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š„ Sun, Sea and Saka...
Plus: Snoop Dogg drafted in for the Olympics
Oli Thomas
July 09, 2024
š§āš¦³ Deal done for Paramount
ā Best of the Rest
Weāve just come off the back of a big week for sport (and politics, but politics doesnāt sell newsletters, football doesā¦) and this is good news for media land. Hereās whyā¦
Remember the old days, when you had to go to the cinema to watch a new movie or wait 6-12 months for the DVD? When you had to tune in at 9pm to watch the latest episode of Friends? When the only way to listen to the Top 40 was to turn on the radio from 4pm-7pm on a Sunday?
There was a scarcity to consuming content, and you donāt have to be Thomas Piketty to know that scarcity increases value.
The on-demand era has devalued content by reducing scarcity. Yes there is exclusivity - I still have to go to Netflix to watch the new Beverly Hills Cop - but there is not scarcity: I can watch it as much as I want, whenever I want, wherever I want.
And this is where Sport comes in handy.
Live sport in particular has a scarcity aspect to it - once the game is finished, the result is known, the excitement dissipates.
Thatās why the live rights account for 80% of the sports media value.
Throw celebrity and mass āfandomā into the mix and you can see why sport is the perfect media.
It generates a lot of derivative content - from highlights to interviews and ābehind the scenesā; increasingly important for younger audiences - with only 31% of 18-24yr olds watching live sports, preferring short form clips and highlights.
The value of sports media rights is projected to hit $62Bn this year, up +22% in 5 years, in part driven by a big Summer of sport. ITVX just recorded its biggest ever viewing due to the Euros football, and NBC Universal is going big on Olympics content this year.
Whilst younger audiences are shifting away from live, sports content is only going to increase in value. Particularly as the players increase their social influence and the clubs increase their media influence - across both new and emerging platforms.
Vamos š
ITV boosted by Sun, Sea and (Bukayo) Saka
ITVX hit a record 376M streams in June, with the Euros and Love Island accounting for 45% of the viewing.
Reality + Football is a perfect combination for TV viewing: capturing a wide array of audiences, spinning off lots of social content, and providing plenty of opportunities for advertisers.
This is FOMO content. You want to be there when it happens. You want to be in the conversation when people are WhatsApp-ing and talking about it.
Read more here
Gen Z and the Olympics
NBC Universal is betting big on the Olympics - the first one in 8 years to take place in a US-friendly time zone, and an opportunity (they hope) to get a new generation of younger viewers watching live TV again.
They paid a record amount for rights to the games and announced in April that its already booked $1.2Bn in advertising and is on track for record revenues.
But the big hurdle (š) may be getting people to watch it. And if you want to get people to watch the Olympics, the best thing to do is to put Snoop Dogg on a running track, obviously. So thats what they did. Plus theyāve roped in Steven Spielberg and a host of other influencers to push the games.
Source: Patrick Smith / Getty Images
Read more here
Best of the Rest
GAMING: Meta is looking to launch games powered by generative AI, which āchange every time you play themā. A great example of how AI could be used to deliver massive value to audiences whilst saving developer costs.
CREATORS: Mary Meeker - the āQueen of the Internetā - released her first report in 4 years, and its focused on the rise of AI and its impact on Education. She notes that the creator economy has āchanged the way young people think about financial opportunitiesā.
STREAMING: Tubi is launching in the UK with more than 20,000 films and TV series from a lot of the major studios.
STREAMING: Hayu is launching on ITVX Premium - the Ā£5.99 subscription tier - with 700+ hours of content. A nice little tie-up - with good promotional value for Hayu and additional content that is relevant to the ITVX audience.
CREATORS: Its harder to become a famous influencer, according to an article in Glamour this week. The finger is points at influencer saturation, algorithms, and the focus on niche communities.
TV: Channel 4 is investing Ā£3M in lifestyle company Fy, in an airtime for equity deal. These airtime deals donāt make sense for a lot of companies but Fy + C4 is a great combo given the complementary programming (eg. Grand Designs) and young(er) audiences
Paramount finds its match
After months of negotiations, staff layoffs and a nosediving share price, Paramount finally reached a deal with Skydance for a merger of the two media companies. It values Paramount at $28Bn (Ā£22Bn).
And in what is surely a sign of things to come, it was reported that Paramount is exploring options to sell off BET: the legacy TV networks weigh heavy on Paramount as it looks to build a future-facing streaming business whilst operating a wide network of declining linear channels.
Read more here
Featured Startup: Microcade
The Pitch: STEM education for kids through mini-arcade machines
Founder: Jack Daly
Microcade is an awesome business focused on getting kids into electronics, circuits and coding through building (and soldering) their own mini-arcade machine. Once assembled, you plug it in, personalise it with a bit of code, and upload a whole range of old school arcade games, from Pac-Man to Space Invaders.
Its very cool.
Read more here