got the World Cup

so those are my four at the moment you've got the masters in the World Cup you still got two more

to pick off. I've tried to keep my keep my options I've been now I've left myself in a bit of a

hole the easy ones to say is the Olympics I think I've enjoyed so much going to London 2012 and

I wish I'd gone to even the Lanarkville Tina and then I'll win to Olympics I think the winter

will be a really cool experience as well if it has to be from the list I actually probably would

bring the NFL final playoffs back into it I think that's probably what I'd list off of as my

four. Bring it back in if I could bring it yeah well if I had to go for any others I mean

tennis is tennis is good I'm actually I love tennis most of my life but

I've been the one wouldn't women's got to order about it that actually yeah I'm not

it doesn't like the the the energy has to be the right game yeah in the experience but I

have been let down by a couple of games I think it's probably what I've been unsure about it so

let's let's go the NFL because it's all all sudden death matches you know the last man standing best

team wins all that jazz I think I like that versus the other ones they're just a little bit too

too long for me too much of a commitment of my my time in this day and age that's fair well

everybody like I said I might put the tweet in the description of the podcast go find it let us

know which events you would choose is yours or feel free to add in some European events because

like I said it is a bit of a an American centric list you did leave off the ashes Nick it's not

on your to-do list you had the ability to do so but you know I would have had that instead of the

NFL but then I looked at looking at my list I'm like it's also very old white dude basically uh yeah

oh what pretty Aussie you know like these have something different in there the NFL that's so

different yeah tell us about you think ashes I would definitely put in there if I did the list again

but here we go so Nick the nature of covering news is dependent when you record sometimes news comes

afterwards and last week we recorded and then the news broke that we were going to get uh we'll

call Premflex for now however you want to go about it with the Premier League launching a D2C

platform in Singapore now there's a there's a whole sort of set of criteria with that um I'm

going to start on the other end of things Nick before we specifically look at the Singapore side of

things um I saw an interesting post and I apologies if I butchered his name but Daniel Harigy

at our friends at ampere analysis did a post um and I think what's worth looking at is everyone's

like oh is this a precursor to getting a D2C platform in the UK everyone's sort of you know is this

them lining it up well they did a bit of a look into things looking at league one going direct

consumer in France is a bit of a comparison at the moment they've got it as the Premier League

generates 1.6 billion per season from its domestic gripe partners in Sky Sports and TNT sports

so any direct to consumer platform Nick we would assume at minimum they have to make 1.6 billion

otherwise what's the point um the second part of that is they reckon there's a unique subscriber

base for Sky Sports and TNT sports it's between four to five million um for their linear channels

and OTT is sort of where they're going with that um for context they're it's going to cost you

around 45 50 pounds a month to do all those packages um and they had some other stats in there about

how many people um are subscribing to those packages whether not their sports fans different

things like that but basically the the final um number that he got to in order for Sky Sports to be

able to kind of or sorry not Sky Sports the Premier League to make their money back a monthly subscription

would have to cost 40 quit a month which I I personally think it'll probably be a little bit higher

Nick because I feel like if they're going to go D2C their goal wouldn't be to just make the same

about a money by doing three times as much work because they would have to do the marketing that

have to build the platform that have to have the customer service like I don't think they're doing

that move unless they're trying to significantly go above their broadcast numbers um so that

was interesting Nick and we we've heard the the Simon Jordan quote numerous times that hey if you

just charge everybody 10 quit a month you'd make three billion dollars whatever it is I just

don't think it's happening Nick so I guess before we get into Singapore side of things just talking

specifically I guess a question off the same wording do you think this actually means that we're

going to see D2C in the UK with the Premier League I think if you were going to see it you would see

a similar model of where it'd be in partnership with Sky I don't think you would see

Premier League going completely alone just because they would be biting the hand that feeds them

right now and I still think they're too far away from that now Sky starts to say look we're actually

going to need to massively decrease our investment into the rights that we're spending with you

that might force their hand but I don't think that's going to happen at any time soon I think that

Sky needs the Premier League and the Premier League needs Sky and those will find a way of working

together in some fashion to create some sort of D2C proposition if the market opportunity

presented itself or they sorted out the 3p and blackout etc etc I just can't see them

cutting skies grass basically at least not this cycle maybe maybe in the future I think

that this will be there are a few years away from really considering this seriously but now that

they have the flexibility with managing production more of the production in house although Sky does

their live broadcast production for them the bulk of it yeah well I think a few years away before

they would seriously consider doing something in the UK so sorry to Simon Jordan and apologies I've

put the proverbial horse in front of the cart but you know I just felt like you know before we go

into it let's just clear things up like I don't think this story necessarily means with some people

may hope it means so maybe Nick now we can talk a little bit specifically about what it is the

kick this all offers sort of reinvigorated this conversation because I saw a bunch of tweets being

like oh Premier League is going to you to see and I was like you are not reading the fine print so maybe

just give a little bit Nick what's actually taking place in Singapore what is significant about it

but then perhaps maybe we can elaborate a little bit on what we just about what's maybe misunderstood

about it I'm sure so Premier League is launching a product called Premier League Plus it is going to

be in partnership with the current main in market rights holder star hub so it's not completely

standing stand alone it is a partnership and it is an extension of the current partnership so it

wasn't existing rights in the existing agreement now the Premier League previous cycle before this

agreement with star hub was in place for just being more of a traditional right steel they were

threatening or there was a rumor that they were looking to launch back then and they launched a

DGC proposition in market before a last minute deal was hashed out but the difference from

then to now is basically Premier League has been building to this moment with lots of little moves

they've made they've lined up media kind is one of their major OTT partners and platforms to help

all of that ecosystem work happen which you need if you want to go take OTT seriously they've

launched an partnership with star hub they've got the production of content in house now so they

can manage that appropriately to make sure they're delivering the right type of experience on

platform so that they've been intentional at taking their time because they've been exploding

their media rights international media rights whilst everyone else has struggled but now it's added

on as an extension not necessarily as a competitor to the current marketplace now could they in the

future say the star hub well if you don't buy this sort of package of rights including Premier League

will we do it ourselves absolutely but for now it's then lovely bolted for them to be able to

offer and it aligns with what we've talked a little bit about over the over the year at last year or

two this idea of these aggregation players basically buying deals which incorporate also the OTT

offering we talked about Apple and F1 that's part of the package they bought in the US it's also

what the MBA is done with their deal with Amazon we're at and even to some extent the NFL deal with

DeZone although it's a little bit different but basically allows the partner to get people from

even if they are coming into just the live experience to then try and funnel them into the more

premium OTT product which obviously drives up the revenue they are generating from each of those

users now gives them more upside basically on each and every customer they bring into their ecosystem

so look it's it's something it's a great marketplace for them to launch because of the connectivity

of Singapore the size of the marketplace won't put a lot of pressure on the launch and getting

things wrong it just makes a lot of sense to test in a market like this and I think it is just

going to be the beginning for them depending on what strategy they ultimately do take

yeah that that's what I agree with Nick I think people got really excited they saw Premier League

they saw D to C and they jumped on it now I don't think that's necessarily been the industry

conclusion but I think that's what the conclusion has been for consumers who might not necessarily be

in the know or understand the market specifics or things like that but I think I feel like most

people in the industry kind of get what it is but I'm not entirely sure if that stops some of the

the waves of excitement I'm not sure I think a lot of people in the industry also don't quite

understand I get excited to read the headlines but I think the Premier League have been the standouts

with their media rights approach for some time and what they've been able to do building their

international rights partnerships and building the revenue loads everyone out the water when

it comes to the scale of the revenues I can generate ultimately more and more than their local

market which is the only sport that does that there was the deal we talked about recently which

was there it was in Latin Latin yeah 600 million yeah I mean just those numbers are unbelievable

when you think about the scale of the market the the relative value of the media rights market in

those places and they're able to just keep growing the pie for themselves so I think they'll

be smart about their approach here they will probably be a little bit more bullish perhaps on

some of their negotiations with some people well they're not going to bite the hands that are feeding

them and they've got a lot of big investors into their rights and the Premier League is in

whole position in almost every way the effort gets a lot of coverage because if it's $110

billion right steel and it should but I think the best approach and I think if you link it with

how they marketed and grown the brand of the clubs and the league itself the Premier League is

a standout for sure just wait the way of that conversation about why the Premier League we better

off as a closed league and not promotion and relegation but I will save that for another time

Nick to get people fired up but another story Nick did broke but didn't break all the way we covered

it a little bit but then we had some follow up news where we talked about apples first season with

Formula One and we talked about some of the concerns that we had based on some of the things that we

saw or what we viewed as shortcomings with the partnership with MLS and we sort of questioned

would Formula One take a different approach or would Apple take a different approach to essentially

assure they wouldn't end up in a similar situation that they ended up in with that deal

and one of the things we talked about you know are there going to be potential sub licensing and

you mentioned yourself Nick one of the concerns was maybe not concerns but the realities of it

when you were judging success is the US races need to succeed in the US which is where the Apple

deal is and let's be very clear about that it is a US deal it's not a global deal doesn't matter

what happens in the other races along as the US races perform and that's where we talked about some

the sub licensing things like that and of course not too long after we recorded the episode it did

come out that there are going to be some things specifically with Netflix in terms of how they're

going to try to increase their scale their reach so I guess Nick now that we do have that context

does it change anything you said before does it validate things you said before does it make you

feel better about the general approach of Formula One is taking based off some of the question marks

we had it makes me certain that they are listening to this podcast and it reacted immediately after

we shared our thoughts on it but now in all seriousness I think it's more about what Apple is doing

I think maybe that's why yeah we heard Stefano Domenicale the CEO of F1 talking about how Apple's

this Apple partnership is going to give them more reach and visibility and maybe that is the

this is the cap out the rabbit out of the hat I think is the saying I'm trying to think of

basically like they were new that these sub licensing arrangements are going to come was you're

going to significantly increase their visibility and audience outside the Apple ecosystem

and if they do that and they continue to do a few more of these types of relationships

than all of a sudden you know everyone will be much more visible in more places than it has in

the past so I like the announcements which was with Netflix the Netflix getting the Canadian

Grand Prix live which will be their first time broadcasting live F1 but in return them getting

drive to survive I'd love to know the economics there whether that was just a straight little

swap deal or whether there was something going either way there but either way it's a win-win

I think for both both sides Netflix get to test how the interest and uptake of an F1 race will be

on the platform and Apple also get to see what drivers survive for how that performs on platform

which you think about that the timing of this is very interesting for a couple of reasons

one is that Netflix aren't afraid to sub license rights so they could mean that they could

be in for more F1 races if it goes to plan if it goes well but also drive to survive is obviously

Netflix coward and funded series but at some stage box to box might look for a new home

Apple could be a logical next place to go for if the F1 and Apple synergies really play out well

so they're kind of like both getting an opportunity to test the waters and potentially eat

each other's lunch at some stage but I think it's a nice test case for both of them they're not

afraid to do the toes in but interestingly it is the Canadian Grand Prix only which I'm not entirely

surprised by I think that they will still end up selling the US rights to an ESPN or an NBC

because those are the races that really rate well and could be a real advertising driver for those

collective partners and I think Apple may decide for you one they want to keep it on their own

platforms just to see what they can bring to their own given it is free but I think in future

years you would see them putting it behind a paywall but interestingly it's Canadian Grand Prix

and it's the Miami Grand Prix that they've done a deal with Yahoo on with I'll be streaming

practice and qualifying sessions on the platform so they've got a few months underneath to get

underneath their belts before you start seeing these additional layers to it which I think is also

a quite a smart move for them how much was you credit this to them pivoting from what they

experienced with MLS now granted they're different deals right because the MLS deal was a global deal

whereas we've mentioned this is a strictly domestic deal within the US you know how much of this is

direct learnings versus they're actually completely different deals in terms of their structure

that it was never going to be that similar yeah that's a good question I think in short I think

they've learned a lot and I don't expect someone like Apple to make the same mistakes

a twice particularly of that that nature obviously had already decided with MLS to put that in

front of the paywall because they knew that that wasn't working for them either and the relative

value I'm guessing the relative value of even building a mini subscription business isn't

enough for Apple to move the needle so why not just get more people engaged with the brand by getting

as many people onto their platforms as possible so I'm not surprised that they've shifted from that

point of view I do wonder whether it was it was actually an active condition that was agreed by

Apple and F1 at the time because of the fear of which is the fear I've shared about that lack of

visibility meaning that F1's fan growth might start to to die off or fade but these deals aren't

enough to say that's resolved now these are these are one these are two steps they've made I think

they need to make another six to seven steps of these types of types of deals are create more

visibility otherwise it will be about half half half half half harder basically with Netflix you know

one grand prix on Netflix okay great Yahoo having practice and qualifying okay it'll help it's

a good marketing tool for that event but it's not gonna massively move the needle now if there was

every single race and Yahoo do great fantasy sports they also had F1 fantasy on the platform when

they were trying to create a new ecosystem of fans there then I'll be like yeah we're talking but

at the moment it's still lonely a bit too top level to like get too excited about it I think

well who knows Nick they might hear this podcast and we'll get more news we're gonna be in New York

let's go out and we might be hearing about it firsthand on on sight in New York I think that'd be lovely

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the sports pro website when Nick the last thing speaking about travels you were recently in Germany

last week for the Bundesliga the DFL sports innovation event which takes place every other year

I would like to go in the future at some point because I've seen footage of it Nick and it looks like

not it's alright it looks unlike any other industry event I can really think of in terms of the

fact that they've got live football matches going on in the background some of the live tech

demonstrations just looks like a really cool way to spend a couple days watching football and

experiencing some things firsthand so I guess Nick maybe just you could potentially talk about

sort of the the role sport for a place of sports innovation and that's sort of why you guys are

you and I believe John and George were out there and then just maybe some of your key takeaways that

you saw from some of the sports technology that the DFL was rolling out that event or some of

the partners that were there yeah absolutely it is definitely a great event to attend they

have it as basically an invite only event although they invite a lot of people so I think it was

around 1500 people I think was in attendance at the event but it is quite German but also has it

broadened out to be much more global and in European now that it ever has been and the loads of

technology on display they really make a commitment to having an immersive experience a truly

immersive experience and as someone who's tried to do that before with their events it's really

tough to do yeah but they've made a massive commitment to it because they want to showcase and they

want to showcase basically what they're investing their time and resources on as the Bundesliga

but also what they do with some of their partners so it is a bit of a commercial showcase for them

but also it's a great you know they can they can put themselves at the heart of sports innovation

and technology and they also invest into invest innovation hubs and alike so the point is

has been we've talked about them loads of times they've really been at the forefront of innovation

across sports media broadcasting and one of the reasons they've done so well internationally with

their rights is because of their investment into technology and their ability to deliver

almost a very into-end solution for broadcast partners across the world and the reason they've

been on do it is a lot of that technology is on display at these events they show how they bring

all that to life and also show what potentially is coming next so I really enjoyed

my experience there got pleasure to be on stage a couple of times talking to Charlie Classen from

Skydutchland and I also let on a technology a panel I think the panel's name was

what technology is driving increase in fandom and new business models was the name of it and so

now no surprises to say that my panelists were all very supportive of AI and technology

driving loads new new revenue to us Roman butch who's from UEFA was on there he was a little

bit more pragmatic but the others were very very bullish on how was going to transform all the

monetization models and transform the industry so it was an interesting chat I enjoyed I enjoyed

both experiences and joy speaking to Charlie both on and off stage as well hearing a bit more about

his his views on things we might share some of that content on the modern coming episodes but

what I got the the the feel from Charlie was basically you know Sky I start to big partners

in investors of things like the Bundesliga but they need even more than ever to basically

maximize the value of that investment and commitment I've got something like 560 games

out of 620 it's like it's a huge number that's across both the top two tiers of the Bundesliga

so they're again their success is tied together very close to the league and the the broadcaster

but just they need to get closer to the action they're closer to the athletes to get more access

because that is what seems to be resonating with audiences and fans now is

that content that comes straight from the athletes mouth or gives you something you're not

used to seeing is what's really open and moving the needle so that was interesting just to hear

his views on that yeah great experience and I would recommend if anyone gets a chance it's

every two years that event at least that's what it has been I would I would warmly recommend going

in attending that event it is definitely a must-see I'll get a more about the experiences but

that you want to ask anything further on well that I was I was going to ask if you had a favorite

exhibition piece of technology that you saw now it does not have to be media related so

I actually helped some of the voting with their their innovation competition and I'll admit I was a bit

biased because some of the stuff is a bit more performance tech where I'm like not really

my sweet spot um and I've always thought even with performance tech to really make it good

it has to have a media application so someone like you know can you track player movement but

then you turn it into consumable like fan data um so I was a little biased on that but I know

they had all kinds of tech I think I saw some of the robots playing football and different things

like that but was there a piece of technology oh that's really cool where you're like you went

out your way to go see it like I said doesn't have to be media related but it but it might be I don't

know yeah yeah I was going to mention the robots was quite cool watching them having a football match

together on this little field and they also had this synthetic ice set up which is pretty cool

because you know the thought of setting up like temporary ice fort rings basically and a like

NHL quality rings is feels like obviously something you wouldn't see very often because it must be

very cost obtrusive but they basically showing off how easy it is to create this synthetic ice

experience that they were showing off and testing it is I'm guessing not real ice which was quite

cool so some camera tech which is some of the the brought when I was on stage doing the content

I don't know what that means they were filming the match lives that exhibition matches in the

background so we're standing there in the arena doing this interview and there's a bit of a stage

backdrop behind us but behind that you're sitting in the bleachers looking down there's a game

going on behind and I don't know if it's under 18s or under 19s or something and constantly you

could hear there's loads of different AI cameras being used and there's like drones flying through

the air and I don't know if you watch the Olympics and heard the drones someone asking you really hear

them and at the time they felt like it was like gonna hit me in the head it was like room flying

past my head like a million miles an hour because they're following the game and the ball and on

the action it was a bit a bit of a weird experience but really cool because then when I went inside

I could see what the cameras were showing now I don't think you're going to see drones

filming football matches anytime soon because of the the safety aspects of it but I don't think

it's actually that far away if you think what they've done the Olympics and what not I think it's

probably closer closer to time than you would think well I wasn't gonna ask that question because

you did mention the drone footage and how prevalent that was at the Olympics and I think

at the NFL they called the spider cam which I don't think they use enough of where you get that

you get just incredible angles like I would love it I love it when they show the head that way

where the where the quarterback can see I'm like I don't I would love to have an option where

that's the only angle I see so I would love to just to see that be more prevalent again where we

talk about you know how do you take the same product then redistribute it in 30 different ways

if you give me an angle where I just watch the NFL exclusively from behind the quarterback where

I can see you like what he sees like again oh it's it's the same game same set of rights but like

I'm very interested in like how many different ways can you give me the user get to choose my own

camera angle Venus sort of establish my own broadcast yeah that that would be so cool I think

we've seen some technologies popping up recently that that that that using a volat volumetric

technology which effectively can give you that but not in real time it's basically like using data

and different cameras to be able to create those images and those like digital visions of that

I guess I remember playing you know Madden back in the day and other games we can change

of use of your camera angles for highlights and it's you kind of the same principle I'm actually

was interesting for to that point was EA was presenting that it's I missed half of it because I was

about to go on stage or an equal a bit of the action of it but it sounds like they've created

basically broadcast technology that does what you've just described and they're actually pitching

it to broadcasters to actually sell as a as a as a product called track app I think it was called

and so using this volumetric technology they'll be able to create like video game like angles

full broadcas and and different experiences and they're trying to sell that to to broadcasters

is what I understood it to be so it was really cool because I do think sometimes I want to see more

innovation in the broadcast product of sports I think there's reasons why I hasn't as well because

they have when they do try things they don't only get their hand bitten off by

fans so it's a tricky balance but I think there's got to be some of that coming to play and I do think

it would change like even watching some of the winter Olympics and with watching the drone footage

and you start the sea and get a better feel of like how crazy like steep some of the hills they

go down and how fast they are when you get those different angles it changes your perspective

on everything you instantly start appreciating your more and the winter Olympics are attributing a

lot of their big numbers basically to that innovation how much you can decide that is determined

if it's accurate I don't know but I think yeah look let's say summary is great event we'd

recommend anyone to go to it through that sports pro could be I think the term is we're a strategic

partner for that event we basically we helped help them come up with a shape of the event some

of the marketing and strategy that goes alongside of it and help them put a few different things

together along the way so we've helped them out to put that event on but it was a great piece of

work by D sports and D live which is basically the city of Düsseldorf's event business by

by Bundesliga who's heavily obviously a part of that as well and transform sports also was one

of the strategic partners who are based in Germany who are led on the content side of things so

a nice joint approach and yeah thrilled we could be part of it and looking forward to hopefully

being part of it for the next one well to wrap things up Nick you know going off piece here

to give you prep for this but you'll be ready for it you know we mentioned we'll be in New York

as this happens is there anything in particular um you're looking forward to I mean I've got my

interview session with the EVP of product at ESPN I'm looking forward to and I think the reason

looking forward to is whenever we talk about ESPN understandably because of the amount of zeroes

and commas we always talk about the right steels where she's coming from a background having previously

worked at YouTube and we're going to talk about the product and obviously with them launching the

new D to C platform there's some stuff I'm really interested in like the SC for you which is

sports center for you where Nick you've earned me say million times if you can get me a custom made

on my package so there's some there's some things I wanted to get into that so I'm interested

to speak with Aaron um because we are going to cover ESPN hopefully in a way we don't usually

talk about we usually are talking about the right steels I think we're talking about the product

we might bring that interview to the podcast afterwards but I'm looking very much to that session

although I'm very much biased well and for those listening let us know if you like hearing those

those live event sessions on the on the channel because we can drop them here we can also put them

in other places or we get us not to them and keep it all nice and quiet but let us know what you

think I'm looking forward to so I'm on stage and picking a couple people off stage as well I've

got a session with the global sport group which is the cvc sport the sports division of cvc

which is investors into a dozen of the major sports properties you've got LaLiga league and WTA

volleyball world I think I've 14 billion in investing is invested at the moment or is the value

of their investments which is quite extraordinary number they haven't done a lot of speaking publicly

around their sports stuff so I'm pretty intrigued to speak to Mark Alera who was the chair of

global sport group and he comes with an incredible background he was the CTO and chair at BT group

in the UK as well as EE has worked at SAGA in his previous life so he's got a gaming background

a telco background and now a sports media background and he was part of the journey of launching

BT sport and TNT that was TNT sports before so I've got a million of them on questions for him

that I'm hoping he'll answer for me but I know obviously we announced and talked a little bit

about the the equine network purchase they've made I think they're also on a bit of a fun race

is what I'm guessing so lots to dig into there and I think there's going to be interesting

crosshows of that around everything to do with the sports ecosystem but a big a big part of

their thesis appears to be around owning that relationship with fans in in you know from video

and media channels through to live events experiences if you look at a couple of examples I'll

be interested to hear a little bit more about yeah they're approached to all that so I look loads

of good stuff between a peak die status to see Fox one offstage as well which I'll put together

an interview for and to get his views on things I'm not sure what I'll be able to speak to him

out but I hope you guys get a little bit of a sense of what that venue sports experience was like

which he was leading on at some stage and also just where he sees the industry going so yeah

looking forward to lots of that there's just so much good stuff going on I'm going to be trying to

find time to watch and listen and once all amongst all the other responsibilities we have along

away there will be lots of coverage from us on that event how we end up dropping it all we'll

need to figure it out because there'll be too much for any single episode but if also if you listen

to this and you see us in New York please do say hi you know I think the last time I was out in

New York had a few people come up so definitely do look out for us while you're on the ground if

you're going to be joining us absolutely come and say hello and Chris we'll be out have have a beer

together as well which is exciting and we're also going to be doing something a TikToks HQ

lots going on so busy busy few days ahead of for us I'm packed you've got to pack my bags to

mine get get all ready for that so yeah looking forward to it thank you everybody we'll catch

you on the next episode